4B — February 6, 2017
SportsMonday
The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com

Wins or not, Yost Ice Arena remains the same

They come to Yost Ice Arena 

every 
week. 
Some 
for 
five 

years, some for 10, and for John 
Sterbenz and Craig Kuras, 24. 
There’s a mayor — Tony Corey, a 
season ticket holder since 2004. 
You can’t forget the children, 
either — not literal adolescents, 
but the Michigan hockey team’s 
famous student section, “The 
Children of Yost.”

They came this past Friday 

night, when they watched the 
Michigan hockey team cling 
to a slim lead and upset No. 11 
Ohio State. They returned on 
Saturday, and saw the Buckeyes 
climb back from a two-goal 
deficit to win, 6-5.

The 
weekend 
serves 
as 

a 
microcosm 
of 
Michigan’s 

inconsistency this season.

After one of the Wolverines’ 

best years in recent memory, 
many expected regression in 
2016.

“I had very low, expectations 

for on-ice performance, or the 
record,” said Ed, a fan from 
Newport, Mich. “I was hoping 
to see some improvement over 
the course of the year. I wasn’t 
expecting an NCAA berth or 
an NCAA championship, not 
with all that we lost. Few major 
scorers came back.”

Added 
Travis 
Smith, 
a 

senior engineering major: “We 
understand 
that 
we’re 
not 

gonna be great every year, we’re 
not like the Alabama football 
team.”

But some fans still held high 

hopes before the season began.

“You expect them to compete 

every year for at least a Big Ten 
title,” 
Sterbenz 
said 
Friday 

night. “In the past, you would 
lose guys and that didn’t seem 
to matter. There was always 
enough firepower in the arsenal 
to replace those people. Over the 
past 3-4 years, there’s still the 
firepower there, but it doesn’t 
seem to be quite as potent as it 

used to be.”

For “The Children of Yost,” 

those 
overhauls 
certainly 

have led to a different feel to 
it than last season’s Big Ten 
Tournament 
championship 

team.

“People come to every game 

no matter what,” said LSA 
senior Barry Snyder. “The big 
difference you see is with the 
other people. You have the 
multiple sections, they’re always 
full, but it’s a matter of timing. 
Especially last year, they were 
packed 30-40 minutes before 
the game started. In previous 
years, it was a little slower, and 
this year it’s been a little slower. 
But the rivalry games have been 
filled up like this (on Saturday 
night). Last night there was a 
line outside before the doors 
even opened. I think the fans are 
still into it.”

As for long-time season ticket 

holders, the biggest difference 
— whether in terms of energy 
or atmosphere — has nothing 

to do with the Wolverines’ 
performance. Instead, it comes 
from the recent renovation of 
the arena. The remodel shrunk 
the 
student 
section, 
which 

originally streched from red line 
to red line.

While few of the current 

students 
have 
had 
an 

opportunity to sit in the old 
environment, 
many 
of 
the 

longtime fans have recognized 
the 
effects 
of 
the 
smaller 

section.

Corey — the Twitter famous 

“Mayor of Yost — believes he has 
missed just a handful of games 
in the last 13 years. He believes 
that the Yost renovations have 
changed how the students and 
players interact.

“Ever since they redid the 

arena, they moved the students 
away from the glass in the student 
section,” Corey said on Saturday. 
“And I think that’s made a big 
difference. The students aren’t 
right on the glass, right on the 
ice. It’s a shame, because that’s 

really what made Yost what it 
was. I feel like since they added 
the corner, the students just 
aren’t in the players’ faces. It 
separated the team from the ice 
and the students. It’s not as loud 
as it used to be, I think that’s 
partially because when I was a 
student, this whole side was all 
students.”

According to the leaders 

of “The Children of Yost,” 
however, the energy hasn’t gone 
anywhere — there just might be 
fewer fans.

“Obviously the offense isn’t 

scoring as much, so we’re not 
screaming after goals as much,” 
said 
LSA 
fifth-year 
senior 

Melanie Lowry. “But the energy 
is still there. We want the team 
to know that we’re still there 
for them. We can be down by 
five, and we’re still going to be 
yelling.”

Added Snyder: “When you’re 

playing better, it’s not just the 
students who are getting into 
it, but it’s the non-students, the 
people sitting on the other side 
of the arena, they’re getting into 
it. Students are there, they’re 
gonna be there no matter what. 
We can’t control what the non-
students do, we do our part to be 
there. We only have four years.”

So while Michigan ended 

the weekend on a sour note, 
“The Children of Yost” refuse 
to be discouraged. They’ll be 
back next Friday in Detroit at 
Joe Louis Arena. Sterbenz and 
Kuras will be there too, and of 
course, so will “The Mayor of 
Yost.”

