By JAKE LOURIM

Managing Sports Editor

The 
Michigan 
men’s 

basketball team hasn’t seen Iowa 
yet this season, but if his team’s 
status is any 
indication, 
coach 
John 

Beilein knows 
what’s coming 
when 
the 

Hawkeyes visit 
Crisler Center 
on 
Thursday 

night.

“If 
they 

watched 
our 

transition 
defense against 
Michigan 
State, whether we make a shot or 
not, they’re just going to attack 
us right down the floor,” Beilein 
said. “And that’s going to be a big 
emphasis for us going forward.”

In Sunday’s game at Michigan 

State, 
the 
Wolverines 
were 

outscored 16-8 in transition 
and lost in overtime, 76-66. 
Now, back at home, they’ll face 
another formidable test on the 
fast break.

“Defensive transition is the 

thorn in every coach’s side, 
because you’re trying to get 
better at it,” Beilein said. “It 
takes a lot of time in practice 
to really get good at it at a high 
speed. You can wear your team 
out practicing it so much.”

Fatigue is one thing Michigan 

can’t afford. In addition to foot 
injuries to junior guard Caris 
LeVert and sophomore guard 
Derrick Walton Jr., redshirt 
freshman forward Mark Donnal 
has been sidelined two straight 
games as he recovers from an 
illness.

If Donnal is still limited 

come 
Thursday, 
that 
leaves 

just freshman Ricky Doyle and 
senior Max Bielfeldt to match up 
with Iowa’s massive front line.

The Hawkeyes start 6-foot-9 

forward Aaron White, 6-foot-
9 forward Jarrod Uthoff and 
7-foot-1 center Adam Woodbury. 
They also go deep into their 
bench, rotating as many as 10 
players, none of whom averages 
more than 30 minutes per game. 
The substitutes include 6-foot-
10 
forward 
Gabriel 
Olaseni 

and 
6-foot-8 

forward Dom 
Uhl.

But 
the 

Wolverines’ 
big men have 
also 
been 

playing better 
as 
of 
late. 

Bielfeldt 
has 

averaged nine 
points and 7.8 
rebounds over 
the past four games, and Doyle is 
the team’s second-leading active 
scorer.

With the improvement on the 

interior and Iowa’s size, Beilein 
said he’d consider using two big 
men at once if their matchups 
presented 
an 
opportunity 

Thursday.

“I think it’s always going to 

be in our package somewhere,” 
Beilein said. “We’re limited in 
what we can run through that. 
We’re trying to work at that. You 
are who you can guard. We’ve 
got to see a matchup that Max or 
Ricky can go guard a perimeter 
defender for us to do it, unless 

we’re playing 
100 
percent 

zone, and then 
you get away 
with it.”

Zone 

defense 
is 

another 
option: 
Both 

Michigan’s 
2-3 and 1-3-1 
looks had been 
improving 

prior to Sunday. When the 
Wolverines tested them against a 
strong passing team in Michigan 
State, the Spartans broke them 
down and forced them into man-
to-man defense.

Michigan faces another older 

team Thursday — the Hawkeyes 
start a senior and three juniors 

and they bring two more seniors 
off the bench. Still, back in 
Crisler Center, the home-court 
environment could help close 
the gap in experience.

“It has so far — I think 

we’ve played pretty well at 
home,” Beilein said. “It’s the 
persistence that you see with 
teams that really have a great 
understanding of what it takes to 
win. We’re growing in that area 
in leaps and bounds.”

The Wolverines have lost 

in overtime twice in the past 
three games, but against top 
competition, they have been 
within a bounce here and there 
in both games.

“It’s tough, letting games 

like that slip away or having a 
game that close go the other 
way,” said junior guard Spike 
Albrecht. “I think I’ve kind of 
learned in my two years here, 
those things will come back to 
you. Just continue to do what 
we do, and we’re going to start 
getting some of those breaks. 
Things are going to start going 
our way.”

