The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com
Sports
Thursday, November 30, 2017 — 7
Piazza, Cecconi provide leadership for struggling unit
The Michigan hockey team
departed Yost Ice Arena on
Saturday with far more thorns
than roses.
The
Wolverines’
marred
defensive
performance
was composed of too many
giveaways,
too
many
goals
given up and too few meticulous
passes — problems that were
only exacerbated by an absent
offensive spark.
What can get lost in translation
of this season’s repetitive plot
is the noteworthy talent of
individuals in the defensive
core — in particular, its veteran
leadership.
Senior
defenseman
Sam
Piazza and junior defenseman
Joseph Cecconi have emerged
as
the
Wolverines’
premier
defensive pairing on the ice,
and — as two of four selected
alternate captains this season
— have seen their influence
expanded off of it as well.
Michigan coach Mel Pearson
noted that the defensive unit
has already had considerable
success.
“You have confidence putting
them
out
against
anybody,”
Pearson said. “Sam is good with
the puck and handles the puck
very well. He is not as physical,
you know, Joe is ‘big and strong
Joseph’ and can be physical.
They
seem
to
have
some
chemistry together, they play off
of each other, so they are in sync,
and that’s important.”
While the Wolverines have
seen many changes in player
combinations this year, Piazza
and Cecconi have remained a
constant duo. And their talents
happened to be on display
this past weekend, which was
otherwise
ignominious
for
Michigan’s squad.
Friday night, off a cross-
ice pass from Cecconi, Piazza
knocked in the opening goal of
the game — good for his first
of the season. The following
evening, Cecconi was the lone
Wolverine to score, equalizing
the game in the second period
before Ohio State’s offensive
onslaught began.
Their
ability
to
step
up
on offense while Michigan’s
forwards struggled to do so
against the Buckeyes highlighted
the pair’s versatile strengths.
“Obviously,
we’ve
stayed
together this whole time so far,
so we’ve been doing something
right,” Cecconi said. “We talk a
lot on the ice, off the ice, and we
have good chemistry. We know
where the other person is going
to be, and we both have pretty
good hockey IQ, so that goes a
long way.”
Pearson added: “You’ve got to
play sound defensively first and
foremost, and then pick your
spots offensively when you’re
jumping up in a play. I think for
the most part, they’ve done a
good job at that.”
Part of what has made the
duo cohesive this season is the
variability in their contributions
and
improvements.
For Cecconi, it
has been his well-
roundedness as a
player.
Netting
10
points
over
the
first
14
games,
Cecconi
has
been
the
largest offensive
contributor from
Michigan’s blue line. He has
already surpassed his sophomore
season total of eight points and
that, paired with his physicality
and work ethic in the defensive
zone, has made for a dynamic
combination.
Part of Cecconi’s development
has stemmed from the formative
experience he had last year,
playing
on
the
2017
U.S.
National Junior Team. During
his
sophomore
season,
Cecconi
was
the
sole
Wolverine — and
just one of 23
players nationally
—
selected
for
the team’s final
roster.
His
team went on to
claim
the
gold
medal
at
the
International Ice
Hockey Federation World Junior
Championship in January.
“I think he has grown as a
player and a leader, and is really
starting to blossom,” Pearson
said.
Piazza
has
demonstrated
his talents in another way this
season — through his ability to
stand his ground in the defensive
zone.
The
senior
ranks
eighth
nationally in blocked shots with
an average of 2.42 per game, a
huge reason as to why Michigan
has found recent success overall
in shot blocking. Rather than
laying out to block shots, Piazza
prefers to stand in a lane and
disrupt
the
opposition
with
a good gap and decisive stick
placement.
“I
think
we
have
complementing styles,” Piazza
said. “Chico is really an all-
around good defenseman. And
I think in the past you would
have classified him as more of a
defensive guy, but he has a ton of
points this year, too. For me, he
is really easy to play with. You
always know where he is, which
is a good thing. I think we play
well off each other, and it’s been
a pleasure playing with him.”
