Sports
8 — Tuesday, March 10, 2015
The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com
Putting Band-Aids on
an open wound
A
ndrew Copp slouches in a
big blue chair and tosses
his matching blue hat at
his feet. He sighs and he smirks,
peering at the
floor while
embodying
the persona
of a captain
who is
flat-out
exasperated.
He
chuckles as
he reiterates
the focus of
this week’s
practice. Spoiler alert — it’s no
different from any other week.
“Defense,” Copp said.
He looks up at the ceiling and
lets out one final sigh.
It’s been that kind of season
for the 19th-ranked Wolverines.
It’s been that kind of season that
punches you hard in the gut
when you’re flying high after a
seven-game winning streak. It’s
been that kind of season that has
comprised more than one spell of
disaster.
And now, with one weekend
left in the regular season, it’s
shaping up to be that kind of
season that will be doomed with
another setback.
Michigan is squirming in
its position with little time to
resolve the discomfort. It sits in
a tie for second place in the Big
Ten with Minnesota and enters
its final games on the wrong
side of the NCAA Tournament
bubble.
The Wolverines still control
their own destiny at capturing
both the conference title and
a tournament bid, but they’re
wrestling with the same demon
— defense — that has slapped
their backs against the wall for a
third time this season.
“Everyone knows the
circumstances,” Copp said.
“Everyone knows what we need
to do this weekend.”
The current task at hand is
shoring up a defense that appears
to be permanently broken, and
it’s a task that probably isn’t
attainable. Michigan’s defense
has been its Achilles heel all year,
and the defense has been the
topic of discussion at practice,
in team meetings, among the
Wolverine fanbase and around
the Big Ten.
It’s been puzzling that the
defensive effort cannot keep up,
even remotely, with Michigan’s
top-ranked offense. Sometimes
the defensive issues are
schematic, sometimes they’re
personnel issues and sometimes
they’re problems executing.
These three roots of a
lackluster defense are seldom
absent from Michigan’s play,
and that much is worrisome as
the Wolverines buckle up for the
most critical stretch of the season.
“Obviously it’s going to
dictate how our year is looked at,
basically,” Copp said.
Hearing the term “defense”
must sound like a broken record,
but the music won’t stop while
Michigan coach Red Berenson
persistently preaches it as the
Wolverines continuously fail
to string together consistent
performances in the defensive
zone.
Getting a consistent
60-minute performance has
even been a protruding issue.
If they don’t crack the code to
the mysterious hole in their
game, they’ll miss the NCAA
Tournament for the third
consecutive year — and also the
third time in the past 25 years.
“Defense is going to be
what we’ll be focusing on, and
hopefully we get it figured out,”
Copp said.
Michigan is left with the
empty hope that a sound
defensive performance will pop
up. Attempts to permanently fix
the issue haven’t been effective
all season long.
Michigan hockey has oozed
excellence for nearly all of
Berenson’s tenure behind the
bench, but this team’s defense is
anything but excellent.
That leaves Berenson
unsatisfied. He’s a defensive-
minded hockey legend who likes
a 2-1 victory more than a 7-5
barnburner.
But his 31st team hasn’t given
him what he likes. Copp knows
that. Everyone in the locker
room knows that. No one knows
how to fix it, though.
The problem is a tiresome
one, an issue that has been
highlighted and underlined
and circled countless times. If
something isn’t broken, it’s easy
to avoid fixing it, but sometimes
when something is so broken,
there’s no point in fixing it.
That appears to be the case
for Michigan. Recurring issues
such as lapses in defensive-zone
coverage, failed clearances and an
inability to break out of its own
zone are not signs of progress.
Inconsistency does mean
there have been moments of
greatness, but they’ve been
sprinkled out over the course
of a five-month season. Being
inconsistent means there’s
potential, but that potential is
only sometimes fulfilled.
Occasionally, the Wolverines
can play defense. Occasionally,
they cannot play defense. It has
been a roller coaster of a season,
and they’ve been on the ride that
never leaves that dark tunnel.
Michigan rarely knows the
direction it’s headed, whether a
sound defensive performance is
on the horizon or not.
“I think it’s just something
we need to go out and prove to
ourselves,” Copp said, “prove
that we can be that unbelievably
skilled, fast, talented team and
still play rock-solid defense
and play a 200-foot, two-way
game, which we’ve shown that
we’re capable of, but it’s been
inconsistent.”
