8A — Wednesday, February 10, 2016
Sports
The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com
LUNA ANNA ARCHEY/Daily
Senior guard Caris LeVert has missed 10 straight games with a leg injury, but did practice for an hour Monday.
Wolverines head
back on the road
With LeVert still on
the mend, Michigan
visits woeful
Golden Gophers
By SIMON KAUFMAN
Daily Sports Editor
Michigan men’s basketball
coach John Beilein keeps a
ledger of how many practices
his team has had and how many
more
it
has
left. Entering
Tuesday,
the
count read 82
down,
18
to
go. It’s not a
countdown
to the end of
the
season,
he says, but a
way to keep
track of how
much time the
Wolverines
(7-3 Big Ten,
17-6
overall)
have
to
improve.
After a rough week at home
in which Michigan got played
out of its own arena twice
— first by Indiana and then
by Michigan State — Beilein
probably wishes the number in
the second column was greater.
With the Big Ten Tournament
in just four weeks, Beilein is
tasked with turning around
a team that’s headed in the
wrong direction after getting a
reality check last week.
“You only seem to be as good
as your last game, and that just
weighs on you,” Beilein said
Tuesday. “And we weren’t very
good our last two games. … You
just got to keep trying to refresh
yourself and get better, but you
have to get a win somewhere
along the line again to feel good.
Any type of win at any place
against anybody.”
Lucky
for
Beilein
and
the
Wolverines,
their
next
opportunity for a win comes
Wednesday
night
against
Minnesota.
The
Golden
Gophers (0-11, 6-17) still haven’t
won a conference game and
haven’t won a game at all since
Dec. 16. However, Minnesota
has played a handful of tight
games over the last month
despite being unable to turn
any into wins.
Since falling to Michigan
in Ann Arbor three weeks
ago, the Golden Gophers have
hung in against the likes of
Illinois, Purdue and Indiana.
They
forced
a
21st-ranked
Boilermakers team into a game
that came down to the final
seconds and nearly took down
a 19th-ranked
Hoosiers
squad
on
the
road
a
few
days
later
before
ultimately
falling, 74-68.
But Thursday,
Minnesota
still
proved
extremely
vulnerable,
getting
blown
out
by
an
unimpressive
Northwestern
team.
In its meeting earlier this
year, Michigan squeezed out a
74-69 win despite lacking energy
on the court and shooting just 37
percent from the field. Another
lackluster
effort
could
still
potentially earn a win for the
Wolverines — Minnesota shoots
just 41 percent as a team — but
after two sluggish showings last
week, another would add to a
list of problems Michigan has
faced lately.
Despite
the
two
straight
losses, Beilein says team morale
isn’t down.
“(There’s been) really good
energy in practice, and there’s
nobody hanging their heads
in practice,” Beilein said. “The
attitude is good as far as getting
the improvement. How we’re
getting there is so slow, and
that’s what’s so frustrating.”
Also
frustrating
for
Michigan is the extended time
senior
guard
Caris
LeVert
has missed with a lower left
leg injury. The All-American
candidate has missed 10 games
since suffering the injury on
Dec. 30. Beilein hasn’t been
specific about a timetable for
his potential return but offered
more optimistic news Tuesday,
including that LeVert practiced
for an hour Monday and is
pain-free. Beilein also said that
the
decision
as
to
when
he returns is
completely
up to LeVert
and
could
even come as
late as during
Michigan’s
shootaround
Wednesday.
“We’ll
go
into practice
today, and we’ll have some
actions for him defensively
and offensively that he’s got to
learn, and then you just don’t
know what it’s going to be like,”
Beilein said. “It’s extremely
important that he plays when
he’s ready to play and that he’s
not risking any further injury.
So it’s a puzzle.”
With
just
17
practices
remaining after Tuesday’s, the
time to put the pieces together
and assemble a finished product
that qualifies for the NCAA
Tournament is running out.