In addition to a diverse set of
skills, the two have seemingly
polar personalities. Piazza tends
to be more soft-spoken, while
Cecconi makes his presence
known.
But according to Pearson, this
divergence is a large component
of what makes the two work,
particularly when it comes to
their roles as captains.
“Sam is more of a quiet leader,”
Pearson said. “He just goes about
his business, he’s good in the
classroom, he comes to the rink
and he plays. He’s a good player.
He lets his playing do his talking.
“Joseph
is
a
little
more
outgoing, with a little more
energy, and I guess he’s a guy
that people gravitate to because
that’s how he is. And that’s why
they complement each other I
think, too.”
Both of them know that despite
their experience and leadership,
there is still significant room for
improvement — for themselves
and the rest of the defensive core.
And going back hard for pucks,
crisper clearances and stronger
communication are all at the top
of that list.
Yet while players of all ages
have the capacity for growth, the
efforts of these older defensemen
are key in helping younger
Wolverines develop their own
game, as they are exposed to
exemplary defensive styles of
play.
“They are both older and have
been around,” Pearson said.
“I think it’s good (for younger
players) to take in some things
— I don’t want to say steal from
another person — but just to say
‘Hey, you know what, I want to
be able to do that, and be like him
in some ways’, and I think that’s
a positive.”
Perhaps
their
veteran
leadership will bring Michigan’s
defense back on the rails.
Michigan can’t recover from early
deficit in loss to No. 3 Notre Dame
Though
the
Michigan
women’s basketball team won
the tip, Notre Dame scored first.
Within the first five minutes, the
Fighting Irish went up by four,
and they remained in the driver’s
seat for the remainder of the
game.
While the Wolverines once
held a four-point lead themselves
in the first quarter, Notre Dame
peaked in the fourth, taking a
with a 25-point lead, to finish
with an 83-63 victory.
Going
into
the
game
Wednesday night, Michigan had
two points of emphasis after its
loss to Louisville: rebounds and
turnovers.
“Great teams gotta be able
to rebound and gotta be able to
take care of the basketball,” said
Michigan coach Kim Barnes
Arico. “We put both of those
things together, and I think we
can compete against the top
teams.”
The Wolverines turned the
ball over only once in the first half
while pulling down 11 rebounds.
Though Michigan took care of
the ball, it had a difficult time
shutting down the Irish.
Junior center Hallie Thome
accredited the defensive woes
to the offensive challenge put
up by Notre Dame’s Arike
Ogunbowale, who scored 20
points including four timely
three-pointers.
“I think it wasn’t like fatigue
physically,
I
think
it
was
mentally— just always having to
locate Arike and just be aware of
where everyone is,” Thome said.
“I think that we all realized that
we needed to shut down Arike
and not let her get the ball, so I
think more of a mental fatigue
of always having your eye on
someone.”
Even with a 25-point deficit
late in the game, Thome insisted
Michigan never threw in the
towel.
“No matter what the situation
is, we’re giving it our all,” Thome
said. “Even if we’re trying
everything we can do and it’s
not working then you have to put
someone else in that position.”
Even senior guard Katelynn
Flaherty
—
the
Wolverines’
top scorer — was quiet in the
offensive half as she was being
double
teamed
for a majority of
the game.
“I just think
she didn’t have
an
open
look
the entire night.
She was double-
teamed
every
single time she
came off a ball
screen,” Barnes
said. “They knew
where she was in transition.
She had contested shot after
contested
shot.
So
that’s
difficult.”
Though
the
pressure
on
Flaherty was immense, Thome
was confident in the ability of her
team to rise to the occasion and
fill in. Flaherty is a leader for the
team, but there are other players
who are capable of stepping up.
“We have other players, I
know Katelynn will always go
down in history as one of the
best players at Michigan but
basketball is a five person sport
so other people
have to step up,
other
people
have
to
take
different roles,”
Thome said.
Despite
the
loss,
Michigan
saw
how
its
strong
play
in
the
first
half
allowed
optimism
for
future growth.
