The Michigan Daily - michigandaily.com
Thursday, October 31, 2013 - 8A
The Michigan Daily - michigandailycom Thursday, October 31, 2013 - 8A
5 Things We Learned
FOOTBALL
Bosch to be tested
By SIMON KAUFMAN After nailing a 3-pointer with
Daily Sports Writer 7:13 left in the first half for the
first points of his college career,
1. Nik Stauskas still shoots bet- he came back down the floor and
ter than he dances. knocked down a mid-range jump-
er. Then he did his best Burke
After the Michigan players are impression - stealing the ball at
announced pregame, they circle half court and finishing a layup at
up and get pumped. On Tuesday the other end.
night before the game against ."I sat at home a couple of times
Concordia, sophomore guard Nik and watched him just play guys at
Stauskas had the honor of being half court," Walton said.
the rah-rah guy in the middle Perhaps Burke's style has influ-
of all of them. He shared some enced him more than he knows.
inspiring words and then went In a span of 39 seconds, the for-
into his bestlean-back-brush-the- mer four-star recruit scored
dirt-off-the-shoulders dance. In seven points and introduced him-
the middle of the circle, he looked self to a team eager to meet a new
unpracticed and unconfident. On pointguard.
the court though, he looked much
the opposite. 3. The point-guard position is
Stauskas scored the Wolver- still up in the air.
ines' first points of the season
after sinking two shots from the If you were looking for the
tree-throw line a minute into answer as to who would be this'
the game, He went 2-for-3 from team's starting point guard,
behind the are and had 12 first- keep looking. Sophomore Spike
half points before Concordia Albrecht started, but Walton
scored 10, The sophomore fin- replaced him less than four min-
ished with 23 points on the night. utes into the game and the two
Stauskas said he didn't know traded off time all night. Walton
he would be the man in the mid- logged 24 minutes compared
die of the circle until just seconds to Albrecht's 21 minutes. And
before and admitted his pregame Beilein is leaving his options
performance was "weak," But if open: he didn't rule out sopho-
he puts the same amount of work more guard Caris LeVert from
into his pregame dance that he getting minutes at point guard,
has into his shooting, he'll be one either,
of the best dual-threat guards in "If we can put three point
the country, guards out there at one time, it
would be really good," Beilein
2. Too early to compare Trey said. "I think all our guys have a
Burke and Derek Walton Jr.? point-guard mentality. We give.
Maybe not, them reps so that they can work,"
Expect Albrecht to get the
At Michigan Media Day last starts at the beginning of the sea-
week, freshman guard Derrick son while Walton becomes more
Walton talked about not trying comfortable in the system. But
to replace Trey Burke. He said he Albrecht's 17-point performance
wants to be true to himself and in the championship game last
play his own game. He might not season won't be enough to lock
be trying to replace Michigan's him in as Michigan's point guard
last point guard, but luckily for all season. He'll need to prove he
Walton, his game looks a lot like can consistently generate offense
Burke's. on the court; otherwise he'll
Sophomore guard Carls LeVert scored 16 points in 21 minutes"on Tasday,
quickly find himself coming off
the bench for Walton.
4, Carla LeVert-icle is not a
freshman anymore.
Add six months since April and
four letters to sophomore guard
Caris LeVert's last name and you
have the most improved player on
Michigan's team,
With time expiring at the end
of the first half, he ran up on a fast
break, caught a pass from Staus-
kas and finished with a loud dunk
- and like that, Levert turned
legit.
LeVert, who averaged 2.3
points per game in 10.8 minutes
last season, proved to last year's
critics that he knew he had more
potential.
He went a perfect 6-for-6
from within the arc, putting up
16 points in 21 minutes. Most
impressive though, he helped cre-
ate offense with his 10 assists.
Michigan coach John Beilein
calls LeVert his defensive quar-
terback, and the guard did help in
the backcourt with three steals.
His ability to be a threat on both
ends of the court will make it hard
for Beilein to limit his minutes,
5. It's too early to start thinking
Arlington,.
Yes, Michigan dominated in
its first showing, but don't book
your flight to Arlington, Texas,
for the Final Four any time soon.
The Wolverines weren't playing a
low-level Division-I team - they
were up against an NAIA team.
Concordia's roster features just
three players taller than 6-foot-6
- four of Michigan's starting five
were that height or taller.
It's easy to get caught up in the
lopsided score and highlight-reel
dunks that Michigan had, espe-
ciallyafteramagicalrunlastyear.
But this exhibition game was
just that, an exhibition, and one
against much weaker talent. This
team has the talent to go deep in
the tournament again this year,
but it still has much to prove over
the next five months.
By MATT SLOVIN
ManagingEditor
If Saturday's game at Michi-
gan State will indeed be the
Michigan football team's most
physical of the season, it's only
fitting that Kyle Bosch be on the
offensive line for it.
