2C — January 4, 2017
SportsWednesday
The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com
MEN’S BASKETBALL
Michigan in search of
first conference win
Michigan coach John Beilein is
on the brink of a benchmark.
After dropping its Big Ten
opener to Iowa in overtime, 86-83,
the Michigan men’s basketball
team has returned home with an
opportunity to give Beilein his
200th career win in its matchup
against Penn State (1-1 Big Ten,
9-6 overall) on Wednesday night.
The loss to the Hawkeyes
wasn’t an easy pill to swallow, as
the Wolverines (0-1, 10-4) came a
non-foul call and four points shy of
notching their first win in Carver-
Hawkeye Arena since 2011.
“We got through yesterday,”
Beilein said. “Rough day after
watching that Iowa game and
knowing that there were moments
(when) it was ours for the taking.
We couldn’t finish it.
“… The same thing happened
to (No. 14) North Carolina, to
(No. 8) Duke, to Syracuse, to Ohio
State, to Purdue. The same thing
happened when you go into a
game and you believe you can go
in there and win a game, and you
don’t. That’s exactly the message
to the team yesterday, that there
are 17 games left in the league and
we gotta grow from it.”
The first of those 17 comes
against the Nittany Lions, who
have experienced an up-and-
down season through their first
15 games.
While Penn State has lost at
the hands of teams like George
Mason and Albany, it still boasts
impressive
wins
against
St.
John’s and Georgia Tech — which
defeated then-No. 13 Butler and
then-No. 9 North Carolina in the
last week, respectively.
Guard Shep Garner leads the
Nittany Lions with 13.2 points per
game, and forward Mike Watkins
averages the most rebounds with
8.3 per game. Still, Penn State
doesn’t boast a true marquee
scorer, with each member of its
starting five averaging double-
digits.
“They have a great mixture of
two talented kids (Tony Carr and
Lamar Stevens) from the same
Roman Catholic high school in
(Philadelphia) that really have
infused them with some young
talent,” Beilein said. “And then
they got some holdovers that have
gained a lot of experience through
wins and losses over the last two
or three years. So it’s going to be a
very difficult game for us.”
Michigan, though, seems to
have enough pieces in place to
notch its first conference win,
especially with the emergence of
DJ Wilson.
The
redshirt
sophomore
forward scored a career-high 28
points and cleaned up the glass
to the tune of 14 rebounds against
Iowa. Wilson is averaging 7.1
rebounds on the year, and could
prove to be stiff competition for
Watkins in the paint.
“The coaches kind of just told
me that it was going to happen
in due time and I was kind of due
for a game like that,” Wilson said.
“But, I don’t know, I just try to
stay consistent and as confident as
possible and just let things work
out for themselves.”
Though
senior
wing
Zak
Irvin struggled against Iowa,
finishing with 12 points on 5-for-
15 shooting, he still leads the
Wolverines with 13.9 points per
game and will look to return to
form against a Penn State team
allowing 70.3 points per contest.
With Beilein’s milestone in
reach, Michigan has a chance to
make its first conference win a
little more special. But the Nittany
Lions certainly won’t roll over,
and Beilein is fully aware of that.
“I’m
only
aware
of
(the
milestones) when you guys say
them,” he said. “…I don’t read
(anything) other than the other
team’s game notes. I’ll find out
after the fact what happens.
“It’s just never been a thing
with me in any way. I never
considered it. (If) you’re in this
a long time, you’re going to have
some milestones, but it doesn’t
mean it’s anything different the
next day.”
KEVIN SANTO
Managing Sports Editor
Behind Enemy Lines: Nittany
Lion coach Patrick Chambers
Coming off an overtime loss to
Iowa to open conference play, the
Michigan men’s basketball team
will attempt to secure its first Big
Ten win when it hosts Penn State
on Wednesday. The Nittany Lions
boast a consensus Top 15 freshman
class, and two of them — forward
Lamar Stevens and guard Tony
Carr — have made an immediate
impact, averaging 12.1 and 11.8
points per game, respectively.
Junior guard Shep Garner leads
the team in scoring with an
average of 13.8 and is second in
total assists with 44 to Carr’s 59.
The Michigan Daily sat down
with Penn State coach Patrick
Chambers at Big Ten Media Day in
October to talk about the strength
of his current recruiting class
and how their unique connection
to Garner could serve them well
throughout the season.
The Michigan Daily: Three
of the freshmen on the team
(Stevens, Carr and guard Nazeer
Bostick) are from the same high
school, Roman Catholic. How will
that help the team’s chemistry
given that they all have playing
experience together?
Patrick Chambers: It will help
our chemistry, but sometimes
there’s cliques and those three
are always together, so we want
to break that up and make sure
they understand, ‘You’re part of a
team now, a bigger team.’ This is
bigger than just the three Roman
Catholic guys. We also have
Shep Garner who’s from Roman
Catholic as well, so I think he’s
bridged everything very well to
bring these guys in and create the
chemistry and connectivity that
we’re looking for to make this
team even better.
TMD: How do you think
(Garner) will respond to playing
with some of those young guys
again?
PC: There’s going to be a
comfort level, and I think they’re
going to be comfortable with
him. They’re very mature beyond
their years — all four of the guys
— because Shep’s a junior who’s
played so many minutes that you’d
think he’s a senior. And these
younger guys have been in a ton of
big games, so they’re conducting
themselves in a very mature
manner, which is good and bodes
well for our future. But right now,
the connectivity of this team is
going well, and they’re starting to
really respect and listen to Shep
a lot, so I think that’s gonna help
them.”
