4B — March 13, 2017
SportsMonday
The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com
QUARTERFINALS: NO. 8 MICHIGAN 74, NO. 1 PURDUE 70 (OT)
‘M’ upsets Boilermakers
WASHINGTON — Before the
Michigan men’s basketball team
went into overtime against No. 13
Purdue, Zak Irvin had a message
for his team.
The senior wing came into the
huddle and screamed incessantly,
“Not today, not today.”
It was the same message that
assistant coach Billy Donlon
wrote on the locker room wall
before the game. The Wolverines
had lost to the Boilermakers a year
ago in the Big Ten Tournament,
and “Not today” was a symbol of
the fact that they didn’t want to
run into the same fate again.
“They ended our Big Ten
Tournament chances last year,”
said
Michigan
coach
John
Beilein. “We had to make sure
going forward that we came down
(to the Big Ten Tournament) to
win it. We didn’t come down
here to try to make the NCAA
Tournament, we came down here
to win it.”
And in a game pundits called a
matchup between the two hottest
teams currently in the Big Ten
— the teams were a combined
16-4 in their last 10 games — it
certainly lived up to its billing as
Michigan prevailed, 74-70, in an
overtime thriller at the Verizon
Center on Friday afternoon.
After a wild ending to regulation
that saw Irvin tie up the game
with four seconds left in the game,
he also provided the spark the
Wolverines, scoring Michigan’s
only two field goals in the extra
period to push it to victory.
“(Zak’s bucket) was a big one,”
said senior guard Derrick Walton
Jr. “He got a great look and got two
big buckets in a row. I just ran over
and told him ‘I’m proud of you,
you made a big play in one of the
biggest moments of the season.’ ”
It was a quick turnaround for
Michigan (10-8 Big Ten, 22-11
overall), which had just beaten
Illinois less than 24 hours prior.
Many wondered if the Wolverines
would have the legs to keep up
with a physical Boilermaker team.
But Michigan came to play in a
tight game in which there were 18
lead changes.
“(We) just (had) a warrior
mentality,” Irvin said. “Going into
the game, not today, we didn’t
want to go home. We wanted to be
able to outlast Purdue’s toughness
and how physical they are.”
After
sophomore
forward
Moritz
Wagner
pummeled
Purdue (14-4, 25-7) for 24 points
in the two teams’ first matchup
13 days ago, Purdue made it a
priority to stop him.
And it was effective. Wagner
struggled with the physicality
of
Purdue
forwards
Caleb
Swanigan and Isaac Haas down
low and played just four minutes
in the first half due to foul
trouble. Wagner didn’t score
in the stanza and ended the
game with just five points in 17
minutes of action that didn’t see
him touch the floor in overtime.
“(Purdue) started off switching
on me,” Wagner said. “They
cross matched. They put (Purdue
forward Vince Edwards) on me
and (Swanigan) on DJ.
“It’s not easy when they cross
match because you have to get out
of your normal offensive zone.”
But
in
Wagner’s
scoring
absence,
redshirt
sophomore
forward DJ Wilson stepped up.
The Sacramento, Calif. native
scored 18 points on 8-for-11
shooting in the first half, which
included 10 straight points to take
the lead back from Purdue as the
first half wound down.
“That’s the beauty of sport,”
Wagner said. “You don’t know
who’s gonna go out that day. It’s just
a very talented group, a group that
is not only talented but also believes
in themselves, (and) in each other.
We all know what we got, and all
we got is all we need. It’s a beautiful
thing to be a part of.”
On the other side of the court,
the duo of Swanigan and Haas
were almost perfect for Purdue.
The duo combined for 21 points on
10-of-14 shooting in the first half.
But the second half was a
different story as Wilson played
exceptional defense on the duo
to slow them down — holding
Swanigan and Haas to just three
and six points, respectively.
It was just enough for Michigan
to push the game to overtime,
where the defense was even
better, allowing only one field
goal — a desperation 3-pointer by
Purdue guard Ryan Cline with
time running out.
It was the kind of defensive
performance that Wagner had
been waiting to see from his team,
and he made his voice known after
the game that he didn’t want to be
labeled as an “offense-only team.”
“I’m a little bit tired of being
that team that only wins when
they hit big shots,” Wagner said.
“It kind of bothers you as a player.”
Now, it’ll be another quick
24-hour
turnaround
for
the
Wolverines, as they will play
Minnesota on Saturday afternoon
after the Golden Gophers beat
Michigan State on Friday.
It’s a tough task for a group
that has had a whirlwind of a
48 hours. But at least for now,
Michigan is just happy its Big Ten
Tournament run wasn’t ended in
the same fashion as last year.
SAM MOUSIGIAN/Daily
Senior Derrick Walton Jr. and Michigan pulled their first upset against Purdue.
