The Michigan Daily - michigandaily.com
March 18, 2013 - 3B
Blue gets four seed, to face South Dakota State
Wolverines open at
The Palace in South
Region with Kansas,
Georgetown
By DANIEL WASSERMAN
Daily Sports Editor
After battling for a No. 1 seed
for much of the regular season, the
Michigan men's basketball team
received a No. 4 seed in the South
Region on Selection Sunday.
But after a brief scare over the
weekend, the Wolverines will
have to travel just one hour to
play their opening-round matchup
against South Dakota State at the
Palace of Auburn Hills (Mich.)
on Thursday at 7:15 p.m. Should
Michigan (12-6 Big Ten, 26-7 over-
all) win, it'll advance to play the
winner of Thursday's Virginia
Commonwealth-Akron game on
Saturday, also at the Palace.
Freshman forward Mitch
McGary described his excitement
at an "all-time high" moments
after seeing Michigan's name
appear on CBS's selection show.
"It's what I've always dreamed
of," McGary said. "To play in
Auburn Hills is a blessing, to play
so close to our university, to hope-
fully have a great fan base there."
The Jackrabbits (13-3 Summit,
25-9) won last week's Summit
League Tournament after win-
ning the regular-season crown as
well. South Dakota State is led by
one of the country's most exciting
players, point guard Nate Wolt-
ers. At 22.7 points per game, the
senior was the nation's fourth-
leading scorer. He also averaged
5.6 rebounds and 5.8 points per
game, while shooting an efficient
49.3 percent from the field.
The Jackrabbits played just two
power-conference teams this sea-
son, losing to both Alabama and
Minnesota. While they took the
Crimson Tide to the brink, los-
ing by three, the Golden Gophers
- Michigan's and South Dakota
State's only mutual opponent -
ran away with a 24-point win. But
the Jackrabbits did come up with
a quality non-conference victory,
winning at No. 15 New Mexico,
70-65, in December.
Michigan coach John Beilein
admitted that he knows "very
little" about his opponent, other
than knowing that "they were the
Jackrabbits right away," he said
with a laugh. Butcafter briefly look-
ing over their season statistics,
he's concerned with the amount
of upperclassmen in South Dakota
State's rotation.
All five of the Jackrabbits' start-
ers are upperclassmen, and four
are double-digit scorers.
"The thing in the mid-major
programs - and they are a legit
mid-major programrightnow - is
that they have juniors and seniors,
and they're all over the place,"
Beilein said. "We have to play like
juniors and seniors in that game."
While none of the Michigan
players made available to the
media Sunday were particularly
knowledgeable of South Dakota
State, each was well aware of
Wolter's capabilities.
"He's a great player from what
I've seen," McGary said. "He can
TODD NEEDLE/Daily
Sophomore guard Trey Burke (left) and freshman forward Glenn Robinson ll couldn't lead Michigan over Wisconsin Friday, and the Wolverines slipped tothe No. 4 seed.
do anything on the court; he has
many intangibles to his game."
The man Wolters will match
up against, sophomore point
guard Trey Burke, said he's never
watched the Jackrabbits play, but
another Wolverine guard, junior
Tim Hardaway Jr., met Wolters
while the two were at last sum-
mer's Kevin Durant Skills Acad-
emy.
Though Michigan should
have a considerable home-court
advantage in the opening week-
end, Michigan State also drew
the Auburn Hills pod, and its
fans - along with most other non-
Wolverine fans - will likely be
cheering on the underdog. Hard-
away was also quick tQ note that
playing so close to home has its
drawbacks.
"It's great to be close to home,
but it can also be a negative thing
because you're so caught up in
distractions," he said. "We've just
got to do a great job at limiting our
distractions."
The Wolverines struggled
down the stretch, going just 6-6
in their last 12 games, but those
games all came against gritty Big
Ten schools. Many of the play-
ers and Beilein noted that facing
teams outside of their own confer-
encewould be refreshing.
While many teams in the Big
Ten slow the game's tempo down
and play more physically than
Michigan - especially in the post
- the Jackrabbits feature a guard-
oriented offense that likes to run
up and down, eliciting high-scor-
ing affairs, something that could
play to the Wolverines' advantage.
"That is not a style you get a
great deal in our league," Beilein
said. "We guard some of that
everyday in practice.
"They're very similar to us. I
do not know if that's good or bad
- I'm not smart enough to know
that. I do know that we better be
able to defend the three, that's for
sure."
If Michigan advances out of
Auburn Hills ant into the Sweet
Sixteen, it'll head to Arlington,
Texas' Cowboy Stadium, likely to
face top-seeded Kansas.
Morgan's struggles highlight
big-man problem vs. Badgers
ONE UP For a team sitting in the cel- son said. "You have to give our
From Page 18B at of the CCHA standings at team a lot of credit. They've
one point this season, Michigan been through a lot this year,
enters Detroit riding a wave of and they've stuck together, and
where the Broncos' momentum momentum. Three years ago in they're having fun and having
was all but gone. 2010, Michigan sat in seventh some success. We're getting bet-
The Wolverines killed off three, place in the conference stand- ter. We have a little mojo right
third-period penalties to go a ings, like this year, before mak- now, and we're going to Joe
perfect 10-for-10 on the week- ing a run to win the Mason Cup. Louis hopefully to have some
end. "Good for our team," Beren- more fun."
