8A — Wednesday, February 8, 2017
Sports
The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com

MICHIGAN
MSU

Field Goal Percentage

3-Point Field Goal Percentage

Points Off Turnovers

Offensive Rebounds

Defensive Rebounds

Turnovers

Bench Points

Time Leading

60.4

47.6

30

2

20

8

22

39:11

47.9

Final
86
57

31.3

7

6

20

20

16

00:00

Walton joins historic club in win

With less than a minute 
left in the Michigan men’s 
basketball team’s game against 
Michigan State, the crowd, led 
by the Maize Rage, starting 
chanting Derrick Walton Jr.’s 
name in unison.
The senior guard, though, 
wasn’t 
on 
the 
court. 
He 
was 
sitting 
comfortably on 
the bench next 
to his teammates 
as he watched 
Michigan coach 
John 
Beilein 
substitute 
the end of his 
bench into the 
Wolverines’ 
86-57 
victory 
at Crisler Center on Tuesday 
night.
Walton willed the team to 
victory with 20 points, eight 
assists and five rebounds. It 
was a stat line that was just 
good enough to give him 400 
assists in his career, and he 
joined an elite group of past 
Michigan players in Jalen Rose 
and Gary Grant who have all 
recorded at least 1,000 points, 
400 rebounds and 400 assists 
in their Wolverine careers.
“It’s an honor,” Walton said. 
“I didn’t notice it, and I didn’t 
know what was going on. When 
they told me, I was in awe.
“I’m 
thankful 
for 
the 
opportunity 
to 
come 
to 
(Michigan), 
thankful 
for 
(Beilein) having faith in a 
young kid from Detroit and that 
he trusts me to run this team.”
It’s been a long time coming 
for the Detroit native, and to 
have it come against Michigan 
State made it just a bit sweeter. 
It was Michigan’s first win 
over its in-state rival in over 
three years. Walton was just 
a freshman the last time the 
Wolverines celebrated a win 
over the Spartans.
“It means a lot to me,” Walton 
said. “I’m an inner-city kid, and 
there’s a couple Michigan guys 
on that team. Having bragging 

rights with my little brother, 
(Michigan State guard Cassius 
Winston), is always fun.” 
Three years ago, Walton was 
just a role player on a team 
abundant with talent. Now, 
Walton is the leader on a team 
right on the edge of the NCAA 
Tournament, 
a 
completely 
different situation from the one 
Michigan was in three years 
prior.
“I can’t say 
enough 
about 
Derrick Walton 
right 
now,” 
Beilein said. “He 
came in (as a 
freshman) with 
a 
star-studded 
team. 
He 
was 
sort 
of 
forced 
into 
being 
a 
leader before he 
was really ready 
to do that. 
“I 
think 
he’s 
finally 
comfortable 
with 
all 
the 
experience (over his Michigan 
career) to really play with that 
‘extra’ that you need to be a 
really good player.”
While Walton made a huge 
impact in the game, there was 
nothing abnormal about his stat 
line. It was the same Walton 
that had averaged 18.6 points, 
4.2 rebounds and 4.2 assists 
in his last eight 
games.
What 
was 
different, 
though, 
was 
his 
teammates. 
From sophomore 
forward 
Moritz Wagner 
dominating 
Spartan forward 
Nick Ward inside 
to junior guard 
Muhammad-
Ali 
Abdur-
Rakhman stepping up to score 
16 points, it was the players 
around Walton that made the 
difference.
That was where Walton, the 
leader of the team, made the 
biggest impact.
Michigan’s season has varied 
wildly from the Wolverines’ 
30-point 
win 
over 
Indiana 

two weeks ago to Michigan’s 
lackluster 
performance 
on 
Saturday in its loss to Ohio 
State. It’s an alarming trend 
that has set the Wolverines 
back multiple times this season, 
and Walton wanted a change.
So, he has recently started 
to push his teammates harder 
than he ever has because he 
knows the potential of his 
team. And Tuesday night, his 
teammates repaid him.
“That was very important 
for us, to get that win for Mr. 
Walton over there,” Wagner 
said. “He played a heck of a 
game.”
Added Walton: “Before the 
game, the guys really banded 
together and told me they really 
wanted to get this for me, and 
they played like it. I’m really 
appreciative of it all. Everybody 
played their heart out.”
But even after a big win over 
Michigan State, the schedule 
doesn’t get any easier. The 
Wolverines will have seven 
games left to improve their 
NCAA 
Tournament 
resume. 
However, five of the seven come 
on the road, where Michigan is 
winless this season, while it 
will also host No. 7 Wisconsin 
and No. 16 Purdue. Walton 
knows 
that, 
and 
knowing 
the 
opportunity 
his 
team 
has 
ahead, 
he 
chooses to look 
at the positives.
“We 
have 
seven 
games 
left, and I think 
we 
can 
still 
do 
something 
special,” Walton 
said.
Even 
if 
he 
didn’t know he 
had joined the 
1000-point, 
400-rebound 
and 400-assist club until after 
he came off the court, he knew 
one thing for sure. He knew 
the score, and for just the third 
time in his Michigan career, 
the Wolverines had more points 
than the Spartans at the end of 
the game.
And for Walton, that’s all 
that matters. 

