Sports
The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com
Wednesday, February 18, 2015 — 7A
Harbaugh teaches NFL prospects
By MAX COHEN
Managing Sports Editor
Two
college-aged
men
engaged in a debate typical of
the basketball courts of the
Intramural Sports Building on
Tuesday afternoon. They had just
finished playing three games of
H-O-R-S-E in the farthest corner
of the gym, and they continued the
one-upmanship associated with
the classic backyard basketball
game.
The only difference is that the
typical debate on the intramural
courts isn’t between a Heisman
Trophy winner and another NFL-
bound quarterback.
Bryce Petty had won two games
to Jameis Winston’s one, and
the former Baylor quarterback
wanted to make sure everyone
around him knew.
Winston,
though,
was
unimpressed by Petty’s slight
advantage in the games they
played with members of an
ESPN
film
crew
following
the quarterbacks during their
preparation for the NFL Draft.
“I’m the champ,” the former
Florida State quarterback and
2013 Heisman Trophy winner
said. “I’m just resting right now.
You know what I’m saying? Don’t
listen to that sucker. That’s what I
do. I win.”
The two have spent two days in
Ann Arbor with their quarterback
coach, George Whitfield, as they
prepare for the NFL Combine
on Wednesday in Indianapolis,
where every move they make will
be critiqued.
Winston
and
Petty
had
been
training
at
Whitfield’s
headquarters
in
San
Diego
but arrived in the Midwest to
adjust to the cold and get off of
Pacific Standard Time before the
combine begins.
Winston is widely expected to
be one of the top picks in the NFL
Draft on April 30, and multiple
experts have Petty tabbed as a
mid-first round pick. During their
brief time in Ann Arbor, Winston
and Petty have worked out in
Michigan’s practice facilities with
Wolverine wide receivers.
Another main draw of the trip
was the chance to learn from
Michigan coach Jim Harbaugh,
albeit off of the practice field
because of NCAA regulations
restricting
how
much
time
Harbaugh can spend with players
on the field at this time of the year.
Harbaugh and Whitfield have
been close friends for years, so
Whitfield thought working in Ann
Arbor would be beneficial for the
young quarterbacks.
“His
résumé
speaks
for
himself,” Petty told the Daily. “If
you know anything about football,
you know Coach Harbaugh. It’s
been a blast really getting to talk
and sit down with him, just to
get his advice, his expertise on
football and on evaluating and
what they’re looking for.
“You don’t get there without
being legendary, really. He knows
so much about football, has so
much to offer as far as the position
because he played quarterback
(and because of) the position as
a head coach in the NFL, what
they’re looking for, how to take on
going from college to the NFL.”
Added Winston: “These kids
are very lucky. Coach Harbaugh
is a blessing to this program,
and they’re going to win a lot of
games.”
Since Harbaugh couldn’t watch
the quarterbacks throw, he spent
much of his time advising them on
how they should carry themselves
in an NFL locker room.
“He was telling us that as a
quarterback in the NFL, you really
got to be the first one in there, last
one to leave,” Petty said. “It’s a
job, and so you’ve got to treat it as
such. Just be professional in what
you’re doing and be yourself.”
Both
quarterbacks
have
positive reports about their time
off of the football field in Ann
Arbor so far. They ate a meal at
Mister Spots; Winston ordered a
steak sandwich. Petty hoped to
try Zingerman’s Deli on Tuesday
evening. The quarterbacks also
have plans to attend the Michigan
men’s basketball game against
Michigan State later Tuesday
night.
Winston wasn’t fazed by the
chilly weather that failed to reach
20 degrees during his visit.
“I loved the weather, I ain’t
seen snow all year,” Winston said.
“That was a great thing, just out
here just enjoying the facilities.
This campus is so pretty.”
Added Petty: “As far as facilities
go, football-wise, shoot, I don’t
know how you turn Michigan
down. It’s kind of crazy as far as
what they’re offered here to call
home.”
There was one facility in Ann
Arbor where the star quarterbacks
couldn’t spend as much time as
they wanted to. It just happened
to be the Intramural Sports
Building, where being an NFL-
bound athlete is no prerequisite to
superstardom.