Sports
6A — Thursday, February 5, 2015
The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com

‘M’ looks to rebound vs. Iowa

ALLISON FARRAND/Daily

Spike Albrecht scored 18 points in defeat Sunday and will lead Michigan into a home matchup with Iowa on Thursday.

WOMEN’S BASKETBALL
Michigan seeks 
rare win at MSU

By BRAD WHIPPLE

Daily Sports Writer

With the Michigan women’s 

basketball team suffering its first 
pair of back-to-back conference 
losses 
this 

season, the Big 
Ten 
regular-

season title is 
out of reach.

But 
an 

NCAA 
Tournament 
bid is still a 
possibility, and 
the Wolverines 
can still save 
the 
season 

in 
the 
eight 

games 
before 

the Big Ten Tournament that will 
largely 
determine 
Michigan’s 

postseason 
fate, 
barring 
a 

tournament championship.

Thursday marks the beginning 

of an uphill and grueling road 
that the Wolverines (5-5 Big Ten, 
13-8 overall) will have to travel in 
order to dance in the postseason.

It’s a road that begins in East 

Lansing, where Michigan hasn’t 
won since Jan. 25, 2001.

Though this year’s Michigan 

State squad is not the powerhouse 
most are accustomed to, Michigan 
coach Kim Barnes Arico isn’t 
underestimating the Spartans’ 
ability in their own house.

“It’s still Michigan State,” 

Barnes Arico told WTKA Radio 
on Tuesday. “They’ve been the 
premier program in the state, and 
that’s kind of our rival and what 
we aspire to be each and every 
single year.”

Michigan State (3-8, 11-11) 

holds a lopsided 63-17 edge in 
the all-time series against the 
Wolverines, 
who 
snapped 
a 

three-game losing streak to their 

in-state rival on Jan. 4 when 
the Spartans were No. 24 in the 
nation.

If 
Michigan 
can 
collect 

another victory, it will have 
swept the season series for the 
first time since the 1999-2000 
season — a feat reached just three 
times in the program’s history.

But as Barnes Arico put it, 

it’s still Michigan State, even if 
the Spartans sit at 11th in the 
conference standings.

Michigan 
State 
will 
rely 

heavily on guard Aerial Powers, 
who is averaging 21.9 and 12 
rebounds per game, 1.8 more 
boards 
than 
senior 
forward 

Cyesha Goree.

For 
Michigan, 
Goree 
has 

become less of a threat since the 
Wolverines’ loss to Maryland 
last week, scoring just six points 
against Nebraska on Sunday. 
Without her influence in the paint, 
Michigan turned to senior guard 
Shannon Smith in her stead.

Despite making a strong start 

against Nebraska, Michigan “ran 
out of gas in the second half,” 
according to Barnes Arico. For 
the Wolverines to continue to 
stay in competition with others 
around the conference, they’ll 
have to put together a full 40 
minutes of intensity and focus.

“I think this could be record-

breaking for the Big Ten,” Barnes 
Arico said. “Our league is the No. 
1 RPI league in the country right 
now, and we have some great out-
of-conference wins by the teams 
in our league.”

Barnes Arico doesn’t hesitate 

to call the Big Ten the best 
conference in the nation. Now, 
it’s up to her and her team to 
bounce back, like it has all year, 
to create a postseason berth.

And it starts 64 miles north 

against all odds.

The curious case of 
Max Shuart’s helmet

By JASON RUBINSTEIN

Daily Sports Editor

To the average hockey fan, it 

may seem that every Michigan 
hockey player looks exactly the 
same — all the players’ sticks, 
skates and, of course, uniforms 
make them look like mirror 
images.

But if you take a closer look 

at the Wolverines, one glaring 
difference exists: sophomore 
forward Max Shuart’s helmet.

While all of his teammates 

wear a full “cage” face shield — 
which looks like a wired fence — 
Shuart opts to wear a plastic face 
shield, also known as a “bubble” 
or a “fish bowl.” It effectively 
looks like a giant piece of clear 
plastic surrounding his face 
with a few notches cut out of the 
bottom for ventilation.

