8A — Thursday, March 16, 2017
Sports
The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com

Cost of admission hurts Michigan students during NCAA Tournament

There were just five of them, 

but by the noise they were making, 
you would have thought there were 
more. 

Way up in the upper deck of the 

Verizon Center, five members of the 
Michigan Maize Rage stood, yelled 
and cheered the Wolverines for four 
straight days all the way to a Big Ten 
Tournament championship.

For two of those fans — 

kinesiology sophomore Jonathan 
Markwort 
and 
engineering 

sophomore Alex Kettwich — it was 
a once in a lifetime experience.

“I don’t know if I’m ever going 

to see anything as amazing again,” 
Kettwich said. “I thought the 
Maryland game last year when (the 
Terrapins) were ranked No. 2 was 
amazing, but that wasn’t even close. 
This was absolutely fantastic.”

But for many other passionate 

members of the Maize Rage, it was 
a weekend that could never happen. 
When the Big Ten announced back 
in May 2014 that the conference 
was taking its annual basketball 
tournament to the East Coast, 
students were just about the last 
group considered in the decision-
making process when they chose 
the location.

Ann Arbor is 530 miles — over an 

eight-hour drive — from the heart of 
Washington. But compared to the 
distance between most other Big 
Ten schools and the Verizon Center, 
that’s an easy ride. Maryland, 
Rutgers, Penn State and Ohio State 
are the only schools closer.

Kettwich, 
though, 
said 

after experiencing the Big Ten 
Tournament for the first time last 
year, there was no distance too far 
for him to travel to be a part of it 
again.

“I went to Indianapolis last year 

as a freshman, and I loved going 
there,” Kettwich said. “I’ve always 
liked basketball, and a year-and-
a-half ago, I went to D.C. I wanted 
to join the two together. Compared 
to Indianapolis, it was a lot more 
difficult, but I wouldn’t complain. 
Washington is an awesome city.”

While having to go all the 

way to Washington to get his 
fix of basketball wasn’t ideal for 
Kettwich, the Big Ten at least made 
it worthwhile for him and others 
making the trip.

The conference offered $35 

ticket packages for students making 
the trek to the Verizon Center. 
That package got students an 
upper-deck seat for every session 
in which their school was playing. 
That meant Kettwich, Markwort 
and their friends ended up paying 
$5 each per game to watch all four 
games Michigan played in plus an 
additional three games played in the 
same sessions.

“That was a fantastic deal,” 

Kettwich said. “I guess I understand 
why they put us up so high, because 
it was a really good deal. I would 
certainly pay more to sit closer, 
though.”

Added Markwort: “The flat rate 

by itself really depends on how well 
Michigan does, but being able to 

go to any game they were in was a 
really good deal. You can’t find very 
many tickets in the arena for $20.”

* * *
As the Wolverines shift gears 

and look forward to playing their 
opening NCAA Tournament games 
closer to home in Indianapolis, 
their fans, especially students, are 
looking to hop on the bandwagon.

But something many students 

have come to realize since Sunday 
night is that it’s going to cost them 
one way or another to get on that 
wagon to Indiana.

On 
the 
Monday 
afternoon 

following the NCAA Tournament 
Selection 
Show, 
the 
Michigan 

Athletics Ticket Office released 
information via email to all student 
basketball season ticket holders on 
how to make requests for a small 
pool of tickets allocated to students 
for the games in Indianapolis.

The email detailed policies the 

ticket office had set up to process 
the allocation. Students who are 

granted a ticket would be required to 
show up at Bankers Life Fieldhouse 
in Indianapolis on Friday to claim 
their tickets with a valid MCard to 
both the game played that day, and 
a ticket for Sunday if Michigan were 
to advance. By submitting a request, 
a student would be committing to 
attend both the Friday and Sunday 
(if the Wolverines win Friday) 
sessions and could not purchase 
a ticket to one game without the 
other.

This policy causes a problem 

for students who have classes late 
Thursday night or Friday. Many 
students are unable to attend 
Friday’s game due to class conflicts 
and other academic priorities. An 
official in the Michigan Athletics 
Ticket Office confirmed there were 
many inquires made by students 
about purchasing tickets for just one 
session, but none were granted due 
to these policies.

The ticket office had also put 

in place a policy limiting ticket 

requests to students who are season 
ticket holders for this season. As 
MLive’s Brendan Quinn reported 
in December, student season ticket 
sales have declined 44 percent 
between the 2015-16 and 2016-
17 seasons. A number of factors 
have led to this decline, but this 
alarming trend will carry over into 
the postseason, as many students’ 
decision not to purchase season 
tickets will rule them ineligible for 
postseason ticket requests.

But 
nothing 
has 
deterred 

students from buying tickets more 
than the price they’re being asked 
to pay. The Michigan Athletics 
Ticket Office has little control over 
price, an official told the Daily on 
Wednesday. Rather, the NCAA sets 
prices when it passes on the tickets 
for the office to distribute. Michigan 
only profits off a $5 service fee it 
charges with every transaction. 
The price set for each ticket was 
$81, meaning if the Wolverines beat 
Oklahoma State on Friday, students 

who committed to buying the 
package will be charged $162 plus 
a service fee for tickets to the two 
games. For comparison, the cost for 
a student to purchase season tickets 
to the upcoming 2017-18 season is 
$175 for somewhere between 16 and 
19 home games.

