A few familiar faces will be on the other bench today when Michigan opens the Big Ten men's basketball tournament in Indianapolis.
Today's 2:30 p.m. tip-off between the No. 8-seeded Wolverines and No. 9 Iowa will be the third straight season the programs have met in the first round, both a commentary on the programs and their respective regular seasons.
U-M won both of those meetings and three of the past four in the regular season, including both this season. DeShawn Sims has had some of his bigger games against the Hawkeyes.
In the Big Ten tournament opener last year -- with the Wolverines feeling they needed at least one win in Indy to put themselves in position for an NCAA tournament berth -- Sims had one of his best halves, scoring U-M's first 14 points. He finished with 27 points in a 28-point win.
After scoring 20 points in this season's first meeting against Iowa at Crisler Arena, Sims single-handedly rallied the Wolverines to victory in Iowa City. He scored nine points in the final 1:10 of regulation to force overtime.
"I knew that going into the game they play a real solid defense, and I have to take one possession at a time and try not to force nothing and let the game come to me," Sims said this week. "Those two games, they happened to come to me because I stayed patient."
U-M's challenge will be to contain Iowa big man Aaron Fuller, who played the Sims role for Iowa in the last matchup. His 30 points and 13 rebounds were both career highs.
"He's become really assertive," U-M coach John Beilein said of Fuller. "He's that rugged four man (power forward) that we've had trouble matching up with. He plays much bigger than 6-6. He just really gets to the rim both with and without the ball. ... He's been difficult for us. We've taken that into account with our scouting report."
Beilein was asked if he had confidence in the Wolverines winning four games -- the only way to make the NCAA tournament. He answered no, because he had confidence in them winning one game, then the next and so on.
The coach can only ask so much to point out the urgency of the season ending.
"Once you know that you have to put it all on the line and you don't have another game, it's easier that way," Sims said. "We knew we had another game after Michigan State (Sunday), we knew we had another game after Minnesota, even though it was senior day. Sometimes if you know you get another chance, you may take it for granted."
Contact MARK SNYDER: 313-223-3210 or msnyder@freepress.com. Check out his Wolverines blog at freep.com/section/blog14.
