The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com
SportsMonday
November 9, 2015 — 3B
BATTLE OF THE BEILEINS
LeVert’s onslaught
helps Wolverines
rout Le Moyne in
exhibition game
By JACOB GASE
Daily Sports Editor
For a fleeting moment Friday
night — after the Michigan men’s
basketball
team
missed
four
straight 3-point attempts and Le
Moyne’s
Qwadere
Lovell sank
a free throw
to give his team a one-point lead
— it appeared Patrick Beilein’s
squad might actually make a run
at his father’s.
Unfortunately for the younger
Beilein, that moment occurred in
the first five minutes of the game,
and it passed very quickly.
Sophomore
guard
Aubrey
Dawkins spun across the lane
for a flashy go-ahead layup
and redshirt sophomore guard
Duncan
Robinson
drilled
a
3-pointer for his first points in a
Michigan uniform, igniting a 22-6
run and ultimately leading John
Beilein’s Wolverines to a 74-52
exhibition victory over his oldest
son’s Dolphins.
Senior guard Caris LeVert,
playing in his first game since
breaking his foot in January,
showed exactly why his name
generated NBA Draft buzz in the
offseason. The preseason All-Big
Ten star dazzled in his return to
the court, exploding for 22 points
on the strength of four 3-pointers,
a highlight-reel dunk midway
through the first half and 11 points
in the first five and a half minutes
of the second frame.
LeVert still came away slightly
disappointed after missing a
dunk in the second half — to his
memory, the first dunk he’s ever
missed in a game — but he was
thrilled to be back on the floor for
the first time in 10 months.
“I’ve been playing (in practice)
for a few months, but I had some
pre-game jitters,” LeVert said. “It
felt great to be back out there.”
LeVert stole the show on the
court, but most of the attention
surrounding the game remained
focused
on
the
father-son
coaching battle, with both teams
running many of the same plays.
Though Patrick couldn’t match
the deep roster of the Division I
recruits his father threw at him,
the Wolverines’ slow offensive
start — they made just three of
their first 15 3-point attempts —
and a few surges by the Dolphins
kept the family affair somewhat
competitive.
“That 3-for-15, we had like five
(shots) wide, wide, wide open,
but we didn’t get them,” the elder
Beilein said, “but that’s gonna
happen sometimes. That’s why
it’s important we find other ways
to score — throw the ball to the
post, drive the ball better.”
Added Patrick Beilein: “We just
relaxed a little bit. I told them in
the huddle, ‘We’re running the
same
offense.
How are they
scoring
and
we
aren’t?’
They
were
just
cutting
harder
than
us. We really
took that and
got
defensive
stops,
got
to
run
in
transition
a
little bit. I’m really glad the way
we responded.”
For Michigan, both Robinson
and freshman forward Moritz
Wagner made their team debuts
in the rout, with slightly mixed
results. Robinson put his highly
touted scoring ability on display,
tallying 15 points and knocking
down three of six shots from his
comfort zone: beyond the arc.
Wagner, who has been a work
in progress early in his first season
away from his native Germany,
struggled initially and exited the
first half with two fouls in under
four
minutes.
The
freshman
settled down for a better second
half, finishing the game with three
rebounds and a late 3-pointer for
his first collegiate basket.
In total, 12 Wolverines saw
action Friday night. There were
just three notable absences: junior
forward Zak Irvin, who was ruled
out Thursday as he continues to
recover from back surgery, and a
pair of junior walk-ons — guard
Andrew Dakich and forward Sean
Lonergan — who are exploring
the possibility of redshirting this
season.
After
facing
his
father’s
deep
roster
for
the
first
(and
possibly
only)
time,
Patrick Beilein
couldn’t
help but find
the
moment
surreal.
“I look down
and I see him
huddled
with
his
assistant
coaches,
talking
about
how
they’re going to stop us,” he said.
“He was game-planning to stop
Le Moyne, to stop myself and our
coaching staff, and that was kind
of funny.”
Apart from a few exchanged
words
in
the
pregame
and
postgame handshakes, though,
John Beilein claimed he wasn’t
distracted at all by his son’s
presence.
“No moments like that. I was
trying to get my team to play
better,” John Beilein said. “That’s
gonna be the issue for me forever.
(My wife) Kathleen could’ve been
on the other bench, and I (still)
would’ve been trying to get my
team to play better.”
Matchup between
father and son
a ‘win-win’ for
Kathleen Beilein
By KELLY HALL
Daily Sports Writer
Friday night, Kathleen Beilein
was part mom, part wife and part
usher.
As her family poured into
Crisler Center, she stood in the
aisle of Section 134 and gave out
hugs to more than 25 cousins,
aunts and uncles, distributing
white T-shirts emblazoned with
“MichiMoyne” to Beileins from
all over the country.
Though Kathleen has watched
more than 30 of her husband’s
home openers, this time was
different. Friday, she watched her
son, Patrick, take the role of head
coach just a scorer’s table away
from her husband, Michigan
basketball coach John Beilein.
The exhibition between Le
Moyne and the Wolverines was
close for roughly five minutes
before Michigan ran away to a
74-52 victory.
