The Wolverine: Covering University of Michigan Football and Sports
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INSIDE MICHIGAN ATHLETICS challenge games after riding junior point guard Spike Albrecht to victory. Albrecht scored 11 points and dished nine assists against the Orange's 2-3 zone, weaving his way through the defense repeatedly and providing a critical three-pointer with 30 seconds left to put the Wolver- ines up three. "We thought we had a good plan against Syracuse until you see that zone, how quick it is," Beilein said. "You'll have these little win- dows to try and get open shots or open op- portunities and they close so quickly." Albrecht mastered it. After a first half in which the Wolverines settled for too many outside shots, Albrecht did something about it. He dodged through traffic like a Harlem Globetrotter against the Washington Generals, finding freshman big man Ricky Doyle on several occasions or kicking it out to shooters. In the few minutes Albrecht sat down the stretch, Syracuse whittled a 10-point deficit to nothing. Yet Al- brecht didn't hesitate when he pulled the trigger from 22 feet, and U-M held on despite missing critical free throws, including the front end of one-and- ones by sophomore point guard Der- rick Walton and junior guard Caris LeVert. Two Syracuse turnovers in the last 30 seconds helped the cause. "It's really hard to go to somebody against that zone," Beilein said. "We tried to get an action that would allow them to either get a ball screen or urge them to move in. Sometimes you at- tack zone from too far out, but somebody's going to have to make a big shot." Albrecht's fell despite what he called a "little toilet bowl action," the ball circling the rim once before dropping. With Walton struggling with an injured toe, the junior was exactly what the Wolverines needed. "He's really good at- tacking zones," Beilein said. "He sees behind the zone, makes that entry pass into the dot area, the high post, bet- ter than anybody. So that's why we had him out there so much … he had runners, the big threes we had to have, then the obvious with the nine assists. That's 16 against no turnovers the last two games. "But [scoring] is something we be- lieve he can do. My encouragement to him this year was, 'Spike, we need you to score. This team cannot score like last year if you are just setting people up. Shoot the ball when open; you're really good at it.'" He obliged, and the Wolverines es- caped with a win as a result. ❑ ACC/Big Ten Challenge Series History Big Ten ACC Year Wins Wins 2014 8 6 2013 6 6 2012 6 6 2011 8 4 2010 6 5 2009 6 5 2008 5 6 2007 3 8 2006 3 8 2005 5 6 2004 2 7 2003 2 7 2002 4 5 2001 3 5 2000 4 5 1999 4 5