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The Michigan Daily - michigandailycom
Bond between Barnes Arico
and Brandon shines over weekend
By DANIEL FELDMAN
Daily Sports Writer
After making the NCAA
Tournament last season for the
first time in 10 years, expecta-
tions were high for the Michigan
women's basketball team for the
current year.
The Wolverines (8-4 Big Ten,
19-6 overall) were coming off a
20-win season, and five seniors,
including four current starters
would be returning.
Then on April 4, 2012, then-
head coach Kevin Borseth
resigned, and accepted the same
position at Wisconsin-Green
Bay - the school he had previ-
ously coached at for nine seasons
before his five-year stint in Ann
Arbor.
Two weeks later, Michigan
athletic director Dave Brandon
announced the hiring of Kim
Barnes Arico as the ninth coach
in program history.
"Kim is an elite coach that will
help elevate our women's basket-
ball program to new heights,"
Brandon said in a press release
on April 20. "Kim has been suc-
cessful at every coaching stop
and has built teams that compete
for championships. She is a tire-
less recruiter who will accom-
plish great things at Michigan.
"We are extremely happy that
Kim and her family chose to join
Michigan athletics."
These assertions made by
Brandon were true - Barnes
Arico had led her former school,
St. John's, to seven postseason
appearances, which included
four NCAA Tournament appear-
ances and three WNIT appear-
ances in her 10 years there. Her
time at St. John's ended with the
Red Storm making the Sweet 16.
At Barnes Arico's introduc-
tory press conference on April
23, 2012, Brandon continued his
approval of the hire of Barnes
Arico with his opening state-
ment that spoke of the potential
success for the program.
"We can put a lot more fans
in the seats, we can create a lot
more energy around it, and we
can be even more competitive
than-we've been in the last few
years," Brandon said.
Such was the case on Satur-
day, as Michigan played in front
of its largest home crowd of the
regular season - 5,800 people.
Following losses at home ear-
lier in the season against Duke
and Penn State, Saturday's
matchup against Michigan State
was Michigan's toughest home
battle in a month.
After suffering 12 losses in a
row to the Spartans, Saturday
marked the last chance Michi-
gan's senior class would have to
dethrone the heir to the state of
Michigan women's basketball.
The team had suffered a bru-
tal 61-46 loss to Michigan State
just two weeks prior, and a win
on Saturday would go perfectly
with the weekend-long festivi-
ties of rededicating the Crisler
Center.
In the time between Michi-
gan's two games against the
Spartans, the Wolverines beat
Illinois at home and then-No. 13
Purdue in West Lafayette.
It was sometime in between
those two games that Brandon
once again had words to describe
Barnes Arico and her team.
However, this time they
weren't in a press conference or
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PATRICK BARRON/Daily
Michigan coach Kim Barnes Arico, after being hired by athletic director Dave Brandon in April, has led the program to new heights in her first year at the helm,
through a press release - they
were in a closed-door conversa-
tion between the pair.
"It was really exciting because
he has a lot of faith in our team
and he had said to me after a
recent win, 'We're going to get
Michigan State and when we
get Michigan State, we're going
to celebrate,' " she said. "In my
mind, that felt really good when
he said that at thc iime. I felt
really good about Michigan State
coming here, but of course as a
coach you would never say that.
"But he's been tremendous,
extremely supportive. He's real-
ly trying to support our program
to get the type of backing that
Michigan State's program gets."
Meanwhile the crowd at
Crisler Center got to see a very
public display of affection by
Brandon on Saturday when he
bear-hugged Barnes Arico as the
rest of Michigan's bench erupted
in giddiness after upending the
Spartans.
"Yeah, he even lifted me off
the ground," Barnes Arico said
regarding the hug. "Good thing I
didn't eat much today."
While Barnes Arico might
have gone hungry because of the
butterflies in her stomach for the
game, the outcome of the game
produced yet another milestone
for Michigan's program and the
people involved in it from top to
bottom.
- "I think it's been a season of
things that haven't been done for
a long time or a season of firsts,
but this for our University, and
the players in the program, and
for me and for Dave Brandon as
well is really special," Barnes
Arico said.