As 5 p.m. approached, Winston,
Petty and their film crew were
asked to leave the courts so that
preparation for Tuesday night’s
intramural
basketball
games
could begin. For one last time
before their NFL careers begin,
Winston and Petty were just your
average college students.
Behind Enemy Lines:
Indiana coach Teri Moren
By MINH DOAN
Daily Sports Writer
It would be an understatement
to say that the Michigan women’s
basketball team is reeling.
After losing at Ohio State in a
game in which the Wolverines
led by as many as 12 with less
than
10
minutes
remaining
in
the
game, they
traveled
home
to
Ann Arbor
to take on Northwestern on
Saturday.
But Michigan (4-10 Big Ten,
14-11 overall) didn’t fare much
better.
After leading all game, the
Wolverines faltered down the
stretch before Wildcat forward
Nia Coffey took the ball cross-
court for a game-winning layup
to stun Michigan, 63-62.
“It was a tough game for
us,” said Michigan coach Kim
Barnes Arico on WTKA Radio.
“But sometimes you need those
kinds of games to learn and
to grow and to get better. It’s
kind of been a tough stretch for
our kids because we’ve been so
close, but I think it’ll pay off.”
Wednesday, the Wolverines
will get a chance to get past the
two heartbreaking losses when
Indiana comes to town.
The Hoosiers (4-10, 4-11)
travel to Ann Arbor following
a loss to Iowa in which the
Hawkeyes shot 61.3 percent in
the second half to run away with
an 81-64 victory.
Indiana coach Teri Moren’s
team is led in scoring by guard
Larryn Brooks, who averages
13.8
points,
while
forward
Amanda Cahill leads the team in
rebounding with 8.1 boards per
game.
With just four upperclassmen
on the roster, the underclassmen
carry most of the playing time,
and Moren starts five of them
— three sophomores and two
freshmen. Freshman guard Jess
Walter is usually the first off the
bench for the Hoosiers.
“Indiana’s a young team with a
lot of freshmen and sophomores,
so they’re kind of fearless,”
Barnes Arico said. “They shoot
about 20 (3-pointers) a half, not
even in a game, so they will come
out firing.”
While the Hoosiers sit in
ninth place in the Big Ten, they
started off the season strong,
going 10-1 in the non-conference
portion of their schedule.
But
Indiana,
like
the
Wolverines, has learned just
how good the Big Ten is and
has
struggled
against
the
competition.
The Daily sat down with
Moren — currently in her first
season with Indiana after four
years at Indiana State — at Big
Ten Media Day in October to
discuss the Hoosiers’ upcoming
season.
The Michigan Daily: It’s
your first year with Indiana.
What are your expectations for
the team this year?
Teri
Moren:
Our
expectations are really simple.
It’s going to sound pretty cliché,
but we’re just going to try to
get better every day. This is a
new staff, and we’re trying to
implement some different things.
Our emphasis has been on the
defensive end. The only thing we
can ask from our players is that
they come with energy and great
effort, and if they do those two
things and they’re coachable,
we know we’re going to make
progress. We want to feel really
good about each practice and
know that we got better at the
end of the day.
TMD:
You
come
from
Indiana State, a little bit of
a smaller school. What’s the
biggest challenge for you in the
transition?
TM: I’ve been at Division
II schools, I’ve been in the
(Athletic Coast Conference), and
as you mentioned, the (Missouri)
Valley, all really good stops. The
game’s not taught any different,
it’s just the magnitude of the Big
Ten and being at a school like
Indiana and wanting to build a
tradition. Nobody’s going to put
more pressure on themselves
than I will, but I’ve always been
like that at any of my stops.
Indiana’s a special place for a lot
of reasons, but there’s no reason
why Indiana women’s basketball
can’t have the tradition that our
men’s team has.
TMD: You come in after
the sudden resignation of Curt
Miller. How do you win over the
team right away?
TM: The relationship part
of it is so important. I’m a
relationship coach. I think John
Wooden always said, “Your
players don’t care how much
you know, until they know how
much you care,” and I’ve used
that forever, and I think it’s
important in this day and age
that our players understand how
much I care about them, and that
I care about every aspect of their
lives.
