2B — Tuesday, January 16, 2018
SportsTuesday
The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com
What a difference a year makes
N
ew Year’s resolutions
aren’t really
meant to be
kept.
Setting
goals and then
brushing them
off a week
or two into
the new year
has become
a normalized
routine for many. So has reciting
the punchline: “There’s always
next year.”
While some people eventually
do achieve their goals, others are
left to wonder if they ever will.
The latter scenario must have
been how the Michigan hockey
and men’s basketball teams felt at
this time last year.
On the second weekend of
January in 2017, the Wolverines
faced off against No. 9 Minnesota
in Mariucci Arena, where they
hadn’t secured a series sweep
since 1977. But 40 years later, with
a chance to reignite their season
on the line, Michigan was swept
instead.
And on a January afternoon
in 2017, the Wolverines took on
Michigan State at the Breslin
Center, where they had only won
once in their past seven attempts.
But with a bitter rivalry in the
balance, Michigan suffered yet
another loss.
After the Golden Gophers
skated them off the Olympic-sized
ice and the Spartans ran them
out of the packed building, the
Wolverines diverged into two
different paths.
The hockey team stumbled
through the final two months of
the season and ultimately finished
with one of their worst records
in recent years, missing out on
the NCAA Tournament in former
coach Red Berenson’s final year
at the helm of the program. The
men’s basketball team, on the
other hand, exacted revenge at
Crisler Center just nine days later,
blowing out Michigan State by
nearly 30 points and going on to
win the Big Ten Tournament and
advance to the Sweet 16 of the
NCAA Tourney.
Still,
Michigan’s New
Year’s resolutions
remained
unfulfilled, and
the Wolverines
weren’t sure
how long they
would have to
wait for them to
be realized. As
it turns out, that
would be all of
one year.
On the second weekend of
January in 2018, the Wolverines
headed back to Mariucci Arena
to face still-No. 9 Minnesota.
Ranked 27th in the Pairwise —
well out of contention for the
NCAA Tournament — they had
an uphill battle awaiting them up
north.
The bus ride to the first game
of the series was understandably
quiet. The pressure could have
turned the
Wolverines into a
diamond or dust.
They chose the
former.
It took just
14 seconds for
Michigan to
find the back
of the net, and
the blitz was
on. Four more
goals followed
that night, and three more came
the night after. Minnesota could
muster just four over both nights
in response.
“They’re typically not a very
physical team, so we just came in
with the mindset that we were
going to outwork them, outmuscle
them,” said sophomore goaltender
Hayden Lavigne after Saturday’s
game. “And that’s what we did
both nights.”
With 5-3 and 3-1 victories, the
Wolverines took
home the elusive
series sweep in
Minneapolis.
“They had only
lost two games
here all year at
Minnesota, so to
come and get a
sweep is huge,”
said Michigan
coach Mel
Pearson. “And we
earned it.”
They also jumped up 12 spots
to a tie for No. 15 in Pairwise
with none other than the Golden
Gophers. Given that the top-16
are usually selected for the NCAA
Tournament, Michigan will have
a much more favorable position
come tourney time if it can
sustain its momentum.
The same could be said for the
Wolverines on the court.
On a January afternoon in
2018, Michigan
traveled back
to the Breslin
Center to take on
No. 4 Michigan
State. After a
heartbreaking
70-69 loss to No.
5 Purdue earlier
in the week,
the Wolverines’
challenging
stretch went up a
few notches in difficulty.
It didn’t help that the status of
junior forward Moritz Wagner
was up in the air after he
re-tweaked his ankle injury. But
not only was he there Saturday, he
was everywhere.
Wagner scored a career-
high 27 points in 27 minutes
and, on several occasions,
made his Spartan defender
look silly. But he didn’t do it
alone, as sophomore guard
Zavier Simpson, senior guard
Muhammad Ali Abdur-Rahkman
and redshirt sophomore forward
Charles Matthews scored 16,
14 and 10 points, respectively.
Michigan State, which had been
the top-ranked team in the
nation two weeks ago, had no
answer.
“We have a confident group
of guys,” Matthews said. “I
don’t think anyone is scared of
the moment. Nobody is soft or
anything like that. If anything,
sometimes we get too thirsty.
Today, we were just relaxed.”
With that mindset on full
display in an 82-72 win, Michigan
brought home the rivalry victory
in East Lansing.
“We always say that all we
need is what we have in this
room,” Abdur-Rahkman said.
“... I think us being so close as
a team helps us go into tough
environments like Michigan State
and other places on the road. …
It’s us against the world.”
It also entered the Associated
Press Top 25 poll at No. 23 for
the first time this season, and is
now projected to be a No. 6 seed
in the NCAA Tournament by
ESPN’s Joe Lunardi. That would
be its highest position since
2014, which was the season after
the Wolverines finished as the
national runner-up.
