8A — Wednesday, November 23, 2016
Sports
The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com
Wolverines headed to U.S. Virgin Islands
Instead of eating turkey, the
Michigan women’s basketball team
will be sipping coconut water on
the beaches of St. Thomas.
The Wolverines flew Tuesday
morning to the U.S. Virgin Islands
to
participate
in
a
marquee
preseason
tournament,
The
Paradise Jam, from Thursday
through Saturday. According to
its website, the Paradise Jam is
the second-most popular tourist
attraction for the islands, right
after Carnival.
Michigan
will
spend
this
weekend
playing
against
its
toughest
opponents
of
the
season by far: No. 25 Gonzaga on
Thursday, Winthrop on Friday and
No. 10 Florida State on Saturday.
The quick succession of games will
start a stretch of seven straight
games on the road, and the whole
team is bracing for the challenge.
Michigan coach Kim Barnes
Arico said she expects the team
to be exhausted. “Besides that,
I think everyone’s going to be
in kind of a similar boat. It’s an
exciting opportunity for us to
take our team to a place where
most of them haven’t been and to
experience a little bit of time away
from Ann Arbor.
“Part of the college experience
is having a great opportunity to do
this. It’s going to be great for our
team, and we’ll have some time
to spend with each other away
from where we’ve been for the last
couple of months.”
The Wolverines won their most
recent contest against Western
Michigan on Monday with a final
tally of 66-40. Though the margin
was considerable, Michigan had
just made program history by
scoring more than 100 points in
three straight games, with the
closest of those wins by 38 against
Oakland on Nov. 11.
Gonzaga just made it onto the
Associated Press Top 25 list, but
the Bulldogs are definitely worthy
of their berth. They are coming off
the program’s first win at Stanford,
which has lost just eight games at
home since 2007.
Forward
Jill
Barta
leads
Gonzaga with 16 points per
game. The redshirt sophomore
was just named the West Coast
Conference Player of the Week
for her performance against the
Cardinals, where she shot 8-for-10
from the field.
“It’s going to be interesting
because Gonzaga is an experienced,
long team that’s going to pose some
problems for us,” Barnes Arico
said. “They’re really experienced
and real good post players and
really play well together. They’re
coming off a great win at Stanford.”
The Wolverines received 36
points in the coaches’ poll — just
one slot away from making it onto
the list.
Next up after the Bulldogs
will be Winthrop, which is on a
three-game losing streak. The
Eagles are having trouble with
depth and turnovers. Against
their most recent opponent,
East Tennessee, only one player
reached double digits.
To finish out the series, the
Wolverines face the Seminoles,
who boast guard Brittany Brown
— currently the only Florida State
player to garner 500 rebounds,
300 assists and 200 steals. The
Seminoles’ other asset is Shakayla
Thomas, who has led her team
in points in three out of the four
games this season.
“So each night will be a little
bit different,” Barnes Arico said.
“I think we need to just try to take
advantage of our strengths and try
to continue and go in transition and
use our speed and use our ability to
score the basketball.”
The short turnaround between
Western Michigan on Monday and
Gonzaga on Thursday won’t leave
much room to practice or work on
details. Sophomore center Hallie
Thome voiced concern about the
Wolverines’ starts.
Thome does believe, however,
that the team mindset will be a
true asset for Michigan. Despite
impressive players like junior
guard Katelynn Flaherty, no one
player is concerned about stuffing
the stat sheet.
“We’re very excited to play
more competition,” senior Siera
Thompson said. “This is a test for
us, and we’re all prepared.
“We’re so excited to just enjoy
the sunshine. And those hotel beds.”
SYLVANNA GROSS
Daily Sports Writer
GRANT HARDY/Daily
Senior Derrick Walton Jr. and Michigan are out of town again Wednesday.
‘M’ travels south for
first true road game
The last time the Michigan
men’s basketball team played an
opponent from the Southeastern
Conference,
former
Kentucky
guard Aaron
Harrison
stuck
a
dagger in the
Wolverines’
heart, hitting
a
3-pointer
with
two
seconds
left,
sinking
Michigan’s
hope
of
making
consecutive
Final Fours.
