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.