Sports
6 — Tuesday, January 20, 2015
The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com
‘M’ holds off Northwestern
By MAX BULTMAN
Daily Sports Editor
Plagued by sicknesses to two
key contributors, the Michigan
men’s basketball team found a
way to get the job done.
Even with junior guard Spike
Albrecht out with a respiratory
infection and freshman center
Ricky Doyle playing minimal
minutes due to a cold, the
Wolverines
squeaked
out
a
thrilling win over Northwestern,
56-54.
Junior guard Caris LeVert
had 18 points, seven assists and
six rebounds in a game that
saw
Northwestern
in
prime
position to pull off a game-tying
buzzer-beater on the game’s final
possession.
Wildcats’
guard
Bryant
McIntosh put up a runner with
the final seconds ticking down,
but his shot rimmed out and
LeVert did just enough to clear
the rebound as time expired.
“I don’t know how (we got the
win), but we end up getting it,
and we’ll take it,” said Michigan
coach John Beilein. “I’m really
proud of the way our kids played
through some adversity.”
Northwestern was able to
stay in the game by exploiting a
stark mismatch down low. With
Doyle sidelined, Wildcats center
Alex Olah dominated redshirt
freshman Mark Donnal in the
post, forcing Donnal into foul
trouble and leading to big minutes
for senior forward Max Bielfeldt.
And though Olah held a
significant height and weight
advantage over both Wolverine
big men, Beilein went to various
zone defenses in an effort to
minimize his advantage.
“We couldn’t stop (Olah) down
low,” Beilein said. “It’s a matchup
that we just did not like, so we
went away from him.”
Whereas
Doyle’s
sickness
caused problems on the defensive
side
of
the
ball,
Albrecht’s
absence left Beilein with a
difficult decision on who to insert
into the starting lineup.
Freshman forward Kameron
Chatman had the most experience
starting, as he did for the first two
months of the season, but Beilein
thought it would be better to stay
with the smaller lineup for the
sake of consistency. Accordingly,
he turned to freshman guard
Muhammad-Ali
Abdur-
Rahkman alongside sophomore
guard Derrick Walton Jr. in
the backcourt. And both young
guards delivered.
Walton looked as sharp as he
has since sustaining a toe injury
against Villanova on Nov. 25,
making more deliberate cuts
and moving better away from
the ball. He was even able to find
more open space, getting free and
shooting an impressive 4-for-6
from beyond the arc.
Meanwhile, Abdur-Rahkman
held his own and kept up with the
tempo of the game, even coming
up with a few key buckets for
the Wolverines (4-2 Big Ten, 11-7
overall). With 8:17 remaining,
LeVert
saw
Abdur-Rahkman
cutting to the rim in transition,
hitting the freshman for a smooth
layup to tie the game at 45.
His nine points were the third
highest on the team behind
LeVert and Walton, and none
of them were bigger than his
dagger 3-pointer with just under
a minute to play, extending the
Wolverines’ lead to 56-52.
“I think it’s big, especially
for the rest of our season, to
have these guys sort of out of
their comfort zone playing big
minutes,” Bielfeldt said. “With
Muhammad doing that tonight,
you know when Spike is back
he’s probably not going to start,
he’s probably going to come
off the bench with a lot more
enthusiasm.”
Early in the game, LeVert
and Walton appeared as though
they would carry Michigan to a
runaway win. LeVert unleashed
a wicked crossover before finding
Walton for a corner triple eight
minutes into the game, then
followed it up with a 3-pointer of
his own on the next possession to
give Michigan an early 21-11 lead.
The back-to-back threes were
part of an 18-0 Wolverine run in
the first half.
But Northwestern (1-4, 10-8)
answered, riding 13 first-half
points from Olah and a buzzer-
beater at the end of the first frame
to take a 32-31 lead into halftime.
The Wildcats went on to stretch
their lead to large as five points
in the second half before Abdur-
Rahkman tied the game and hit
the eventual game-winner.
LUNA ANNA ARCHEY/Daily
Muhammad-Ali Abdur-Rahkman hit a key 3-pointer late in the game after starting for the first time this season.
Behind Enemy Lines:
Rutgers’ Myles Mack
By DANIEL FELDMAN
Daily Sports Editor
Even with an injury report
that grows by the day, the Big
Ten schedule won’t wait for the
Michigan
men’s
basketball
team to get
healthy.
Tuesday,
the
Wolverines
(4-2
Big
Ten,
11-7 overall) will travel to
Piscataway to take on Rutgers.
While
not
much
was
expected this season from the
Scarlet Knights (2-4, 10-9),
they recently turned heads
with an upset over then-No. 4
Wisconsin. They have since lost
to Minnesota and Maryland,
but Tuesday’s game may not be
a cupcake game for Michigan,
as it was once billed.
Leading the Scarlet Knights
is senior guard Myles Mack,
who averages 14.7 points and
4.5 assists.
The Daily sat down with
Mack at Big Ten Media Day
in October to talk about the
transition to the Big Ten,
expectations in the tougher
conference and how former
NBA coach Eddie Jordan has
handled the switch to coaching
college basketball.
