Sports
The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com
Wednesday, February 17, 2016 — 7A
‘M’ looks to build off past
At leadoff banquet,
Bakich gives nod to
successful teams in
program history
By NATHANIEL CLARK
Daily Sports Writer
In his opening remarks at
Friday night’s Leadoff Banquet,
Michigan baseball coach Erik
Bakich said, “Teams that win
together stay together.”
These words rang true at
the event, as several members
of the 1953 and 1962 national
championship
teams
were
present, decades after they won
their titles.
The quote also applies to the
2015 Wolverines. While they
did not win a national title, they
did capture Michigan’s first
Big Ten Tournament title and
NCAA Tournament appearance
since 2008 — a winning team by
any measure.
And, for the most part, the
squad has stayed together for
the upcoming season. While the
Wolverines lost multi-position
star Jacob Cronenworth to the
Major League Baseball draft, key
contributors such as junior left-
hander/first
baseman
Carmen
Benedetti, junior left-hander Brett
Adcock, senior left-hander Evan
Hill and sophomore shortstop
Jake Bivens have returned.
At the banquet, Bakich also
spoke of how each Michigan
team has built off the Wolverines’
150-year history.
“Bill Mogk and Paul Fancher
(in 1953) paved the way for
Dick Honing, John Kerr and
the rest of the 1962 team that’s
back there. I mean, what an
honor it is to be with you guys,
to hear your stories. For you to
share your experiences, that’s
something that I know every one
of our players, every member of
Team 150, is privileged to share
the room with you guys tonight.
As we carve out our journey, we
hope to follow in your footsteps.”
Many people already feel that
last year’s Michigan team paved
the way for the 2016 edition.
Baseball America placed the
Wolverines 15th in its preseason
rankings, making Michigan the
the sole cold-weather school in
the top 25. Consequently, the
Wolverines are the favorites to
win the Big Ten, a big jump from
last year, when most projections
had them finishing third or
fourth in the conference.
But Michigan’s goals don’t
end with the conclusion of
the Big Ten Tournament. The
Wolverines are looking to appear
in the College World Series for
the first time in 32 years, a feat
they accomplished five times
from 1978 to 1984.
One banquet guest, former
Michigan coach Moby Benedict,
played
multiple
roles
in
jumpstarting Michigan’s success
during that era.
“Coach Benedict epitomizes
Michigan
baseball
and
this
proud
tradition
of
ours,”
Bakich said. “He was the head
coach here from 1963 to 1979
and an assistant coach on the
1962 national title team. The
accolades, the championships,
the trips to the (College) World
Series, are all on the wall at Ray
Fisher Stadium.”
Yet in spite of the Wolverines’
success
last
year
and
the
expectations for 2016, Bakich
insisted that accolades aren’t
everything.
“(The
2015
Big
Ten
Tournament)
wasn’t
about
getting a ring, or a trophy or a
title — even though those are
great things to get,” Bakich
said. “It was more about, ‘How
much fun can we have on a
baseball field?’ and ‘How can
we best represent the University
of Michigan?’ It was an easy
message to deliver to the team
because we’ve talked about it all
the time.”
Michigan’s senior captains,
Hill and catcher Domenic Jamett,
echoed Bakich’s sentiment.
“There’s
a
quote
in
the
bulletin board in the nutrition
lounge from the 1953 national
championship
team,”
Jamett
said. “It reads, ‘We are proud
by the high standards that are
set and the successes that we
achieved. They’ve inspired us
to perform with confidence and
behave responsibly.’ I think
that’s a quote that not only
summarizes that team, but also
our program.”
The Wolverines will have
their first chance to prove
that they are deserving of the
preseason praise this weekend,
with a four-game series against
Canisius. It is part of a stretch
of 19 games on the road for
Michigan before it returns home
to face University of Illinois at
Chicago on March 25.
“I’m excited for what’s in
store for Team 150 as we dig our
toes into opening day in a week,”
Hill said. “I’m honored to share
the field with these guys I call
my brothers.”
The sentiment of “teams that
win together stay together” rang
true for the 1953 and 1962 squads.
The 2016 Wolverines will have
to wait and see if they will be
remembered as a squad that won
together and stayed together.
AMANDA ALLEN/Daily
Left-hander Evan Hill will be a co-captain for his senior season at Michigan.
WOMEN’S BASKETBALL
WOMEN’S GOLF
Racine: A lonely
difference maker
O
n road trips, Steve
Racine always stays
alone. It’s been that way
since his freshman year.
The
Michigan
hockey
coaching
staff never
told the
senior
goaltender
why he gets
his own
room in the
team hotel,
but Racine has a guess.
“I think (coach Red
Berenson) just wants me to
focus more,” Racine said.
“Doctor’s orders.”
In any case, Berenson’s plan
is finally working.