I want to help them succeed
in the classroom, succeed as
people, succeed as basketball
players, and be successful later
in life. I’ve asked the players to
come into the office. I’ve had
to play catch-up with them, so
it was really important that I
get a lot of face time with them.
But I’ll tell you this: I think
the players wanted to build
that relationship, as much as I
wanted to build the relationship
with them, so it was really a two-
way street. We both had to make
the effort, for the players to come
in the office and be around us, go
to football games, sit with us,
have dinners. All of it has been
instrumental in playing catch-
up with this group and building
that trust, and this group has
been really open to that.
WOMEN’S BASKETBALL
Cutler Martin’s other love
By JASON RUBINSTEIN
Daily Sports Editor
During his freshman year of
high school, Cutler Martin made
an opponent cry — but not on
the ice. Instead, the freshman
defenseman for the Michigan
hockey
team
was
making
enemies on the tennis court.
Martin, a standout tennis
player at East Lansing High
School, where his team won a
state championship in 2008, was
playing in a “big tournament,”
when he found himself in a
critical
quarterfinal
match.
Martin won the first set, 6-0,
lost the second, 7-5, and was
in a contested third set before
Martin became too much for his
opponent to handle.
“I
was
smoking
the
ball
pretty
good,” Martin
said. “I don’t
think this kid
was used to
losing
and,
you know, I
was creating my own energy, and
I hit a ball and he called it out.
I challenged him and the line
judge called it in.
“He started ripping me, and
I exchanged words as well,
and he broke down into tears. I
think that was the demise of the
match, and I ended up beating
him.”
Martin’s creative use of words
didn’t just come out of nowhere,
though. It stemmed from his
many years playing his true
love, hockey, a sport that Martin
admits is far different from
tennis at face value.
Martin’s competitive tennis
career, at least for now, is over.
He’s currently one of the bright
spots
of
Michigan’s
shaky
defensive corps. A big part of
that success, Martin said, is
because of the skills he learned
playing tennis.
“Tennis
always
helped
me train for hockey — a lot
of
running,
exercising
and
training,” Martin said. “Hockey
was always my main focus
growing up, but tennis really
helped me become a better
hockey player.
“It’s a sport you can really
struggle with if you’re not
mentally strong. Like anything,
you have to work at it, build
confidence through repetition.
Tennis was the exact same
way, because you have to have
confidence to perform and if you
don’t, you’re going to lose.”
Martin has taken all he has
learned
mentally
from
the
tennis court and translated it
into his hockey playing style. He
knows he’s prone to mistakes
during a game, but moving past
them is crucial to maintaining
composure.
Playing
tennis,
Martin
said, helped teach him how
to do this. In
tennis,
one
double
fault
can compound
into
five.
One
botched
line call can
completely
change
a
match’s course. Martin quickly
learned
this,
and
figured
out how to mentally drain
opponents beyond his already
physical playing style.
“He was the strongest guy I
have ever I coached,” said East
Lansing High School men’s
tennis coach Karim Jelassi. “He
was always lifting weights.”
However, Martin — a two-
time
Michigan
All-State
selection — wasn’t invisible to
tennis’ mental onslaught. In the
2010 state semifinals, Martin
found himself winning 5-2 in
the third set. But after a series of
unforced errors, the frustration
grew and grew, and Martin
eventually lost the set and
match, ending his high school
tennis career. The loss prompted
Martin to throw his racket at the
fence.
“I was invested in the game,”
Martin said. “I didn’t necessarily
agree with the outcome, so
throwing the racket at the fence
was the best thing I could think
of. In retrospect, that probably
wasn’t a good idea.”
Good idea or not, that match
ended what could have been a
special tennis career, according
to Jelassi.
Had Martin translated all
his hours playing hockey games
into tennis matches, and hockey
practice into tennis practice,
Jelassi believes Martin could
have been the best player in the
Midwest.
“He
was
very
strong
physically,” he said, “so I believe
if he just focused in tennis, he
could’ve been the top guy in the
Midwest. He didn’t like to lose. I
believe he could’ve made it to the
top.”