MINH DOAN
Daily Sports Editor
Wilson shines in all phases
WASHINGTON
—
Billy
Donlon is building a reputation for
defacing walls.
It all started with one word —
“streetfight” — scrawled across
a wall in Michigan’s locker room
before the Wolverines’ regular-
season rematch against Illinois on
Jan. 21.
Thursday afternoon, before the
Michigan men’s basketball team
faced the top-seeded Boilermakers
with a chance to advance to
the semifinals of the Big Ten
Tournament, its assistant coach’s
antics came back in full force. This
time, it was “Not today”, imprinted
on a locker room wall at the
Verizon Center in between a clock
and a TV.
When Duncan Robinson saw it,
he thought it meant the Wolverines
weren’t going to let Purdue do
what they wanted on offense.
Sean Lonergan echoed Robinson’s
statement, explaining the team
screams “not today” when it is
going through defensive slides.
Zak Irvin viewed it as a
symbolic declaration Michigan
wasn’t going home Thursday.
And DJ Wilson said it meant
Purdue wasn’t going to knock
the Wolverines out of the Big
Ten Tournament for the second
straight year. He sure as hell made
sure of it.
The
redshirt
sophomore
forward finished with a game-high
26 points on 11-for-18 shooting,
grabbed
a
team-high
eight
rebounds and pitched in three
blocks to boot. More importantly,
Wilson seemed to put his stamp on
the game when Michigan needed
him most, ultimately leading
Michigan to its 74-70 overtime
victory against No. 13 Purdue.
“He was hoopin’, he was
absolutely hoopin,’ ” Lonergan
said. “DJ’s — you’ve seen it
before out of him — he’s a hell of a
player. I think that’s what makes
this team special. I think you’ve
seen it … each and every one of
them is capable of having a really
big game.
“… I think that’s what makes
us really hard to stop because
you’ve got to play with five guys
every single night who are capable
of making big time plays. Today
happened to be DJ’s day, he seized
the moment and took care of
business.”
And
without
him,
the
Wolverines would have been back
in Ann Arbor by Thursday night.
With 4.2 seconds remaining in
regulation, Michigan had knotted
the game at 66 behind Irvin’s
layup. Purdue was taking the ball
out from underneath its basket. It
felt like déjà vu all over again.
Just
nine
days
prior,
the
Wolverines
had
traveled
to
Evanston only to have their
hearts broken by Dererk Pardon’s
buzzer-beating
layup.
Wilson
was one of the men who had a
chance to stop it, coming inches
away from pinning Pardon’s shot
to the backboard. Those inches
became the difference between an
opportunity in overtime and a long
trip back to Ann Arbor.
So when Purdue managed to
push the ball up the court and
forward Vince Edwards caught
the ball on the left wing and pulled
up from beyond the arc, it felt like
a cruel twist of fate was about to
befall Michigan for the second
time in just over a week.
But Wilson made sure that
wasn’t going to happen, at least, not
today. He managed to tip Edwards’
shot, notching his third block
of the day and simultaneously
giving the Wolverines an overtime
period during which they would
ultimately win the game.
“It’s kind of a 50-50 play,” said
senior forward Mark Donnal.
“He’s got the length to be able
to
disrupt
anybody’s
shot.
Fortunately, he was at the good
end of it and he was able to tip it
into the air and force overtime.”
Michigan would have never
been in the situation of losing on a
final shot if not for Wilson either.
Just over four minutes into the
game, Michigan’s big man had
already grabbed two of his final
three offensive rebounds and
finished the half with a game-high
18 points. Ten of those 18 came
during an unanswered scoring run
with 4:18 left in the first half, prior
to which Purdue was threatening
to pull away and held a nine-point
lead — its largest of the game.
With Wagner logging just four
minutes in the first half due to foul
trouble, Wilson’s effort kept the
Wolverines far away from falling
into what could have been an
insurmountable hole — entering
the break with a one-point lead.
Though Wilson scored just
eight points in the second half,
they all came at the right time
for Michigan, as he was the only
Wolverine — until Irvin’s game-
tying bucket — to score from
the field in the final 7:21, and
that doesn’t even account for his
defensive
performance.
With
Wagner’s foul trouble persisting in
the second half, Wilson was left as
the sole rim protector.
Though
Purdue’s
Caleb
Swanigan
and
Isaac
Haas
combined for 30 points on 12-for-
23 shooting, Wilson helped hold
them to just eight in the second
frame before capping it off with
his block.
Billy Donlon wrote “Not today”
on the wall. DJ Wilson made sure
the cost of a new paint job was
worth it.
“He’s a big fan of his writing
on walls and knowing that it can’t
come off,” Wilson said. “I don’t
how he’s gonna get that off or
who’s gonna pay for it, but that’s
on him. … I’m not opposed to it. It
gets us Ws.”
