The Michigan Daily - michigandaily.com
SportsMonday January13, 2014- 3B
MEN'S SWMMNG
Wolverines slow, but
remain undefeated
ALLISON FARAN /Daily
Freshman guard Derrick Walton hit the game-winning shot in Michigan's 71-70 win over Nebraska on Thursday night.
Walton emerges as late threat
r
Bu
B,
Th
seaso
year,
Burk
game
the l
Burk
In
ketba
Nebr
ran t
ment
As
for ti
respo
throu
picki
to Sc
two
lead I
Th
man
asser
prese
he'
baske
beyor
court
In need of a again backed up Michigan
coach John Beilein's assertion
eplacement for about his young team: There
is no automatic choice to go
.rke, can Walton to in high-pressure, big-time
moments.
Step up? Michigan has been cast in
this situation earlier in the sea-
y DANIEL FELDMAN son and in those moments, the
Daily Sports Writer option of who could play hero
has varied.
roughout the past two In the Wolverines' games
ns, and especially last in Puerto Rico, specifically
former point guard Trey against Florida State, they rode
e dominated play late in the back of sophomore guard
s. When the game was on Nik Stauskas, who finished
ine, the ball ran through with a career-high 26 points.
e. Versus No. 1 Arizona, Stauskas
the Michigan men's bas- once again was called upon to
llteam's 71-70victoryover take the last-second shots. In
aska on Thursday, the ball Brooklyn, N.Y. against Stan-
through Burke's replace- ford, the final minutes of the
,Derrick Walton Jr. win relied on the play of Staus-
the main ballhandler kas and sophomore forward
he team, it's typically his Glenn Robinson III.
nsibility to facilitate plays And in Michigan's 63-60 win
ughout the game, while over Minnesota to begin con-
ng his spots here and there ference play, the play of Walton
ore himself. On Thursday, and redshirt junior forward
of those moments helped Jon Horford that helped seal
Michigan to its victory. the win.
the pivotal shot.
So when the Wolverines
were down by one with 30 sec-
onds remaining, the designed
play wasn't just an isolation
play that Michigan had grown
so accustomed to last year with
Burke.
"It was actually something
(Walton's) been working on,
we've been working on, that
particular play," Beilein told
reporters after Thursday's
game. "He just took it right at
him and scored. He had some
other options; he didn't look at
those other options. He looked
to score. That was one of the
options: go in and score.
"If it blew up at all, we were
going to call timeout. With that
amount of time on the clock, we
wanted to see if we could get
them quick before they could
set."
While the play called for
multiple possibilities, the one
that unfolded showed the
aggressiveness of Walton -
something the guard hadn't
been called upon to display in
the final stretches of play.
"I think it's great for him,"
Morgan said Thursday. "I think
it's been a little bit difficult for
him to find out where he can
get his looks and where he kind
of has to pull back. We want
him to be aggressive and keep
putting pressure on the rim
because it makes the (opposi-
tion) honor that and gets every-
one else open."
With that newly found con-
fidence, the decision for Beilein
of who will take the shot with
the game on the line just got
tougher. Another option has
emerged.
'M' tops
and North
in consecu
By MAX BU
Daily Sport
In most sports,
season form" in
fitness level and
appetite for comp
In swimming,
season form is a
sore muscles and
time when the ya
of practices incre
build strength,
ship meets at the
It was only nat
the No. 1 Michiga
ming team experi
drop-off this past
the times it pos
holidays.
But the
Wolverines
(4-0 Big Ten,
7-0 overall)
were still fast
enough to win
11 of 16 events
Friday, beating
Purdue 176-12.
The next aftern
ston, they won ev
event to beat Nor
115.
"They're fat
Michigan coach
"They're tired, b
place to be to pra
Friday in W
Bottom electedt
Connor Jaeger
1,000-yard frees
in which Jaeger
nation's elite. Ir
more Anders Nie
the opportunitya
the selection, win
Though he w,-
Purdue arguably his strongest event,
western Jaeger was still a major factor
against Purdue (2-1, 5-2).
tive days Jaeger won the 500-yard
freestyle in 4:27.02 and he,
JLTMAN junior Justin Glanda and senior
is Writer Abdel Khalik Hassan took the
top three places in the 200-yard
the term"mid- freestyle.
mplies a peak "This is a meet where we're
I an increased practicing some details and
petition. pushing through some fatigue,"
though, mid- Bottom said. "We wanted to give
ssociated with (Jaeger) some other options."
I fatigue. It's a Junior Richard Funk con-
rdage and rigor tinued his impressive season,
ase in order to winning the 100-yard and 200-
for champion- yard breaststrokes in 54.67 sec-
end of the year. onds and 2:00.59, respectively,
ural, then, that against Purdue.
in men's swim- Saturday, sophomore Dylan
fenced a bit of a Bosch stole the show.