More often than not, people
use the phrase, “there’s always
next year,” about their New Year’s
resolutions as a joke because they
know the cycle will continue, for
however many years it takes.
But for the Michigan hockey
and men’s basketball teams in
2018, that wasn’t the case.
What a difference a year
makes.
Ashame can be reached at
ashabete@umich.edu or on
Twitter @betelhem_ashame.
KATELYN MULCAHY/Daily
Michigan men’s basketball coach John Beilein has his team trending in the right direction, and it’s a far cry from where the Wolverines were a year ago.
BETELHEM
ASHAME
Michigan
struggled
through
January of 2017.
“I don’t think
anyone is
scared of the
moment.”
Michigan proves toughness in quick turnaround
When
Michigan
State
forward Miles Bridges said the
Michigan men’s basketball team
“(doesn’t) even focus on (being
tough) Saturday,” he was merely
regurgitating
something
the
Michigan basketball program has
heard for years.
Some prefer “soft.” Maverick
Morgan chose “white collar.” But
the same underlying sentiment
runs true.
Defiantly,
the
Wolverines
proved once again their label
couldn’t be further from the
truth. Not this team; not this year.
With guile and grit, with
defense and a 3-point shooting
frenzy, with a little ingenuity and
a whole lot of heart, Michigan
squeaked out a home win over
Maryland, 68-67, just over 50
hours after knocking off then-No.
4 Michigan State at the Breslin
Center.
“People
are
saying
you’re
pretty good,” Michigan coach
John Beilein told his team before
the game Monday. “I’ll tell you
how good you are if you can beat
Maryland.”
They’ve
had
one-day
preparation windows before, but
not of this difficulty. Twenty-
four hours sandwiched between
a heavyweight in-state rival and
a hungry conference foe posed
a test of physical and mental
fortitude unlike anything they’ve
faced this year.
To
accomodate
Madison
Square Garden as the venue
for the Big Ten Tournament,
the conference condensed its
schedule, forcing each team to
deal with short turnarounds. The
Wolverines got a day of practice
— though hardly strenuous —
in between the games against
the Spartans and the Terrapins.
Coming off the emotional high
of the win over Michigan State,
Monday reeked of a trap game.
“First of all, I’ve got to come
down from the adrenaline in East
Lansing because when you’re
out there it’s a little different,”
Wagner said. “It’s a different
atmosphere.
And
you
win,
obviously having a good game as a
team, and then talking trash after
and all the surrounding stuff that
you don’t want to get caught up in,
like that takes energy, too. You’ve
got to come down from that, relax,
then make your mind up that you
have the next game in 48 hours.”
For the first 20 minutes, the
“letdown” narrative fit to a tee.
The Wolverines shot 9-for-29
in the first half, with zero free-
throw attempts. They made just
two 3-pointers in the half, and
hardly fared much better with the
attempts close to the rim. Down
30-20 at halftime, the defense
was propping up a lackadaisical
offense to little avail.
“It was one of those days when
we felt like ‘Nothing is really
working today,’ ” Wagner said.
“We don’t give up. We’ve been
down 18 points before, we’ve been
down 16 against Purdue. We’ve
been in these situations, we trust
each other.”
In the middle of the second
half, that trust — and the mental
fortitude — began to pay off.
In the blink of an eye, the
energy perhaps still radiating in
the locker room at Breslin Center
made its appearance. First, it was
Poole hitting an open 3-pointer at
the top of the key. Then Wagner
slipped a screen and hit another.
Then Isaiah Livers found the
bottom of the net from his now-
patented corner. Then Poole hit a
transition, step back three from
the wing. Then, to bring the house
down, Poole again.
“I don’t know why they left me
open,” Poole said, “that’s all I can
say.”
In
his
charicteristically
boisterous fashion, Poole turned
to the Crisler faithful, put three
fingers to his head and made his
presence known. As if there’s ever
a doubt with him.
“If I hit one,” Poole said. “I feel
like I’m The Microwave.”
Five
straight
possessions.
Five straight threes. One game-
altering run.
But it was far from game-
sealing. With tired legs coercing
Michigan
to
crawl
—
and
prohibiting it from cruising — to
a finish, the Terrapins fought back
furiously.
With 20 seconds left and the
Wolverine lead diminished to five,
Maryland guard Anthony Cowan
stepped up and made a contested
three-pointer from the top of the
key. Then after two missed free
throws from sophomore point
guard Zavier Simpson, Maryland
freed guard Kevin Huerter for
an open three to take a one-point
lead. Splash.
It conjured scenes from the
Wolverines’ heartbreaking one-
point loss to Purdue less than a
week ago.
Perhaps a softer team would
have mailed in another close loss,
emphasized the “Woe, is me”
nature of playing under these
circumstances and packed its
bags for Omaha, Nebraska.
