Irvin’s clutch 3
leads Wolverines
past Tulsa, on to
Notre Dame
By JACOB GASE
Daily Sports Editor
DAYTON,
Ohio
—
The
Michigan men’s basketball team
got the NCAA Tournament bid
it was sweating for on Selection
Sunday — as a No. 11 seed playing
in the First Four at University of
Dayton Arena — and it initially
looked like
it received
a favorable
opponent
as well.
After
the
bracket
was
released, no team in the field
received more criticism than
the
Wolverines’
opponent,
fellow No. 11 seed Tulsa. Even
though the Golden Hurricane
finished the season with a 20-11
record, most experts had them
projected well on the wrong
side of the bubble after they lost
to Memphis by 22 points in the
American Athletic Conference
Tournament.
But once the game actually
began
Wednesday
night,
it
progressed as a back-and-forth
affair.
Both
teams
traded
leads
throughout the second half,
and Tulsa found itself leading,
60-59, with a minute to play. But
junior forward Zak Irvin — just
six days after hitting the game-
winner against Northwestern in
the Big Ten Tournament — had
more heroics left in him.
With 53 seconds remaining,
Irvin hit a 3-pointer to put
the Wolverines back on top,
saving their season once again.
Michigan (23-12) iced the game
from the free-throw line and
escaped with a 67-62 victory,
advancing
to
a
first-round
matchup with No. 6 seed Notre
Dame in Brooklyn on Friday.
“(Irvin’s)
just
got
that
mentality,” said junior guard
Derrick Walton Jr. “No matter
how many he’s missed, when the
moment is big and the shot really
matters, you can count on him to
take and make that shot.”
Michigan led 28-20 at halftime
thanks to a late offensive surge,
but
early
second-half
foul
trouble — which left Walton on
the bench for nearly six minutes
— allowed Tulsa (20-12) to jump
right back into the game.
After a rapid series of lead
changes, it was the Wolverines
who first showed signs of pulling
away when redshirt sophomore
Duncan
Robinson
knocked down
a 3-pointer to
put Michigan
up 47-45. Irvin
knocked down
a
mid-range
jumper
and
sophomore
guard
Muhammad-
Ali
Abdur-
Rahkman hit a pair of free
throws to stretch the lead to
six with 7:38 to play. But the
Golden Hurricane refused to
go down, continuing to attack
the rim with layup after layup
and ultimately retaking the lead
with 4:24 to play.
The two teams played within
three points of each other right
up until Irvin finally delivered
the dagger, and he and Walton
helped the Wolverines pull away
at the charity stripe for another
nail-biting win — their third in a
week.
“We haven’t had too many
close games (this year),” Irvin
said. “The Big Ten Tournament
definitely helped us out. We’re
able to finish close games. We
know we’ve gotta be able to do
that in the NCAA Tournament —
survive and advance.”
Irvin and Abdur-Rahkman
each had a game-high 16 points,
with Abdur-Rahkman adding a
big shot of his own — a banked
jump shot with just under four
minutes to play that Michigan
coach John Beilein called a “nine
out of 10” degree of difficulty.
Robinson,
meanwhile,
attempted to shed his reputation
as a pure shooter by playing one
of his best all-
around games
of
the
year,
finishing with
13 points, 11
rebounds and
four assists.
“If
somebody
told me he’d
get a double-
double, I could
see 10 threes in
game — I wouldn’t have believed
11 rebounds,” Beilein said. “He’s
just learning the game, the
college game (is) played against
really good players.”
The
second-half
scoring
frenzy stood in stark contrast
to the first half, in which both
teams fell victim to lengthy
scoring droughts.
Robinson started off the game
with a 3-pointer and freshman
forward Moritz Wagner sparked
the Wolverines early with a
dunk, two rebounds, a block and
a steal in his first minute on the
court.
But
Michigan’s
shooting
quickly
went
cold.
The
Wolverines started the game
3-for-16 from the floor and 1-for-
9 from three, falling into a 6:13
scoring drought that allowed the
Golden Hurricane to take a 16-9
lead midway through the half.
But Irvin knocked down a
triple to snap Michigan out of its
funk, and Tulsa embarked on a
6:36 scoreless stretch of its own.
Walton — who struggled with his
shot in the Big Ten Tournament
and most of the first half of the
game Wednesday — also sprang
to life with 10 points in the
final four minutes of the half,
including two 3-pointers.
It was the same story in
the second half for Irvin and
Walton, who woke up in the nick
of time to keep the Wolverines’
tournament run alive.