The Michigan Daily: Are
you excited to see more of the
Midwest this year after being
on the East Coast a lot in the
early parts of your time at
Rutgers?
Myles Mack: It’s a great
opportunity to come out to the
Midwest and play these great
teams. (I’m) just happy to have
the opportunity to do that.
TMD: Is it going to be a hard
transition to play in your third
different league in three years?
MM:
No,
I
mean,
the
transitions haven’t been that
bad. I mean, it’s just basketball,
so at the end of the day it’s the
same thing.
TMD: Are people buying
into his message? Is he teaching
different things? What exactly
is he trying to do to connect the
team?
MM: He’s just trying to
connect the team the best way he
can. He’s getting us to do more
things off the court together. (He
wants us) to make better bonds,
better chemistry. He’s just doing
a lot more different activities off
the court and getting after us in
practice also.
TMD: Coach Jordan has said
he’s always willing to talk about
his career. Are there any stories
that have stuck to you or your
teammates?
MM: Yeah, man — him
making it to the Final Four in
’76. He just talks about that all
the time. He says anything is
possible, so we’re just trying to
work hard and get there one day.
TMD: In 1976, Rutgers lost
to Michigan in the Final Four.
Since you play Michigan twice
this year, do you think he might
bring that up, try to rev you up
before those games?
MM: Yeah, I’m sure he will.
He doesn’t bring it up that often,
but I’m sure on that occasion
he will bring it up just to put
something in our heads about
the opportunity.
TMD: What’s the goal for
this year?
MM: Of course, the goal is to
make the NCAA Tournament,
just like every college team.
We’re just trying to get as many
wins as we can. That’s all we
can really worry about right
now.
MEN’S BASKETBALL
BEHIND
ENEMY
LINES
Michigan improves
in conference debut
By CINDY YU
Daily Sports Writer
From the uneven bars to the
balance beam and the floor exer-
cise to the vault, the No. 4 Michi-
gan women’s gymnastics team
showed improvements on each
event in its first Big Ten meet.
The Wolverines hit all 24 of
their routines on Saturday, took
home top honors on every event
and swept the podium in the all-
around competition. Senior Sachi
Sugiyama and freshman Brianna
Brown scored their career-best
totals of 39.450 and 39.375 to
place first and third, respectively.
Sophomore Nicole Artz finished
second with a score of 39.400.
Michigan (1-0 Big Ten, 3-0
overall) scored 196.975 to defeat
No. 20 Ohio State (195.025) and
West Virginia (194.175) at St.
John Arena in Columbus.
Though the margin of victory
may not seem significant, the
improvements in scores don’t
begin to do their performances
justice. At No. 10 Georgia last
weekend, the Wolverines tallied
196.600 to set their highest-scor-
ing season opener in program
history.
Michigan started out on bars,
an event in which the six com-
petitors in the lineup swept the
top six spots.
Freshman Nichelle Christo-
pherson set the tone for the rest
of the lineup by leading off on
uneven bars. Her score of 9.825
matched the performance of
junior Briley Casanova in the
anchor position.
Sandwiched in between their
routines, Sugiyama and Artz
both scored 9.850 to improve
upon their scores from the pre-
vious week. Brown — named Big
Ten Freshman of the Week for
the second consecutive week —
set a career-best 9.875 on bars
to rank among the top 20 in the
country. Junior Lindsay Wil-
liams also topped her career high
by earning a 9.925.
After the first rotation, Michi-
gan led the Buckeyes and the
Mountaineers 49.325 to 48.900
and 48.725, respectively.
Beam
was
an
especially
impressive event for the Wol-
verines. Michigan’s 49.225 score
propelled it to the top nationl
ranking for the event.
A West Chester, Ohio native
making her homecoming to the
state, Brown led the team with a
career-high 9.875 routine.
“As a freshman, Brianna con-
tinues to just impress me tremen-
dously,” Plocki said. “She’s proven
to be a really dynamic competitor
and very, very consistent.”
In her return to the beam line-
up, Casanova led off with a score
of 9.800.
Sugiyama scored her career-
best 9.850 in just her second
competition on the beam since
freshman year.
“Sachi has really just come
into her own this year,” Plocki
said. “She just competes with so
much more aggressiveness and
confidence than she had when
she came in as a freshman.”
Artz and her sophomore coun-
terpart Talia Chiarelli tied Sugi-
yama in back-to-back routines,
with both currently tied for No.
7 in the NCAA standings on the
event.
Just like the bars squad, the
entire Michigan floor lineup
in the six-up five-count format
placed in the top six. The scores
escalated throughout the night,
with Williams leading off with a
9.800 routine and Artz capping
the rotation by tying her career
high with a score of 9.950.
“My favorite part of compet-
ing is cheering on the sidelines of
floor,” Brown said. “I love doing
everybody else’s routines and
then cheering them on, giving
out high fives and seeing their
faces at the end of their routines.
They’re just so happy and there’s
such raw emotion. It’s unlike
anything I’ve ever seen.”
Heading into the final rota-
tion, Michigan led by over a point
with a total of 147.800.
On vault, Sugiyama highlight-
ed the event with a stuck Yurch-
enko 1.5 in the anchor position,
earning her a 9.925 score.
WOMEN’S GYMNASTICS