The Michigan Daily - michigandaily.com December 9, 2013 - 3B 6 MEN'S BASKETAL McGary embraces fast break, all-around game Back from an bringing the ball up the court. I think our team is best when After re-entering the game we're in transition, and I like to injury, McGary's later in the second half, McGary push it out on the break and get came down with three defen- our guys open looks." role evolves into sive rebounds and brought the Perhaps the best example of ball up the court himself each McGary's newfound versatility versatile forward time. He showed off his ver- came at the start of the second satility, doing his best point- half Saturday. McGary grabbed By SIMON KAUFMAN guard impersonation. The first a defensive board and pushed Daily Sports Writer time, he dumped the ball off to the ball up the court himself. sophomore guard Caris LeVert He took six steps to bring the Early in the second half of near the basket. On the follow- ball from half court to the free- the Michigan men's basketball ing possession, he kept the ball throw line, made a move to his team's game against Houston and finished a layup after being left to draw a second defender Baptist on Saturday, sophomore fouled. A moment later, the and then hit freshman guard forward Mitch McGary hit the forward dished to sophomore Derrick Walton Jr. in the right floor with a thud after getting guard Nik Stauskas, who buried corner for a 3-pointer. tangled down low. a 3-pointer. Despite the forward becoming Lying on the ground and "He makes us laugh because more comfortable with the ball grabbing his leg, McGary we see it all the time in prac- at the top of the offense, he's still looked to be in pain. With the tice, and he looks goofy some- earning the trust of his coach. Crisler Center crowd waiting, times," Stauskas said. "But he "If I make turnovers, then he rose and sprinted toward gets the job done." he's gonna take back the trust the other side of the court, Though it may amuse some of a little," McGary said. "So you trying to avoid being pulled his teammates, when he pushed kind of give and you get a little. out by Michigan coach John the ball up the court it helped If I do well in practice, then he's Beilein. But Beilein subbed in keep the Wolverines (6-3) in the gonna let me do it in the games. redshirt junior Jon Horford, fast-paced transition offense in I gotta earn that full trust from and McGary had to change his which they thrive. McGary fin- him, which I haven't really yet." direction. The big man walked ished with nine rebounds and Beilein said the versatility toward the bench and flailed 12 points on 5-of-7 shooting, but was something the coach has his arms to pump up the fans in the statistic that stood out the and that the two discussed it a way that only McGary can. most was his six assists - tying when Michigan recruited the "Mitch would be unique," a career best. Chesterton, Ind. native. For Beilein said with a grin after He's no longer someone who now, the coach says McGary No. 22 Michigan's 107-53 blow- defenses simply have to worry has the green light to bring the out over the Huskies. "We about boxing out and putting ball up as long as he doesn't gotta embrace his strengths." a strong body on in the paint. commita turnover. This season, that means He's comfortable grabbing a "He's establishing a trust embracing McGary's all- defensive rebound and going with me," Beilein said. "He's around game. The 6-foot-10, coast to coast with it. gaining that trust by making 255-pound forward has added "You don't really see many some pretty simple plays. Base a new element to his game this guys doing it my size," McGary hits, (we) don't need home year - the ability to be a threat said. "But it just comes natural. runs." Stauskas leads onslaught in front of famiy, friends ERIN KIRKLAND/Daily Senior outside hitter Molly Toon led Michigan with 15 kills, but LSU's offense late in the game proved to be too much. Lmatch dooms voleyball NCI Wolverines never found our identi Michigan finished eliminated in Big Ten, the toughest in the country, and AA Tournament against its ranked tear After two dom: Friday, Michigan ca entirely different te By JAKE LOURIM third set. The Wolver Daily Sports Writer gled with LSU's servi result, couldn't distrib By DANIEL WASSERMAN Daily Sports Editor "He shot pretty well from 3, eh?" More than a half hour after the Michigan men's basketball team finished its blowout win over Houston Baptist, 107-53, a group of 60 of sophomore guard Nik Stauskas's family, friends and neighbors congregated in the Crisler Center concourse. In thick Canadian accents, those from his hometown spoke giddily of Stauskas's dominant shooting performance. Thanks to buses organized by Stauskas's parents, the group made the four-plus-hour