Wolverines rout Spartans in rivalry rematch

DJ Wilson received the pass 
from 
senior 
guard 
Derrick 
Walton Jr. in the low post. The 
redshirt sophomore forward was 
surrounded by four Michigan 
State defenders, but he gathered 
himself, elevated and threw down 
a dunk with authority. 
But that wasn’t enough for 
him. Wilson landed, turned to 
Spartan forward Kenny Goins, 
and screamed in his ear as if it 
wasn’t clear enough what had just 
happened.
Wilson was assessed a technical 
foul, but the Michigan men’s 
basketball team still led by 17, and 
the play was full of a fire that felt 
like it was a part of a different era 
and belonged to a different team 
— the same one that motivated the 
black socks and black shoes they 
took the floor in.
That team was the Fab Five — a 
group of five freshmen that took 
college basketball by storm with a 
swagger that people weren’t ready 
to accept.
Along 
with 
that 
swagger, 
came results. In a two-year 
stretch, the Wolverines went 3-1 
against Michigan State, made 
it to two NCAA Tournament 
championships and filled Crisler 
Center with ease.
But that was then, Tuesday 
night was now, and Michigan 
was in dire need of a dose of that 
same swagger that electrified the 
program from 1991 – 1993.
And by the time the final 
buzzer 
sounded, 
the 
black 
socks and black shoes fit, as the 
Wolverines brought a new edge 
against the Spartans (6-5 Big Ten, 
14-10 overall) that was lacking in 
East Lansing nine days prior en 
route to an 86-57 victory at Crisler 
Center.
“You can be pretty consistent 
about (what) guys are gonna make 
shots,” said Michigan coach John 
Beilein. “But what type of edge are 
they gonna play with? That’s hard. 
And is the edge too much that they 
get emotionally drunk during the 

game?
“… Today was like perfect. 
They were right there, they were 
angry, they were junkyard dogs. 
That was the whole idea — a 
picture of, like, a Doberman that 
I wanted them to go out and play 
like. I think it was a Doberman, 
but it had big teeth.”
The Wolverines (5-6, 15-9) 
essentially put the game to bed 
in the first half. In the final 8:20 
of the frame, Michigan notched a 
32-10 run — going 12-for-15 from 
the floor — and finished with a 
55-29 advantage.
The 
early 
blowout 
was 
indicative of a first half in which 
the Wolverines’ offense caught 
fire, as Michigan finished shooting 
75 percent from the field and 72.7 
percent from three. Walton played 
like a man possessed, leading the 
offensive surge to the tune of 12 
points and seven assists.
Behind 
Walton, 
sophomore 
forward 
Moritz 
Wagner 
and 
junior 
guard 
Muhammad-Ali 
Abdur-Rahkman ended the frame 
with 13 and 10 points, respectively.
But 
the 
Wolverines 
also 
received contributions from the 

most unlikely of places. Freshman 
guard Xavier Simpson provided 
Walton with invaluable relief 
off the bench and catalyzed the 
offense with a tangible confidence 
that has been absent this season, 
eventually finishing the game with 
seven points and two assists.
The matchup could have gotten 
away from the Spartans even 
earlier if Michigan had capitalized 
on turnovers in the early stages.
The 
Wolverines 
managed 
to draw a charge, force a shot-
clock violation and get a stop 
on Michigan State’s first three 
possessions, but couldn’t reap the 
benefits — entering the first media 
timeout up just 9-8.
Still, 
Michigan 
eventually 
managed to make the Spartans pay 
for being careless with the ball, 
finishing the game with 30 points 
off Michigan State’s 21 turnovers. 
Some of the turnovers were self-
inflicted, but the Wolverines did 
manage to force four shot-clock 
violations, notch six steals and 
hold the Spartans to 48 percent 
shooting form the floor.
“Some of it’s understandable,” 
said Michigan State coach Tom 

Izzo. “Like I said, you look at those 
seniors and they’ve lost four or five 
times (to us). And I thought they 
played with an incredible passion. 
Our freshmen did not match that.”
On the opposite end of the court, 
Michigan’s offense cooled off in 
the second half but still managed 
to finish the game shooting 60 
percent.
Walton built off his first-half 
success to finish with a game-high 
20 points on 7-for-10 shooting, all 
while pitching in eight assists and 
five rebounds. Wagner and Abdur-
Rahkman continued to follow 
Walton’s lead, finishing with 19 
and 16 points, respectively.
The 
matchups 
with 
the 
Spartans have always meant more 
to Walton — a Detroit native — 
than they have to his teammates. 
But on Tuesday night, due in large 
part to the edge he set from the 
start, that wasn’t the case.
So as his night was capped off 
with an induction into Michigan’s 
1,000-point, 
400-rebound 
and 
400-assist club, it seemed fitting 
that there are just two other 
members of that club: Gary Grant 
and Jalen Rose.

EVAN AARON/Daily
Sophomore forward Moritz Wagner finished with 19 points to help Michigan bounce back against the Spartans.

EVAN AARON/Daily
Senior guard Derrick Walton Jr. joined the historic 1,000-point, 400-rebound and 400-assist club Tuesday night.

KEVIN SANTO
Managing Sports Editor

MINH DOAN
Daily Sports Editor

“It’s an honor ... 
When they told 
me, I was in 
awe”

“I think we 
can still do 
something 
special”

