8 — Friday, January 19, 2018
Sports
The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com
SHUCKED
LINCOLN – The Michigan
men’s basketball team ended
its game with the Nebraska
crowd chanting its best player’s
name. They were mocking
junior forward Moritz Wagner.
The normally brash star had
no answer. He scored just two
points all game. So, with the
crowd openly making fun of
him, Wagner could only smile
and shake his head.
It was a particularly bad time
for the junior to disappear,
as the Cornhuskers ran away
with the game, 72-52.
“I
think
you
could
see
tonight
why
Nebraska
is,
what’s their record at home,
one loss? 11-1, played Kansas
really well,” said Michigan
coach John Beilein. “Playing
small right now, that’s a really
difficult challenge for people
to play against right now. …
We’re playing on really short
rest. So credit Nebraska for a
great game plan. They played
much better than us, and they
got a W.”
For the second game in a
row, the Wolverines (5-3 Big
Ten,
16-5
overall)
needed
a big second half. For the
second game in a row, Beilein’s
team was looking to avoid a
momentum-damaging loss.
After
an
opening
frame
where
Michigan
could
do
nothing right against Nebraska
(5-3, 14-7), it trailed, 32-21 at
the break on Thursday.
And though it came back to
beat Maryland on Monday night
despite an equally terrible first
half, this comeback effort fell
apart quickly.
“We can’t just think we
can turn it on and off,” said
redshirt
sophomore
guard
Charles Matthews. “Maryland
got down and we made a run,
Maryland came back really
almost won that game. So we
can’t just say that when we
get down we’re automatically
gonna win the
game. We have
to stay poised,
we
can’t
put
ourselves
in
these positions
anymore.”
After
the
Wolverines
cut the lead to
eight with 17:26
left,
Matthews
collected
a
defensive
rebound
off
a
missed Cornhusker 3-pointer.
Matthews
turned,
looked
and threw the ball directly to
Nebraska forward Isaiah Roby.
Roby drove in, euro-stepped
around Matthews, and brought
the lead back to
double
digits.
Then
Isaac
Copeland made
a
turn-around
jumper.
Then
Evan
Taylor
made a pull-up
jumper.
Then
Anton
Gill
drilled a corner
3-pointer.
The rout was
on, and Michigan was helpless.
“I don’t know what we were
doing a few time,” Beilein said.
“And then in the second half
we get a rebound, we’re down
eight and we throw it right
to them. There’s some things
we’ve
really
gotta grow in.
“If you go to
Texas and win,
if
you
go
to
Michigan State
and win, if you
go to Iowa and
win, you don’t
expect a crowd
like
this
to
bother you. It’s
disappointing
we didn’t play with efficiency
in the first half, so we had like
14 points with five minutes to
go. If you don’t play real smart,
you’re not gonna score points.”
Nebraska’s defense stifled
the Wolverines all game. They
finished with 12
turnovers, shot
just 38 percent
from the field
—
22
percent
from
deep
—
and
struggled
to get anything
going in one-on-
one
matchups,
an area where
Beilein’s
team
can
sometimes
expose opponents.
The
Cornhuskers
were
sterling on the offensive end
as well. They looked to pound
the ball inside in the first
half, attacking Wagner on the
post. It resulted in countless
easy
looks
from
forwards
Roby and Copeland and was
a contributing factor to the
double-digit,
halftime
lead.
In the second half, things
opened up for Nebraska. It
started hitting all its jumpers,
leaving the Michigan defense
guessing.
Even when a dunk from
freshman guard Jordan Poole
brought the lead back down
to 12 with 9:08 left, the hope
of a comeback was fleeting.
The Cornhuskers hit two free
throws and a 3-pointer just
over a minute later to make it a
17-point gap again.
The
slow
starts
are
something the Wolverines have
battled at times throughout the
season. In most of those games,
they’ve been able to overcome
them. With Thursday’s loss,
though, the trend becomes a
bit more concerning.
“Concerned, I mean — yeah,
if you want to say that,” Wagner
said. “Concerned about our
offensive
performance
in
general, just the way we were
careless today with the ball.
We threw the ball away 12
times. Eight of them were
unforced, something like that.
