12 Thursday, July 2, 2015 The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com SPORTS 2015 Schefters: The awards for when you’re feeling blue By MAX COHEN and JAKE LOURIM Daily Sports Editors Sure, this wasn’t necessarily a year to remember in Michigan athletics. In the most tradition- ally popular sports, there was the miserable football season, the injury-riddled men’s basket- ball season and a hockey season that ended with the Wolverines falling short of the NCAA Tour- nament for the third straight year. In total, Michigan’s three big- gest sports all failed to make the postseason in the same year for the first time since 1972-73. But here, we’re celebrating only the positive of Michigan athletics. The Daily presents the 2015 Schefters, our annual look back at the best of the year in Wolverine sports. The awards are named after Adam Schefter, an NFL Insider for ESPN and one of the Daily’s most prominent alumni. We can’t promise anything, but there might even be a Jim Har- baugh mention. Breakout Athlete of the Year: Zach Hyman, Ice Hockey For the first three years of Zach Hyman’s career at Michigan, he showed glimpses of the talent that led the Florida Panthers to make him their fifth-round selection in the 2010 NHL draft. But it wasn’t until his senior season that he put it all together. Hyman tallied 22 goals and 32 assists during his senior season, his 54 points well surpassing the 35 points he had scored in his pre- vious three seasons combined. Not only did Hyman fare well compared to previous versions of himself, but also compared to the rest of the conference and country. Hyman led the Big Ten in scoring, was a first team All-American and was a finalist for the Hobey Baker Award, college hockey’s most prestigious honor. Best Single-Event Perfor- mance: Jim Harbaugh’s intro- ductory press conference You knew he had to be men- tioned in this, didn’t you? In a year in which the performances of many of Michigan’s most popular teams left fans unsatisfied, Har- baugh’s introductory press confer- ence on Dec. 30 delivered in every single way. Sure, Harbaugh could have stood up at the podium and stared intently into the cameras for 15 minutes and you all would have been satisfied, but he ended up hitting all the right notes in his formal introduction as the Wol- verines’ coach. Harbaugh spoke about becoming Michigan’s coach as if it were a homecoming, and he finally gave football fans some- thing to look forward to after a disaster-filled 5-7 season. For one day, anything seemed possible. Except, of course, for Harbaugh’s soon-to-be created Twitter account. Some things are too ridiculous to imagine. Game of the Year: No. 6 Wis- consin 69, Michigan 64 (OT), Men’s Basketball ESPN’s “College GameDay” in town, a sellout crowd for a Saturday night tip and a chance to earn a marquee win over the No. 6 team in the country: It just didn’t seem like enough to keep the Michigan men’s basketball team in the game against Wis- consin on Jan. 24. The matchup appeared to be a mismatch: The Wolverines were 12-7, unranked and play- ing without their best player in junior guard Caris LeVert, who had suffered a season-ending foot injury the previous week- end. The Badgers were 17-2, in the driver’s seat in the Big Ten and starting All-American cen- ter Frank Kaminsky along with another future NBA Draft pick in Sam Dekker. But the Wolverines summoned one of their best efforts of the season, battling Wisconsin in the most exciting game of the year. With Michigan trailing late in the game, sophomore guard Derrick Walton Jr. scored seven points in the final 24 seconds — punctuated by a game-tying 3-pointer with 1.3 ticks left — to send the game into overtime. He finished with 17 points, but in the end, his magic wasn’t enough as Wisconsin outlasted the Wolverines in a classic. Coach of the Year: Carol Hutchins, Softball The years when Hutchins isn’t a viable candidate for this award are few and far between. Even so, her 31st season as Michigan’s softball coach was special. The Wolverines won their eighth straight Big Ten champion- ship in dominating fashion, accu- mulating a 21-2 record against conference foes. The success con- tinued in the postseason, where Michigan won the Big Ten Tour- nament for the first time since 2006. The Wolverines didn’t lose a game in the postseason until the finals of the Women’s College World Series in Oklahoma City. Michigan finished the season as the No. 2 team in the country, the program’s best result since its national championship in 2005. Hutchins’ ability as a coach was apparent in the non-strategic ele- ments of the game as well. Though she tends to project an image of constant intensity, she allowed her players to have what seemed to be the time of their lives, “making pizza” and scoring runs. No coach at Michigan has done more to further a sport than Hutchins, and this year’s Wom- en’s College World Series was the most-watched version of the event in history. Even Hutchins would smile about that. Team of the Year: Women’s Softball The Wolverines put together one of the most dominant sea- sons in their illustrious history, finishing 60-8 and capturing Big Ten regular-season, Big Ten Tournament, regional and Super Regional crowns. They lost to No. 1 Florida in a hard-fought Women’s College World Series final, first losing 3-2 before eve- ning the series with a 1-0 win and finally dropping the winner- take-all game, 4-1. Until then, they had dominated their opponents all season long. They outscored them, 540-125. Seven starters hit above .300. Five smacked at least a dozen homers. Four drove in at least 60 runs. Two pitchers — senior Haylie Wagner and sophomore Megan Betsa — won at least 25 games, posting nearly identical 1.75 and 1.72 earned-run averages. When they captivated Michi- gan fans all over the country dur- ing the World Series, they proved they were the Team of the Year. DELANEY RYAN/Daily Junior second baseman Sierra Romero led Michigan to the NCAA Championship game. JAMES COLLER/Daily Senior forward Zach Hyman scored the most points (54) by a Wolverine since 2010.