bus trip from Mississauga, Ont. to Ann Arbor. For many, it was the first time watching the guard play in person. Stauskas knew he had to put on a show for them. With the help of his teammates, his guests should've felt right at home from their upper-bowl seats as they watched a con- tinuous party from beyond the arc - one not all that different from what they're used to see- ing in Stauskas' backyard. Led by the sophomore's game-high 25 points on 6-of-9 shooting from 3-point range, the Wolverines shot a season- best 16-for-26 from 3, good for 61.5 percent. "I didn't expect that kind of shooting, although we are a good shooting team," said Michigan coach John Beilein. Michigan connected on 10-of-16 from deep in the first half before cooling off - by just 2.5 percent - Sophomore forward Nik Stauskus tied a career high with six 3-pointers. Senior middle blocker Jennifer Cross thought about the differ- ence between last year, the vol- leyball program's first Final Four, and this year, an unexpected flameout in the first round of the NCAA Tournament. She thought about the close wins Michigan had last year en route to the national semifinal, and the close losses it suffered this year. She thought about the two 3-2 defeats to Illinois and all the other matches that could have defined the Wolverines but didn't. She thought about what was different. "Well, if we knew..." Cross said, "we would apply it." Friday, Michigan showed hints of the power it could have shown all year long, closing out a first- set win over LSU, 25-23, and then hammering the Lady Tigers in the second set, 25-9. The Wolver- ines headed to the locker room with a comfortable lead and thought that maybe, just maybe, it would be the match that turned their season around. In a way, the LSU match rep- resented the whole season. The Wolverines started the year 10-1, winning two tournaments. But their success was short-lived. "We just struggled finding our identity as a team," Cross said. "Our fault at the end is that we VOLLEYBALL From Page 1B The Wolverines took control early with a hard-fought 25-23 victory in the first set. In a high- ly competitive set, the score was tied on 12 different occasions, and neither team led by more than three. Cross posted six kills and a block in the first set, helping her team overcome three key service errors. Senior Ally Sabol led a persistent defense, starting her fifth consecutive game at libero in place of sophomore Tiffany Morales, who was not complete- ly healthy and spent most of the match rotating in as a defensive specialist. Cross finished off the first set by earning four of her team's final five points to seal the victory. Energized by the victory, the Wolverines stormed out and dominated the second set. After jumping out to a 6-1 lead to force an LSU timeout, Michigan pushed the lead to 12-2 on the strength of a strong service run by Toon. The early deficit was too great for the Tigers to over- to their balanced atta freshman Abby Cole, s Toon and senior Le Michigan's success t came from the equal from all of its hitters Wolverines struggled, as they did Friday, they were lean- ing too heavily on one hitter. In short, the Wolverines looked out of rhythm. "The game really flipped, and that's what momentum can do,"s gan coach Mark Ros got away from us." The senior core of T Cross, setter Lexi D libero Ally Sabol and senior defensive speci ny Lee had played in: Tournament matche careers. The LSU s played in one. But the experier translate to compos the Lady Tigers cha game plan, Michiga adjust. "I thought they m change defensively be two and three, and ce ity." changed the match," Rosen said. 8-12 in the "They served us very tough, got conference us out of system and then they went 2-10 defended extremely well. At the ms. same time, our defense certainly inant sets let us down in that situation, and me out an we didn't defend nearly at the am in the level we needed to." rines strug- In the second set, the Wolver- ng and as a ines forced side outs on 80 per- ute the ball cent of points to LSU's 29 percent. ck of Cross, They hit .538 without a single enior Molly error and limited the Lady Tigers exi Erwin. to negative .031, meaning they his season committed more errors than kills. production But as it has all season, Michi- . When the gan struggled to sustain its domi- nance. After the intermission, "They just Michigan looked unpre- caught us a pared. The e by Lady Tigers looked like the team coming *p e off a Final Four run, not one playing in the tournament for said Michi- the first time in three years. en. "It just "They just caught us a little bit by surprise, and we didn't bon, Erwin, do a very good job of adjusting annemiller, our offense," Rosen said. "Their d fifth-year block was touching way more alist