Sports
The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com
Wednesday, January 13, 2016 — 7A

Sam Piazza’s long journey

Sophomore D-man 

earns playing 

time after years of 

struggling for it

By JUSTIN MEYER

Daily Sports Writer

In late 2013, Sam Piazza’s college 

hockey dream was in shambles.

A youth hockey star growing 

up in Darien, Ill., Piazza’s size 
and aggressive play just didn’t 
translate to the higher levels.

For two years, the defenseman 

had been shipped across the 
country in search of a place where 
he could overcome injuries and 
his game could flourish once 
again. Piazza crisscrossed to 
North Dakota, back to Chicago 
and finally off to Texas as he 
bounced around the edges of the 
junior hockey world.

He struggled to make game-

day rosters, rode the bench and 
endured the lonely prospect of 
being hundreds of miles away 
from home without a clear plan.

The thought of being a healthy 

scratch was a new challenge, one 
that led him to almost hang up his 
skates for good.

As a young player, Piazza suited 

up for the powerhouse Mission 
AAA program 
and 
excelled 

alongside 
teammates 
who are now 
littered around 
the NHL and 
college hockey. 
He recorded 22 
points in the 
2008 
season 

and committed 
to play college 
hockey elsewhere at the age of 16.

“I was all about the puck 

growing up,” Piazza said. “Once I 
got to juniors, it was exposed that 

I was bad defensively. I think I’ve 
come a long way.”

The college offers had long 

since disappeared, but Piazza 
finally broke out in the 2014 
season, his final year of eligibility, 
with the Wichita Falls Wildcats. 
In the NAHL Top Prospects 
Tournament, he secured a spot at 
Michigan and another chance to 
chase his dreams.

Those dreams are different 

today than they might have 
been back when Piazza was 
taken 34th overall in the USHL 
entry draft. In his first season 
at Michigan, Piazza slumped 
again, recording only one assist 
in 10 regular-season appearances. 
Pursuing a degree in mechanical 
engineering, 
he 
is 
balancing 

heavy school demands with the 
discipline needed to crack the 
Wolverines’ defensive rotation.

But 
Piazza 
isn’t 
new 
to 

adversity, and he recommitted 
himself in the offseason.

“Unfortunately, 
I’ve 
been 

scratched a lot in the past couple 
years,” Piazza said. “I know how 
to keep my head in it and stay 
ready and keep my body ready.”

Piazza shed 10 pounds in the 

offseason and started grabbing 
coaches’ attention in practice. 
All that effort paid off when he 
filled in for suspended junior 
defenseman Michael Downing 

in the Great 
Lakes 
Invitational.

Piazza 

recorded three 
points in two 
games 
and 

earned a spot 
in the rotation 
against 
Michigan 
State. 
There, 

he picked up 

minutes on the penalty kill, a 
testament to his improvement on 
the defensive end.

“He’s smart with the puck, and 

he’s smart without the puck,” said 
Michigan coach Red Berenson. 
“He’s doing now what I was told 
he would be able to do here. I 
would call him a good teammate. 
The other guys are getting to play 
every night, and he has to do all 
the extra work to stay ready.

“It’s a tough role.”
For Piazza, the recent success 

has certainly been sweet. It’s 
validation that he can play at the 
collegiate level and that all the 
time he poured into the sport 
was worth it. But he didn’t make 
it in spite of the trouble in junior 
hockey — he made it because of 
that adversity.

“(Junior 
hockey) 
really 

impacted me a lot,” Piazza said. 
“That’s where I learned to be 
mentally tough. You can’t really 

complain about other people, 
you’ve just got to worry about 
yourself and do your best.”

Piazza’s broad shoulders filled 

the armchair as he talked about 
his rollercoaster career with a 
calm, casual air. He’s 5-foot-11 — 
small for a defenseman — and it 
shows on the ice.

It’s apparent that he isn’t 

bothered by the trials he has gone 
through to get here. Instead, the 
sophomore gives off the aura of a 
grizzled veteran — aided somewhat 
by the beard he’s sporting.

What’s also clear is that despite 

Piazza’s success, he isn’t satisfied 
yet. The 21-year-old has battled 
across three states in three years 
to get here. He wants a spot in the 
rotation, and he has worked too 
hard to settle now.

JAMES COLLER/Daily

Sam Piazza is finally breaking into the lineup for the Michigan hockey team.

“I’ve been 
scratched a 
lot in the past 
couple years.”

Barnes Arico 
lightens mood, 
revives season

By BRAD WHIPPLE

Daily Sports Editor

Heading into last Thursday’s 

game against Iowa, the Michigan 
women’s basketball team had won 
only one of its previous six games. 
Something had gone awry as 
the Wolverines’ confidence was 
drastically shaken.

