8A — Wednesday, January 13, 2016
Sports
The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com
GRANT HARDY/Daily
MICHIGAN 70, MARYLAND 67
LIVE BY THE THREE
Irvin returns to his
former self with 22
points in Michigan’s
marquee victory
By LEV FACHER
Daily Sports Writer
In late December, Michigan
men’s basketball coach John
Beilein
acknowledged
what
seemed like an inevitable truth:
Zak Irvin might not return to
100 percent, in terms of health or
rhythm, at any point during the
2015-16 season.
Tuesday, the junior forward
made a simple assertion.
“I feel healthy,” Irvin said. “My
body is 100 percent.”
At that point, Irvin barely had
to say it. He had just scored 22
points during Michigan’s 70-67
stunner over No. 3 Maryland,
playing with the confidence he
had seemed to lack in the 15 games
leading up to the breakthrough as
he recovered from an offseason
back surgery.
“We couldn’t guard him,” said
Maryland coach Mark Turgeon.
Irvin’s confidence, and his
irrepressible shot, were never
more evident than with just
under three minutes remaining in
the game, as junior guard Derrick
Walton Jr. clung to a defensive
rebound as tightly as Michigan
clung to its five-point lead. Beilein
signaled to his point guard to
play slowly and burn clock as he
brought the Wolverines into their
half-court set.
Irvin wasn’t having any of it. He
received the ball from Walton at
the top of the key, and knowing it
was his night, he rose, off balance,
and brought the house down with
his third trey of the night.
Asked if he would have made,
or even attempted, the same shot
just two weeks ago, Irvin could
only smile.
“I’m getting more confident
each game,” he said. “I think I
would have taken that shot, but I
was definitely in a rhythm tonight,
which made that shot easier.”
It was the proverbial dagger
— the shot that gave Michigan
its first win in five tries against
ranked opponents this season.
And while in a Beilein-designed
utopia it might have come with 10
fewer seconds on the shot clock,
Irvin recognized the opportunity
when he saw it.
“I think everybody knows,
once I see one go in, I feel like
every one can go in,” Irvin said.
“We have different options in that
set, but I felt like I had enough
room to be able to make the shot,
and I did. It just felt good when it
left my hand.”
For two months, Irvin had
looked like a shell of his former
self. After working for two years
to do away with a longstanding
label — “just a shooter” — the
junior forward struggled in the
early season to prove himself
as
even
that.
His
3-point
percentages dipped into the low
20s, and his attempts from long
range were often discernibly off
target almost from the moment
they left his hand.
The return to grace hasn’t been
smooth — just as Irvin seemed
to regain some semblance of
a rhythm, senior guard Caris
LeVert fell out of commission
with a left leg injury. So the
Wolverines
have
turned
to
Irvin, among others, to shoulder
the scoring load, especially in
Thursday’s 87-70 loss at Purdue.
With redshirt sophomore guard
Duncan Robinson locked down
by the Boilermakers’ Raphael
Davis, the ball wound up in
Irvin’s hands frequently.
It was to no avail. With the
burden of LeVert’s scoring on
his shoulders, Irvin shot just
2-for-10 from the field, and he
said Tuesday that the pressure
of playing in his home state took
him out of the mindset he needed
to be successful.
Against Maryland, it was a
different story.
“He’s doing some things,”
Beilein said. “He’s driving the ball
to the basket. He’s driving it under
control. That was a good night
for him — a really good night for
him — and if we can just get him
(to play) with the consistency that
he expects of himself, that will
really help us.”
Michigan’s assistant coaches,
as Beilein mentioned offhandedly
after Tuesday’s game, call Irvin
“big shot,” in reference to his
reputation in high school and
across youth leagues in his
teenage years.
They might want to update the
rationale behind the nickname, as
Tuesday made it clear that Irvin
still has his ability as a playmaker.
Calling Irvin a big shot, at times
like these, is only fair. Sometimes,
and perhaps more often going
forward, he acts like a big shot, and
sometimes, he makes big shots.
converted an and-1 play to give
the Wolverines a 59-57 lead,
redshirt
sophomore
guard
Duncan
Robinson
sank
a
difficult underhanded reverse
layup and junior guard Derrick
Walton Jr. buried a 3-pointer to
extend the lead.
Maryland (4-1, 15-2) rallied
furiously in the closing minutes,
with guard Rasheed Sulaimon
sinking
two
3-pointers
in
the final three minutes and
Stone knocking down two free
throws to cut the lead to two.
But Donnal grabbed a crucial
offensive rebound and made
one of two shots at the foul line
on Michigan’s next possession,
which was followed up by a
missed triple from Sulaimon just
before the buzzer to give the
Wolverines the upset win.
Irvin
—
who
Maryland
coach Mark Turgeon said was
“unguardable” tonight — finished
the game with 22 points, Robinson
added 17 and Michigan hit 12
3-pointers, the most the Terrapins
have allowed in a game all season.
In Beilein’s mind, the victory
was a glimpse of the full potential
of Irvin and Walton — two
players who have been forced into
important roles since they were
sophomores, and two players
who were tasked with closing out
the game as the most experienced
leaders on the court.
“This is that next step for
them,” Beilein said. “It’s the
feeling right now that (they can
be like) Tim Hardaway, Trey
Burke, Nik Stauskas or Caris
LeVert — make a big play to win
the game.”
Even without LeVert — the
Wolverines’
leading
scorer,
rebounder and assist man —
Michigan
initially
had
little
trouble getting off to a quick
start, thanks in no small part to
the 3-pointer.
After
Maryland
bullied
its
way to four
points
off
two offensive
rebounds
to
start the game,
the Wolverines
turned to the
outside, where
Walton, Irvin and Robinson
buried three straight triples to
give Michigan an 11-6 lead and
get the Crisler Center crowd
involved early.
Maryland
was
without
Trimble for much of the first
half, as he exited the game with
two fouls with 9:40 remaining.
He finished the game with just
two points.
The first half ended in a 3-point
battle, with Maryland forward
Robert
Carter
Jr.
knocking
down a shot-clock-beating triple
to give Maryland a 22-21 lead
and Layman hitting a trey of his
own a few moments later. But
Robinson answered every blow,
hitting three 3-pointers in less
than three minutes to retake a
five-point lead.
The Wolverines still couldn’t
match the Terrapins’ size early on
— they were outrebounded 16-12
in the opening frame and 36-27
in total — but they stepped up the
effort and physicality. Before he
closed the game with the offensive
rebound, Donnal ended the first
half
on
an
outstanding
stretch
in
which
he
blocked
Sulaimon
and Carter on
back-to-back
possessions
and
tipped
in
a
missed
3-pointer at the
buzzer to give Michigan a 37-29
lead at the half.
The Wolverines nearly gave
that lead away in the second
frame, but after a few more
timely threes and free throws,
they secured their biggest win of
the season.
“This is the Big Ten. It’s
gonna be a dogfight each game,”
Irvin said. “I think teams are
overlooking us with (senior guard
Spike Albrecht) and Caris out,
and we’ve just got to let everyone
know we are a good ballclub
without them.”
BASKETBALL
From Page 1A
“It just feels good
to get this win
today, against a
really good team.”
GRANT HARDY/Daily
Junior guard Derrick Walton Jr. turned in a double-double with 12 points and 10 rebounds against Maryland.