After three and a half
years, Racine is playing the
best hockey he ever has in a
Michigan uniform. Berenson
named him the team’s bona
fide starter more than three
months ago. For his last six
games, he boasts a .931 save
percentage, a career high for
any stretch over five games
that he has played.
And this past weekend,
he was the
only reason
Michigan
managed
to escape
Madison with
five points,
rather than
three. In
Saturday’s
contest
against
Wisconsin, the Wolverines
won in a shootout, despite
surrendering four goals.
“You should’ve seen him at
Wisconsin,” Berenson said.
“He stood on his head, and we
had no business winning the
game based on the chances we
gave up.
“That was his best game of
the year.”
It’s odd that Berenson would
call Racine’s best game of the
year one in which he let in four
goals. But he’s right.
Racine handled 50 shots in
that game. He made sprawling
kick saves and swooping glove
saves on countless Wisconsin
3-on-1 opportunities. They were
grade-A chances, and goals
Michigan fans wouldn’t shake
their heads at if Racine were to
let any of those pucks in.
“We haven’t done a great job
helping him out all year,” said
junior forward Tyler Motte.
“It’s something we’re focusing
on — the D-zone and doing our
best to help him out.”
Motte referenced the
defensive lapses that don’t seem
to go away, no matter how many
times the players have stressed
they are working on them.
You don’t have to dig deep
in the history books to see that
Michigan has dealt with this
before. Just look to last season.
The Wolverines finished
the year with the nation’s
best offense, yet ranked in the
bottom half in team defense.
What did that get them?
Nothing.
Fast-forward eight months,
and now you have a strikingly
similar Michigan team. The
Wolverines average 4.78
goals per game — nearing
Quinnipiac’s record of 5.42
goals per game, which was set
in 1999.
However, like a year ago, the
Wolverines allow 3.00 goals
per game, which ranks in the
bottom half of the NCAA.
But that’s no longer because
of a lack of solid goaltending.
“I’m still lamenting our
goals-against,” Berenson said.
“It’s not our goalies. A couple
years ago, we would’ve said our
goalie needed to play better,
but our goalies have given us
a shot.”
A big part of that is the
addition of Steve Shields, a
former Wolverine great, as
goaltending coach. Whereas
Racine used to have a goalie
coach just twice a week, he now
has one around every day to
help fine-tune even the smallest
aspects of his
game.
In Friday’s
4-1 win over
Wisconsin,
Racine
allowed one
goal that
shouldn’t
have counted
— officials
failed to
notice the puck slid in through
the side of the net. But Shields
still found a way to coach
Racine about that moment.
“Working with Steve allows
me to know exactly what I need
to do and to learn what I’m
doing when I am playing my
best,” Racine said. “We found
a direct correlation to how I’ve
been practicing leading into
games, and working harder is
just giving me the foundation to
have good weekends.
“I tell him all the time about
how happy I am to have him
here. He understands exactly
what I need to do to play my
best. The way I feel when I am
playing well, he knows that
exactly and can tap into that
and help me to play my best.”
It has certainly showed in
Racine’s last 12 games as the
starter — the longest starting
stretch of his Michigan career.
He has given his team a chance
in each of those games.
So when the Wolverines hit
the road for the postseason, and
likely the NCAA Tournament,
two things are for certain:
Racine will show up as he has
all year, and he’ll have his own
hotel room — doctor’s orders.
Rubinstein can be reached
at jasonbr@umich.edu and
on Twitter @jrubinstein4.
AMANDA ALLEN/Daily
Senior goalie Steve Racine has done his part to bail out the Wolverines lately.
JASON
RUBINSTEIN
“I think Red
just wants me
to focus more.
Doctor’s orders.”
Michigan heads
to College Park
By CHRIS CROWDER
Daily Sports Writer
The
Michigan
women’s
basketball team will have its
second crack at pulling off an
improbable
upset
Wednesday,
when
the
Wolverines
head
to
College Park
to face No. 6
Maryland.
In
the
two
squads’
matchup
in
Ann
Arbor
on Jan. 14,
Michigan
nearly came
out with the win. The Wolverines
(7-7 Big Ten, 15-10 overall) came
into the fourth quarter down by
just three with the home crowd
fueling the comeback. But with
their two post players, freshman
center Hallie Thome and senior
forward Kelsey Mitchell, in foul
trouble, the taller Terrapins
outrebounded Michigan by 10
and found easier baskets in the
paint to seal a 74-67 win.
At
the
time,
sophomore
guard Katelynn Flaherty said
the Wolverines could still win
the Big Ten, as they were just
five games into the 18-game
conference schedule. After the
Maryland game, Michigan was
2-3 in conference play. Now in
ninth place in the conference
with just four games to go, the
goal of winning the Big Ten is
unattainable. And at this point
in the season, a win against the
Terrapins in Maryland will be
just as difficult to pull off.