Redshirt junior
finishes with just
four points in
tournament
By COLLEEN THOMAS
Daily SportsEditor
CHICAGO - After fresh-
man forward Mitch McGary's
10-point, 11-rebound perfor-
mance in Thursday's game
against Penn State, Michigan
coach John Beilein was faced
with the same question he's
had to answer numerous times
throughout the season: McGary
or redshirt junior forward Jor-
dan Morgan?
Morgan has had his share of
struggles just like the rest of the
Wolverine big men, but the red-
shirt junior got in foul trouble
early against the Nittany Lions.
He played just 10 minutes on
Thursday, and with McGary's
dominance in the paint, Beilein
had to grapple with the decision
on whether to swap McGary for
Morgan in the starting lineup.
"We talk about the roster and
rotation every day," Beilein said
after Thursday's game. "We'll
probably do that again. But a
change, I'mnot going to say we're
going to do it or not going to do
it. If we do make a change, maybe
Jordan will play more relaxed
coming off the bench and make
some of those shots he missed.
"I'll watch some film and talk
and see what - again, look at our
matchups for the next game and
decide what we're going to do."
But against Wisconsin's domi-
nant center Jared Berggren,
Beilein went with Morgan, and
again, the redshirt junior under-
whelmed his coach and McGary
saw the majority of the big man
ONE DOWN
From Page lB
with McGary sophomore point
guard Trey Burke scoring all nine
points.
But Wisconsin kept making
their shots and didn't give Michi-
gan a chance to get back into it.
"It's just we have so many -
there's so many things you have
to continue to get better at and all
it takes, a team like this, it isolates
you so much, it takes one break-
down here or there and they're
scoring points," said Michigan
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es. from (Thursday) because usually
higan was looking to the Penn State's Sasa (Boronvjak)
o get goingearly, but Mor- was posting us up. Berggren did a
truggled. He fumbled a good job spinningon us (and had)
of passes in the paint and easy put-backs."
ulled within the first three Added Morgan: "I think they
es of the game in favor of took advantage of posting up
ry. Morgan didn't score some guys (that) they had a size
t the Badgers and turned advantage on, and that kind of
ll over three times while put us in a rotation that we might
g down four rebounds. not wanted to have. That got
gan's play on Friday them some open shots."
eed how the Wolverine for- So without a post presence,
fared against the Badgers. sophomore guard Trey Burke
r Morgan, McGary nor and junior guard Tim Hardaway
ri sophomore Jon Hor- Tr. took control of the offense as
ere able to get in a rhythm they have so many times before
ively on Friday, and all - on Friday, Burke and Hard-
truggled defensively. away were the only Wolverines
to score in double digits.
Hardaway also grabbed a
game-high nine rebounds while
we do make Morgan, McGary and Horford
combined for 16 boards.
hange, maybe Though Wisconsin didn't
dominate in the paint; the Bad-
n w p gersgot physical with Michigan's
Srelaxed." big men and were able to out-
ormuscle and outsmart the Wolver-
ine forwards. This has been an
issue for Michigan against more
physical teams in the Big Ten,
ugh Berggren scored a like Indiana and Michigan State,
t eight points, all of his and as the NCAA Tournament
came from layups or dunks approaches, the Wolverines must
is that opened up from a figure out how to potentially
n defense from Michigan's match up with teams with strong
n. post presences.
Wolverine forwards had Morgan, however, doesn't
y helpside defense when think that will be an issue.
Evans posted up on fresh- "I don't think that's true. I
forward Glenn Robinson think we've won some games
hich left Berggren open. where we've had to get physical
* simple move to get around - it's a very physical conference,"
chigan forward recovering Morgan said. "I think we've
helpside, Berggren had an done a good job in the past few
to points. weeks of getting physical, try-
day on defense, we had a ing to get into the paint, trying
helpside responsibilities to go after offensive and defen-
vans posting up," McGary sive rebounds. I think we've.
Friday. "We had to be the improved .in that area. I think
an. It was a lot different we'll be okay."
coach John Beilein. "The second
half they scored at will."
After playing two games in
two nights, it looked like the
Wolverines were starting to fight
fatigue during Wisconsin's offen-
sive blitz, especially on defense.
Wisconsin's offensive style is to
pass the ball around over and
over,~using every second of the
.shot clock to find a perfect look.
"Whatever you do to try and
fight (fatigue) it's always going
to come back and bite you a lit-
tle bit," said freshman forward
Glenn Robinson III. "We did our
best, but we need to watch film
to make sure that doesn't hap-
pen again in the (NCAA) Tourna-
ment."
Despite the ankle injury, Hard-
away finished with 14 points,
with 10 of those points coming
in the second half. Burke scored
ateam-high 19 points, but needed
22 shots to get there. He finished
the regular season as the only
player in the Big Ten to score 15
points in every conference game.
Michigan found out Sunday it
will be a four seed in the South
regional, playing South Dakota
State on Thursday at the Palace
of Auburn Hills.