:weekend from Though Michigan was tech-
ted before the nically only swimming against
Northwest-
ern (1-3, 5-2),
"They're tired Notre Dame
Y also joined the
but that's a good Wolverines in
the pool. And
place to be." while beating
the Wildcats
was the prior-
ity, the Fight-
oon, in Evan- ing Irish ultimately posed the
ery swimming biggest threat.
thwestern,177- Bosch started the day strong
as a part of the 200-yard med-
igued," said ley relay with senior John
Mike Bottom. Wojciechowski and juniors
ut that's a good Richard Funk and Bruno Ortiz.
ctice details." The relay won the race in
est Lafayette, 1:28.36, an NCAA 'A' cut quali-
to keep senior fying time.
out of the After a close race in the 200-
tyle, an event yard butterfly, which he won in
is among the 1:47.58, Bosch had a long time to
nstead, sopho- recover before swimming two
lsen was given races back-to-back at the end of
and he justified the meet.
ning in 9:19.37. Bosch beat out Notre Dame's
as held out of John Williamson by touching
the wall in 48.26in the 100-yard
butterfly, then got right back
onto the blocks for the 200-yard
individual medley.
In his last race, Bosch showed
his endurance, narrowly win-
ning in 1:48.96.
"It's always fun to have some-
one who pushes you to get to the
wall," Bosch said. "We always
want to win for Michigan and
get our hand on the wall first."
Back in the 1,000-yard free-
style against Northwestern,
Jaeger also got a chance to
show off his broad skill set,
taking third place in the 200-
yard butterfly in 1:51.37.
What was most surpris-
ing was that senior John
Wojciechowski, who had been
Michigan's lead backstroker
earlier in the season, was not
the Wolverines' top finisher
in the individual backstroke
races.
Instead, senior Ryutaro
Kamiya took full control of the
stroke, winning both the 100-
yard and 200-yard events in
49.63 and 1:46.20, respectively.
Backstroke has been one
of the few question marks for
Michigan after the departure
of Miguel Ortiz last season.
"We're still looking for our
relay backstroker," Bottom
said. "(Wojciechowski) swam
some freestyle today and a but-
terfly in a relay, so we're still
working on filling that spot."
Kamiya's performance over
the weekend was encouraging,
but, like the rest of his team, he
has plenty of room to improve
once the team can taper and
recover from the intensity of
the midseason and brutal trav-
el schedule.
"The guys are tired," Bosch
said, "but all the traveling and
that stuff, it makes you better."
e fresh-
first
ted his
nce as
sunk a
t from
nd half-
to break
Without
Burke and
"We want him to his superhe-
be agg e formances,
beaggrssi Thursday's
game repre-
sented what
a 30-30 tie
before halftime. Then on the
Wolverines' last offensive pos-
session, Walton drove on the
side of the basket and drew a
foul in the process as his shot
attempt splashed through the
net.
While thebasketgave Michi-
gan the lead and ultimately the
victory, the possession once
the Wolver-
ines will have to deal with,
especially with the ruggedness
of Big Ten play now underway.
Though all five Michigan
starters scored in double-fig-
ures against Nebraska, includ-
ing 19 by Robinson and 15 by
fifth-year senior forward Jor-
dan Morgan, there were mul-
tiple options of who would take
OFFENSE
From Page 1B
this year. Di Giuseppe has hit
twine just four times this season,
while Guptill has been stymied
since holding a six-game point
streak leading into conference
play.
"We haven't got to that level
where you can just about count
on certain players getting good
scoring chances every night,"
Berenson said.
On Saturday,
Di Giuseppe
and Gup- "I' r
till both had 1 1
opportunities when
to solidify their
place on the throwi
stat sheet, but
couldn't break to the
through. Di
Giuseppe per- they do
haps had the
best chance of
the game on
a breakaway
opportunity in the first period,
but his shot was pushed to the
left of the net by goaltender Joel
Rumpel.
The second period of Satur-
day's rematch provided the most
promising chances all weekend
for the Wolverines, but Rumpel
continued to stand tall. At one
point, freshman forward JT
Compher jammed at the puck
several times at the left post to
no avail. The puck trickled into
the slot for senior forward Derek
DeBlois, who shot it directly
into Rumpel's pads. For one
final attempt, with the Wiscon-
sin defense gassed, Guptill fired
fromthe pointbut was blocked.
"It's frustrating when you're
throwing pucks to the net and
they don't go in," said senior
defenseman Mac Bennett.