Then, Copp picks up his hat
and saunters out of the room.
A typically upbeat leader of
the Michigan hockey program
appears beaten and battered, and
that’s because he has been. His
team has been, too.
The Wolverines aren’t going
to fix their entire defense before
this weekend’s crucial home-
and-home series with Michigan
State. They might pick up some
pieces and improve in small
areas, and that might be enough
to skate by for a weekend.
If it’s not, Michigan will know
where it fell short. It isn’t going
to piece together a flawless
performance. With kinks in the
armor, the Wolverines have to
iron out those dents as best as
they can, even while some aren’t
reparable.
They’ve scooted by, just
barely, with a suspect defense all
year. They’re getting tired of it by
now, but sometimes you just have
to let the broken record play on.
Jeremy Summitt can be reached
at jssumm@umich.edu and on
Twitter @jeremysummitt.
Beilein, Bielfeldt won’t
close door on fifth year
By LEV FACHER
Managing Editor
Over the summer, prior to the
start of the 2014-15 campaign,
Michigan men’s basketball coach
John
Beilein
informed
Max
Bielfeldt that the coming season
would be his last at Michigan.
The news didn’t come as a
surprise. Bielfeldt had two years
of eligibility remaining after
redshirting his freshman year,
but he had played sparingly in the
past two seasons. His scholarship
spot
gave
Beilein
recruiting
flexibility for next year and
beyond. In every way, the move
made sense.
Saturday, prior to Michigan’s
79-69 win over Rutgers, Bielfeldt
was
honored
at
midcourt
alongside his parents as the
Wolverines’
lone
senior.
He
received
numerous
standing
ovations from the crowd of 12,357
at Crisler Center. In his 67th
college
appearance,
Bielfeldt
even earned his first career start.
But there’s now a chance —
small as it is — that the pomp and
circumstance was all for naught.
Saturday,
after
maintaining
throughout
the
season
that
Bielfeldt’s status as a senior
hadn’t changed, Beilein came
short of closing the book on a fifth
year at Michigan for the 6-foot-7
forward in his postgame press
conference.
“I don’t think anything’s ever
closed,” Beilein said. “I wanted to
make sure that we under-promise
and over-deliver.”
What’s
most
important
to Beilein, it seemed, is due
diligence.
“I would like him to go out and
explore some options,” Beilein
said. “We’ll look at some options
and decide whether it’s a good
option (for Bielfeldt) to come
back.”
On Senior Day, he posted his
first career double-double after
starting in place of freshman
forward
Ricky
Doyle,
who
emerged early in the season as
Michigan’s starting big man.
Bielfeldt even fell to third on the
depth chart at various points,
playing whatever minutes Doyle
and redshirt freshman forward
Mark Donnal didn’t.
It didn’t faze Bielfeldt, who
was fully healthy this season for
the first time in recent memory.
He had successful hip surgery
last spring, which brought back
hops and mobility that had been
hindered over the years by the
long-term injury.
“You love the game, but the
game’s not loving you,” Bielfeldt
said. “The game’s making it hurt.
… With me feeling a lot better,
with me getting the opportunities
this year, it’s pretty cool.”
As for his plans next season,
Bielfeldt is as much in the dark as
anybody else.
“Honestly, I don’t know,”
Bielfeldt
said.
“Family
and
friends ask me the same thing
— I give them the same answer.
I really don’t know. I just like
knowing what my options are.
I’m obviously just going to look
for options and kinda weigh them
out.”
The most important question,
it seems, is whether Michigan
wants Bielfeldt back. As for
the
second-most
important
— whether he would enjoy an
encore in Ann Arbor — Bielfeldt
took the most diplomatic route
possible when asked, saying
Michigan “would definitely be on
my list.”
“I’ve had great memories,
great friends here,” Bielfeldt said.
It seems like Max Bielfeldt
wants back in. And if he
can replicate even half his
productivity from Saturday on
a consistent basis, there’s little
reason for Beilein, as he said, not
to “over-deliver.”
When it matters most,
Sparty still reigns
H
OFFMAN ESTATES,
Ill. — After watching
only a minute of both
Michigan
and
Michigan
State’s press
conferences,
it was
apparent
which team
had won
Thursday’s
second round
matchup
of the
Big Ten Women’s Basketball
Tournament.
