Michigan Wolverines BASKETBALL Schedule - 2009-10

Michigan Wolverines BASKETBALL Schedule - 2009-10

Regular Season Schedule and Results

DATE	OPPONENT	TIME/RESULT	RECORD
November 14	Northern Michigan	W 97-50	1-0
November 20	Houston Baptist	W 77-55	2-0
November 26	vs. Creighton*	W 83-76	3-0
November 27	vs. Marquette*	L 79-65	3-1
November 29	vs. Alabama*	L 68-66	3-2
December 2	Boston College	L 62-58	3-3
December 5	Arkansas-Pine Bluff	W 67-53	4-3
December 9	at Utah	L 68-52	4-4
December 13	Detroit	W 75-64	5-4
December 19	at No. 1 Kansas	L 75-64	5-5
December 22	Coppin State	W 76-46	6-5
December 31	at Indiana	L 71-65	6-6 (0-1)
January 3	No. 15 Ohio State	W 73-64	7-6 (1-1)
January 7	at Penn State	W 64-55	8-6 (2-1)
January 10	Northwestern	L 68-62	8-7 (2-2)
January 14	Indiana	W 69-45	9-7 (3-2)
January 17	No. 15 Connecticut	W 68-63	10-7
January 20	at No. 19 Wisconsin	L 54-48	10-8 (3-3)
January 23	at No. 15 Purdue	L 69-59	10-9 (3-4)
January 26	No. 5 Michigan State	L 57-56	10-10 (3-5)
January 30	Iowa	W 60-46	11-10 (4-5)
February 2	at Northwestern	L 67-52	11-11 (4-6)
February 6	No. 16 Wisconsin	L 62-44	11-12 (4-7)
February 11	at Minnesota	W 71-63	12-12 (5-7)
February 16	at Iowa	W 80-78	13-12 (6-7)
February 20	Penn State	L 55-51	13-13 (6-8)
February 23	Illinois	L 51-44	13-14 (6-9)
February 27	at No. 9 Ohio State	L 66-55	13-15 (6-10)
March 2	Minnesota	W 83-55	14-15 (7-10)
March 7	at No. 12 Michigan State	L 64-48	14-16 (7-11)
March 11	vs. Iowa*	W 59-52	15-16 (7-11)
March 12	vs. No. 7 Ohio State*	L 69-68	15-17 (7-11)

*Game played at a neutral location

Last Updated: November 27. 2009 12:02PM
Michigan 83, Creighton 76 (OT)
Manny Harris leads Michigan past pesky Creighton in OT
Angelique S. Chengelis / The Detroit News

Lake Buena Vista, Fla. -- The Michigan men's basketball team might not have had the overall quickness, but the Wolverines had Manny Harris in the clutch.

Michigan, ranked 15th nationally, needed overtime -- and Harris' near triple-double and 45 minutes -- to beat Creighton, 83-76, on Thursday in the first game of the Old Spice Classic.

It was the first real test of the season for the Wolverines (3-0), who had beaten their first two opponents by a combined margin of 69 points.

"That was a big game for us to come out against a team like Creighton," U-M's Zack Novak said. "We're still a really young team. We've got a lot of guys back from last year, (but) we're young, so to be able to get that victory early over a team like that, I think that's going to help us."

Michigan will play Marquette, a 71-61 winner over Xavier, in the second round Friday at noon.

Harris had 20 points, 11 assists and nine rebounds to lift the Wolverines before 2,853 the Milk House at Disney World. Laval Lucas-Perry scored 18 points, including four 3-pointers, DeShawn Sims had 16 and Novak 14 for the Wolverines.

After leading by as many as 11 points in the first half, the Wolverines' lead shrunk to 37-34 by halftime.

Creighton, benefiting from the return of senior forward Justin Carter, who missed the first three games of the season with a knee injury, swung the momentum early in the second half. The Blue Jays took their first lead of the game with 17:14 left off a three-point play by Carter. Carter finished with a career-best 21 points.

The Blue Jays led by as many as six with eight minutes left in the game after making a string of four 3-pointers, capped by a Kenny Lawson layup.

