8 — Friday, February 17, 2017
Sports
The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com
Michigan upsets No. 11 Wisconsin, boosts NCAA tournament resume
Entering Thursday night, it was
no secret that the Michigan men’s
basketball team had a shot at the
upset.
The Wolverines were rolling,
fresh off a blowout win against
Michigan State and their first
victory at Assembly Hall since
2009. The momentum, coupled
with the fact that Michigan led
No. 11 Wisconsin in Madison last
month until the final five minutes,
pointed toward the possibility of
the Wolverines’ first win against a
ranked opponent this season.
And when it was announced that
Wisconsin guard Bronson Koenig
would be sidelined for the matchup
with a left leg strain, that chance
seemed even more likely.
After all, it marked the first time
in Koenig’s career that he would miss
a game for the Badgers due to injury,
and it was his performance that
brought Michigan’s upset attempt at
the Kohl Center to a screeching halt
— scoring 10 consecutive points late
to singlehandedly give Wisconsin a
lead that it wouldn’t relinquish.
But this time, there was no
wondering, as Michigan closed out
a resume-bolstering 64-58 victory
at Crisler Center to beat the Badgers
for the first time since 2014.
“This team deserves to have a run
like this,” said sophomore forward
Moritz Wagner. “We’re such a good
group — everybody loves each other,
everybody plays for each other. We
practice so hard, and we’ve been
going through a stretch where that
didn’t always pay off. And now it
pays off, so it just means so much to
us that we’re able to have a run right
now and win games against really
good teams.”
Even in its early stages, the game
shaped up to be a battle of the big
men.
Michigan (7-6 Big Ten, 17-9
overall) opened up the first half on
an 8-2 run, but the Badgers (10-3
Big Ten, 21-5 overall) managed to
cut the deficit quickly and started
feeding the ball to forward Ethan
Happ.
Wagner had the responsibility
of stopping Wisconsin’s redshirt
freshman, but Happ played the first
half like a man incapable of being
stopped.
With 8:29 left in the frame,
Wagner was called for his first foul
of the game and was replaced by
freshman forward Jon Teske. Up to
that point, Wagner had weathered
the impending storm, holding Happ
to just six points.
But Teske’s inexperience showed,
and Happ took full advantage —
scoring six straight points while
Teske could do nothing but commit
two fouls that ultimately brought
Wagner back in.
By that time, though, Happ
had found his groove — taking
whatever he wanted down low to
finish the half with 18 points on
8-for-9 shooting, four assists and
three rebounds. It was certainly
a precarious situation for the
Wolverines, as they had held Happ
to just 11 total points in their last
meeting.
Despite struggling to contain
Wisconsin’s marquee big man,
Wagner still did his part on the
other end to keep Michigan afloat
— scoring a team-high 12 points
on 4-for-7 shooting. While Happ
imposed his will in the post, Wagner
operated beyond the arc, draining
2-of-4 from deep.
Still, Happ’s dominant half put
the Badgers on top, 31-30, at the
break.
The second half, though, was a
different story.
While Wisconsin looked poised
to break the game open with a
7-0 run to open the frame, the
Wolverines
managed
to
stick
around after notching a 6-0 run of
their own.
“I don’t know if they don’t go up
eight like that, maybe we don’t win
the game,” said Michigan coach
John Beilein. “Maybe it’s nip and
tuck and we let it get away at the
end. I think our guys had that ‘back
to the wall’ again, knowing that we
were in trouble.
“(Derrick Walton Jr.) in the
huddle shouted, ‘We’ve got to get
stops! We’ve got to get stops!’ That’s
not typical Derrick Walton. … I felt
a sense of urgency from this team
once we got down by eight.”
Then,
roughly
five
minutes
after willing his team forward in
the huddle, Walton took the ball to
the hole for an acrobatic layup and
drew Happ’s third foul. Though it
sent him to the bench for just over
a minute, Happ was visibly more
tentative on the defensive end for
the remainder of the game.
That — coupled with Michigan’s
decision to start double teaming
him on the opposite end — limited
Happ’s impact, as he fouled out with
36.9 seconds left to finish with just
four second-half points and end the
game with 22 points on 10-for-13
shooting.
“When to double is always the
question,” Wagner said. “He’s a
really good passer, I kind of feel like
he likes to pass. But that’s the thing,
you’ve gotta mix it up. You can’t give
him the same look every possession.