No 
longer 
was 
Michigan 

averaging 88 points, previously 
good for the third-best scoring 
offense in the country. At the 
beginning of December, the string 
of losses began with a 17-point 
loss to Princeton.

But coach Kim Barnes Arico is 

a veteran of the game, knowing 
when changes need to be made 
and what resources she should 
use to make those changes. In 
the course of one month, Barnes 
Arico helped the Wolverines 
realize that 17 points was an 
obstacle they could overcome 
when they came back from that 
exact number 
in the second 
half 
against 

the Hawkeyes.

“(Iowa) 

actually looked 
how we looked 
in 
the 
two 

prior games,” 
Barnes 
Arico 

said 
in 
her 

weekly 
radio 

show. “This is a 
team that has been off to a great 
start, was a ranked team in the 
country and they got super tight 
down the stretch.”

The 
Wolverines 
were 

anything but tight as they made 
a miraculous comeback to earn 
their first conference win this 
season. It was not only a surprise 
that Michigan made its largest 
comeback since 2007, but also 
that the Wolverines made any 
sort of last-ditch effort given 
recent results.

The three games leading up 

to Iowa had been anything but 
pleasant: a one-point loss against 
Eastern Michigan, a two-point 
loss to Purdue and a nine-point 
lead blown to Indiana in the final 
quarter for yet another defeat.

But Michigan regained its 

confidence before its big break 
against Iowa, and it continued 
that success with a win against 
Minnesota four days later, evening 
out its Big Ten record at 2-2.

“We did spend a lot of time 

just trying to rebuild their 
confidence,” Barnes Arico told 
WTKA Radio on Tuesday. “We 
had three devastating losses that 
came down to the last possession 
of the game, and in all three of the 
games, we had the opportunity 
to win the game and kind of 
struggled down the stretch.

“That really affected our young 

kids’ confidence. … Even our older 
kids really didn’t play a ton of 
minutes last year where they were 
in those same positions. It was a 
new experience for all of us.”

So what exactly did Barnes 

Arico need to accomplish in order 

to turn the season around? Did 
the Wolverines need to practice 
their free-throws, considering 
they had missed 32 points from 
the charity stripe through six 
games? Did they need to practice 
rebounding? Maybe Michigan 
needed to work on passing?

According to Barnes Arico, it 

was as simple as taking pressure 
off of her players and lightening 
the mood.

Before Thursday, Michigan’s 

assistant coaches made a highlight 
reel of footage from games such 
as Xavier and UCLA, when the 
Wolverines looked like they were 
truly playing Michigan basketball.

The assistant coaches held an 

activity for the players to paint 
a non-basketball related word 
that was significant in their lives, 
which they later hung above their 
beds. This way, they could be 
reminded of the activity and its 
emphasis on taking a step back 
when the going gets rough.

“The 
kids 

really began to 
get 
confident 

again 
and 

really 
enjoy 

the 
process,” 

Barnes 
Arico 

said. 
“That’s 

something 
that we talk 
a lot about — 
enjoying 
the 

process. 
It’s 

not always just the outcome.”

According to Barnes Arico, 

sharing ideas among the coaching 
staff is a crucial element of success. 
The Michigan staff regularly 
sends e-mails to each other with 
links from social media or around 
the Internet, which sometimes 
include leadership presentations 
or inspirational talks from coaches 
around the country. 

Outside 
the 
basketball 

realm, Barnes Arico has also 
found guidance. 

The 
Wolverines’ 
student 

manager, 
the 
daughter 
of 

Michigan hockey assistant coach 
Brian Wiseman, asked if her 
father could attend a practice 
and see if there were any team-
building activities he would find 
value in. Barnes Arico agreed, 
knowing Wiseman would do the 
same for her if she wanted to visit 
a hockey practice.

This collaboration between 

Michigan coaches is what Barnes 
Arico referred to as an “open-
door policy.” In fact, she has 
gained plenty of insight from 
Michigan men’s basketball coach 
John Beilein through the years.

“In our profession, it’s really 

important that coaches feel like 
they can lean on other coaches,” 
Barnes Arico said. “All of us are 
in the same boat at some point or 
another. … Sometimes as a coach, 
what happens is you get so tight, 
then your players are getting tight 
(and) sometimes you just need to 
go to the movies.”

In one week, Michigan has 

loosened up and put the season 
back on course.

SAM MOUSIGIAN/Daily

Kim Barnes Arico has her team’s season back on track after three straight losses.

“We did spend 
a lot of time just 
trying to rebuild 
their confidence.”