“We 
pride 
ourselves 
on 

being the best Michigan sports 
environment, winning or losing,” 
Snyder said. “I think there’s a lot 
of people that come to one game 
and keep coming back.”

It was the case for Sterbenz, 

who attended his first game 
after hearing about it from 
friends at work. Just as it was 
for Smith, who went to a game 
his freshman year and has 
continued to follow collegiate 
and NCAA hockey.

And this season is the perfect 

indication — it’s been the case for 
nearly fan that walks through 
the doors of Yost. 

Rebounding, foul trouble plague ‘M’ against Buckeyes

Derrick Walton Jr. pulled 

up for a fadeaway jumper from 
the baseline. There were 15.3 
seconds left, and Walton’s shot 
could have have tied the game 
at 68.

Instead, it clanged off the 

rim. For a moment, there was 
still hope, as the Wolverines got 
their fingertips on a potential 
offensive rebound. But when 
Ohio State forward Marc Loving 
snatched the ball out of the air, 
he simultaneously extinguished 
Michigan’s chance of salvaging 
a must-win game on its home 
court.

Sophomore forward Moritz 

Wagner was forced to foul 
Loving to extend the game, and 
he walked to the bench with 
his fifth and final foul, only 
to watch from the sidelines as 
Loving iced the game with a 
pair of free throws.

That one play told the story of 

the entire game.

All night, the Wolverines’ 

frontcourt found itself in foul 
trouble, and all night, it got 
dominated on the boards as 
a result of it, falling to the 
Buckeyes, 70-66.

“I think we kind of fed off of 

(forward Andre Wesson) there 
and did a great job,” said Ohio 
State coach Thad Matta. “They 
switch a lot, so we had some 
advantages in there size-wise. 
But the guys pursued the ball 
and did a heck of job with that.”

Added 
junior 
guard 

Muhammad-Ali 
Abdur-

Rahkman: “I think we weren’t 
putting ourselves in the position 
to get rebounds. Also, I think 
that we were just trying to jump 
instead of boxing people out 
and getting people off the glass, 
and I think that’s essentially 
what hurt us.”

Ohio State finished with a 

staggering 
42-24 
advantage 

on the glass. Sixteen of those 
boards came on the offensive 
end, leading to its whopping 19 

second-chance points.

As Michigan coach John 

Beilein alluded to after the 
game, some of the Buckeyes’ 
rebounds came as a result 
of Michigan’s defense being 
caught in the 
wrong position 
when the first 
shots 
went 

up. 
Others 

boiled 
down 

to 
defensive 

mismatches, 
as 
6-foot-8 

and 
6-foot-

9 
forwards 

Duncan 
Robinson 
and 

Mark 
Donnal 

were forced to compete down 
low 
with 
Loving, 
forward 

Jae’Sean Tate and Ohio State’s 
seven-footer, Trevor Thompson.

But the fact of the matter 

is that Wagner and redshirt 

sophomore forward DJ Wilson 
weren’t 
facing 
that 
same 

disadvantage when they were 
on the floor, but were outplayed 
on the boards anyway. The 
Wolverine duo wasn’t out there 

enough 
either. 

Too often, they 
fell prey to foul 
trouble 
that 

largely stemmed 
from 
situations 

where 
they 

couldn’t 
get 

position battling 
for 
rebounds 

underneath 
and 

were forced to 
commit 
cheap 

fouls.

“Just physically, right now, 

Thompson’s 
probably 
been 

down in that basket his whole 
life,” Beilein said. “Moe hasn’t 
been there very much. That 
was a physical mismatch. And 

Tate has been there three years, 
playing big minutes for three 
years — not a good matchup for 
DJ. He took advantage of those 
situations, and we couldn’t stop 
in those areas.”

Just over a minute into the 

second half, Wagner and Wilson 
both picked up their third fouls. 
Wilson went to the bench 
with just three points and one 
rebound. Wagner didn’t fare 
much better, joining Wilson on 
the sidelines with five points 
and a single rebound as well.

Neither returned until the 

13:04 mark. By that time, 
though, the Wolverines had 
been trying to cope with the 
precarious situation of having 
Donnal and Robinson as the 
sole options in the frontcourt. 
Ohio State held a five-point 
advantage and had led for the 
entire 
frame 
— 
something 

that wouldn’t change despite 

Wagner and Wilson’s presence.

While Wilson upped his point 

total to 11, neither of the two 
fared much better on the glass 
— each finishing with the same 
rebound total they had when 
the second half began. In the 
end, Michigan’s guards shared 
the bulk of the rebounding 
responsibility, as Walton and 
Abdur-Rahkman finished with 
10 and seven, respectively.