Britta- balls, their defense was deep and nine NCAA aggressive and their libero was s in their phenomenal." eniors had Rosen talked after the game about the character of the team nce didn't and about how this could have ure. When been a special team. It could have nged their been at the beginning of a new n couldn't season, and it would have been if the Wolverines put it together ade a great Friday. etween sets "But the truth of the matter," rtainly that Cross said, "is that we didn't." more forward Glenn Robin- son III chipped in with two 3-pointers of his own. Though the Huskies (3-6) aren't anything close to the high-caliber opponents Michi- gan will face regularly when conference play kicks off in three weeks, it was a welcomed sight for the Wolverines after a dismal showing at Duke on Tuesday. At Cameron Indoor Stadium, Michigan (6-3) shot for 3-for-13 in a 6-for-10 from long second-half « . xt range. Staus- performance. I didn t expect kas, who was While Staus- that kind of face guarded kas's num- tha kind the entire bers were I night, missed the gaudi- shooting." his only 3 est, tying his pointer, and ° career-high the entire against Flor- team strug- ida in last year's Elite Eight, gled even to find quality looks. a few of his other backcourt Stauskas is still recovering counterparts proved that hot from a sprained ankle that he shooting is contagious. suffered in the championship of Freshman point guard Der- the Puerto Rico Tip-Off. After rick Walton Jr. knocked down being sidelined in last week's each of his three 3-pointers - game against Coppin State, matching his career high - as Stauskas was stifled from start part of a 14-point effort. Fresh- to finish against the Blue Dev- man guard Zak Irvin matched ils. Walton's 14 points with a 3-of-5 Stauskas estimated that mark from long range. Sopho- the ankle is currently about 90-percent healthy. "It's getting there," he said. "It's not even really hurting anymore. It's kind of a little bit of stiffness." By taking away Stauskas, Duke essentially stymied the entire Wolverine offense. Watching highlight film, the Michigan coaches weren't happy with the offense's spac- ing - a developing pattern from other losses, namely the one at Iowa State. "I think in the Duke game, there were times where our spacing was horrible so, we definitely worked at that a lot in practice," Stauskas said. "I was glad that we could see that out there in the game." But the team's pinpoint shooting was a far cry from what Beilein saw in Friday's preparation for Saturday. Working against a variety of defensive sets, Michigan strug- gled to shoot the ball in prac- tice. "I bet you we went 3-for-20 from 3, and the whole idea was just keep shooting and ifyou get open looks, knock them down," Beilein said. "We certainly had that opportunity again today and we made the most of it." come, and Michigan took the second set, 25-9 - one of its larg- est margins of victory all season. The blocking game was espe- cially strong for the Wolverines in the second set. Cross and Toon each had three blocks in the set, while sophomore outside hitters Krystalyn Goode and Ally Davis, junior setter Lexi Dannemiller and freshman middle blocker Abby Cole also joined in on sev- eral tandem blocks. Michigan looked like a team destined for a date with No. 3 Washington in the second round. Then, suddenly, the wheels fell off. Everything that went well for Michigan in the second set went horribly wrong in the third. The Wolverines only managed one block and committed seven errors. LSU went on a 4-0 run to begin the set and never looked back. The Lady Tigers rode the strength of an 8-0 run in the middle of the set to gain an.18-7 lead before ultimately winning 25-14. "They served us short a lot more, and that kind of threw our rhythm off a little bit," Rosen said. "We adjusted later, but by then our ball control was strug- gling a little bit, and we weren't able to stay in system." Rosen also acknowledged a sudden decline in the Wolver- ines' defense coming off their dominant second set. To remedy the situation, Rosen sent Morales out in the libero jersey to start the fourth set. Though Morales had a pro- ductive match - she led the team with 20 digs - the Wolverines still couldn't close out the Lady Tigers. A 6-0 LSU run in the fourth set broke a 6-6 tie. The Wolver- ines' offensive struggles dictat- ed the set, as they committed a match-high eight errors. Michi- gan couldn't capitalize on a late rally and ultimately dropped the set 25-19. Michigan finished with nine fewer wins than last season despite being ranked No. 7 at the start of the season. It was the final match for seniors Cross, Toon and Sabol, as well as fifth- year senior defensive specialist Brittany Lee and senior outside hitter Lexi Erwin.