Sports
The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com
Wednesday, December 9, 2015 — 7A
Michigan’s inevitable loss
I
t seemed easy for the
Michigan women’s
basketball team to roll to a
7-0 start to the season — maybe
too easy.
Before
Sunday’s loss
to Princeton,
the
Wolverines
had averaged
87.9 points
per game,
making them
the third-
best scoring
offense in the
country. They
surpassed 100 points against
South Carolina Upstate, wiped
the Crisler Center floor with
Xavier and avenged last season’s
21-point loss to Pittsburgh.
Even without the presence
of the last year’s veteran senior
class, Michigan still reversed
the storyline against Pittsburgh
by churning out a 37-point win
this time around. Whether from
observation or on paper, the
Wolverines haven’t struggled
during nonconference play.
With such a young team,
though, you knew a loss was
coming.
It shouldn’t have been too
surprising that Michigan lost
to Princeton on Sunday. That
doesn’t necessarily mean the
Wolverines couldn’t compete
at that level, but they were
still rough around the edges
through those first seven games.
Michigan knew it couldn’t get
too comfortable either, as players
continued to emphasize that
each game is different from
the next and that early-season
mistakes won’t suffice during Big
Ten play.
Passing and shooting
mistakes weren’t difference-
makers against Detroit or
Hartford, but were exactly what
drew the line between a win
and a loss against Princeton.
The Tigers were on the verge
of breaking into the top 25 and
still had the taste of Wolverine
blood from last season, when
Princeton embarrassed
Michigan to the tune of a
30-point victory in Ann Arbor.
This time around, being in
New Jersey couldn’t have made
it any easier for the Wolverines.
But then again, they took a
30-point loss to Princeton and
turned it into a 17-point loss — an
improvement.
More importantly, Michigan
has a group of freshmen that
aren’t playing like freshmen. In
fact, they’ve accounted for over
a third of Michigan’s points so
far this season. Anyone can dish
the ball to center Hallie Thome;
guards Nicole Munger and
Boogie Brozoski have proved to
be lights out beyond the 3-point
line; and forward Sam Trammel
has shown great promise on the
defensive end.
“They’re winners,” said
Michigan coach Kim Barnes
Arico. “They’re competitive,
they’re a top-rated class in
the country. … But they are
inexperienced. They’re gonna
have some really great moments
for us, and I’m sure they’re gonna
have some challenging moments
as well.”
Sunday, the first of many
challenging moments to come hit
Michigan, and hit it hard enough
to take the freshman class out of
the game entirely. Thome scored
just three points and seemed
to always position herself on
the end line for a pass, making
it even more difficult to get a
good look at the basket during a
double team. Munger, Brozoski
and Trammel combined for six
turnovers and just four points.
For a freshman class that
had gone all of high school
doing nothing but winning —
combining for a 107-9 record in
its senior year — Sunday’s loss
must have been a reality check.
Last week, Barnes Arico said
they didn’t know how to lose.
But maybe some experience in
that department wouldn’t hurt.
In fact, Sunday’s loss was
exactly the dose of medicine
Michigan needed to remedy
its winner’s high. It needed
to experience defeat, because
it hadn’t since April 1 against
UCLA in the WNIT Semifinals
last season. Coincidentally, the
Bruins are the very same team
the Wolverines will face Sunday
on the Crisler hardwood.
Whether Michigan recognizes
it or not, Sunday’s loss may be the
motivating factor to not make the
same mistakes again — or at least
make them on a less consistent
basis.
For instance, if sophomore
guard Katelynn Flaherty has
a 33-point night, that should
almost guarantee a win. It
shouldn’t mean 24.1 percent
team shooting and 22 turnovers,
factors that made a meaningful
performance by Flaherty in her
home state irrelevant.
That can’t happen again if the
Wolverines hope to dance in the
NCAA Tournament.
This could very well be the
year that Michigan makes it to
that stage of the postseason, and
losing to Princeton may have
been the best way to remind the
Wolverines that the road to the
Round of 64 won’t be laden with
teams like Oral Roberts and
South Carolina Upstate.
Instead, Michigan’s going
to face six top-25 teams: No. 5
Maryland, No. 10 Ohio State, No.
12 Northwestern, No. 20 UCLA,
No. 23 Iowa and No. 25 Michigan
State.
It’d be better for the
Wolverines to purge themselves
of mistakes now rather than
later. Losing games in December
is part of the learning curve, and
a poor performance now won’t
mean as much as it would in
February.