By not wearing a cage, Shuart, 

who has worn a bubble since his 
junior year of high school, feels 
left out.

“It’s a little weird being the 

only one,” Shuart said. “I get a 
little crap from the boys about 
it, but I just like it a lot better. 
I think it has better vision and I 
like the look of it a lot more than 
the cage.”

Unfortunately 
for 
Shuart, 

his teammates don’t share his 
sentiment. Last season, only 
then-junior Phil Di Giuseppe 
wore a bubble alongside Shuart. 
The bubble, the rest of his 
teammates say, fogs up too 
much and creates problems 
with water entering the helmet 
that are not worth the sleek 
look.

Things looked promising for 

Shuart heading into this season, 
when freshman forward Dexter 
Dancs opted to wear a bubble 
for the first couple of practices. 
But he quickly reverted back to 
wearing a cage.

Shuart knew it was time to 

get back to the drawing board.

“I don’t want to be the only 

one,” Shuart said. “It’s not by 
choice.”

Junior forward Andrew Copp 

doesn’t think Shuart minds, 
though. “He probably likes the 
attention,” he said.

Whatever the case, after 

a failed attempt with Dancs, 
Shuart scrambled and made a 
bet with sophomore forward JT 
Compher.

“If he had my next first assist 

on a goal before I had a next 
first 
assist 

on his goal, 
then I would 
have 
to 
put 

on a bubble,” 
Compher 
said. “I think 
I might have 
lost the bet. 
… 
Let’s 
just 

say it’s not on 
quite yet.”

Compher 

doesn’t have any plans to put on 
a bubble anytime soon, because 
both players are unsure of who 
actually won the bet. So Shuart 
knew he would have to come to 
terms with being the only one.

And it hasn’t been easy.
Because Shuart is the only 

Wolverine who dons a face 
shield, his teammates often joke 
with him by spraying water on 
his mask, prompting Shuart to 
take off his helmet to clean it.

Copp has a special infatuation 

for ticking off Shuart, and takes 
any opportunity he gets to mess 
with Shuart’s fish bowl.

“Copp … he likes to spray 

water on (my bubble),” Shuart 

said. “He likes to do it so I can’t 
see.”

But according to Copp, Shuart 

is overplaying the situation.

“I’ve only actually sprayed 

water on his bubble once,” Copp 
said. “But I always act like I’m 
going to do it and he’ll freak 
out.”

Luckily for Shuart, he has 

quickly caught 
on 
to 
his 

teammates’ 
antics. 
“You 

always have to 
keep a towel 
handy 
with 

the fish bowl,” 
he joked.

Come 

Saturday, 
things 
might 

change 
for 

Shuart. Michigan is playing 
an outdoor game at Solider 
Field — home of the Chicago 
Bears — where temperatures 
are supposed to be in the low 
30s. Wearing a bubble in such 
frigid temperatures could spell 
disaster.

Monday, 
while 
practicing 

outside at Buhr Park in Ann 
Arbor, simulating Saturday’s 
game 
conditions, 
Shuart 

admitted to having problems 
with fog and said he might have 
to wear a cage this weekend.

So 
for 
one 
game, 
the 

Wolverines may look like mirror 
images. And Shuart won’t feel 
so lonely.

Michigan at 
Michigan St.

Matchup: 
Michigan 13-8; 
MSU 11-11

When: Thurs-
day 7 P.M.

Where: Breslin 
Center

TV/Radio: 
BTN Plus

Iowa at 
Michigan

Matchup: 
Iowa 13-8; 
Michigan 13-9

When: Thurs-
day 7 P.M.

Where: Crisler 
Center

TV/Radio: 
ESPN

“We’re going 
to start getting 
some of those 

breaks.”

PAUL SHERMAN/Daily

Max Shuart is the only hockey player who wears a plastic face shield.

“I don’t want 
to be the only 
one. It’s not by 

choice.”

RUBY WALLAU/Daily

Zach Gentry, a four-star quarterback recruit from New Mexico, was a late commit to Jim Harbaugh’s class.