TMD: How will it aid their
transition to have someone like
him, who they already have a
relationship with, to serve as a
mentor for them?
PC: I think that Shep can
pass down to them some of the
pitfalls, some of the challenges and
adversity that he went through
his freshman year and sophomore
year. He can kind of give them a
Cliffnotes version, a little bit of a
guide to show them, ‘Steer clear of
this, be careful of this, this is how
coach likes this,’ so they’re a little
bit further ahead.
TMD: How will it help them to
see that someone who came from
the same place as them has been
able to perform at a high level on
the college stage?
PC: I think it gives them great
confidence that they can follow
suit, that they can do it too, that
they can come in and make an
impact as a freshman as Shep
did. And then they see the player
development, they see how much
they’ve gotten better or how much
Shep has gotten better, and they’re
gonna believe in the process just as
Shep has done.
TMD: How strong do you think
the leadership on the team will be
despite an absence of seniors on
the roster?
PC: (Former forward) Brandon
Taylor did a wonderful job of
really preparing these guys for
their time to be leaders, and what
I’ve done is I’ve put together
a leadership council to help in
that process. We have five guys
that I meet with regularly that
we talk about issues, talk about
locker room, talk about practice,
talk about academics, talk about
social stuff, and it’s been really
good. We’re gonna obviously vote
for captains here real soon, but
I think as a whole, there’s been
three or four guys that have really
stepped up to take the reins to
help one another out to lead this
group.
BETELHEM ASHAME
Managing Sports Editor
RYAN MCLAUGHLIN/Daily
Michigan coach John Beilein will lead the Wolverines as they face Penn State in pursuit of their first conference win Wednesday at Crisler Center.
10-3 season delivers odd blend of emotions
I
t doesn’t mean the system
is perfect, but this time
it worked out perfectly.
Clemson and
Alabama
will meet
in college
football’s
national
champion-
ship game
next week,
and after a
long bowl
season,
there’s little
doubt that is the just outcome.
Both Michigan and Penn
State, the two fan bases with
the loudest — if not most con-
vincing — gripes over being
left out of the playoff, lost late
in two of the most thrilling
games this season. Ohio State
and Washington, losers of the
two semifinals, were little
match for the Crimson Tide and
Tigers, who will play in the title
game for the second straight
year. After all the animated
arguments over which Big Ten
teams were most deserving of a
playoff shot, the short answer
was: it didn’t really matter.
That’s not to say the com-
mittee didn’t get it right. Their
job was to pick the four best
teams, and, given the informa-
tion at the time, they probably
did. What it really means is that
fans can rest at ease when they
watch this year’s
title game, their rea-
sons to shout now
muted.
Instead, the natu-
ral end-of-season
feelings can take
hold early. And at
Michigan, the pre-
dominant feeling is
disappointment.
Before the Wol-
verines lost to Iowa
nearly two months
ago, they sat at 9-0, with every
indication that a playoff berth
would be in their future. When
they lost on a last-second field
goal, it was fair to wonder
whether that loss might hold an
epic team back from its destiny.
Those fears were magnified,
and ulti-
mately real-
ized, when
Michigan
came up on
the wrong
end of a dou-
ble-overtime
classic at
Ohio State
two weeks
later.
And then
came the
Orange Bowl. The Wolverines
started flat, finished flashy and
ultimately came up short once
more in a 33-32 loss to Florida
State. In the end, they finished
the season 10-3, their three
losses determined by a total of
just five points.
But for those inclined to look
back and wonder, “What if?”
the loss to the Seminoles came
with an odd blend of regret and
relief. On one hand, the season
that once looked special ended
with the same record as last
year, an apparent underachieve-
ment given all the NFL talent
on the roster. On the other, at
least now fans can put some dis-
tance between themselves and
the nagging sensation that their
team would have won it all had
they just made the playoff.
Clemson, which beat Florida
State earlier this year, trounced
the Buckeyes, 31-0. And Ala-
bama still looked like Alabama.
The Wolverines may have been
good enough to compete with
those powerhouses, but they
didn’t deliver
a convincing
enough perfor-
mance to exac-
erbate those
earlier losses.
The process
of healing will
still be arduous,
though. In a
year Michigan
played eight
home games
and won on the road at Michi-
gan State, the Wolverines didn’t
improve in the win column. A
team that started 10 seniors on
defense and was among the best
in the nation in nearly every
category missed the playoff.
Unless a better team comes
along soon, those facts will
sting in five years.
But for now,
fans can take
some solace
in closing the
door on the
2016 season.
The Wolverines
found a defen-
sive coordinator
who could keep
the unit close
to the nation’s
best for the foreseeable future.
They found a capable redshirt
sophomore quarterback with
two more years of eligibility
and a penchant for bouncing
back from struggles. More than
anything, they found out that
a 10-win season isn’t satisfying
anymore.
It has been a long time since
a 10-win season was a disap-
pointment in Ann Arbor. This
season, as promising as it start-
ed, ends looking and feeling like
that. And as odd as it may be
for Michigan and its fans, that’s
reason for relief.
Max Bultman can be
reached at bultmanm@
umich.edu and on Twitter
@m_bultman. Please @ him.
MAX
BULTMAN
GRANT HARDY/Daily
Michigan’s fans are left in a tough position, as their team didn’t perform well enough to earn a berth in the College Football Playoff, but Alabama and Clemson seem to be the best teams in the nation.
It has been a
long time since a
10-win season was
a disappointment.
And at Michigan,
the predominant
feeling is
disappointment.