That combination of policy, 

apathy and price created the 
perfect storm for an incredibly 
underwhelming number of ticket 
requests. According to a Michigan 
Athletics Ticket Office official, 
just 27 students requested the 
package by the 10 a.m. deadline on 
Tuesday.

An official from the office 

confirmed they had planned for a 
higher demand from students, and 
even warned in the original email 
that tickets were not guaranteed if 
the demand exceeded supply.

But that was never going to 

happen.

The extra tickets not claimed by 

students have since been turned 
over to the allocation reserved for 
the general public, which did have 
excess demand.

As for students, there certainly 

will be more than 27 of them 
attending Friday’s game at Bankers 
Life Fieldhouse. They’ll just have 
to look elsewhere, mainly on the 
streets or through online ticket 
exchanges, to be in attendance to 
see if the Wolverines’ postseason 
run continues.

Markwort 
and 
Kettwich 

won’t be two of them: the pair 
needs the weekend to catch up on 
schoolwork and patch up the hole 
burnt through their wallets after 
spending four days in Washington. 
But they feel they made the arena 
atmosphere better for everyone 
around them. 

It’s unfortunate many students 

like them won’t have the chance to 
do the same in Indianapolis.

“The people sitting around us 

were very receptive of us being 
there,” Markwort said. “Multiple 
people came us to up after the game 
and said, ‘We’re really glad you 
guys came here, thanks for making 
the trip, it was really cool.’ They 
definitely appreciated it.”

‘M’ to face Northern Illinois in 
first home series of the season 

Last Wednesday, when asked 

about Michigan baseball’s first 
series of the year at Ray Fisher 
Stadium, a jubilant smile filled 
the face of second baseman Ako 
Thomas. Yet, on a day when 
Michigan experienced record-high 
winds, the standout sophomore 
pleaded one simple wish for the 
upcoming series against Northern 
Illinois:

“Hopefully the weather isn’t too 

crazy.” 

Unfortunately for Thomas, his 

request did not become reality. 
The No. 21 Wolverines (12-3) 
will host the Huskies (3-12) amid 
frigid temperatures and potential 
snowfall. Current forecasts predict 
the high temperature for the 
weekend series to be 40 degrees 
Fahrenheit and the low to be 17 
degrees.

In fact, the teams were initially 

scheduled to commence their series 
on Friday. However, one of the 
doubleheaders slated for Saturday 
has been moved to Thursday as a 
result of the expected inclement 
weather.

Heading 
into 
the 
winter 

showdown, Michigan has been on 
a blaze – winning nine of their last 
10 games. During the first 15 games 
of the season the Wolverines have 
consistently outperformed their 
competition, 
outscoring 
their 

opposition 95 to 49.

In addition to the stable offense 

and pitching, Coach Erik Bakich 
points out that Michigan’s defense 
has played an integral role in the 
team’s early season success.

“I really like our defense,” 

Bakich said. “That’s an area we 
take a lot of pride in, playing good 
fundamental defense.”

While coach Bakich explains 

that “surprised is (not) the right 
word” when discussing the team’s 
high level of play on defense – the 
team currently ranks eighth in 
the NCAA with a .984 fielding 
percentage – it is an area that seems 
to have caught his eye, and perhaps 
even exceeded his expectations.

“From a coaching standpoint, 

our guys not only making the 
routine play, but making the web 
gem play has generated a lot of 
momentum for our team,” Bakich 
said.

In addition to their superb 

defense, one area that has also 
sparked the Wolverines this season 
is their success on the base path 
– Michigan ranks fourth in the 
country with 2.33 stolen bases per 
nine innings and sixth overall with 
35 total steals.

Bakich explains how this is a 

byproduct of the speedy personnel 
they have on the roster. He points 
out that while stealing bases is 
a great weapon to have, it is not 
necessarily something they hunt 
for.

“We don’t go into any game 

with a set number of stolen bases 
in mind,” Bakich said. “Really, 
who cares if we lead the nation in 
stolen bases or not, it really doesn’t 
matter.”

The 
duo 
that 
leads 
the 

Wolverines in stolen bases, Thomas 
and senior shortstop Michael 
Brdar, have nine and eight stolen 
bases respectively on the season. 
The duo feels the team has not only 

been more aggressive on the base 
path, but in all areas of the game.

This 
sort 
of 
intensity 
is 

something coach Bakich expects 
from his players:

“The players understand what 

the expectation level is, which is 
100 percent all the time,” Bakich 
said. “They’ve done a really nice 
job with it.”

Michigan will have to channel 

this intensity while playing in 
below freezing temperatures this 
weekend.

While Northern Illinois has 

found little success this season, 
winning just three games and 
boasting a subpar .232 batting 
average, they are coming off of a 
win and will undoubtedly look to 
steal a few games from the ranked 
Wolverines. The Huskies will turn 
to left-hander Donovin Smith – 
who last week was awarded the 
Mid-American Conference pitcher 
of the week – to try and defeat 
Michigan.

While on paper the Wolverines 

should be able to handle Northern 
Illinois, the inclement weather 
could prove to be an unpredictable 
element.

FILE PHOTO/Daily

Sophomore second baseman Ako Thomas plays a key role on the basepaths.

HUNTER SHARF
Daily Sports Writer

SAM MOUSIGIAN/Daily

The Michigan men’s basketball team will have less supporters than expected during the NCAA Tournament due to rising ticket prices for students as well as fans.

BRANDON CARNEY

Daily Sports Writer