"They're just so quick at all their positions," Michigan coach John Beilein said. "They were using their dribble-drive offense really well, and we haven't seen that quickness.

"We don't see that quickness in our scout team, and they're just really, really good at just getting to the basket. They were showing us defensive pressure that we can't emulate with our scout team. They were quick."

Casey Harriman made two free throws to give Creighton a 65-60 lead with 4:17 left, but that's when things started to crumble a bit for the Blue Jays.

"We had an opportunity at the four-minute mark and a couple bad turnovers, we couldn't get a defensive rebound and they hit a couple free throws, so I thought that was the turning point of the game," said Creighton coach Dana Altman.

The Blue Jays had turnovers on consecutive possessions, and Lucas-Perry hit two free throws to pull Michigan within three.

Stu Douglass was only 1-of-6 for the Wolverines, but his lone basket, a 3-pointer with 2:10 left, tied the game at 65. Harris made two free throws to give Michigan a 69-67 lead with 5.7 seconds left, and Creighton's Antoine Young went untouched for a score with one second left to make it 69-69 and send the game to overtime.

"The last couple minutes of regulation we kind of slipped," said Lawson, who had 10 points and nine rebounds. "We had a five-point lead, (then) made some critical mistakes."

In overtime, Harris scored seven and Novak had a 3-pointer with 1:59 left to make it 80-73, essentially putting the game out of reach.

Harris, who has been nagged this season by a left hamstring injury, played just under 45 minutes. He shrugged when asked what changed at the end of the game for him.

"Just trying to make plays the best way I can," he said. "My teammates hit big shots and I was able to get to the basket."

Last Updated: November 28. 2009 9:52PM
Marquette 79, No. 15 Michigan 65
Cold-shooting U-M falls to Marquette, will face Alabama on Sunday
Angelique S. Chengelis / The Detroit News

Lake Buena Vista, Fla. -- Michigan coach John Beilein said he would find out a lot about where the Wolverines are after playing in the eight-team Old Spice Classic.

He probably already has a good idea.

The 15th-ranked Wolverines struggled against much-quicker Marquette on Friday and were an icy 15 percent from the 3-point line in their first loss of the season.

Marquette (6-0) advanced to the tournament championship game with a 79-65 victory over Michigan, the tournament's only ranked team, at The Milk House. The Wolverines (3-1) will play Alabama for third place on Sunday.

So what exactly does 15 percent look like?

It looked exactly like this: A mere 3-of-20 3-point attempts made by the Wolverines, who pride themselves on their big outside shot.

"We have to (make those)," Beilein said. "(Marquette) played really good defense so I don't know how many times we had really clean good looks, but it didn't seem like we made them when we had to."

Michigan's leading scorer Manny Harris finished with 22 points despite going 0-for-4 from the 3-point line, while Stu Douglass came off the bench and was 0-for-5. For the season, Harris is 2-of-17 while Douglass is 3-of-16.

The Wolverines are 32-of-100 from the 3-point line this season.

"They did a great job of contesting shots and trying to run us off the 3-point line," DeShawn Sims said of the Golden Eagles. "We got a bunch of good looks, but we just wasn't able to knock down any shots."

Sims, who entered the game averaging 20 points, was held to eight points after going 3-of-10 from the field. He said their lack of production from the deep perimeter had nothing to do with tired legs or fatigue.

"Nah," Sims said of possibly having tired legs. "Probably just focus and a credit to their defense."

Marquette, which never trailed after Michigan's opening basket, had four players in double figures. Lazar Hayward scored 22 points, Jimmy Butler had 17, Darius Johnson-Odom had 14 and Dwight Buycks had 13.

The Golden Eagles go with a smaller lineup, and Beilein said that was the challenge. He especially praised Marquette senior guards Maurice Acker and David Cubillan.

"That was as quick a team that I can recall," Beilein said. "We dialed up everything we could do, but they're just super quick."

Marquette led by 12 in the first half and had a 44-35 lead at halftime, but the Wolverines went on a 10-0 run in the second half, including five points from Harris, to cut the deficit to one point. Laval Lucas-Perry's 3-pointer with 16 minutes left made it 48-47, but that was the closest Michigan came.

