Sport

8A - Wednesday, February 13, 2013

The Michigan Daily - michigandaily.com *


6

The Michigan men's basketball team suffered its worse loss since 2007 in a 23-point loss to Michigan State on Tuesday. The Wolverines never led, never had a chance and for the night there was no dispute: the state belonged to the Spar

Spartan muscle
bullies Michigan
bigs in the paint
ByEVERETT COOK
Daily Sports Editor
EAST LANSING - The Bres-
lin Center was wrapped in white,
Spartan after Spartan filling
every one of the steep seats that

fill the home of the Michigan
State basketball team.
The student section, dubbed
the Izzone, filled up the entire
lower bowl of the arena, a sea of
howling fans that were on their
feet and screaming more than
an hour before the game started.
And before the tip, they put their
arms over the shoulders of their
brethren and rocked back and
forth, creating a rocking, shaking,
sea of white.

Even with earplugs, the noise
levels were incredible - quite a
setting for the first start of fresh-
man forward Mitch McGary's
career.
It had been coming for a couple
weeks now, McGary outgrow-
ing his role as the first Wolverine
off the bench. He was the spark
and the sixth man, a fan favorite,
known for pumping up the stu-
dent section as much as his actual
play on the court.

Even when the usual starting
center, redshirt junior Jordan
Morgan, injured his ankle in late
January, McGary continued to
play the role of the sixth man.
Michigan coach John Beilein
said he liked having the energetic
freshman come off the bench,
even if he ended up with more
minutes than the Wolverine
starting in place of Morgan, red-
shirt sophomore Jon Horford.
Yet, on the road against a

Michigan State frontcourt that
averages almost 30 combined
points per game, Beilein couldn't
wait for the spark of energy off
the bench. He needed it on the
court from the beginning.-
But McGary, like the rest of the
fourth-ranked Wolverines, didn't
look or play the part. Before Mor-
gan subbed in four minutes into
the game, McGary had missed a
jumper, gotten beat in the paint
for a basket by Spartan center

Derrick Nix and turned the ball
over on a bad pass out of the post
that led to a Michigan State bas-
ket intransition.
The stage was set for McGary's
first big starting performance.
He wasn't ready, and neither was
Michigan in a 75-52 loss on Tues-
day night.
"He's still learning, and he's
thrown in there and has to learn,"
Beilein said. "With Jordan's inju-
See BULLIED, Page 7A


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