Bye week brings defensive focus
TODD NEEDLE a/
Sophomore point guard Trey Burke missed only one of his nine free-throw attempts Sunday in the win over Penn State.
Finally, 'M' gets to line
By STEVEN BRAID
Daily SportsEditor
Sunday's victory against Big
Ten bottom-feeder Penn State
wasn't exactly filled with many
positives for the Michigan men's
basketball team, buta bright spot
might have been its ability to cre-
ate contact and get to the charity
stripe during the 79-71 victory.
Struggling
to get to the NOTEBOOK
free-throw
line during the past few weeks,
the seventh-ranked Wolverines
took advantage of the foul-prone
Nittany Lions to get to the char-
ity stripe a season-high 35 times.
Michigan had only been to the
foul line eight times in its previ-
ous two games, with just two
attempts against Wisconsin on
Feb. 9.
"We need to do that (bet-
ter)," said Michigan coach John
Beilein. "That's always been a
point of emphasis. But at the same
time, guys have to be comfortable
with it, so we worked on it really
hard."
Entering the contest, Michigan
was averaging 15 free throws a
game and had attempted just 19
free throws in its previous three
games, but it almost equaled that
number in the first half alone on
Sunday.
Countering a poor shooting
first half in which they shot just
36 percent from the field, the Wol-
verines converted on12 of 16 shots
from the charity stripe.
Michigan drew 25 fouls on
Penn State and was in the bonus
in both halves.
"We watched film on Michi-
gan State and we shot entirely too
many jump shots," said sopho-
more guard Trey Burke. "Once we
got Penn State in the bonus, we let
that be known to everyone that
we were in the bonus. We did a
good job of getting fouled and we
knocked down free throws."
Burke missed only one of his
season-high nine free-throw
attempts, while freshman swing-
man Nik Stauskas (six) tied a
career high and freshman for-
ward Glenn Robinson III (11) set
a career high in free throws. The
trio combined for 23 of Michi-
gan's 27 makes at the foul line.
Getting to the free-throw line
seemed to get both freshmen
going on the offensive end. Staus-
kas' 18 points were his highest-
scoring output in nearly two
months and Robinson's 21 points
tied a career high, which was set
in the first week of the season.
"It helps the offense and it
helps individual players too,"
Burke said. "Glenn got to the line
a lot and that kind of opened up
his offensive game."
RARE SIGHTING: It had been
three months since Matt Vogrich
had seen significant minutes for
the Wolverines, so it was sur-
prising when the senior guard
checked into the game midway
through the second half with
Michigan holding a nine-point
lead.
Vogrich scored two points in
five minutes of action. Though
he did knock down his only field
goal of the night, it was waived off
because of a Robinson offensive
foul.
"I would have loved it if
Glenn wouldn't have (committed
the) charge, and Matt Vogrich
would've hit that three," Beilein
said.
It's been a rough season for
Vogrich, who started the first six
games of the season for Michi-
gan. Figured to give the Wolver-
ines productive minutes entering
the season, the senior has mostly
spent time on the court during
mop-up duty. He's averaging a
career-low1.1points in seven min-
utes per game - the least amount
of game action he's seen since his
freshman year. He's appeared in
18 of Michigan's 26 games4
"He's been working hard and
he deserved an opportunity,"
Beilein said. "He got the two foul
shots. When you haven't shot a
foul shot in about three months
in a game, it's hard to go in and go
2-for-2, so I'm proud of Matt."
TREY FOR TREY: For the third
time this season, Burke was
awarded the Big Ten Player of the
Week award.
The sophomore might have
been the only thing separating
Michigan from a three-game los-
ing streak this past week, as he
poured in a season-best 29 points
to go along with five assists, three
rebounds and two steals against
Penn State.
Burke opened the week with an
18-point, four-assist performance
against Michigan State on Tues-
day. Over the two games, he aver-
aged 23.5 points, 4.5 assists, 2.5
rebounds and 2.5 steals. He shot
nearly 60 percent from the field
and connected on six of his nine
attempts from beyond the arc.
