Sports
The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com
Friday, October 16, 2015 — 7A

Beilein gives injury updates

By JACOB GASE

Daily Sports Editor

ROSEMONT, Ill. — When 

Michigan coach John Beilein 
arrived at the Chicago Marriott 
O’Hare for Big Ten Basketball 
Media Day, he picked up right on 
the same grim note he left off on 
last season: Answering questions 
about his players’ freak injuries.

Senior guard Caris LeVert and 

junior guard Derrick Walton Jr. 
are finally back to full strength, 
Beilein said two weeks ago, but the 
same still can’t be said for junior 
forward Zak Irvin (back) and 
senior guard Spike Albrecht (hips), 
both of whom are recovering from 
offseason surgeries.

Irvin had been suffering from 

“a few aches and pains” late in the 
summer before his back suddenly 
flared up in an open gym session, 
forcing him to undergo an MRI 
and ultimately go under the knife 
to correct the problem. Beilein 
declined to provide a medical 
term for Irvin’s injury, but he 
believes his starting forward will 
be ready to go soon.

“We’re still on schedule for the 

beginning of the season,” Beilein 
said. “Hopefully in November, 
he will be back playing — that’s 
our hope. He’s going to begin 
(conditioning) this week. We have 
all the underwater treadmills 
and the different things, that (he 
is still) conditioning. Basketball-
wise, he’s shooting foul shots now.”

Albrecht is much farther along 

on the road to recovery, but he 
still has been frequently spelled 
by junior Andrew Dakich to get 
extra rest during practice.

“He’s progressing,” Beilein said. 

“I feel somewhere near the start of 
the season, he’ll be at 100 percent, 
but he’s not as limited as Zak is 
right now. He was absolutely shut 
down from April (to) August. He’s 
shooting the ball really well, and 
he’s seeing the floor really well, but 
right now, defense, ball-handling, 
all those things — (he’s) still trying 

to catch up.”

NEW RULES: One of the major 

challenges facing every college 
basketball coach this season is the 
NCAA’s recent rule changes, which 
include a 30-second shot clock and 
a rule that players, not coaches, 
must call live-ball timeouts.

The Big Ten coaches expressed 

varying opinions on the NCAA’s 
decision.

“I’m not sure I love the 

no-timeout deal,” said Nebraska 
coach Tim Miles. “There’s some of 
the timeout stuff I like, but at the 
same time, the no live-ball thing — 
it’s kind of our livelihood, so I think 
I’d prefer to have that control.”

Michigan State coach Tom Izzo 

disagreed.

“If it were up to me, if I was the 

Czar for the day, I’d try to get every 
rule like the NBA, personally,” he 
said. “I just think that we’d have 
a better working relationship. It 
would make sense to me.”

Beilein, citing the fact that 

the live-ball timeout rules have 
changed on other occasions over 
the course of his career, seemed 
indifferent to the new rule.

“It’s not a big adjustment,” 

Beilein said. “The players are 
going to look at (me), I’m gonna 
say, ‘Call timeout,’ and they’re 
gonna call timeout.”

RYAN’S FINAL SEASON: 

Apart from the rule changes, 
Wisconsin 
coach 
Bo 
Ryan’s 

impending 
retirement 
was 

another hot topic among the 
coaches gathered in Rosemont. 
Some, 
like 
Maryland’s 
Mark 

Turgeon, were skeptical that the 
legendary coach would actually 
hang it up following the season. 
Others 
sounded 
practically 

excited to see him go.

“I was very hopeful that he’d 

make that announcement,” Beilein 
joked. “If you look at our record 
against him, I was very hopeful.”

He may be glad to be rid of 

Ryan, but Beilein had no shortage 
of praise for the Badgers’ coach.

“He’s just a tremendous coach,” 

Beilein said, “But what I love is 
that he’s done it at the other levels 
that a lot of coaches don’t know 
about, and I know about. Those 
championships in Division III are 
so hard to do, and he wins those. 

And 
then 
Wisconsin 
doesn’t 

know what it’s like not to go to the 
NCAA Tournament.”

RIVALRY WEEK: The Big 

Ten coaches may have come 
to Chicago to talk basketball, 
but the events surrounding the 
Michigan-Michigan State football 
matchup this weekend had Tom 
Izzo’s mind wandering elsewhere.

