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

