8 — Tuesday, March 15, 2016
Sports
The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com
Robinson ready for D-I tourney
By SIMON KAUFMAN
Daily Sports Editor
Two years ago, on the first
Sunday
of
March,
Duncan
Robinson crammed into his
coaches’
offices
with
his
Williams College teammates as
they awaited their fate in the
Division III NCAA Tournament.
There was no fancy primetime
two-hour Selection Sunday show,
no texts pouring in from family
afterward and no media waiting
to talk with the team afterward.
Robinson — then a freshman at
the small Williamstown, Mass.,
liberal arts college — watched
on an online stream as his team’s
name was called. Williams was
going to the Big Dance, except it
wasn’t that big of a deal — it was
only Division III, after all.
Fast forward two years, and
Robinson — now a redshirt
sophomore
guard
for
the
Michigan
men’s
basketball
team after transferring from
Williams — will get a taste of
the big Big Dance: the Division
I NCAA Tournament.
The
NCAA
Tournament
Selection Committee announced
Sunday that the Wolverines
would play Tulsa in Dayton,
Ohio, as part of the tournament’s
First Four. A win Wednesday
would give them a No. 11 seed and
a Friday night matchup against
No.
6
seed
Notre Dame in
Brooklyn, N.Y.
In
2014,
Robinson
helped
lead
the Ephs to the
championship
game
and
a
runner-up
finish. But even
so,
playing
at
that
level
meant their Selection Sunday
prior to the tournament had a
different feel to it.
“We had a little viewing party
— I guess you could call it, in
our coaches’ offices, but nothing
to this scale,” Robinson said.
“There was no media afterwards,
I can tell you that.”
On
Sunday,
Robinson
got
a
different
experience.
The
Wolverines watched this year’s
Selection Sunday show from
the Weiser Crisler Center Club
— a club level-esque area of the
arena, and afterward, about
two
dozen
members
of
the
media
waited to hear
from
players
and Michigan
coach
John
Beilein.
“The
scale is a lot
different, hard
to
compare,”
Robinson
said. “When we got into the
tournament at Williams, I might
have gotten one text from my
mom. This time, I got a few more,
I guess you could say.”
More recognition, be it texts
from friends or shoutouts from
noted college basketball analysts,
has been a theme for Robinson
since arriving in Ann Arbor.
After sitting out the 2014-15
season due to NCAA transfer
rules, Robinson has made a
name for himself at the Division
I level. The New Castle, N.H.,
native broke into Michigan’s
starting lineup in its 10th game
and has been a staple since. He
has paced 11.2 points per game
to go along with 3.3 rebounds
and has been the Wolverines’
best look from 3-point range,
shooting at a 45-percent clip
from deep.
Despite
his
success,
Robinson’s numbers dropped off
midway through the season as he
struggled to find his stroke. After
starting the season shooting
better than 50 percent through
21 games from beyond the arc,
Robinson shot worse than 30
percent from the perimeter in
Michigan’s final 10 regular-
season games. But in the Big Ten
Tournament, Robinson regained
a bit of his rhythm, going off for
21 points against Northwestern
and hitting a clutch 3 against
Indiana that set Michigan up for
a buzzer-beating victory.
“This has been such a great
learning experience for him,”
Beilein said. “For right now, it just
gives him another opportunity
to validate that his performance
in the Big Ten, both hitting
clutch shots and just playing a
lot of minutes in the Big Ten —
rebounding and having assists in
the tournament — validated why
he’s here.”
Robinson validated himself
as a Division I player during
the regular season. Now he has
the opportunity to do it in the
postseason.
“This
is
why
I
came
here,” Robinson said. “(The)
opportunity to play in the NCAA
Tournament. … You build it up
in your head, but that moment
when you hear your name called
is pretty surreal.”
LUNA ANNA ARCHEY/Daily
Redshirt sophomore guard Duncan Robinson will play in the Division I NCAA Tournament for the first time Wednesday.
“That moment
when you hear
your name called
is pretty surreal.”