The Golden Eagles quickly answered with a 12-2 run and eventually built a 15-point lead late in the second half.

Marquette also was more physical rebounding and outrebounded Michigan, 33-27, including 22 defensive boards.

"I didn't think that we had a distinct (quickness) advantage, but I thought we did a good job on missed shots and attacking," said Marquette coach Buzz Williams. "I thought we for the most part did a really good job of handling their changing defenses.

"We're so small that defensively our philosophy is always the same; we have to keep the ball out of the paint. The two opponents that we've played here (Xavier and Michigan) thus far have done such a great job scoring behind the line, and that really stretches our defense and causes us problems.

"I thought our guys have done a good job of chasing them off the line and being in the paint to prevent a paint touch."

Last Updated: November 29. 2009 11:37PM
Alabama 68, No. 15 Michigan 66
No. 15 Michigan loses again on final day of Classic
Angelique S. Chengelis / The Detroit News

Lake Buena Vista, Fla. -- The first serious test of the season is over for the Michigan men's basketball team, and the Wolverines came through the three-game Old Spice Classic bearing a few wounds that might take a significant time to heal.

Michigan, the tournament's only ranked team, went 1-2 , including a 68-66 loss to Alabama on Sunday at The Milk House in the third-place game.

The Wolverines were No. 15 but have now lost consecutive games, to Marquette last Friday and the Crimson Tide.

"It's still early," said senior DeShawn Sims, who had 16 points and six rebounds. "(The tournament) did let us know that we've got a long way to go, and we probably (weren't) a top-15 team in the country.

"We sort of started out this way last year. We lost to Duke, then lost at Maryland and then came back and readjusted ourselves and got a win against Duke. Its just a learning process. We still have a young team. We still have a long way to go. It's just a stepping stone for us."

Michigan (3-2) was led by Manny Harris' 26 points. He scored 20 or more in each of the three games. JaMychal Green scored 20 for Alabama (4-2).

The Wolverines led by as many as eight points in the second half, but their shooting went cold with nine minutes left.

For a two-minute stretch, Michigan, leading 50-44, went without a field goal while Alabama went on an 8-0 run to take its first lead of the game, 51-50, the first of seven lead changes in the final minutes of the game.

Alabama's Justin Knox tied it at 66 when he made one of two free-throw attempts, and on Michigan's next possession, Harris missed on a 3-point attempt with 36 seconds left.

"The guy went under me, so I was like wide open for a three," Harris said. "And its a shot I consistently work on, but I've just got to be able to knock it down. It hasn't been falling for me all year. I just thought that one would fall, but it didn't go my way on that one."

Alabama then drove the floor and, after Senario Hillman missed on a layup, Green grabbed the rebound and scored the winning points on a dunk with five seconds left for the 68-66 lead.

Michigan then took a 30-second timeout, and on the final possession, freshman guard Darius Morris' layup was blocked by Green.

"In hindsight, we have another play we should have run," Michigan coach John Beilein said. "We still got to the rim, (but) if Manny gets to the rim, something else may happen.

"Just felt if they put two guys on Manny or whatever and he couldn't get there but had to do it over again, Id make sure Manny got the ball somehow or used another timeout. I don't like what I did. Didn't like that finish."

Beilein said Alabama's length and athleticism, coupled with indecision by the young Michigan guards, were major issues for the Wolverines.

It didn't help that Michigan's 3-point shooting again was an issue. The Wolverines were 6-of-25 (24 percent) from the 3-point line. For the tournament, they were 19-of-72 (26.4 percent), including only nine-of-45 the last two games.

"We knock down a couple threes and it's a different game," Beilein said.

Sims said one of the things Michigan takes from this tournament is need to maintain poise and protect leads. The Wolverines were ahead 34-29 at halftime, after leading by as many as 13 in the first half. They had nine of their 15 steals in the first half.

After playing there games in four days, Michigan now has a brief break before playing Boston College on Wednesday at Crisler Arena in the Big Ten-ACC Challenge. It's certainly not getting any easier.

"When you play this type of schedule that we have right now, reality hits you right in the face how perfect we have to play in order to beat teams like this," Beilein said.

angelique.chengelis@detnews.com