“I think we realized we can
really hang with anyone if we do
the little things and proceed to
do the little things as the game
goes on and don’t get mentally
fatigued as the game goes on,”
Thome said.
Flaherty shut down in blowout
In
blowing
out
No.
22
Michigan 83-63 at the Crisler
Center on Wednesday night,
No.
3
Notre
Dame
found
the blueprint to beating the
Wolverines:
shut
Katelynn
Flaherty down and Michigan’s
offense grinds to a halt.
The
senior
point
guard
shot just 5-for-
18 from the field
and 1-of-7 from
beyond the arc,
spending
the
night
trying
and failing to
heat
up
from
anywhere
on
the court. Not
coincidentally,
so did Michigan’s offense. The
Wolverines scored less than a
point per possession – 0.926 to
be exact – as the Irish pulled
away.
“I just think she didn’t have
an open look the entire night,”
said coach Kim Barnes Arico.
“She was double-teamed every
single time she came off a ball
screen. They knew where she
was in transition. She had
contested shot after contested
shot.”
It makes sense that a team
of Notre Dame’s caliber would
key in on Flaherty. She’s the
program’s
all-time
leading
scorer and she averages 23.7
points
per
game. Michigan,
however, wasn’t
ready
for
the
Fighting Irish’s
airtight defense
and
Barnes
Arico knew it.
“I think the
growth of our
team is going to
be – we talked
a little bit about
this at halftime, but we didn’t
get to it in the second half –
‘Okay, if Katelynn is double-
teamed, can we get the ball out
of that double-team and make
extra pass, extra pass enough to
get an open, uncontested layup
by someone?’
“And we’re not at the point
yet of moving the basketball
at that rate and getting Hallie
(Thome) – cause a lot of times,
Hallie was setting the screen,
Hallie’s girl was doubling – get
Hallie down to the block, move
it, move it, move it, get Hallie an
open layup. But the pressure of
being double-teamed to make a
good pass before people rotate –
it’s gotta be boom, boom, boom,
boom, boom, boom, boom.”
In all fairness, it is early
in the year, the Wolverines
did lose point guard Siera
Thompson and Flaherty herself
is still transitioning into the
position. To the senior’s credit,
she had eight assists and just
one turnover on Wednesday.
But this is supposed to be a
different Michigan team – one
that can compete against teams
like Notre Dame – and teams
like that can’t get taken out of
rhythm when the first option
is struggling. The Wolverines
were in it for most of the game,
but it never felt like the offense
was good enough to overcome
the 10-point deficit that was
present from the first quarter
on.
It wasn’t and at the start of
the fourth, 10 turned into 20
and Michigan lost the chance
to come back.
Outside of postups from
Thome, the Wolverines simply
didn’t have other means of
scoring. They shot an abysmal
36.5 percent from the field
and 35.7 percent from three.
Freshman
forward
Hailey
Brown was the only player other
than Thome and Flaherty to hit
double-digit scoring and she
did so on 4-of-11 shooting. The
offense was stagnant at times
and Notre Dame constantly
closed off driving lanes.
“I think what happens – and
it’s not Katelynn’s fault – I think
everyone else stops and looks
at Katelynn to make a play,”
Barnes Arico said. “And when
you have a really great player
on your team, sometimes the
rest of the team defers to her.”
On
Wednesday,
that
happened most of the time. In
the future, it can’t.
MAX KUANG/Daily
Junior defenseman Joseph Cecconi has found success on both ends of the ice while working alongside senior defenseman Sam Piazza on Michigan’s blue line.
ANNA MARCUS
Daily Sports Writer
They seem
to have some
chemistry
together
ETHAN SEARS
Daily Sports Writer
RYAN MCLOUGHLIN/Daily
Junior center Hallie Thome struggled to match up with Arike Ogunbowale.
SARAH HURST
Daily Sports Writer
Other people
have to step up
... take different
roles
RYAN MCLOUGHLIN/Daily
Senior guard Katelynn Flaherty shot just 5-for-18 from the field Wednesday.
I just think she
didn’t have an
open look the
entire night