2B - March 10, 2014
The Michigan Daily - michigandaily.com
Nine Michigan facts we know to be true
This is all new and a
little overwhelming. All
you know as true is no
longer true.
Michigan is a
... basketball
school?
These
are heady
times for
Michigan. A
bit confusing, ZACH
too. The HELFAND
Michigan
men's
basketball
team has won the Big Ten
title with surprising ease.
The football and hockey
teams seem, respectively,
overpowered and inconsistent.
No one is quite sure how to
act. To help you navigate this
strange, new basketball world,
here is a revised list of truths
for the Michigan sports fan.
This is what we know to
be right. This is what you can
believe in.
1. The underclassman is
king.
Nik Stauskas climbed the
ladder to cut down his portion
of the net. The Crisler Center
cheered just a little louder than
for anyone else.
This was Senior Day for
Jordan Morgan, but it was
likely Stauskas' farewell game
too. He held up the net and
waved to the crowd.
By now, the panic is familiar.
Each April, the same questions
appear, just with different
names.
Will Manny Harris stay?
(No.) Darius Morris? (No.) Trey
Burke? (Yes. Then no.) Glenn
Robinson III? Mitch McGary?
Stauskas?
Rather quickly, Michigan
has become dependent on its
youngest players. This is a good
problem to have. But for the
foreseeable future, Michigan
will only go as far as its
underclassmen take it.
Believe in the underclassmen.
You don't really have any other
choice.
2. Glenn Robinson III is
better than you think.
But cut Michigan fans a
break on this one because
they're new to this basketball
thing. Most players are not
Burke or Stauskas or Caris
LeVert.
Most develop slowly and
unpredictably. Most are like
Robinson.
Believe in him, and he
may reward that belief with
important 3-pointers from the
corner.
3. November is
meaningless.
This one should be easy
to remember: Michigan
basketball in November is about
as meaningful as Michigan
football in November has been.
(Read: not much.)
Sure, the early part of the
season reveals a little about
a team. But try to reserve
judgment and panic until New
Years to avoid ridicule later.
Consider: Michigan State
probably should've lost to
Columbia. North Carolina lost
to Belmont. Michigan lost to
Charlotte.
The Wolverines have
rebounded admirably from that
most grave of setbacks. They
somehow clawed back from the
adversity of early losses to Iowa
State, Duke and Arizona.
Believe in March. Believe
in April. Beware of the false
prophets of November.
4. The 1-3-1 zone is
applicable in all situations.
The power of the 1-3-1
zone is boundless. The zone
hypnotizes opposing offenses.
It bewildered Indiana
Saturday, creating 12 second-
half turnovers and powering
Michigan's win.
Beilein has been shy to use
the 1-3-1 because, he says, he's
afraid of surrendering easy
3-pointers. That's logical. But
teams don't have much time
to prepare for the zone, and
it almost always succeeds in
slowing down a hot offense, at
least for a few possessions.
Beilein has learned to use
it more, and so can you. Put it
down when you're stumped
on your next Stats exam. With
four friends, use it to mystify
the bouncers at Rick's and cut
the long line. When driving
the caravan to the Big Ten
Tournament, put three people
in the middle row and one in
the back.
The 1-3-1 is good and just.
Believe in the 1-3-1.
5. Beilein knows what he's
doing.
When in doubt, reread No. 3.
Then No. 4.
6. Spike Albrecht has
never actually committed a
blocking foul.
Well, sure he has. He
probably committed multiple
against Indiana. But he scored
17 points in the freaking
National Championship Game,
so when he gets whistled for
three blocking fouls in15
minutes of play against the
Hoosiers, you're outraged with
the calls.
Believe in Spike Abrecht.
Believe in the charge.
7. Nik Stauskasjumper.
Believe in the jumper
(because you probably don't
have much time left).
8. Caris LeVert has a plan.
LeVert is shifty, but not in the
way other players are shifty.
On Saturday, Yogi Ferrell
bounced and bounded past
Sophomore forward Nik Stauskas may have played his final game at the Crisler Center and cut down the nets Saturday.
defenders. Ferrell was shifty.
Ferrell was smooth.
Trey Burke could change
speeds and control the tempo of
a game. He glided through the
lane. Burke was shifty. Burke
was smooth.
LeVert is not smooth. LeVert
is shifty - like a kid learning to
drive a manual transmission is
shifty. He lurches and stops and
then accelerates much faster
than anticipated.
And then the ball goes in.
Nothing wrong with that.
Believe in LeVert.
9. Championships feel like
this.
There's confetti on the
ground at the Crisler Center,
and the place is still mostly
full. Charles Woodson is posing
for photos with the team. The
rim is bare, because Beilein is
holding the net above his head.
Atop a ladder, he waves it
and, to no one in particular,
says, "Thank you, thank you,
thank you."
Then he climbs down and
smirks and looks out to a full
crowd to tell a story.
"Kathleen just reminded me,"
he says, referring to his wife.
"When we came here seven
years ago, there was about three
or four thousand people at our
first game. My son, Andy, said
to me, 'Tell me again why we
came to Michigan?"'
Nearby, Stauskas is searching
for his maize and blue Canadian
flag. Jordan Morgan, in tears
at his farewell hours earlier,
smiles big.