A year after the Diag’s block 

‘M’ was painted green, the statue 
of Magic Johnson on Michigan 
State’s campus was discovered 
Thursday morning bearing a 
block ‘M’ and ‘BEAT STATE’ in 
maize spraypaint.

“First, I’ve gotta say that this 

is rivalry week, and you’re not 
supposed to like your opponent,” 
Izzo said. “There’s a lot of great 
Michigan kids, but there’s some 
idiots. There’s some idiots on our 
side, too, that do crazy things. 
Messing with Sparty is a bad 
thing, like messing with their ‘M’ 
is a bad thing. But messing with 
Magic, that’s the worst thing. 
I’ll make sure that, from now on, 
maybe the basketball team will 
sleep (out there).”

JAMES COLLER/Daily

Senior guard Spike Albrecht is progressing after offseason hip surgery and should be ready for the start of the season.

‘M’ squanders late 
lead at Wisconsin

Wolverines give up 
three late goals in 
Big Ten road game

By THERESA ROSS

For the Daily

The Wisconsin women’s soccer 

team came back from a two-
goal deficit against Michigan on 
Thursday 
night 
in 

Madison, 
scoring three 
goals in the last 30 minutes for a 
3-2 win.

The Wolverines (5-2 Big Ten, 

10-5 overall) and Badgers went 
into the game tied for second in 
the Big Ten. After a last-second 
Michigan win in the match a year 
ago, Wisconsin was eager for 
revenge.

With the majority of the 

posession split between the two 
teams, Michigan put its focus 
toward 
offense, 
outshooting 

Wisconsin, 15-9.

“The few chances they got, 

they put in the back of the net, 
and I think that was really the 
difference of the game,” said 
Michigan coach Greg Ryan.

The 
Wolverines 
lost 

momentum in the second half 
after the Badgers scored their 
first goal in the 66th minute, 
when 
midfielder 
McKenna 

Meuer scored on a corner kick by 
midfielder Micaela Powers.

In the last 10 minutes of the 

game, Wisconsin (6-1, 9-4) both 
equalized the score and took 
the lead. With 10:54 to go in 
the match, midfielder Kinley 
McNicoll answered a cross from 
forward Sydney McGinnis, which 
was followed by a goal just two 
minutes later from forward Nikki 

Greenhalgh straight into the back 
corner past Michigan sophomore 
goalie Megan Hinz.

The Wolverines allowed the 

Badgers a comeback after failing 
to capitalize on on opportunities 
in the second half. With six 
more shots than the Badgers, the 
Wolverines were left with many 
near-goal opportunities.

“I 
honestly 
thought 
we 

dominated the second half and 
had multiple chances for goals 
number three, four and five,” 
Ryan said.

Following 
a 
hat 
trick 
in 

Michigan’s 3-1 win over Illinois 
on Oct. 11, redshirt sophomore 
forward Ani Sarkisian scored 
the first goal of the game at 
the 25-minute mark. Sarkisian 
dribbled past five defenders and 
finished a shot just inside the 
18-yard box, sliding the ball past 
Wisconsin goalie Caitlyn Clem.

The Wolverines ended the first 

half with a 1-0 lead, outshooting 
the Badgers, 3-1. The Badgers’ 
first shot on goal was a header 
from midfielder Victoria Pickett 
that was called off based on a foul. 

Michigan 
junior 
midfielder 

Jessica Heifetz took advantage 
of a loose ball in the box after a 
corner kick, giving the Wolverines 
a 2-0 lead. With an assist from 
senior 
midfielder 
Christina 

Murillo, Heifetz was in the right 
place at the right time. 

The 
Wolverines 
face 

Minnesota on Sunday, followed 
by Purdue and Penn State. With 
the Big Ten Tournament starting 
Nov. 
1, 
the 
Wolverines 
are 

looking forward to games against 
competitive conference foes.

“I told the team tonight if we 

play as well as we did today, we’re 
gonna win the most of the rest of 
the games,” Ryan said. “I think the 
key is getting ready for Sunday.”

WOMEN’S SOCCER

MICHIGAN
WISCONSIN 

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