Michigan at
Minnesota
Matchup:
Michigan 17-7;
Minnesota
6-17
When:
Wednesday
9 P.M.
Where:
Williams
Arena
TV/Radio:
BTN
“You have to get
a win somewhere
along the line
again to feel good.”
Home stretch will ease up on ‘M’
By TED JANES
Daily Sports Writer
The schedule makers didn’t
take it easy on the Michigan
women’s basketball team.
A heavily front-loaded Big Ten
schedule — with the toughest
games in the first half of the
conference season — has put the
Wolverines (5-7 Big Ten, 13-10
overall) in a hole that may not
be indicative of how good they
actually are.
Currently in 10th place in the
Big Ten, Michigan has just six
games left to boost its standing
ahead of the Big Ten Tournament.
One of those games is against
Maryland, the No. 6 team in
the country, but beyond that,
the
Wolverines
still
have
matchups against opponents like
Northwestern, Wisconsin, Penn
State and Rutgers, which are all
below or even with Michigan in
the conference standings.
The remaining game pits the
Wolverines against Purdue. The
Boilermakers
opened
up
the
Big Ten season in Ann Arbor on
Dec. 31, narrowly leaving Crisler
Center with a win after hitting a
go-ahead 3-pointer in the last six
seconds. Michigan had the chance
to tie it from the line, but freshman
Boogie Brozoski hit only one of
three free throws.
Michigan’s two best players,
sophomore
guard
Katelynn
Flaherty and freshman center
Hallie Thome, both said Sunday
that they were looking forward
to finishing this campaign strong,
touching on its importance leading
up to the postseason.
“I’m excited to try and play
Maryland again,” Flaherty said.
“Rutgers, going home is always
fun. Purdue, we lost in the last
second.
Each
game, I think
we
can
win
every
single
game we have
left, and I think
if we do, it
will really be a
turning
point
with us.
“I think we
really
could
win the Big Ten
Tournament, and I think it’ll come
down to if we go in there with
momentum.”
Maryland, of course, is the
toughest
opponent
left
on
the schedule, but even in the
Wolverines’ seven-point loss back
on Jan. 14, they hung around until
the Terrapins sealed it with free
throws late in the game.
On the road, there’s no question
it will be a tougher matchup, but
there is still no reason to believe
Michigan couldn’t finish out the
Big Ten with a winning record.
The Wolverines don’t have to
worry about Ohio State, Nebraska
or Michigan State until they
potentially meet these teams
again in Indianapolis the first
week of March.
“Our schedule, the first half,
was a tough one,” said Michigan
coach Kim Barnes Arico. “But
we don’t want to look past any
opponent.
“We try not
to
emphasize
(the schedule)
too
much,
because
we
don’t
want
them to think
that
anything
is easy. So this
part is not easy,
I mean, because
just how could
you lose on any
given night … So the kids know,
they read (the Daily), they read the
paper and they read the Internet.
They know who’s really good and
who’s not, but I don’t emphasize
that too much.”
The Big Ten Tournament begins
March 2, when the four lowest-
ranked teams in the conference
play each other for the chance to
advance to the next day. Michigan
stands ahead of that pack for now,
and over the next three weeks,
it will do everything it can to
separate itself even further.
SINDU KILARU/Daily
Sophomore guard Katelynn Flaherty is confident Michigan can still beat each of the six teams left on its schedule.
“I think we
really could
win the Big Ten
Tournament.”
‘M’ tied atop Big Ten
By JUSTIN MEYER
Daily Sports Writer
Just over half of the Big Ten
hockey season is in the books, and
the conference is split into two
distinct camps.
Michigan,
Minnesota
and
Penn State have separated from
the pack as the only teams left in
real contention for the regular-
season crown and the No. 1 seed
in the conference tournament.
Ohio State, Michigan State and
Wisconsin are lagging far behind
— a discouraging result for the
conference in its fourth year.
The Daily breaks down each
team below.