The stakes
will not be nearly as high
when the Wolverines (4-0)
travel to South Carolina (4-0)
on Wednesday, but that won’t
make Michigan take this early-
season clash lightly.
After two decisive victories
in New York over Marquette
and Southern Methodist, the
25th-ranked Wolverines hope
the momentum from their
impressive display in the Big
Apple will carry over as they
face their first true road test of
the season.
The Gamecocks also enter
Wednesday
undefeated
through four games, but they
have
taken
some
punches
getting to this point.
South
Carolina
needed
a
buzzer-beater
to
beat
Monmouth at home last week,
after
it
blew
an
18-point
second-half lead and allowed
the Hawks to come back and
force overtime.
South Carolina still has the
pieces to go toe to toe with
Michigan,
though.
Guard
Sindarius
Thornwell
leads
the
Gamecocks
in
scoring,
putting
up
21 points per
game thus far.
At
6-foot-
5,
Thornwell
will
be
one
of
the
taller
guards
the
Wolverines
have
faced
to
date, and he will give junior
guard Muhammad-Ali Abdur-
Rahkman and senior guard
Zak Irvin a difficult defensive
assignment. South Carolina
expects to get a performance
out of Thornwell similar to
what Michigan gets out of
Irvin, a solid shooter who has
many offensive capabilities
and
can
hold
his
own
defensively as well.
“(Thornwell) is a consistent
35- to 40-percent shooter
over
his
career,”
said
Michigan coach John Beilein.
“(Thornwell and Irvin) are
two seniors that really know
how to play. He’s probably
shooting the ball a little bit
better than Zak is right now.
I don’t know if his assist-to-
turnover is quite as good, but
he’s just a good player. When
you have a senior that’s been
starting for a few years, that’s
what (he) should be.”
Guard PJ Dozier, who hit
the
winning
shot
against
Monmouth, brings a skill set
and body similar to Thornwell’s
that could also trouble the
Wolverines. Beilein tried to
recruit Dozier to Michigan
back when the guard was in
prep school, but due to family
ties, Dozier chose to play for
the Gamecocks.
“I saw him as a multi-
position player,” Beilein said.
“A guy that was more (Caris
LeVert)-like who could see
the floor. He’s just a player, a
6-(foot)-6 player.”
In the frontcourt, forwards
Chris Silva and Maik Kotsar
will match up better with the
Wolverines than Marquette
or Southern Methodist did.
Silva is the more dangerous of
the pair, averaging 10 points
and
seven
rebounds.
The
6-foot-9 forward will most
likely be guarded by junior
forward
DJ
Wilson,
who
has been Michigan’s most
versatile defender through its
opening games.
The Wolverines will also be
exposed to the most aggressive
defense they have seen so far
this season. South Carolina
currently tops the SEC in
rebound
margin,
grabbing
12.5 more boards than its
opponents each game, while
also forcing an average of 14
turnovers. With that said,
Michigan will have to limit
the Gamecocks in transition,
especially having to watch for
outside shooting threats.
“Although (South Carolina
is) not big in steals, they are a
pressure team,” Beilein said.
“And they’re going to try and
run us out of our stuff, and
we’ve got to be really good
making that extra pass. We
need to keep our turnovers
down. They’re forcing 14 or
15
turnovers
a game. They
also have 14 or
15 a game so
if we can play
one
of
those
games
where
we’re at nine or
10 turnovers …
we’ll be in good
shape.”
South
Carolina will be
a tough test for the Wolverines,
especially on the road. But
handling the Gamecocks may
only be part of the challenge
Michigan
will
face
in
Columbia. After their triumph
in New York, the Wolverines
will need to stay grounded,
as
excitement
around
the
program has risen to levels
unseen since that game against
Kentucky in the Elite Eight.