SAM MOUSIGIAN/Daily
Redshirt sophomore forward DJ Wilson was Michigan’s star against Purdue, piling up a game-high 26 points.
KEVIN SANTO
Managing Sports Editor
Hero ball
W
ASHINGTON — Zak
Irvin had the ball
in his hands with
the score tied at 65 and just 12
seconds left
in regulation.
It was bad
enough that
the senior
wing decided
to launch
a triple
attempt that
clanged off
the rim.
Worse yet,
the clock
still read 1.7. Worst of all,
Northwestern threw a full-
court Hail Mary pass and laid it
up as the buzzer sounded to win
the game.
“Hero ball” — a phrase not
meant to be a compliment
— has been widely used to
characterize Irvin throughout
the season, and the chorus rang
louder than ever before after a
tight back-and-
forth affair in a
crucial contest
between the two
teams tied for
sixth place in
the conference
last Wednesday.
Fast forward
to Friday
afternoon.
Irvin had
the ball in his
hands with just 18 seconds left
in regulation. But this time,
Michigan faced a 66-64 deficit
in the quarterfinals of the Big
Ten Tournament.
Calling off any help with
Purdue guard Dakota Mathias
stationed directly between him
and the hoop, Irvin put himself
in the position of becoming the
scapegoat once again.
That’s not to say he hasn’t
been used to it. Irvin’s start to
conference play gave off the
impression that he had the
potential to be more than an
All-Big Ten honorable mention,
but he instead fell victim to a
lengthy scoring slump.
While he dealt with a
decreased level of production,
his roommate and fellow
captain Derrick Walton Jr.
became the undisputed go-to
guy for the Wolverines. The
senior guard posted five
consecutive games with over
20 points, notched four double-
doubles and joined Michigan’s
exclusive 1,000-point,
400-rebound, 400-assist club.
Any betting person watching
the game Friday would have
wagered a lot of money that the
ball would — and should — be in
Walton’s hands. But that’s not
the way Walton sees it.
“You got two guys that want
to make big plays in the biggest
moments of the game, and you
can’t go wrong,” Walton said.
“When it’s not him, it’s me, and
when it’s not me, it’s him.”
Though Walton had a
strong first half against the
Boilermakers, finishing with
10 points — second only to
redshirt sophomore forward
DJ Wilson’s 18-point outburst
— he hadn’t put the ball in
the basket at all in the second
half. In what Walton described
as a frequent “rock, paper,
scissors” fight for the big shot
between the two, Irvin had the
upper hand.
With Mathias guarding him
closely, Irvin drove to his left
and gained enough separation
to see daylight. He ran right by
Mathias and laid it up off the
glass to tie the game at 66 and
send it to overtime.
“It’s great to have somebody
like that,” said junior guard
Muhammad-Ali Abdur-
Rahkman. “Somebody who
wants to take the big shots and
makes the big shots.”
Even better than the climax
was his encore performance.
Neither team had managed
to score for the opening 2:14
of the extra period, and the
tension on both sidelines had
reached a boiling point. Though
he may not have been wearing a
cape, Irvin swooped in to take
matters into
his own hands
again.
He drove to
the basket on
back-to-back
possessions,
bypassing
Mathias with
ease and putting
the Wolverines
ahead, 70-67,
with 1:53 left on
the clock. In an overtime period
plagued by misses from the floor
and fouls on both sides — the two
teams combined for just seven
points away from the charity
stripe — Irvin embraced a self-
described “warrior mentality”
and took it upon himself to
decide the outcome of the game.
That’s not to say he hadn’t
already been doing it. While
he scored just six points before
his clutch streak, he played
lockdown defense on Mathias,
the fourth-best 3-point shooter
in the conference at 45.6
percent, and played all 45
minutes of the game. Mathias
hit only one trey all game, and
it marked his only points of the
contest.
“He has handled this
perceived slump that he’s
had by just becoming a better
defender,” said Michigan coach
John Beilein. “What he gives us
in intangibles, the shot is not as
important as what he does.”
In this particular game,
however, his big shots made all
the difference.
With 7.6 seconds left in
overtime, Michigan took a five-
point lead, forcing Purdue to
foul. Before heading toward the
bench, Irvin strutted toward the
collection of elated Michigan
supporters in the stands,
sporting a wide grin and raising
his arms jubilantly.
He might as well have had a
giant block ‘M’ in the middle of
his chest.
“Hero ball” might have a
different connotation now.
Ashame can be reached
at ashabete@umich.edu
or on Twitter @betelhem_
ashame. Please be kind.
BETELHEM
ASHAME
“The shot
is not as
important as
what he does.”
SAM MOUSIGIAN/Daily
Senior forward Zak Irvin hit the game-tying shot late in regulation Friday.