The loss stung enough in its 

own right, as it may well prove 
to be the one bad loss that 
the Wolverines couldn’t have 
afforded if they hoped to receive 
a bid to the NCAA Tournament.

But how it happened might 

sting even worse.

“The 
way 
we 
lost,” 

Abdur-Rahkman 
said. 
“Got 

outrebounded, 
especially 
by 

that much, I think that hurts 
more. And it shows that they 
wanted it more.”

EMMA RICHTER/Daily

Redshirt sophomore forward DJ Wilson struggled against the Buckeyes on Saturday at Crisler Center, collecting only one rebound in 25 minutes played

KEVIN SANTO

Managing Sports Editor

“And it shows 

that they 
wanted it 

more”

EVAN AARON/Daily

“The Children of Yost” are among the dedicated Michigan hockey fans that have continued to pack Yost Ice Arena despite the Wolverines’ down season.

AVI SHOLKOFF
Daily Sports Writer

opportunity found the stick 

of freshman forward James 
Sanchez, whose goal extended 
the lead to two and chased Ohio 
State goaltender Christian Frey 
from the game.

After Mason Jobst and Max 

Shuart traded goals, leaving 
the score at 5-3, the Buckeyes 
mounted another comeback 
attempt.

A power-play goal from 

forward John Wiitala off a 
feed from Matthew Weis cut 
the deficit to one. Then, nearly 
eight minutes into the third 
period, sophomore defenseman 
Nicholas Boka and forward 
Brendan Warren were each sent 
off for high-sticking. The penal-
ties gave the Buckeyes a 5-on-3 
advantage that Jobst capitalized 
on, scoring his second of the 
night to tie the game at five.

Neither team could muster 

any consistent offense for the 
rest of the period, but with just 
29.5 seconds left, Schilke struck 
yet again for the Buckeyes. 
His goal gave Ohio State a lead 
that it would not relinquish 
this time, stunning the Yost 
Ice Arena crowd and leaving 
Michigan still in search of its 
first sweep of the season.

With just 10 games left in 

the regular season remaining, 
opportunities to move up the 
PairWise Rankings — however 
slim those chances may be — 
are few, and Saturday’s loss just 
may have been the nail in the 
coffin. 

It has not been a banner 

year for the Wolverines. The 
chances of capturing a NCAA 
berth in the regular season are 
slim to none, and with the way 
the team has struggled against 
every conference foe, winning 
the Big Ten Tournament ap-
pears to be a tough task as well.

After tonight’s loss, Slaker 

and Marody were both in-
trospective. Slaker thought 
Michigan made “strides in the 
right direction” when it came 
to establishing consistency on 
a game-to-game basis. Marody 
acknowledged the youth of the 
team and expressed his belief 
that a team has to take a loss — 
or two or three — like Satur-
day’s to “really learn a lesson 
and move forward.”

And while Marody’s senti-

ment is most certainly true, 
there isn’t enough time to 
swallow a loss at the expense of 
learning those lessons. 

it had to change its game 

plan to make up for the deficit it 
then faced.

Michigan began hunting 

shots outside the arc, with 22 
of its 30 field-goal attempts in 
the second half coming from 
deep. The Wolverines hit just 
32 percent of those shots and 27 
percent of all of their second-
half attempts, coming up with 
empty possessions that made 
their job on the defensive end 
much tougher.

“We wanted to drive the 

ball really hard into the paint,” 
Michigan coach John Beilein 
said. “We had a package 
to throw the ball inside to 
(Wagner) as much as we could. 
They took some of that away, 
we didn’t do it sometimes, and 
he was in foul trouble. So we 

couldn’t get enough of the post 
touches as we wanted to get.”

Despite Walton’s heroics 

down the stretch, Michigan 
didn’t get the bounces it needed 
to finish off the Buckeyes in the 
end. The Wolverines’ postsea-
son hopes now lie damaged, as 
the road to a potential NCAA 
Tournament berth becomes 
much harder with just over a 
month left in the Big Ten regu-
lar season.

“Complaining about our cir-

cumstances won’t help,” Walton 
said. “That’s pretty much how 
I look at it as. Circumstances 
are what they are, even though 
you hate that they’re this way. 
Everybody’s got something 
going on at this point of year. 
Nothing’s perfect.

“But if what we’re going 

through at this point spear-
heads a run and us taking the 
next step in some places we 
lagged in, then I’m all for it. I’m 
more so excited. I think it’ll 
make it a better story.”

HOCKEY
From Page 1B

BASKETBALL
From Page 1B

“Complaining 

about our 

circumstances 

won’t help”

