2B — March 20, 2017
SportsMonday
The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com
For Michigan fans, a week to savor
W
hatever you do, don’t
waste this week.
For the next three-
plus days,
Ann Arbor
will be one
of 16 cities
across the
United States
that gets to
experience
the singular
energy that
accompanies
a trip to the
Sweet 16.
At 7:09 p.m. Thursday, the
Michigan men’s basketball
team will tip off in Kansas City,
Mo., against Oregon. Perhaps
some of you will venture to join
them. Others will gather in bars,
lounges and dorm rooms across
campus to hold their collective
breath for two hours and watch
one of the great spectacles in
sports.
But in many ways, the real
prize of advancing to the Sweet 16
will come before then.
Three trips in the last five years
may have spoiled some Michigan
fans enough into thinking these
just happen. But the fact of
the matter is, regardless of the
outcome Thursday night, the
Wolverines have given their fans
a commodity that is hard to come
by and easy to lose: hope.
Consider Monday, Tuesday,
Wednesday
and most of
Thursday your
time to dream.
There will still
be class and
homework and
plenty other
things that are
normally worth
your attention.
But not this
week. This is a
week to make
the plans you’ll tell your future
children about. It’s a week to
watch “Survive and Advance,” or
“Hoosiers,” or even “Cinderella”
— if that’s not too
on the nose.
The truth is,
it doesn’t much
matter whether
you followed
basketball this
season. There
are so few
opportunities
to be in college
when your school
makes it this
far that, when it
does, you owe it to yourselves to
make the most of it.
Some ideas:
Spend your Monday basking
in the feeling you had Sunday
around 2:15. Take at least one
class off and take a walk down
to South Campus — see if the air
feels just a little bit different.
On Tuesday you’ll want
to read up. Oregon’s a damn
good team and, come tip-off
Thursday, you won’t want to
be double-checking who the
Ducks’ best player is (his name
is Dillon Brooks) or, worse, who
Michigan’s starters are. Talk to
a friend — any friend — about
the game. Sports mean bonding,
and there are few better times to
catch the fever.
Drink on Wednesday so you
can take in Thursday’s tension
without feeling the pull of
Skeeps. It’s unorthodox, but
trust me: It’ll pay off.
Thursday evening, you’ll
want to gather with your
closest friends for game time.
It doesn’t necessarily matter
where — some prefer to be out
with the largest possible group,
others prefer to watch in the
comfort of a house — but the
shared joy of a big shot is unlike
nearly anything else you’ll ever
experience.
I know this sounds cliché
coming from a sports writer who
you may or may not suspect is
wistful for his days as a fan. And
you’re sort of right — the day I
was accepted to Michigan, Trey
Burke hit “the shot” against
Kansas in the Sweet 16. It was
a crazy moment, and I’d love
nothing more than for everyone
to have a similar experience.
This is the weekend when that
can happen.
But there’s also something
about the NCAA Tournament
that goes beyond visceral,
personal memories.
The energy on campus —
both in class and on the Diag
— cannot be replicated. The
stage will rarely be bigger; the
lights will rarely be brighter.
The world will be talking about
what’s happening in Ann Arbor,
and, if you’re lucky, you may
even get a sunny day.
Come tip-off Thursday, you
owe it to yourselves to have
enjoyed that feeling as long as
possible.
It could be gone by Friday
morning.
Max Bultman can be reached
by email at bultmanm@
umich.edu or on Twitter
@m_bultman. Please @ him.
MAX
BULTMAN
EVAN AARON/Daily
The Michigan men’s basketball team is loving this run through the postseason, and you should too as the Wolverines head into the Sweet 16 on Thursday night.
You owe it
to yourself
to enjoy this
feeling.
SPORTSMONDAY COLUMN
Introducing a new, improved Beilein
I
NDIANAPOLIS — John
Beilein is having more fun
than you.
Even for
those who
have known
the 64-year-
old basketball
coach for
any amount
of time, who
could have
imagined him
firing a Super
Soaker in the
locker room
for a post game celebration like
a child who just unwrapped the
same toy for Christmas?
That’s because the old,
methodical, disciplinarian John
Beilein ain’t around anymore.
Everyone, I’d like to introduce
you to John Beilein 2.0.
This latest model of the
Michigan basketball coach still
has some of the features from the
previous version you’ve grown to
enjoy and love.
He still focuses on player
development, still stresses the
fundamentals and still acts
like he’s a teacher first and a
basketball coach second.
But as this season has gone
on, Beilein has had less and
less to worry about and do as a
coach. And as it’s turned out,
less has turned into more for the
Wolverines.