Instead, with 3.2 seconds left, it
executed to perfection.
Isaiah Livers — a former
baseball player — tossed the
inbounds
pass
over
Cowan’s
head, straight to Muhammad-
Ali Abdur-Rahkman at halfcourt
as he strided toward the hoop.
Head down, full-steam ahead,
Abdur-Rahkman
overcame
a
poor shooting night with the
moment of the game, drawing a
foul to get to the line. With silence
more conducive to a library than
a crowded arena, the 92 percent
free-throw shooter sunk both
without even grazing the rim or
cracking a smile.
Neither a quick turnaround
nor shooting struggles could
faze a traditionally stoic Abdur-
Rahkman.
“Me?”
Abdur-Rahkman
prefaced
when
asked
about
how he prepared with the short
turnaround. “I was just playing
Xbox with a couple guys on the
team.”
“That (turnaround) is tough,
but that’s what makes good
teams good — and we know that,”
Wagner said. “Adversity, we’ve
proven that we can win and adjust.
But prosperity? That’s what the
really good teams adjust to.
“We had a tough time, we
found a way.”
Tough, indeed.
Wagner takes over
As Moritz Wagner walked
off the court on Saturday, he
pointed up to the rafters of the
Breslin Center. There, in a small,
maize section, stood a few rows of
Michigan fans who had made the
commute to East Lansing.
Wagner had just scored a
career-high 27 points to help the
Wolverines beat No. 4 Michigan
State, 82-72. He did it in a bevy
of ways, from 3-point shooting to
behind-the-back dribble moves to
fall-away baseline jumpers.
And Michigan needed all of it.
It needed Wagner to be the same
player he had been earlier in the
season, and Wagner delivered in
spades.
With about 12 minutes left in
the first half, the Spartans looked
poised to go on a run. Michigan
State’s Jaren Jackson Jr. blocked
two shots on the defensive end
before throwing down a vicious,
one-handed dunk to give the
Spartans the lead.
Moments later, as the crowd
exploded around him, Wagner
drilled an open three. He shushed
the crowd as he backpedaled
down the court.
In the second half, there was a
similar situation. With just over
eight minutes left, Michigan State
took another lead thanks to a
pair of free throws from Jackson.
Again, the crowd crescendoed.
Again, Wagner hit a 3-pointer to
retake the lead.
All game long, when the
Wolverines needed a spark, they
looked to Wagner. And all game
long, Wagner provided it. In a
hostile
environment,
Wagner
ripped the Spartans’ hearts out,
and he did so with a smile on his
face.
“We actually used to call
him the Grayson Allen of the
Big Ten, being that everybody
kinda hates him,” said senior
guard Muhammad-Ali Abdur-
Rahkman. “But he loves that role,
and he plays it well, coming in
here and having a big game like he
did. And we’re just happy to have
him.”
The performance was even
more eye-catching when you
consider that it wasn’t a certainty
that Wagner would play at all.
After re-tweaking an ankle
injury on Thursday, Michigan
coach John Beilein said he wasn’t
sure if Wagner would be in
Saturday’s lineup.
Wagner claimed he always
knew he was going to play. Either
way, knowing that there was
some pain involved in Wagner’s
performance makes it all-the-
more impressive.
“That stuff happens, dude,”
Wagner said. “With an ankle
injury, you can’t wait until it’s
gone or 100 percent. You’ve just
got to get used to it. Sometimes
you re-tweak it, but that stuff
happens, man.”
Added Beilein: “He had a lot
of courage to come in and play,
because he basically re-injured
the same injury, but he didn’t look
like it was bad today.”
Maybe it helped that this was
a big game. When Wagner was
on the fence to play earlier in
the season, he sat out in games
against Detroit and Alabama
A&M — games the Wolverines
would have won with or without
Wagner.
On Saturday in a rivalry game
against a top-5 team, sitting
wasn’t much of an option.
And it would be easy for
Wagner to brush off the matchup
as just another game. He didn’t
grow up around college basketball
rivalries like this. He wasn’t
always familiar with the passion
or hatred for Michigan State that
fans and other players feel. But he
understands that the passion is
there. For him, that’s enough.
That’s why his last action
before leaving the court was a
point.
“This game means so much
for the people up there that you
don’t see down here, and all of
the Michigan family out there,”
Wagner said, pointing again to the
section where the Michigan fans
sat. “Obviously, me being from
Germany, it’s a little different, but
for these people you want to play
your heart out. We did that today.”
MEN’S BASKETBALL
MIKE PERSAK
Managing Sports Editor
AMELIA CACCHIONE/Daily
Junior forward Moritz Wagner scored 18 points on Monday night to help Michigan overcome a quick turnaround.
MAX MARCOVITCH
Daily Sports Editor