Connor (POY), Wolverines
nearly sweep Big Ten awards
Compher, Motte,
Connor all earn
first-team honors;
Berenson COY
By JUSTIN MEYER
Daily Sports Writer
Michigan took home six Big
Ten hockey awards Monday
afternoon, led by star freshman
forward Kyle Connor as Player of
the Year.
“It’s a great accomplishment
and I’m really honored,” Connor
said. “It’s pretty cool.”
The nod is an indication
that
the
quiet
left-winger
has separated himself among
Michigan’s stars in the Hobey
Baker
race.
After
posting
61 points in 34 games, he is
considered by many voters to be
the frontrunner. Boston College’s
Jack Eichel won the Hobey in his
first season with near-identical
points per game numbers last
year, but freshmen have only
won the award twice and never
in back-to-back seasons.
The accolades didn’t stop
there.
In
a
perhaps
more
impressive
honor,
the
CCM
line — composed of Connor and
junior forwards Tyler Motte and
JT Compher — swept the first-
team All-Big Ten awards.
Michigan coach Red Berenson
said it was the first time he could
remember that happening.
“We’ve had some great lines —
and maybe some that could’ve or
should’ve (swept the first team
selections) — but this one did,”
Berenson said.
The CCM line has been the
most dominant in college hockey
this season. Connor, Compher
and Motte rank first, third and
fifth in the NCAA for points,
respectively. The line began to
jell after Christmas and never
slowed down. Connor is in the
midst of a 23-game point streak
and Tyler Motte set a modern-
day Michigan record with a
12-game goal streak.
“I think we’ve just become
more vocal with each other
as linemates,” Compher said.
“It’s easier said than done to be
all equal when you’re older or
younger, freshman, junior, senior
or whatever it
is, but I think
we’ve actually
done a really
good
job
of
being open to
suggestions.”
Sophomore
defender Zach
Werenski
was
named
Defensive
Player of the
Year and added to the All-Big
Ten First Team. The 18-year-old
recorded 51 blocked shots and 28
points. Werenski emboldened
his case with six points in the
last three games, bringing him
from 15th to tied for fifth among
all defenseman.
Berenson was also named
Big Ten Coach of the Year — his
third such honor in 32 years of
coaching. Berenson previously
won two coaching awards in the
CCHA.
“As far as the coach award,
that usually goes to the team that
overachieves
and does better
than
people
expect,”
Berenson said.
“If
we
did,
that’s a tribute
to our players
and our whole
coaching staff
— it’s no longer
a
one-man
coaching job.”
Berenson is in the final year
of his contract and undecided
on his coaching future. Under
his
watch
this
season,
the
Wolverines are a lock to make
the NCAA Tournament for the
first time in four years.
“I don’t get too carried away
with these coaching awards,”
Berenson said. “We’ve had years
where I think we’ve done a
great job coaching the team we
had into overachieving, but we
weren’t the Coach of the Year.
“Nowadays, I think its more a
sign of respect and age.”
Senior
forward
Boo
Nieves
rounded
out
the
awards, receiving the Big Ten
sportsmanship honor.
In a down year for the Big Ten,
Michigan shined this season.
The Wolverines enter the Big
Ten Tournament with a sure
spot in the NCAA Tournament,
the highest-scoring team offense
in more than a decade and three
viable Hobey Baker candidates.
The true rewards — a Big
Ten
or
NCAA
Tournament
title — are still to be had, but
the
announcements
Monday
afternoon gave an opportunity to
reflect on the remarkable regular-
season run Michigan strung
together,
and
the
individual
heroics that made it possible.
AMANDA ALLEN/Daily
Freshman forward Kyle Connor’s standout freshman season earned him Big Ten Player of the Year honors Monday.
“I think we’ve
just become
more vocal with
each other.”
Breaking down the
dramatic shots that
powered Michigan
By LEV FACHER
Daily Sports Writer
It’s
easy
to
attribute
Michigan’s NCAA Tournament
bid to a single shot: sophomore
guard Kam Chatman’s already
legendary
3-pointer
against
top-seeded Indiana in the Big
Ten Tournament quarterfinals
on Friday.
