The Wolverine

March 2014

The Wolverine: Covering University of Michigan Football and Sports

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BY JOHN BORTON N ik Stauskas put it all on him- self, like a Canadian marks- man failing to drop a moose at 30 paces. Michigan's first Big Ten defeat of the year, and he'd come up empty-handed. Indiana's Yogi Farrell hounded him relentlessly. He face-guarded Stauskas throughout the Hoosiers' 63-52 victory Feb. 2 at the Bob Knight Memorial House Of Horrors. U-M's sophomore standout came away with six points, six shots and no small amount of self-indictment. "I felt like I lost the game for us," he offered, softly. Up until that moment, Stauskas' ascent had outpaced Franz Klam- mer 's speed while flying down the side of an icy mountain. Many pegged U-M's second-year sharp- shooter as the Big Ten Player of the Year, after he raced through the first half of the conference season as its leading scorer. Stauskas' unrelenting summer workout determination and a wide- open opportunity in the form of a pair of NBA departures dovetailed into his explosive start to the season. He not only paced the Wolverines in scoring (16.7 points per game) through 25 games, but also in assists (3.5 per game), three-point shooting (44.0 percent) and free throw accu- racy (81.9 percent). One by one, opposing coaches marveled at what the Wolverines un- leashed, while opposing fan bases deridingly honored him by chanting "U-S-A! U-S-A!" and "De-port Staus- kas!" at the native of Mississauga, Ontario. "They're a very good passing team, especially Stauskas," Purdue head coach Matt Painter pointed out, after Michigan beat Purdue 75-66 Jan. 30. "You rarely ever see a guy that scores the ball like that with that ability to pass, especially at that position. He's a very tough matchup. Any time you have your best player passing the ball like that, it's contagious. It really STRONGER, TOUGHER, WISER Jagged Arc Keeps Heading Upward For Nik Stauskas

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