Jelassi
added
that
a
scholarship to Michigan or
Michigan State, or any top
program, would have been a
no-brainer. And Martin’s old
coach’s comments had him
wondering
what
his
tennis
career could have blossomed
into. However, he has no regrets
and appreciates what tennis has
brought to his hockey game.
Now in Ann Arbor, Martin
has little free time between
hockey
and
schoolwork
—
playing tennis has become a
distant memory.
But luckily for Martin, when
summer
rolls
around
and
hockey season is over, he’ll have
someone to hit with: freshman
forward Dylan Larkin. Though
Larkin has never played tennis
competitively, he’s confident in
his game.
Initially, Larkin thought he
could defeat Martin.
“He’s a big guy, probably a
strong serve,” Larkin said.
Larkin’s sentiment changed
after
being
reminded
that
Martin was a state champion.
“He’d probably beat me,”
Larkin said while laughing. “...
I think maybe by the end of the
summer, I could take him.”
Martin obviously disagreed.
However, one of his key tactics
in
high
school
—
wearing
opponents down mentally —
won’t work against Larkin.
“I’m not worried about that,”
Larkin said.
BEHIND
ENEMY
LINES
ICE HOCKEY
Jacobson leads
experienced ‘M’
By BEN FIDELMAN
Daily Sports Writer
If you ask Michigan baseball
coach Erik Bakich what his favor-
ite thing about second baseman
Eric Jacobson is, he won’t waver
in his answer: Jacobson is a true
Michigan Man.
After paying his dues sitting on
the bench for much of his time as
an underclassman, the senior has
solidified his position as a start-
ing infielder — something coaches
will tell you he earned with more
than just his on-field perfor-
mance.
“What separates Eric Jacobson
from everyone else is the talent he
has between the ears,” Bakich said.
“His leadership skills have blos-
somed at Michigan. He’s an out-
standing student and is graduating
from the Ross School of Business
with a business administration
degree. He has good relationships
with everyone within the team and
has turned himself into a very good
player on the field.”
Those traits led to Jacobson’s
selection to the team’s leadership
council this season.
He first took over the start-
ing job at second base toward the
beginning of the 2014 campaign
and held his own on both sides of
the ball, maintaining a .243 bat-
ting average and not committing a
single error in any of the 38 games
he appeared in.
“On the field, he knows who
he is,” Bakich said. “He is com-
fortable in his own skin. He
knows he’s not a power hitter or
a blazing-speed runner. He is an
extremely solid defender and reli-
able hitter.”
Jacobson usually rounds off the
Wolverine batting order in the No.
9 hole, a spot that often calls for
him to sacrifice his at-bat to move
any base runners from the bottom
of the lineup up 90 feet to be in
scoring position for the top of the
order. Occasionally, however, he’s
called upon to come through with
a big hit.
One of those occasions pre-
sented itself last weekend, while
Michigan was in the final game of
a three-game series against Long
Beach State. The Wolverines (1-2)
had dropped the first two match-
ups and were hanging onto a 1-0
lead in the Sunday finale when
Jacobson stepped to the plate in
the top of the fourth with two
runners in scoring position and
two outs.
He yanked a single through the
left side of the infield, scoring both
runners and giving the Wolver-
ines a 3-0 lead. Michigan ended up
giving away the lead in the bottom
of the ninth inning, but won 5-3 in
extras to salvage the weekend.
The eventual game-winning hit
came from the bat of junior first
baseman Jacob Cronenworth —
another prominent leader. Many
believe that a key for the team’s
success this year will stem from
veteran experience holding the
team together late in games, lead-
ership that will push the young
talent on the team to perform in
crunch time. Jacobson led that
charge Sunday in exciting fashion.
“Hopefully it epitomizes the
team this year,” Jacobson said.
“We took some punches and came
back and showed great will and
toughness.
Whatever
consistency
isn’t
accounted for in Jacobson’s career
.225 batting average is clearly evi-
dent in his off-field life — some-
thing the coaching staff considers
to be much more important.
“He’s consistent in everything
he does in his life, and doesn’t
have many highs or lows mental-
BASEBALL
“He broke down
in tears.”
PHOTO COURTESY OF SKYE DUNCAN/ THE BAYLOR LARIAT
Former Baylor quarterback Bryce Petty runs the ball against Kansas.