In one press conference,
Spartan guards Lexi Gussert
and Tori Jankoska and forward
Aerial Powers giggled with each
question asked. More chuckling
ensued when Jankoska spilled
Gatorade all over herself.
Even Michigan State coach
Suzy Merchant was upbeat and
cheerful, a huge difference from
her demeanor a month ago in East
Lansing, where the Spartans lost
to the Wolverines, 72-59.
Twenty minutes later,
Michigan coach Kim Barnes
Arico, guard Shannon Smith and
forward Nicole Elmblad walked
into the press conference room,
and if it wasn’t apparent who had
won, the trio made it even more
obvious who lost.
The room was in stark
contrast: There wasn’t any
giggling, no one chuckled over
spilled Gatorade and Barnes
Arico was definitely not her
usual chipper self.
While it was hard at times
to hear through the solemn
mumblings, one thing was clear,
and Barnes Arico summarized it
perfectly.
“They really played well
tonight,” Barnes Arico said.
“They shot the basketball
extremely well. We didn’t.”
Added Elmblad:
“Unfortunately, we weren’t hitting
shots, and they were.”
And that was it. Michigan
State simply outplayed the
Wolverines from start to finish.
Once again, Michigan lost its
shooting touch while it seemed
that, for most of the game, the
other team couldn’t miss.
Coming into the matchup,
the Wolverines had the clear
advantage after sweeping the
season series. Not only that,
but Merchant had just six
scholarship players on the roster.
But when it mattered the
most, Michigan State’s players
stepped up to the plate while
Michigan couldn’t get anything
rolling offensively.
Gussert started off the game
hot, shooting 4-for-4 from
behind the arc and finishing
with a game-high 16 points after
going 1-for-10 last time the two
teams faced off. Powers, an All-
Big Ten First Team member, was
her usual self, earning a double-
double with 16 points and 15
rebounds.
If it wasn’t obvious before
which team showed up to play, it
should be now.
“When you’re in situations
where you win and you stay, or
you lose and go home, you give
it your all every single game.”
Powers said.
Michigan, on the other hand,
didn’t appear to ever come to
that realization.
The Wolverines had their
second-lowest scoring half of the
season in the first half, scoring
just 22 points.
And if you thought things
couldn’t get any worse in the
second half, man, were you
wrong.
“One of my assistants said,
well, our shooting can’t get
any worse in the second half,
and actually it did, which is
incredible,” Barnes Arico said.
The Wolverines shot just 16.7
percent from the behind the arc
and 24.3 percent overall in the
second half. Michigan ended up
taking a whopping 70 shots, but
made just 19 of them in the game.
But if you think this is the
first time Michigan State has
outplayed Michigan in the Big
Ten Tournament, you’re also
mistaken.
In fact, the win marked
the third consecutive year
the Spartans had knocked the
Wolverines out of the Big Ten
Tournament, and the fifth
overall. Michigan has never
beaten Michigan State in the Big
Ten Tournament.
Two years ago, the squads met
in the quarterfinals, where the
Wolverines went without a field
goal for almost 10 minutes and
couldn’t recover, dropping the
game, 62-46.
And last year, the two teams
met once again in the second
round. Michigan led for most
of the game before a furious
comeback from Michigan State
allowed the Spartans to come out
victorious, 61-58.
The fact of the matter is,
Michigan State has Michigan’s
number when it has meant the
most.
And it’s a form of dominance
that could continue.
Next year, Michigan State will
return the power trio of Powers,
Jankoska and Gussert while
Michigan will lose three key
players to graduation in Elmblad,
Smith and Goree.
So next year, if the two
teams meet again in the Big Ten
Tournament — and let’s face it,
with the way things have gone
the past three years, it could
happen — someone is going to
have to step up to the plate for the
Wolverines.
Maybe it’ll be Flaherty or
junior guard Madison Ristovski
or even one of five incoming
freshmen in a highly touted
recruiting class.
But whoever she is, she’s going
need to bring her ‘A’ game.
Because if not, Sparty’s reign
will continue.
Minh Doan can be reached
at minhdoan@umich.edu or
on Twitter @_minhdoan.
JEREMY
SUMMITT
MINH
DOAN
SAM MOUSIGIAN/Daily
Max Bielfeldt will look at his options after the season to make a decision.
RITA MORRIS/Daily
The Michigan hockey team’s defense has put the Wolverines on the wrong side of the NCAA Tournament bubble.