“He’s enjoying this moment
just like we are,” said senior
guard Andrew Dakich. “It’s
really cool to see our coach be so
relaxed. He’s still the same guy,
he’s just joking around a lot more
and having more fun with us.”
More than any other team he’s
managed, Beilein has loosened
his control of the reigns at the
helm of Michigan and given it to
the assistant coaches and veteran
players alongside him.
That started even before the
season, when Beilein brought in
assistant coaches Billy Donlon
and Saddi Washington.
Specifically with Donlon,
Beilein has come to view him as
more than just an assistant as the
season has unfolded. He’s given
almost full control of the defense
to Donlon and let him script a
large part of the narrative of
this season as it has unfolded,
even allowing his assistant to
vandalize a few walls in the
process.
Whenever Michigan has
needed an extra boost of
motivation, or something out of
the box, Donlon has stepped up
to deliver that. For Michigan’s
home game against Illinois, he
penned “Streetfight” on the
wall in the Crisler Center locker
room. In Washington for the
Wolverines’ Big Ten Tournament
game against Purdue, he used
that same sharpie to ink “Not
today” on a Verizon Center wall,
telling his players that it was
not the day Michigan would be
packing its bags and heading
home.
Again on Sunday, Donlon
was in charge of preaching the
message of the game. He walked
into the main area of the locker
room with pictures of each
players’ and coaches’ family, and
taped them to the wall.
“Everyone had a picture with
them and their family,” said
senior wing Zak Irvin. “He said,
‘When times get tough, think
about them. Think about the
people who you do it for.’ I think
it really hit home for everybody
and I think that really showed in
the second half.”
Beilein’s faith in all of his
assistants is higher than ever,
and that has shown over this
postseason run.
It’s not easy scouting and
developing game plans in such
a short turnaround time, and
Michigan’s coaching staff has
been doing a masterful job doing
so over the past two weeks.
Beilein says his staff is more
connected than ever. There are
no egos in the room, everyone is
focused on their individual role.
That dynamic also extends to
how all the coaches interact with
the players. Beilein says more
than anything, his assistants
have excelled at connecting with
the players. The coaching staff
has instilled a belief in their
players that anything is possible
moving forward, and without
that belief, Michigan wouldn’t be
winning these games.
“The trust has gone up
because we’ve got a lot of juniors
and seniors now who are really
leading this team and playing
good basketball,” said senior
forward Sean Lonergan. “I think
that’s taken some of the pressure
off coach (Beilein) to always be
that stricter coach because this
is really turning into a player-to-
player accountable team instead
of a coach-to-player accountable
team. We’re holding each other
accountable, which takes the
pressure off of him a little bit.”
More than ever, the players
are calling the shots for
Michigan, especially in this
postseason run. Senior guard
Derrick Walton Jr. is now
overriding Beilein’s offensive
play calls from the sidelines
multiple times a game. In
timeout huddles, players
are yelling at each other for
motivation and to correct
mistakes.
“At some point, they’ve gone
beyond buying in, they’ve taken
ownership,” said assistant coach
Jeff Meyer. “We’re on the ride
with them now. That’s the reality
of it. They are running the
Wolverine Express right now.”
Beilein is now focused on
making longer-term adjustments
based on the Wolverines’
strengths rather than getting
knit-picky over every little
mistake made.
That was on full display on
Sunday, as Walton once again
took leadership to coach one
of his teammates through a
situation Beilein would have in
seasons past.
“Now you have guys yelling
at each other for not doing
their job,” Lonergan said. “You
saw it today with Derrick after
(sophomore forward Moritz
Wagner) scored a big bucket. He
looked at Moe straight after as
he was running down the floor
and said, ‘I’m glad you scored but
I need you to go down there and
get a stop for us.’ You see things
like that, you hear people in
timeouts always yapping in each
others’ ear.”
The players and coaching
staff have come together to take
the load off Beilein and create
something special, and Beilein
himself is turning into a new
man. He’s loose. He’s relaxed.
He’s fun.
It wasn’t a personal choice,
but more so the result of his
changing surroundings. After
40-plus years of coaching,
there aren’t very many ways
to change other than by the
unforeseen circumstances
Beilein has had to address
throughout the season.
But he’s changed nonetheless.
And for this new John Beilein,
there’s nothing else to focus on
but a title.
Carney can be reached by
email at becarney@umich.edu
or on Twitter at @br_carney.
EVAN AARON/Daily
Michigan men’s basketball coach John Beilein has been around the game of basketball a long time, but he’s showing a new side of himself this postseason.
BRANDON
CARNEY