"You never. have to worry
about him likingcontact and him
being aggressive," said Greg Pur-
nell, Bosch's former high-school
coach at Wheaton (Ill.) St. Fran-
cis, ina phone interview with the
Daily on Wednesday. "The fact
that he's been aggressive all his
life I'm sure has helped."
Earlier this week in practice,
redshirt junior linebacker Jake
Ryan learned just how strong the
freshman's feisty side is. Bosch
found himself in a scuffle with
Ryan, one of the leaders of the
defense, and fifth-year senior left
tackle Taylor Lewan needed to
intervene.
"It was just practice," Ryan
said Monday when asked about
the incident. "Bosch is a great
player. He stepped up the last
game for us, It was practice. We
got into it. It's over We're friends
again."
The fact that Bosch took it
upon himself to get into it with
one of the team captains isn't
surprising to Purnell in the
least. He recalls a practice dur-
ing Bosch's junior year when he
ended up in a similar scuffle -
"It wasn't a fight, but it could've
led to that," Purnell recalled.
What is a surprise to Purnell is
that Bosch is listed as Michigan's
starter at guard entering Satur-
day's battle for the Paul Bunyan
Trophy.
Perhaps that says more about
the Wolverines' lack of depth at
the offensive line positions than
Bosch's first-year progress, but
coach Brady Hoke certainly has
enough trust in the 6-foot-5, 302-
pound Bosch to insert him into a
very hostile environment in East
Lansing.
"I like Bosch," Hoke said in
his Wednesday press conference.
"You grow up sometime. But
yeah, it'll be intense. But I know
one thing about Bosch: He's a
pretty tough guy."
That toughness showed up in
Bosch's first career game, against
Indiana, when he was apart of an
improved Wolverines offensive
line. Needless to say, facing the
Spartan defense is another mat-
ter entirely, but it's a task Hoke
thinks the line will be ready
for. But redshirt freshman Erik
Magnuson will also be lining up
at guard again, and that youth
could' be a liability in a rivalry
game, especially one on the road.
"I think with (Bosch and Mag-
nuson), the good thing is, there's
nine other guys out there with
them," Hoke said. "Believe me,
there's other guys who will be
out there for the first time with
more significant roles."
Purnell compared Bosch play-
ing against Michigan State this
weekend to games he played
against rival Lombard (Il.)
Montini Catholic in high school,
Montini Catholic has won four
consecutive state titles and
beat Bosch's St. Francis team
each year he was there, but that
doesn't mean Bosch didn't show
up in those games.
"He played very well in those
games," Purnell recalled. "Kyle
feels very badly we never beat
them during his tenure."
But Bosch has a chance Satur-
day to beat a rival his first time
playing in the game. That's an
opportunity he won't take light-
ly.
"He's mean," Lewan, the
peacekeeper, said Monday: "He
might not know every call. But I
know, when I was on the field my
freshman year, I was going 100
percent trying to take somebody
out every single play. ... Bosch
has that same thing about him.
I'm excited about him."
Racine returns to practice;
freshman line jells nicely
0z
PAUL SHERMAN/Daily
Sophomore goaltender Steve Racine has missed three games with a groin injury.
last season.
"We're all the same age, and
we've all been together for a few
years," Allen said. "Me and Tyler
have been together before that,
so I think we have a lot in com-
mon on the ice and off the ice."
The NTDP plays across the
country against top Division I
opponents every season, making
the program a recruiting hotbed
for college coaches. Before the
season, Berenson and his assis-
tants hoped the trio could fill
the production void left by for-
mer Wolverines Jacob Trouba
and Jon Merrill. They have done
so thus far, and the reassurance
these freshmen have provided
has made coaching worthwhile
for Berenson.
"Part of the reason I'm still
coaching is I look forward to
seeing the players we've recruit-
ed finally get here and see what,
they can do on the ice," Berenson
said. "These players have lived
up to their early season expecta-
tions."
PEARSON RETURNS TO
YOST: Michigan Tech coach
Mel Pearson, a former Michigan
assistant under Berenson for 23
years, will make his first trip
back to Ann Arbor this weekend
after taking a position as head
coach of the Huskies after the
2010-11 season.
In those two years, Pearson
has led Michigan Tech to its
second-best two-season stretch
in program history with 29 total
wins.
Perhaps none of those wins
were more meaningful than
shutting out Michigan in the
2011 Great Lakes Invitational,
when the Huskies went on to win
their first GLI title since 1981.
For Berenson and Pearson, it
will be a battle between teacher
and student. For the Wolverine
seniors, it will be a shot to beat
the coach that recruited some of
them to Michigan. There will be
mixed emotions on both benches
come Friday night.
"He was a really, really good
coach," said senior captain Mac
Bennett. "He was someone I
looked forward to practicing
with. It's kind of strange (seeing
him onthe otherbench),because
he was here when I got here."
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