Maryland (12-2, 23-3) has lost
to just two teams this season —
No. 5 Ohio State (twice) and No.
1 Connecticut. All three losses
have come by single digits, proof
that the Terrapins deserve to be
regarded as one of the best teams
in the nation and are capable of
staying close to elite teams.
However, Maryland is coming
off a game in which it didn’t play
its best. It beat Northwestern —
a preseason Big Ten darkhorse
now 3-11 in the conference — by
just nine. The Terrapins aren’t
invincible, but they are tough to
beat, even if they don’t play their
best game.
“Maryland is an incredible
team,
and
(they)
have
a
tremendous
program,”
said
Michigan coach Kim Barnes
Arico
in
her
weekly
radio
appearance with WTKA on
Tuesday. “They’re led by a guard
(Shatori
Walker-Kimbrough)
who scored 41 the other night
and then 35. We might have to
change the lineup again, because
we’ve been playing small to
match up on rebounds.”
For Michigan to pull off
the upset this time around,
it will need to play one of its
best games of the season. In
its earlier matchup against
Maryland, the game was in
the Wolverines’ grasp. If the
Wolverines can stay out of foul
trouble, allowing their taller
players to get more rebounds,
they might have a chance.
But again, this is a different
atmosphere.
The
Terrapins
boast one of the best home
crowds
in
women’s
college
basketball and have lost only
once at home this season.
The
Wolverines
are
also
clinging to hopes of a berth to the
NCAA Tournament. A victory
against the Terrapins would be
the resume builder they need
in order to have a shot. The
following three games come
against teams behind or tied with
them in the Big Ten standings.
Winning on Wednesday may
give Michigan the momentum
to make the Big Dance for the
first time since 2013. After all,
the Wolverines have won three
straight Big Ten games for the
first time since that season.
“We don’t want the season to be
over, so it’s a process to get there
every day,” Barnes Arico said.
Dowling encouraged
despite sluggish start
Wolverines start
winter with
13th-place finish in
Puerto Rico
By BILLY STAMPFL
Daily Sports Writer
After a break of nearly four
months, the Michigan women’s
golf team returned to action
Sunday at the Lady Puerto
Rico Classic. In a tournament
that included 16 teams, the
Wolverines
settled
for
13th
place after recording a score of
916 — 52 strokes over par and 49
behind champion Georgia.
Some may find reason to be
discouraged by a disappointing
finish on Tuesday, especially
after a fourth-place showing
to conclude the fall season
in October at the Las Vegas
Collegiate
Showdown.
But
Michigan coach Jan Dowling
voiced
few
serious
concerns
regarding her
team’s play in
Puerto Rico.
“Everyone
had things to
work on over
the
winter,”
Dowling said.
“It was really
cool to watch
them integrate those things
into their games this weekend.
We’re going to build on that and
continue to improve.”
Dowling’s positivity may be
a result of her understanding
that a long break from outdoor
play
—
coupled
with
the
“discomforting”
feeling
of
competing on grass again —
makes returning to competition
difficult for her players.
Despite some adversity, senior
Catherine
Peters
had
little
trouble shaking the rust from
winter, as she tied for 18th with
a team-best score of 223. Peters
attributed her hot start to the
spring campaign to her focus on
improving key weaknesses over
the past three months.
“I
honestly
just
worked
on my putting,” Peters said.
“I’m pretty technical with my
swing, so I don’t change it very
often, but my putting needed
some work.”
Much of Michigan’s fate this
season will be decided based
on offseason training. Finding
motivation over the winter to
improve even more wasn’t hard
for the Wolverines after a strong
finish to the fall season.
“This team is intrinsically
motivated
to
begin
with,”
Dowling said. “But (the Las
Vegas
Showdown)
definitely
added fuel to our fire to continue
to show what we’re capable of
this year.”
As the lone Wolverine senior,
Peters has embraced her role as
unofficial captain on a young
squad. On a roster with five
underclassmen out of the seven
golfers in all, she realizes
she
has
no
choice
but
to set a good
example.
“I
know
that the other
girls look up to
me, especially
in
terms
of
hard
work
and
setting
the pace for
practice
and
workouts,” Peters said. “I have
to make sure I always have a
positive attitude.”
Behind the encouragement
of Dowling and the leadership
of Peters, Michigan can only
improve as they return from
Puerto Rico. They’ll travel south
again in two weeks to compete
in the Hurricane Invitational in
Miami, hoping to recover from
the rocky start and build on
offseason progress.
“Overall, we showed a lot of
great signs this week,” Dowling
said. “The more and more we’re
competing, the better we’re
going to get.”
“Everyone had
things to work
on over the
winter.”
Michigan at
Maryland
Matchup:
Michigan 15-10;
Maryland 23-3
When:
Wednesday
7 P.M.
Where: Xfinity
Center
TV/Radio:
BTN Plus