University of Michigan Hockey and Hoops
The hockey team continues to struggle with putting out a consistent effort, while the basketball team has shown they can beat the teams they should beat.
Michigan Hockey hit a big milestone last weekend when head coach Red Berenson won his 600th game last Friday night. It will probably be the highlight of the season as the Wolverines have struggled to beat the teams they should beat. At this point it appears unlikely Michigan will make the NCAA tournament. If that happens it would be the first time that has happened since the 1989-90 season.
Brian over at MGoBlog has a good, concise post on the problems that ail this Michigan squad. The second power play unit is ineffective and the defensive corps doesn’t have enough depth.
TJ Hensick recorded his first career hat trick on Friday night, helping Michigan defeat Alaska 6-2. The Wolverines were able to sweep the weekend series by beating the Nanooks 5-2 on Saturday night. Michigan scored three goals over a span of 2:09 and David Rohlfs scored the game winner. The good news for the Wolverines is goaltender Billy Sauer has looked solid. Michigan allowed 34 shots on net last night and Sauer stopped 32 for a .941 save percentage.
With the win Michigan remained in 4th place in the division, 5 points behind a Notre Dame team that is tops in the CCHA.
The basketball team is currently tied with Ohio State for second in the conference with a 4-1 Big Ten record. The Wolverines have largely won the games they should, as their conference foes to date have been teams that make up the bottom half of the conference standings: Northwestern, Purdue, Penn State and Illinois. The lone loss was on the road to Purdue. If Michigan is to make the NCAA tournament this year they are going to have to take at least one or two road games, and that is most likely to happen against one of the weaker teams in the conference. So the key thing to watch for is to see how they play on the road against Illinois and Minnesota on February 21st and 24th.
Michigan beat Purdue at home yesterday 71-55, which avenges their lone conference loss. Jerret Smith helped spark the Wolverines off the bench and keyed a second-half half run that helped put the game away. Nathan Fenno of MLIVE has a good writeup of Smith’s performance:
Smith scored eight of his points during the 28-10 run Michigan used to start the second half and turn a nail-biter into a blowout. When Amaker summoned him from the bench, Smith took over the ballhandling duties from point guard Dion Harris, allowing the senior to shift to shooting guard.
That moved Michigan’s offense, which shot 68.2 percent in the second half, into high gear as the Wolverines pushed the basketball up the court.
Allowing Harris to move to shooting guard also helped get him on track as well. This blurb is from the AP report on the game.
Michigan had an almost six-minute scoring drought in the first half, but Harris made consecutive 3-pointers during a 13-2 run early in the second that gave the Wolverines (16-4, 4-1) control of the game. He was 5-for-7 from behind the arc to move into second place on the school’s all-time 3-pointers list and had five assists.
That is the important thing for Michigan’s coaching staff: to make adjustments that get the best players on the court given the situation at hand. By putting Smith at the 1 and Harris at the 2 Michigan was able to put away the Boilermakers. Michigan next faces a Wisconsin team that is ranked #2 in the country. Michigan was beaten soundly by UCLA, so this will be a good game to see if Michigan performs any better. Wisconsin narrowly beat Illinois yesterday, but that game was in Champaign-Urbana. The game against Michigan will be in Madison.
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