The Contenders
Michigan (8-2-2-1 Big Ten, 17-4-
4 overall)
The sixth-ranked Wolverines
tore
through
the
last
four
conference series despite a miscue
Friday night in Detroit. Michigan
dropped an overtime heartbreaker
to Michigan State in that game, but
hasn’t recorded a regulation loss
since Dec. 12 against Minnesota.
In that stretch, the forward
line of freshman Kyle Connor and
juniors JT Compher and Tyler
Motte has become perhaps the
most elite in all of college hockey.
The
offensive
explosion
was
complemented by better cohesion
in the defensive zone and a marked
improvement by senior netminder
Steve Racine.
The run has propelled the
Wolverines to a tie with the Golden
Gophers atop the Big Ten standings.
Both teams have 27 points and will
meet in Minneapolis again in late
February.
Minnesota (9-3-0, 14-13-0)
The Golden Gophers used Big
Ten play to salvage what looked to
be a lost season, but they’ll need to
do more for any chance to play in
the NCAA Tournament.
Heading
into
December,
and the first conference series,
Minnesota was 4-7. Now above
.500, the Gophers are tied for the
lead in the Big Ten despite lacking
a true quality win.
They split four games with Penn
State, but those two wins are the
most impressive in a schedule that
was packed with tough opponents.
Minnesota’s strength of schedule
is sixth in the nation, but that
alone isn’t enough to combat the
dismal season record.
The
Gophers
are
still
in
contention for the regular-season
title for two reasons. The first
is
freshman
goaltender
Eric
Schierhorn, who has a .915 save
percentage and is ranked third in
the conference. The other reason
is the ridiculous rate at which
the team is converting shots into
goals. The team’s .125 shooting
percentage in conference play is
tremendous, tied with Michigan’s
prolific offense.
The Gophers have a chance
to make up some ground in the
national rankings with two home
games left against Michigan, but
will still likely require a first-
place finish in the conference
tournament to sniff a chance at
the postseason.
Penn State (7-5, 17-8-3)
The Nittany Lions are sitting
in third place, six points back in
the Big Ten regular-season race
despite a No. 15 ranking in the
national poll.
After a blistering start to the
season, Penn State squandered
an opportunity to climb the Big
Ten leaderboard in its series with
Michigan. The Nittany Lions lost
by a score of 13-7 in that weekend,
putting the team’s postseason
hopes in serious jeopardy.
NCAA
at-large
teams
are
generally representatives from the
top 10 of the RPI, and that leaves
Penn State on the outside looking in.
Coach
Guy
Gadowsky
has
puzzled many with his decisions in
net, though. Freshman goaltender
Eamon McAdam owns a .923 save
percentage this year, but continues
to split time with Matt Skoff. Skoff
is a senior with a significantly
poorer goals-against average (3.18)
and save percentage (.900).
The Bottom Feeders
Ohio State (3-5-2-1, 8-14-2)
Sitting in fourth place, you could
say the Buckeyes are exceeding
expectations this season. But the
team has managed just three wins
in conference play — such is the
state of Big Ten hockey.
Ohio State is a better team than
its 1-7 start to the season indicated,
though. An upset win against
Penn State and another against
Michigan, this one by shootout,
are marquee wins for a program
that isn’t historically strong.
Michigan State (3-9-0, 7-19-2)
A win over Michigan at Joe
Louis Arena on Friday night
and another respectable contest
against
the
Wolverines
on
Saturday may mark a turning tide
for the Spartans, but it is certainly
too little, too late.
After finishing second in the
Big Ten last year, winning the
conference tournament is now
Michigan State’s only chance of
making the postseason —and that
seems like a long shot.
Wisconsin (1-7-2-1, 6-12-6)
It has been a dismal two years
for the Badgers’ hockey program.
After winning just four games
last year, Wisconsin opened this
season with a six-game winless
stretch and never recovered.
Wisconsin’s best result of the
season came early, in a 3-1 win over
No. 3 North Dakota. Since then,
the Badgers have shown few signs
of life, and it is anyone’s guess how
the program will recover from a
historically awful two-year run.
ICE HOCKEY