The troubling part, though,
is the weekend wasn't an iso-
lated incident
but rather
an unfavor-
s able theme
1s raL ng of Michigan
you're creating qual-
ity scoring
ng puckschances and
failing to fin-
net and ish them.
On Fri-
n't go in" day, many of
the forward
lines looked
desperate at
times, simply
flinging pucks into open space,
missing rudimentary passes in
the neutral zone and failing to
get set up in the final third of the
ice for extended periods. When
the chances started flowing in
on Saturday, things looked less
bleak but the pucks still stayed
out.
For a team that started eight
freshmen this weekend, the play
of the upperclassmen becomes
more important and eventu-
ally more magnified. Despite his
absence in the Great Lakes Invi-
tational, Copp leads the team
with nine goals in 15 games.
In the competitive Big Ten,
with Minnesota, Ohio State and
Wisconsin all ranking in the top-
10 nationally in goals per game,
the Wolverines can't afford a
stagnant attack. Even if Copp is
able to maintain his recent tear,
help from his teammates will
have to come quickly if the Wol-
verines hope to stay in the midst
of the conference title race.
BY THE NUMBERS
Michigan s 4-game losing streak
Goals scored inthe four-game span.
RIVALRY
From Page 1B
the beginning of December,
this weekend's contest had the
physicality of a rivalry game, the
talk of a rivalry game and the
atmosphere of a rivalry game.
But it was not. For it to be a
rivalry, Michigan would need to
have won.
The Wolverines would also
have to play Wisconsin regularly.
Because if there are two things
that have never been seen in
Michigan hockey, it's six men in
the penalty box and the Wolver-
ines and Wisconsin facing off in
the Big Ten conference.
Though these two teams first
faced each other 91years ago - on
Jan. 12, as a matter of fact - the
Badgers have not played a confer-
ence series against the Wolver-
ines since 1982 and last played in Juniorf
2010. Both teams certainly have softly:
rivalries, bigger ones at that, and end.
this isn't one of them. "Fri
"A rivalry is usually because word t
you're playingateam alot andyou "We'v
get to not like them," said Michi- hockey
gan coach Red Berenson. "We've downs
only played them two games." little b
Add
*** have a;
of the
So why are we already calling hand,:
Michigan-Wisconsin a rivalry?
Why does senior forward Luke ***
Moffatt call this a rivalry? Why
does Wisconsin coach Mike Eaves Ulti
say it had the feeling of a rivalry becom
series? down
Because of a fight? teams
For Michigan, the fight that Yost Ic
took place at the end of Saturday's But
game was a result of built up frus- a Bette
tration, not a rivalry. played
It's the frustration that leaves to play
Berenson staring into the cold, their c
grey concrete of the Kohl Center penalt:
when he speaks, pondering the did su
weekend. It's the frustration that before.
compels the Wolverines to walk "We
out of the locker room with their Moffat
lips pursed shut and eyes staring win th
straight ahead, or others to speak And
PATRICK BARRN/DLaily
forward Alex Guptill, a noted scoring threat, was held to just one assist.
and briefly about the week-
ustrated is a really good
o describe it," Bennett said.
e had good times. Like any
y season, you have ups and
. Unfortunately, we're a
it down right now."
ed Moffatt: "We didn't
good experience at the end
game. Things got out of
and I'll just leave it at that."
mately, this series can
e a rivalry three weeks
the road when the two
face off again, this time at
e Arena.
the Wolverines must play
:er hockey game than they
this weekend. They'll have
'smarter defensively, bury
hances and stay out of the
y box. The things they
ccessfully when they won
're a good team this year,"
tt said. "We know we can
is year, we've proven it."
I the fans at Michigan will
have to show up like the 14,000
fans did on Saturday, and will
have to be just as loud and bois-
terous. It's about treating the
series the same way they treat
that of Michigan State or yes, even
Miami (Ohio).
A rivalry won't happen in the
blink of the eye, and a rivalry
won't change the fact that the
Wolverines are just two points
away from sitting fifth in the six-
team conference.
Even though it's unlikely
there will be six Badgers in the
Yost penalty box, will it become
a rivalry then? If there's a fight,
will othersjump to label it as one?
What will make this a rivalry?
It's a rivalry when the Wolver-
ines beat the Badgers with their
gloves on, not off.
It's a rivalry when Michigan
makes it a fight to the finish, not a
fight at the finish.
It's a rivalry when those same
six players show up on the score
sheet, not in the penalty box.
Garno can be reached
at ggarno@umich.edu or
on Twitter: @GGarno.
Cobnd21 ,
Combinedpoints by thoseifreshmen
on Sundav
WANT TO JOIN THE DAILY?
Come to a mass meeting Thursday, Jan. 16 or Tuesday, Jan. 21 at 7:00 p.m. at 420 Maynard!