A loss to Princeton this
early in the season does more
good than harm for Michigan,
and the Wolverines should be
thankful that they can still
afford that luxury.
Whipple can be reached at
bmwhip@umich.edu and on
Twitter @brad_whipple.
BRAD
WHIPPLE
FOOTBALL
Butt to
return
for final
season
By MAX COHEN
Managing Sports Editor
Michigan junior tight end
Jake Butt announced on his
Twitter
account
Tuesday
that he will be returning to
Michigan for his senior season.
Butt said Monday he was
still 50-50 on whether or not
he would enter the NFL Draft.
He had planned to speak with
Michigan coach Jim Harbaugh
before making his decision.
“My heart and soul is with
Michigan,
and
I’m
excited
to return for my senior year
and play for the most historic
university and the greatest
coaches in college football,”
Butt wrote, “and to go into
battle another year with my
friends and teammates. There
are many goals we have set
for our team and there’s more
work to be done … starting with
getting win No. 10 against the
Gators! Go Blue!”
BY THE NUMBERS
Junior tight end Jake Butt
48
Receptions this season
620
Receiving yards this season
3
Touchdowns this season
1,066
Career receiving yards, fifth all-time
among Michigan tight ends
RITA MORRIS/Daily
Senior guard Madison Ristovski is one of the older leaders for the Wolverines charged with helping out many of the team’s younger players.
Catching up with
‘surrender cobra’
By SIMON KAUFMAN
Daily Sports Editor
Michigan sophomore Chris
Baldwin is finally breathing easily.
Baldwin
—
who
claimed
Internet fame when an image of
him with his hands over his head
went viral following the Michigan
football team’s last-second loss
to Michigan State earlier this
year — had his hands raised over
his head again on Saturday as
he watched the Michigan men’s
basketball team take on Houston
Baptist.
This
time,
though,
Baldwin, along with the rest of
the student section at the Crisler
Center, had his hands up high and
fingers wiggling as sophomore
guard Aubrey Dawkins stepped
to the line for free throws late
in Michigan’s 82-57 rout of the
Huskies.
Baldwin,
an
engineering
student from Saginaw, Mich.,
said that before Michigan’s loss
to Michigan State, he was “no
different than anybody else —
just a good sports fan.” But that
day, when Michigan punter Blake
O’Neill bobbled a snap with time
expiring and the Spartans ran
the ball back for a game-winning
touchdown, that all changed.
ESPN’s cameras focused in on a
stunned Baldwin, and the image
quickly went viral.
“I guess I was doing the
surrender cobra pose,” Baldwin
said. “And now everybody knows
who I am. … I felt a bunch of text
messages right after the game
ended, but I figured it was just
people talking about the game
because, of course, it was crazy,
and then when I finally looked
as we were getting ready to head
out of the stadium, I had all sorts
of texts and tweets and things on
Facebook — all sorts of pictures
and people talking about how I
was suddenly famous.”
The pose — known as the
“surrender cobra” — is a common
sight in stadiums following come-
from-behind wins and thrilling
finishes. It consists of hands over
the head, elbows pointed out and
jaw dropped — making speechless
spectators resemble the venomous
snake. The pose even got its
own segment on ESPN’s College
GameDay last week, in which
Baldwin was featured.
“I’ve tried to have fun with
it,” Baldwin said. “Of course,
everybody here at (the University)
supports me, because they all felt
the same way I did.”
Another image of Baldwin
doing the pose, this time in
Detroit Lions gear, went viral
after the NFL team suffered a
Hail Mary loss at the hands of the
Green Bay Packers on Thursday.
It was actually taken at an earlier
date — Baldwin watched that
game in his dorm room, and he
was able to restrain himself from
breaking out the cobra.
“I kind of felt like that pose,”
he said. “But I don’t think I was
doing it.”
So after lots of devastation,
when Michigan hosted Houston
Baptist in a guarantee game on
Saturday, it meant that Baldwin
would most likely be able to keep
the cobra in the cage for the game.
But after some of the finishes he’s
seen, he wasn’t 100 percent sure.
“I guess there’s no guarantees,
especially
after
last
year’s
season,” Baldwin said during the
second half. “But yeah, it’s nice
not to worry as much about the
game and just kind of enjoy it.”
On Saturday, he did get to
enjoy it. Michigan rolled past the
Huskies and — at least for one
day — the cobra got to go into
hibernation.
RUBY WALLAU/Daily
Engineering sophomore Chris Baldwin became famous in October.