6A — Thursday, March 17, 2016
Sports
The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com
TULSA
MICHIGAN
62
67
NO SLEEP TILL BROOKLYN
“You can count
on (Irvin) to
take and make
that shot.”
AMANDA ALLEN/Daily
Junior forward Zak Irvin hit a go-ahead 3-pointer with 53 seconds remaining to lead Michigan past Tulsa on Wednesday.
Wagner’s big night
comes at the right
time for Michigan
By KELLY HALL
Daily Sports Editor
DAYTON, Ohio — With 22
seconds left and a First Four
victory securely locked in place,
Moritz
Wagner
exited
the
hardwood at University of Dayton
Arena and lifted his arms. All
night, the freshman forward
pumped up his teammates and
the crowd on Michigan’s way to a
67-62 victory over Tulsa (20-12).
His
exuberance
wasn’t
unwarranted.
Wagner played 22 minutes on
his way to eight rebounds, four
blocks and four points — all of
which came off of slam dunks.
He had just two blocks all season
until Wednesday night, when he
doubled his season total.
“Yeah, Mo’s an energy guy,” said
sophomore guard Muhammad-
Ali Abdur-Rahkman. “Even when
he’s not on the court, he’s trying
to lift us up when we’re down and
things like that. So it’s great to see
him out there, being energized
and play well.”
After shooting 3-for-3 for nine
points against Indiana in the
Big Ten Tournament, during his
first substantive minutes since
December, Wagner has seen the
floor more often, and for good
reason.
Though Wagner’s help came
on the offensive end against the
Hoosiers, his help in the First
Four came on the defensive.
During Michigan’s 6:13 scoring
drought in the first half, which
resulted in a Golden Hurricane
8-0 run, Wagner prevented Tulsa
from wreaking more havoc on
the Wolverines (23-12) with his
well-timed blocks — one of which
came within his first minute on
the court.
In the second half, Wagner
blocked
6-foot-9
forward
Brandon Swannegan, trapping
the ball against the backboard.
Wagner proved to be the best
option against Swannegan, an
important role to have in a game
where Tulsa scored 38 of its 62
points in the paint.
Though
he
did
most
of
his damage on the defensive
end, Wagner’s few offensive
performances
were
ones
to
remember. Sixteen seconds after
being subbed into the game,
Wagner stole the ball. Redshirt
sophomore Duncan Robinson
missed his 3-point attempt on the
possession, but Wagner followed
up with an offensive rebound.
Seconds later, Robinson threw
the ball to Wagner so he could
jam it into the net for a two-
handed slam to give Michigan a
9-8 lead.
Later, Wagner had the ball just
beyond the arc and momentarily
thought about shooting it, but
he decided to take a few long
strides to get beneath the net
after seeing Abdur-Rahkman in
the corner. He dished it to the
sophomore guard, who drove for
a layup.
Of course, Wagner’s most-
memorable play came when the
two teams were trading buckets
as the clock ticked down. After
a Robinson layup put Michigan
back up by one point with 2:49
remaining,
the
Wolverines
needed to capitalize on the next
possession, and they did. Wagner
grabbed
an
offensive
board
after Abdur-Rahkman missed a
jumper, and he dumped it into the
net to give Michigan 59-56 lead.
Following
his
dunk
and
the late-game scare, Wagner
turned to the crowd for help and
encouragement.
“When you tell me that right
now, I feel a little embarrassed,”
Wagner
said
of
his
loud
engagement with the crowd.
“That’s just me. I can’t help it, I’m
just doing it. It’s fun. It’s great. It’s
just me.”
Fouling has been a problem
of Wagner’s, but he didn’t foul at
all in the first half. He collected
his first almost 10 minutes into
the
second.
Twenty
seconds
later, he fouled again and was
consequently subbed out. Though
his fouls didn’t prevent him from
seeing the court, it was obvious
that he was concerned about
fouling.
Just over eight minutes into
the first half, Wagner stared
down the referee nearest to him,
nervously clenching his teeth. It
was almost as if he was afraid that
his second block of the game was
going to be called a foul, and that
he would end up on the bench like
he had in too many of his previous
games.
But it was called for what it was
— the freshman’s second block
of the game — and the big man
stayed in. The rest is history, and
now the Wolverines are on their
way to Brooklyn to take on No.
6 seed Notre Dame in the first
round of the NCAA Tournament.
“Mo has been huge for us,”
said junior guard Zak Irvin. “He’s
definitely a spark plug off the
bench. It all started in the Big Ten
Tournament. He was a big asset
tonight. He’s gotta keep that going
into Notre Dame.”
AMANDA ALLEN/Daily