By GREG GARNO
Daily Sports Writer
While Michigan coach Red
Berenson might not be aware of
Monday's Family Day holiday in
his native Canada, he's aware his
hockey family needs to improve
its defense.
With a bye week before it
heads to Ohio-State this week-
end, Michigan is looking to use
its time off to figure out a game-
plan to stop
opposing NOTEBOOK
offenses
from wreaking havoc.
"You have to make the most of
the week, whether you're in first
place or last place," Berenson
said. "I think for the most part
we've got something out of it."
The Wolverines not only sit in
last place in the CCHA in goals
allowed per game, giving up
3.63, but they also rank 57th out
of 59 teams in Division I. Only
three-win Alabama-Huntsville
and winless Sacred Heart have
allowed more goals this season.
"We'regoingto needeveryone
bought in, everyone pulling their
weight for the team," said senior
defenseman Lee Moffie. "That's
going to start with defense. We
start locking down on defense ...
I think it will give us some confi-
dence and get us going."
After being paired with soph-
omore defenseman Mike Chias-
son on the third pairing, Moffie
will be moved up to the second
pairing with junior defenseman
Jon Merrill, according to Beren-
son.
Despite the return of junior
defenseman and alternate cap-
tain Mac Bennett last weekend,
Michigan looked disorgani eed
in its own zone in being swept by
No.11 Notre Dame.
Bennett's presence is expect-
ed to make an impact after he
regains his stamina and tim-
ing with his partner, freshman
defenseman Jacob Trouba, on
the first pairing in practice.
It will be just the second time
that the Wolverines' four best
defensemen will all see the ice
in the same game since Jan. 8
against Bowling Green.
"We've got to do better than
we've done," Berenson said.
PAUL SHERMA/Daily
Junior defenseman Jon Merrill will be counted onto help a struggling defense.
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"Whether it's on the road or at
home, whether defensively or
offensively. We need to have a
turning point."
MORRISON RECOGNIZED:
Former Michigan forward Bren-
dan Morrison returned to Ann
Arbor for the weekend for his
induction into the Michigan Hall
of Honor, chosen by the Athletic
Department.
Morrison is one of Michigan's
two Hobey Baker winners -
college hockey's most valuable
player award - and was induct-
ed alongside swimmer Gustavo
Borges and football standout Rob
Lytle.
"It was pretty obvious that
he was more than deserving,"
Berenson said. "His career here
at Michigan was like a Hobey
Baker career. It wasn't just a
Hobey Baker season."
According to MGoBlue.com,
candidates must have met all of
the following criteria in order
to be inducted into the Hall of
Honor: a University graduate;
NCAA champion or national
championship team mem-
ber; All-American; national or
conference player of the year;
individual or team Big Ten
champion; all-conference award
recipient; University, Big Ten,
NCAA, world, U.S or Olympic
record holder; team captain;
Olympic team member or med-
alist.
The three-time All-American
helped lead Michigan to its 1996
national championship after a
34-year title drought, scoring the
game-winning goal against Col-
orado College and being named
the MVP.
Morrison is still Michigan's
all-time points (284) and assists
(182) leader. He's one of a select
few graduates to compete as an
Olympic hockey player, repre-
senting Canada in the 2006 Win-
ter Olympics.
"He did it all," Berenson said.
"He made players around him
better. We had a lot of talent on
that (championship) team, but he
definitely was the leader of the
pack."
A LOOK AHEAD: Although
Michigan didn't play last week-
end, the rest of the CCHA did.
The Wolverines now sit in
10th place after Northern Michi-
gan split its series with Michigan
State.
If the season were to end
today, Michigan would travel
to Satilt Ste. Marie to face Lake
Superior State - which split a
series with the Wolverines ear-
lier in the season.
The Wolverines have four
games before the end of the reg-
ular season, and as Berenson has
noted, they'd like to avoid travel-
ing to Alaska - which currently
sits in sixth place - if he could
control that.
"I think I'm pretty aware of
the standings," said senior for-
ward Kevin Lynch. "I think
we're just focusing on having
four good games. We're worried
about the CCHA Tournament
right now and focusing on win-
ning that."
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