Wolverines routed by SMU
By KELLY HALL
Daily Sports Writer
Against No. 19 Southern
Methodist, the Michigan men’s
basketball team didn’t have its
bread and butter.
Heading into their matchup
with
the
Mustangs,
the
Wolverines (6-3) were shooting
43.9
percent
from
beyond
the arc. In the first half of their
82-58 loss Tuesday, they went
just 2-for-14 on their 3-point
attempts. Junior guard Derrick
Walton Jr., who was averaging
9.6 points and 4.6 rebounds
per game — making him the
Wolverines’
second-leading
rebounder — sat out his second
straight game with a lateral
ankle sprain. Senior guard Caris
LeVert, who leads the team with
18.6 points per game, made just
one field goal on 13 attempts.
The trend continued into
the second half, and Michigan
couldn’t keep up. The Mustangs
(7-0) clobbered the Wolverines
in SMU’s Moody Coliseum,
handing Michigan its third non-
conference loss of the season.
Though the first half exposed
many
of
the
Wolverines’
flaws, it wasn’t all negative.
Sophomore guard Muhammad-
Ali Abdur-Rahkman, starting
in place for Walton, scored
Michigan’s first six points to
keep the Wolverines in the
game and hushed the Mustangs’
lead scorer, 5-foot-9 guard Nic
Moore, in the contest’s early
minutes. Abdur-Rahkman went
6-for-10 shooting and finished
with 15 points.
Junior forward Zak Irvin,
who has been largely quiet since
returning from his offseason
back surgery, scored a loud nine
points when his teammates
needed it most.
But SMU went on scoring
runs
at
numerous
points,
including a five-minute, 10-0
run that was finally put to an
end
when
Abdur-Rakhman
stripped the ball from Mustang
guard Jarrey Foster and threw
it to redshirt sophomore guard
Duncan Robinson, who then fed
it to sophomore forward Kam
Chatman for a jumper.
Moore
finally
made
a
statement with
three minutes
left in the half
with back-to-
back
triples,
the second one
coming off a
straight-on,
long-range
3.
Less
than
a
minute
later,
LeVert double-
dribbled
on
the other end,
giving the ball back to Mustangs
forward Jordan Tolbert, who
followed up with back-to-back
dunks.
SMU ended the frame on a
15-4 run, making its final six
attempts to head into the locker
room with a lofty 14-point lead.
The Wolverines were able to
trim the gap to nine points in the
second half after back-to-back
3-pointers from Robinson and
Irvin made it 39-30, but despite
Robinson’s best efforts — his 15
points tied Abdur-Rahkman for
the team lead — the Mustangs
continued
to
wallop
the
Wolverines. Michigan allowed
10 dunks, nine of which were
scored by Tolbert, who ended
the game with 23 points on
11-for-12 shooting.
“(Tolbert with) four offensive
rebounds per game ... I don’t
think I’ve seen that, and I’ve
seen a lot of stats,” Beilein said.
“He just goes and gets the ball.
He was like a man playing with
boys out there — he just went
and got it.”
LeVert’s
shooting
woes
continued into the second half,
with his first and only field goal
coming with just 4:36 left in the
game. Last season, SMU also
effectively shut down LeVert,
who scored just four points in
Michigan’s 62-51 loss at home
on Dec. 20.
“We had two days to rest,
so we tried to rest (LeVert)
on
Sunday,”
Beilein
said.
“We’ve
been
leaning on him
an awful lot,
so he’ll bounce
back,
but
it
was a tough
game for him.
… Who knows
what
it
is,
but they did
a
great
job
against
him.
They switched a lot of screens
when he came off, they really
challenged him, and he had a
tough game. When he’s missing
foul shots, you know he’s having
a tough game.”
The
Wolverines
left
the
court in Dallas with plenty of
missed opportunities, including
a final stretch where they
shot 0-for-6 in the last three
minutes. Michigan was also
outrebounded by the Mustangs,
45-20, mostly on the defensive
end.
After flying home Tuesday,
Michigan will take a much
needed three-day rest after its
seventh game in 19 days and
before Saturday’s matchup with
Delaware State.
“We’re still young in the
season,” Beilein said. “If you’re
going to get beat, get beat early.
And this shows you, like I said,
if you think you’re good, you’re
not good.
“That team’s good. We’re a
long way from being good.”
MICHIGAN
SMU
58
82
MEN’S BASKETBALL
“If you’re
going to get
beat, get beat
early.”