Moments ago, Tom Crean
walked, briskly and alone,
through the tunnel, scowling
so severely that his lower lip
nearly touched his nose, as if he
were trying to swallow his own
head.
Now, Derrick Walton Jr. and
Zak Irvin hold up the trophy:
Michigan is the outright Big
Ten Champions for the first
time in almost three decades.
"Tonight showed why people
come to Michigan," Beilein
says.
Believe it.
Helfand can be reached
at zhelfand@umich.edu and
on Twitter @zhelfand.
Morgan, Wolverines end home slate with win
By NEAL ROTHSCH
Daily Sports Editor
Jordan Morgan had
special history with India
Assembly Hall
Bloomington is the o
Ten venue
where the INDIANA
fifth-year MICHIGA
senior
hadn't won a game. Eve
the Hoosiers kept M
from a Big Ten title l
on the final game of the
season in dramatic fashi
To make it personal,
Morgan's missed tip-in
buzzer that was respons
the devastating
ILD Ten Championship this season,
this game meant something,
and it showed as Michigan put
I some together a strong second half to
sna. win on Senior Day, 84-80.
in The team celebrated after the
nly Big game by cutting down the nets
on the south goal as confetti
tO fell, taking pictures with the
N 84 trophy and posing with Charles
Woodson.
n more, "I can't say enough about
ichigan (Morgan)," said Michigan coach
ast year John Beilein. "His willpowerover
regular his five years, it came to fruition
on. today. And our team, it was sort
it was of like that the whole game. Not
at the many things went well for us.
sible for At the beginning, the ball was
bouncing their
way, they were
making great
has been an plays.
"All of a
aZing year so sudden, we just
ar ofa stuck in there,
'ar. So far." just like Jordan
has over his
five years."
Fittingly,
gan was it was Morgan leading the way.
to ease Fresh off shedding tears minutes
before tip-off as the Crisler Center
t the crowd saluted him with a rousing
s had ovation, Morgan promptly scored
ight Big the Wolverines' first six points
and went on to have one of his
best games as a Wolverine.
"It was fun to start the game
out like that," Morgan said.
"I did my best to just keep the
emotions separate, keep that
whole walking thing kind of short
and just move right on so I didn't
spend too much time reminiscing
and gettingall soft."
The pregame waterworks were
nothing, however, compared to
his emotions earlier in the week.
"It was worse before that,"
Morgan said. "That was pretty
calm compared to (a Big Ten
Network) interview."
He'd continue to plague the
Hoosiers (7-11 Big Ten, 17-14
overall) throughout the evening,
tying a season-high 15 points
on 88-percent shooting with
10 rebounds to record his first
double-double of the season.
The restof the teamwas shaky,
on defense at least, in the first half
as Indiana opened up a double-
digit lead and went into halftime
up 42-36. Michigan's offense
was sound and took care of the
ball, but the Hoosiers hit their
first eight attempts and shot 60
percent for the half.
Tensions hit a boiling point in
the final minutes of the half when,
after a series of non-calls, Beilein
loss on Senior
Day last year.
The game
marked
the start of
Morgan's
collapse in
playing time, as
Mitch McGary
"It
am4
f
Jordan Morgan, Michigan's lone senior, played a game to remember in the Wolverines' win over Indiana Saturday night.
played most of
the postseason, and Mori
left to watch Space Jam
his mood.
Never mind tha
12th-ranked Wolverine
already locked up the outr
harangued officials enough to
earn a technical foul - an oddity
for the normally stoic coach.
The Wolverines, however, led
by Morgan, wasted little time
reversing course after the break.
The center blocked a shot by
Hoosier guard Stanford Robinson
and led the transition in the
opposite direction, culminatingi
made free throws by sophomor
forward Glenn Robinson III.
Michigan (15-3, 23-7) woul
string together a 13-2 rui
within five minutes of the star
of the half, and Indiana wa
out of answers. It was then th
Wolverines' turn to push the lea
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SPEAKERS INCLSBE:
n into double digits.
e Then Robinson drained a
3-pointer from the corner to give
d Michigan a decisive edge.
n "I practiced that shot so many
t times," Robinson said on the court
s after the game, blue and maize
e ticker tape by his feet. "It feltgreat
d coming out of my hands."
Beilein echoed Robinson
verbatim. He knew it was a shot
Robinson practiced all the time,
and he knew it was good as soon
as it was released.
Morgan may have received
all of the adoration from the
fans and on the video board, but
it was Robinson who scored 20
points, and sophomore guard Nik
Stauskas who led the team with
21 points.
As sophomore point guard
Spike Albrecht hit a pair of free
throws with 20 seconds left to
help ice the game, Morgan stood
at the opposite end of the court
and threw a fist pump high into
the air.
It took five years, but he had
gotten the best of Indiana.
"It was fun," Morgan said.
"It was just a lot of fun to be
out there playing, playing well.
I love playing with these guys,
some of the best teammates. It
has been an amazing year, so
far. So far."
Paula Sveman George Davey Smith George Kaplan Paula Lantz Johan Mackenbach J. Michael McGinnis, 0avid W.Wiliams
University of Calitirnis, Untsy of Brist l University of Michigan George Washington Erasmus University Institute of Medicine of Harvard University
San Francisco UK University Medical Center the National Academies
Netherlands
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