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.