Regardless of the outcome, the
section clad in white cheered for
both sides, remaining impartial
throughout the game. After all,
the Beileins have a lot to be happy
about.
First-year
Dolphins
coach
Patrick Beilein is filling the role
his father played at Le Moyne in
the 1980s and early 90s, allowing
him to return to the place he grew
up. The scenario is almost too
good to be true, and cousins from
Florida to New York came out for
the game between Le Moyne’s
past and present.
Though Kathleen, like the rest
of her family, wanted there to be
a way for both teams to win, she
knew that win or lose, she had to
find a way to get over her nerves
because moments like these are
far and few between.
“It was a win-win (for my
mom),” Patrick said. “She was
really good. She was maybe just
as nervous as all of us, the whole
family. It was a really interesting
dynamic that we had never gone
through before, and I’m just glad
that it all played out well.”
According to Kathleen, the
family has quite a few group chats,
but the most active conversation
is the one that involves her four
children.
“We have a lot of group texts
going on right now,” Kathleen
said. “We have a lot of back-and-
forth, and it makes it a lot of fun.
It goes all season long.
“But (right now), there hasn’t
been anything
other than a
lot of pride for
Patrick,
and
obviously
a
lot of pride for
John. Just a lot
of respect.”
Exactly
30
years separate John from Patrick,
but the two have a lot in common.
If you ask John’s sister, Peggy
Sanders, she’ll say they have
“identical” mannerisms, except
Patrick is more “low-key,” like his
mother, Kathleen.
“I think Patrick could be a
combination (of us),” Kathleen
Beilein said. “I see a younger
version of John when I look over
at the Le Moyne bench. It’s really
touching. It touches me.”
At certain points on Friday
night, both Beileins could be
seen with their hands on their
hips,
inquisitively
looking
at
their players. Senior guard Caris
LeVert said playing Le Moyne felt
similar to playing his teammates
in practice because the Dolphins
were running the same offense.
Patrick always wanted to run
a similar offense to his father’s,
but before he developed coaching
aspirations, he just always wanted
to play basketball. According to
Patrick’s cousin, Rosie Nickles
(who traveled from Florida for the
game), Patrick has always loved
basketball. Nickles remembers
childhood afternoons filled with
shooting hoops with him in their
grandma’s backyard.
For the Beileins, basketball and
family mesh together.
“That’s one thing that is first
and
foremost
to us, and that’s
the
family
concept,”
Patrick Beilein
said. “For all of
those
cousins
and aunts and
uncles to come
in from all over the country, it’s
nice to see. It kinda sets you back
to see how much it means to them
and how much they are invested
in our family.”
After the game concluded,
John and Patrick lingered a little
longer than normal at halfcourt.
John was unsure if he should
give his son a hug or a handshake
and ended up doing something in
between instead.
There was plenty of time to
give hugs after the game in the
Crisler Club, where his sizeable
family congregated post-game.
Kathleen
stood
out
from
the crowd, donning a different
handmade shirt of her own. Last
weekend, when Patrick visited his
parents, he brought a Le Moyne
T-shirt with him at his mother’s
request, but had no idea what she
planned on doing with it.
The
end
product
spelled
out “Michigan” on top, with a
sewn-on Le Moyne logo directly
beneath it.
“I’m not sure if she sewed it
herself, but she might have, so
that’s pretty neat,” Patrick Beilein
said. “She’s making a statement, I
guess.
“She can do that. She’s Mrs.
Beilein.”
GRANT HARDY/Daily
John Beilein opened his 38th season with a win over his son’s Le Moyne team.
GRANT HARDY/Daily
Patrick Beilein is following in his father’s footsteps as the coach at Le Moyne.
“We had like five
(shots) wide, wide,
wide open, but we
didn’t get them.”
LE MOYNE
MICHIGAN
52
74
“It was a win-win
(for my mom).”
Wolverines dominate exhibition
By CHRIS CROWDER
Daily Sports Writer
With 2:48 left in the first
quarter of Saturday’s exhibition
game,
Michigan
women’s
basketball
coach Kim
Barnes
Arico called
a timeout. Her team led, 21-13, but
it was giving Ferris State too many
scoring opportunities for her
liking. After allowing the Bulldogs
to score easily in the post early
on, the Wolverines regrouped on
defense after the timeout, forcing
three straight turnovers.
Michigan
implemented
a
three-quarter court press soon
after, giving the Bulldogs little
room to dribble or even find a
clear passing lane. Ferris State
couldn’t find any rhythm on
offense, struggling to earn open
shots. It ended the quarter with a
shot-clock violation.
The Bulldogs didn’t score again
until there were nearly eight
minutes left in the second quarter,
and the Wolverines used their
size advantage and hustle to coast
past Ferris State, 109-39, in the
exhibition.
“We really pressured the ball,”
Barnes Arico said. “I thought
we gave great help and we made
them feel uncomfortable, forcing
turnovers. And forcing those
turnovers led to easy baskets for
us in transition.”