Chatman, deservedly, walked
away from the weekend an
unlikely star. He had made just
seven 3-pointers on the season
before a case of mistaken identity
left him with the ball in his hands
and time ticking down, and his
game-winner left fans around
the country with an early taste of
the madness March is known for.
But two other shots were
equally
instrumental
in
shoehorning the Wolverines
into
the
68-team
NCAA
Tournament field.
One
shot
came
Thursday
against
Northwestern
on
a
play that Michigan coach John
Beilein calls “Magic,” a set
for redshirt sophomore guard
Duncan Robinson to find space
around the perimeter. Many
might have expected Beilein to
call Robinson’s number, but the
audacity of the play call stood out.
Michigan perfectly executed
the sneaky set, in which Robinson
inbounded the ball from the
sideline, gave it to junior forward
Zak Irvin curling along the
baseline and then took the outside
route on a screen from sophomore
forward Ricky Doyle to give
himself enough space for a shot
after Irvin gave the ball back.
Without Robinson’s trey and
Beilein’s play call, Chatman
would never have been in a
position to play hero the next day.
“I think Stan Van Gundy was
probably the coach of Orlando
at the time, and I was just there
watching an NBA game one
time,” Beilein said on “Inside
Michigan
Basketball,”
his
weekly radio show, on Monday.
“The Magic needed a 3, and
Orlando ran this play for J.J.
Redick. So I looked at it, and
I said, ‘We’ve got to run that
play.’ To this day, we’ve called
it Magic.”
Beilein said he first installed
the play three or four seasons ago
for Tim Hardaway Jr., now with
the NBA’s Atlanta Hawks. But
the Wolverines hadn’t used the
play before Friday, when Beilein
drew it up for Robinson during a
frantic, late-game timeout.
“It’s not even out there on a
scouting report the last three
or four years,” Beilein said. “We
drew it up, we practice it once
a week, at least — it seems like
Duncan makes it every time.
But when (Northwestern center
Alex) Olah came out on him, Olah
was huge. And Duncan, when we
looked at the shot, the ball went
a good three or four feet above
the backboard, and Duncan’s
shot usually arcs out below the
backboard. So he had to put extra
on it, and he just buried it.”
It was a lot of faith to put
in Robinson, a transfer from
Division III Williams College.
The moment wasn’t too big for
him — nor was his shot the next
day against Indiana, which tied
the game at 69 to set up Chatman
for the game-winner moments
later. That Robinson 3, while
equally instrumental, came on a
more orthodox play call.
Beilein discussed yet another
non-Chatman
shot
that
the
Wolverines
simply
couldn’t
have done without on Monday:
Irvin’s overtime jumper with
time winding down against
Northwestern, which came just
minutes after the unexpected
Robinson 3.
“He loves that moment,”
Beilein said of his decision to give
Irvin the ball for the overtime
period’s final play. “I had dialed
him up two or three plays before
in the Northwestern game,
and he missed the shot, and he
wasn’t having a great night. And
I said to myself, ‘Why do I keep
dialing him up? I’ve got to do
something else.’ ”
Luckily for Michigan, Beilein’s
idea to stay away from Irvin in
the final moments didn’t stick
around for long.
“When we wanted to run that
last play, (Northwestern) knew
what we were running,” Beilein
said. “It’s a play we run once or
twice, at least, a game. I said,
‘Who do I trust out there right
now to make this shot or make
the right decision?’ Because
(Doyle) was open rolling to the
basket as well. He was wide open.
I said, ‘It’s Zak.’ So I went to him,
and it certainly paid off.”
Michigan is hoping no such
late-game drama is necessary
Wednesday in Dayton, Ohio, as
it takes on fellow 11-seed Tulsa
in a First Four play-in game. The
Wolverines’ bus embarked on
the three-hour drive Monday
night — a trip that could end
Wednesday night with a loss or
last through Sunday if Michigan
can get through Tulsa and then
No. 6-seed Notre Dame on Friday
in Brooklyn, N.Y.
LUNA ANNA ARCHEY/Daily
John Beilein’s team punched its tournament ticket with a series of big shots.