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.