Meanwhile,
Michigan
maintained an up-tempo offense
in transition, using its skilled
shooters to spread the floor. The
Wolverines converted their first
three 3-point attempts, two of
which came from sophomore
guard Katelynn Flaherty.
During
that
half-quarter
stretch, Michigan more than
doubled its point total. The
defense alternated from man to
zone and tallied 22 points off of
15 Bulldog turnovers. Flaherty
shot 4-for-5 from behind the arc
and led all scorers with 16 points.
Freshman guard Nicole Munger
added 13 points off the bench,
finding open lanes to the basket
for her teammates to easily feed
her the ball on the run.
Michigan racked up 11 steals
in the first half, and though the
Wolverines led handily, they
showed no mercy on defense to
start the second half.
“At halftime, Coach came in
and set the ground, like, ‘We
need to pick it up (on defense),’
” said freshman center Hallie
Thome. “We went out there with a
different mindset, and if we work
together and talk, things will tend
to go our way.”
Michigan began the second
half by feeding the ball to the
6-foot-5 Thome, who scored the
first 10 points of the half before
Flaherty hit another 3-pointer.
She added another steal on the
next possession, leading to a wide-
open layup that added another
pair to her team-high 28 points.
“(Assistant
coach
Megan
Duffy) told me to not go away from
what I’m great at and just shoot
it,” Flaherty said. “Throughout
the practices this week, if I gave
up an open shot, my teammates
told me that I need to shoot that,
so I think that’s what helped me.”
Freshman
guard
Boogie
Brozoski displayed flashes of her
relentless defensive style as well,
keeping the Ferris State guards
honest when protecting the ball
and diving on the hardwood for
loose balls. Munger intercepted
passes in the lane, proving the
freshmen are talented defenders,
along with the upperclassmen.
The Wolverines passed the
century mark in scoring with five
minutes left in the final quarter,
putting them at 101 points. At that
point, the Bulldogs had been in
a scoring drought for over four
minutes and had scored just 35
total points. Michigan shot 67
percent from the field, including
the same percentage from behind
the arc.
Sunday’s contest will not go in
the win column because it was
an exhibition, but the Wolverines
didn’t lack any effort on the
floor. Their opponent was not
on par with the talent Michigan
will be facing all season, but
the Wolverines hustled without
the ball and showed a prolific
shooting ability. Despite the slow
start, Michigan displayed little
of the sloppiness that typically
comes with early-season games.
It took them just one timeout to
regroup.
FERRIS STATE
MICHIGAN
39
109
Michigan falls in
Big Ten semifinal
By BILLY STAMPFL
For the Daily
The sense of disappointment
could not be ignored Friday night
after
the
Michigan
women’s
soccer team fell to No. 9 Penn
State in a closely contested Big
Ten Tournament semifinal.
After 61 minutes of scoreless
action, Nittany Lions forward
Frannie Crouse bent a shot from
the edge of the penalty box that
sailed over sophomore goalkeeper
Megan Hinz’s head and into the
back of the net. Crouse’s goal
proved to be the deciding factor
in Penn State’s 1-0 win.
“I just fell a couple inches short
(of stopping the shot),” Hinz said.
“Penn State is a very strong team,
and that was a great strike.”
Though disappointed with the
result of such a high-stakes game,
Michigan (7-4-2 Big Ten, 12-7-2
overall) showed improvement
from its match with the Nittany
Lions a week ago. In their
regular-season finale in State
College, the Wolverines fell, 3-1,
and were dominated for nearly
the entire tilt.
“Today was a much more level
game,” said Michigan coach Greg
Ryan. “We knew it would be a
tough game, and I’m really proud
of our effort.”
After trailing in shots in the
first half, 8-2, the Wolverines
rebounded and outshot Penn
State (11-2-1, 15-3-2) 10-5 in the
second half. Strikes by redshirt
sophomore Ani Sarkisian in the
73rd and 75th minutes came close
to tying the game for Michigan,
but both narrowly missed the
goal.
“We got some good chances
and some good shots,” Ryan
said. “But it was just one of those
things where theirs went in and
ours didn’t.”
In addition to the second-
half offensive awakening, the
Wolverines can look to Hinz’s
efforts as a positive moving
forward.
The
sophomore
goalkeeper has started 18 of 20
games this year, boasting a 1.06
goals-against average and six
shutouts, most notably against
Northwestern in the Ben Ten
Tournament quarterfinals.
“She is making some plays to
keep us in games,” Ryan said.
“And that’s all you can ask of your
goalkeeper.”
Despite
being
eliminated
from the Big Ten Tournament,
Michigan still has a glimmer of
hope in the form of the NCAA
Tournament.
The
Wolverines
will wait for Monday afternoon’s
selection show to see if they
receive an at-large bid.
“I think there’s a very good shot
we make it in,” Ryan said. “But we
know there are no guarantees, so
right now we’re just sitting and
waiting on Monday.”
WOMEN’S SOCCER
MICHIGAN
PENN STATE
0
1
ALLISON FARRAND/Daily
Katelynn Flaherty led all scorers with 16 points in Sunday’s exhibition game.