Season Review: Defensive Backs

Lewis, Peppers 
led deep group 

that could get even 

better in 2016

By ZACH SHAW

Daily Sports Editor

Editor’s 
Note: 
With 
the 

Michigan football team’s 2015 
regular season in the books, 
the Daily looks back at the 
performance of each unit this 
year and looks ahead to the 
future in 2016. In this edition: 
defensive backs.

When 
Michigan 
emerged 

from its so-called “submarine” 
training camp in August, no 
one was entirely sure what to 
expect out of its secondary. Most 
expected 
redshirt 
freshman 

Jabrill Peppers and Stanford 
transfer Wayne Lyons to be 
welcome additions, but were 
not sure how the returning 
Wolverines would filter out.

Michigan 
was 
heavy 
on 

safeties with Lyons, Peppers, 
senior 
Jarrod 
Wilson 
and 

redshirt junior Jeremy Clark. 
But cornerback was a question 
mark, as Blake Countess had 
transferred to Auburn, which 
meant 
only 
redshirt 
junior 

Jourdan Lewis and error-prone 
junior 
Channing 
Stribling 

were bringing back starting 
experience.

The 
Wolverines 
— 
who 

finished 21st in pass defense 
in 2014 — were expected to be 
strong in the secondary once 
again, but with new faces and 
a new coaching staff, nothing 
was certain.

With the 2015 season in the 

books, it’s safe to say that any 
uncertainty about Michigan’s 
pass defense was squashed early 
and often en route to a truly 
special year.

The 12th-ranked Wolverines 

led the nation in passer rating 
allowed 
(95.0) 
and 
yards 

allowed per attempt (5.4), while 
finishing third in passing yards 
allowed per game (158.8), total 
touchdowns allowed (7) and 
completion percentage (48.0) 

allowed throughout the season.

Individually, Lewis was the 

star of the defensive backfield, 
earning first-team All-Big Ten 
and All-American honors, and 
forced three turnovers while 
setting a school record with 21 
pass breakups. Peppers was not 
too far behind, totaling 10 pass 
breakups, All-American honors 
and the Big Ten Freshman of the 
Year award.

Beyond 

Peppers 
and 

Lewis, 
Clark 

made 
the 

journey 
to 

cornerback, 
Stribling tied 
or set career 
highs in every 
category, 
and 
Wilson 

— along with 
junior safeties 
Dymonte Thomas and Delano 
Hill — was so consistent that 
Lyons barely saw the field.

High Point: It’s hard to 

imagine a secondary at any level 
having a better five-game stretch 
than Michigan did from Week 
2 to Week 6. Against Oregon 

State, UNLV, then-No. 22 BYU, 
then-No. 13 Northwestern and 
Maryland, 
the 
Wolverines 

allowed just 60 completions 
on 143 attempts, 483 yards and 
eight interceptions, compared to 
just two touchdowns.

To put that into a per-

game perspective, an average 
quarterback 
performance 

against Michigan in that stretch 
was 12-of-27 passing for 97 

yards, 
1-2 

interceptions 
and 
no 

guarantee 
of 

a touchdown. 
Perhaps 
just 

as 
notable 

is 
that 
only 

BYU 
made 

it through a 
game without 
resorting 
to 
a 
backup 

quarterback.

Low 
Point: 
Allowing 
a 

touchdown 
in 
consecutive 

weeks usually is not a low 
point for a team’s secondary, 
but Michigan’s slip-ups from 
defensive backs were few and 
far between. The only time a 

quarterback seemed in control 
over the Wolverines occurred 
when Michigan State’s Connor 
Cook and Minnesota’s Mitch 
Leidner combined to throw for 
645 yards, including several big 
plays and two touchdowns in 
back-to-back weeks.

Teams also began to find 

success on the ground against 
Michigan late in the season, but 
it’s hard to pin that on a secondary 
that took passing almost out of 
the equation for most offenses.

The Future: The future looks 

bright — maybe even brighter — 
for Michigan’s secondary next 
fall. Lewis, Peppers, Stribling, 
Thomas and Hill will all return 
next season, and Clark could as 
well if he chooses. Assuming 
Clark stays, Wilson is the only 
departing starter, and Thomas 
and Hill looked ready to fill his 
void late in the season.

With no high-profile commits 

at safety or cornerback in the 
2016 recruiting class yet, it 
appears that freshman Keith 
Washington 
and 
sophomore 

Brandon Watson could be the 
lone new contributors in the 
stacked position group next fall.

RUBY WALLAU/Daily

Junior cornerback Jourdan Lewis and the Michigan secondary capped a standout season with a Citrus Bowl victory.

The future looks 
bright — maybe 
even brighter — 

for next fall.