“In
the
grand
scheme
of
college
basketball,
we
haven’t
done
anything,”
said
senior
guard
Derrick
Walton Jr. “I think everyone
has a great sense of that and
nobody’s walking around and
lollygagging and saying we’ve
accomplished anything. We
haven’t accomplished anything
because there’s still a good
25 to 30 games left. We’re
excited about what we have
accomplished, and we’re just
eager for more.”
“In the grand
scheme ... we
haven’t done
anything.”
Michigan
at South
Carolina
Matchup:
Michigan
4-0; South
Carolina 4-0
When:
Wednesday
5 P.M.
Where:
Colonial
Life Arena
TV/Radio:
ESPNU
BRANDON CARNEY
Daily Sports Writer
Michigan renews series with Lakers
When the Central Collegiate
Hockey Association disbanded
in 2013, Lake Superior State and
Michigan’s
hockey teams
were
split
into
separate
conferences.
This weekend,
for
the
first
time since the
conference
breakup,
the
two teams will
face off again.
The former
rivalry
was
not
only
bred from how often the teams
played each other, but also by the
competitiveness of each team. In
an 11-year span from 1988-1998,
the teams combined to win five
national titles.
“They were really good, and
we were pretty good, too,” said
Michigan coach Red Berenson.
“A lot of our games were
showdown games in the race for
first place. Of course, we were in
the same conference, so we were
playing them four times a year.
“Lake (Superior) State was
a benchmark team. If we had a
winning record against them,
that meant we were a good team
— like a good team nationally.”
Since then, the Lakers (6-6-0)
have seen some struggles. The
program has suffered through
four
straight
losing
seasons
including an 8-28-2 mark in
2014-15 — current head coach
Damon Whitten’s first season.
This year, Lake Superior State
— somewhat like the Wolverines
(5-4-1) — has been inconsistent.
The Lakers jumped out to a 6-1
start this season. Over that time,
the team outscored its opponents
35-16, and rose to No. 20 in the
USCHO.com poll.
After
that,
they
have
struggled, losing five games in a
row heading into their matchup
with Michigan.
Despite
its
recent
losing
stretch, Lake Superior State
still
boasts
the
ninth-best
scoring offense in the country.
And though the Wolverines are
conscious of the Lakers’ offensive
potency,
they
have
kept
the
focus
on
themselves.
“We’ve
been
really
focused
on
our
own
systems
and
kind of working
off the (Boston
University)
weekend
and
going off of that,”
said senior defenseman Nolan
De Jong. “Everyone looks at the
stats, and everyone looks at the
scores, so we know they’re going
to be able to score a lot of goals.
But we’ve been really focused
on our defense and making sure
we’re a solid unit back there.”
So far this year, that unit has
been solid. Michigan has the
ninth-ranked scoring defense
in the country, keyed in part
by
strong
goaltending
play.
Freshman
Hayden Lavigne
has
been
especially stout,
as he has the best
save percentage
in the country at
.956.
Michigan’s
game
against
Lake
Superior
State comes after somewhat of a
down period for the Wolverines.
They played just one exhibition
game against the United States
National
Team
Development
Program’s U-18 team this past
weekend
and
will
have
an
early Thursday practice before
taking the rest of the day off for
Thanksgiving.
Though that bit of rest can be
nice for a team in the midst of a
long season, it is still a long break
between meaningful games. And
that’s a break that Michigan is
excited to end.
“Bye weeks are nice, but you
look at how many times we
practice, and it’ll be 11 times
before we get to play an actual
two-game series again,” De
Jong said. “Maybe it’s a bit of
a refresher just to kind of get
away for a second, and then get
back at it. But I think we’re all
excited to get back and play a
two-game series and get in the
groove again.”
Lake Superior
State at
Michigan
Matchup:
LSSU 6-6-0;
Michigan 5-4-1
When: Friday,
Saturday
7:30 P.M.
Where: Yost
Ice Arena
MIKE PERSAK
Daily Sports Writer
Wolverines play Lake Superior State for the first time since the end of the CCHA
AMELIA CACCHIONE/Daily
Senior defenseman Nolan De Jong captains Michigan back onto the ice against Lake Superior State this weekend.
“They were
really good, and
we were pretty
good, too.”