I think we did a pretty good job of
that.”
Entering Thursday night, it was
no secret that the Wolverines had a
shot at the upset.
But that doesn’t make stamping a
win against the Badgers’ onto their
NCAA Tournament resume any less
sweet.
Read the full story at
michigandaily.com
Irvin rediscovers form in victory
If calling bank was all it took, Zak
Irvin would have said it a lot sooner.
With the shot clock approaching
zero, the senior wing launched a
prayer. Given Irvin’s recent slump
over Michigan’s last four games
entering
Thursday’s
tie
with
Wisconsin — in which he’s averaged
3.25 points per game — nobody
thought Irvin’s heave was going
anywhere near the twine below the
rim.
But Irvin got just enough power
and accuracy on his shot that a kiss
off the glass of the backboard was
enough for it to fall through the
hoop.
As Irvin turned around, he gave
off a shrug in disbelief. Who would
have thought that out of all the shots
he has missed of late, the one that
seemed most improbable would
actually go in?
It turned out that all Irvin needed
was a trip to the bank to get back to
his true scoring self in Michigan’s
64-58 win over the Badgers.
“When I made in that bank shot,
I was so relieved after it went in,”
Irvin said. “I think that really got
me going in the second half. It’s a
great feeling.“
Irvin knew it was only a matter
of time before he’d be able to bounce
back and rediscover his form.
After his four-game streak of
underwhelming
performances,
Irvin put together an impressive
18-point, five-rebound and three-
assist night that might have been his
best all-around performance of the
conference season.
The senior began by diversifying
his offense, scoring an easy layup
at the hoop and getting to the free-
throw line early. Irvin’s jump shot
was still off in the first half, as he
airballed a three in the opening
minutes, but he still boosted
Michigan’s offense by finding easy
baskets at the hoop.
Michigan coach John Beilein
trusted that Irvin would breakout
and become the offensive threat
he’s been for most of the season.
The only way Beilein felt that could
happen was to continue giving Irvin
the green light.
“When he threw that air ball and
missed by four feet, I don’t care,”
Beilein said. “I told him, ‘Shoot it
when you’re open.’ It’s going to be
very hard for us to have success this
year if we shut him off and just say,
‘Don’t.’ He scored 1,400 points —
you don’t say, ‘Okay, you don’t know
how to score anymore.’ You don’t
forget that.”
While Irvin proved Thursday
that his jump shot wasn’t close to
being forgotten, he also showed that
the slump may have had benefitted
other facets of his game.
Irvin had two assists down
low in the second half to redshirt
sophomore forward DJ Wilson and
sophomore forward Moritz Wagner
that circumnavigated Wisconsin’s
stout frontcourt defense and led to
a couple of big scores in the paint.
Those were passes Irvin may not
have made a couple of weeks ago,
but his vision has opened up to more
than just the hoop in front of him.
“I think tonight, I was able to find
players and put them in the right
position to score,” Irvin said. “I just
got to do that going forward.”
The senior also put more energy
into making stops on the defensive
end. In the second half, Irvin had
the task of double teaming Badger
forward Ethan Happ, who had
tallied 18 points and four assists in
the first 20 minutes.
The help defense clearly got to
Happ’s head as the second half
progressed. Irvin forced Happ into
bad shots and bad passing lanes, all
while holding his main defensive
assignment, Wisconsin forward
Nigel Hayes, to just four points in
the final period.
“That’s been the biggest thing
for me,” Irvin said. “I’m able to
impact the game in other ways
than scoring. I’ve really taken it
upon myself on the defensive end to
contribute there. As a whole, we did
a great job on Hayes and Happ.”
With five games to go in the
regular season, Michigan knows it
needs Irvin to be his well-rounded
self now more than ever as it enters
the home stretch of its postseason
push.
“That kid works so hard, (and)
has been going through a tough
stretch,” Wagner said. “To be
honest, I think people make a big
deal out of it even though it isn’t.
Like people go through stretches
like that. I’m so happy that — even
though he banked it, I don’t care
how — it was such a relief. We just
knew, hey, he’s back.”
Read the full story at
michigandaily.com
KEVIN SANTO
Managing Sports Editor
BRANDON CARNEY
Daily Sports Writer
JEREMY MITNICK/Daily
Senior wing Zak Irvin broke out of his slump with an 18-point, five-rebound and three-assist night against the Badgers.