… Sucks, but we’re going to
figure it out.”
It
just
wasn’t
the
Wolverines’ day. Each time
something
good
happened
for them, momentum would
almost
immediately
swing
back to Nebraska. Wagner,
himself had a thunderous
dunk
to
open
Michigan’s
scoring in the second half.
Soon
after,
Matthews’
turnover turned the tide once
again.
Michigan’s
efforts
were
ultimately swallowed up in a
sea of red, chanting Wagner’s
name long into the night.
ALEC COHEN/Daily
The Michigan basketball team shot just 37.5 percent from the field at Nebraska, finishing with its lowest-scoring game of the season in a 20-point loss.
MIKE PERSAK
Managing Sports Editor
Turnovers, poor shooting doom No. 23 Michigan on the road in a 72-52 loss to Nebraska
Michigan has no answer for screen-switching defense
LINCOLN – It’s normally like
clockwork.
A Michigan guard holds the ball
outside the 3-point line. Junior
forward Moritz Wagner runs up
to set a screen. Against a lot of
teams, Wagner’s ability to drill a
shot from deep off the pick-and-
pop makes the incredibly simple
play near-impossible to guard —
Maryland coach Mark Turgeon
said as much after Monday’s game.
If you hedge on the ball handler,
Wagner will be wide open. If you
help too hard on Wagner, the ball
handler will be headed downhill
to the basket.
On Thursday night against
Nebraska, though, it wasn’t that
easy.
Cornhusker coach Tim Miles
started forward Isaiah Roby,
tasking
him
with
defending
Wagner. Nebraska then switched
on every ball screen. There was no
room for the ball handler to attack
the hoop, and there was no space
for Wagner to shoot the three.
The
Wolverines
had
no
response to the defense, and
Wagner — usually an offensive
juggernaut — finished with two
points on 1-for-5 shooting.
“They switched everything.
On every screen,” said Michigan
coach John Beilein. “Roby allows
them to do that. I don’t know if it
would be successful with the big
guys, but that’s a thing we’re going
to see again from many teams.
And we saw it actually all at the
end of last year, and we’ve got to
continue to develop what we do in
that situation.”
Last season, the play had a more
obvious solution. The Wolverines
had Derrick Walton Jr., who could
simply blow by a bigger defender,
often making them look silly along
the way. This year’s team has yet
to find somebody who can make
those plays consistently.
Michigan even saw it earlier
this season against Purdue. And
though
the
defense
stymied
Wagner and the rest of the offense
for a time in that game as well,
they mounted a comeback with
their guards hitting 3-pointers
over top of a mismatched big man.
Against the Cornhuskers, there
was none of that, as the Wolverines
shot just 22 percent from deep.
“We
didn’t
make
shots,”
Wagner said. “We were like, I
think I saw up there we made 21
shots today. That’s not a lot for a
whole basketball game. When you
don’t make shots they make shots,
on the road especially, that’s just
tough, man, you gotta be better
than that.”
One might think the answer
is to put Wagner in the post and
expose the guard who is now
guarding him. Michigan tried
that.
Nebraska’s guards played in
front of Wagner, denying an easy
entry pass. The few times the
Wolverines tried to lob it into the
big man, the help defense was
waiting to poke the ball away or
contest the shot.
Another answer would be for
Michigan’s guards to do their best
Walton impression and use their
quickness to generate shots from
deep or layups at the rim. The
Wolverines tried that too.
That also led to sloppiness, with
players missing contested layups,
getting blocked at the rim or
simply turning the ball over once
they got into the lane.
To put it simply, there is no easy
answer. If there were, as Wagner
said after the game, “I wouldn’t
have lost.”
But an answer will have to
come eventually. While many
teams don’t have the length and
versatility of the Cornhuskers,
like Beilein said, teams are going
to continue switching screens
on Wagner until the Wolverines
prove they can beat it.
It could be any one of these
solutions. It’s likely a combination
of all of them.
Either way, the book is out on
how to defend Michigan. What
Turgeon said after Monday’s
game is no longer true. Now,
Beilein, Wagner and the rest of the
Wolverines will have to find a way
to adjust.
ALEC COHEN/Daily
Sophomore center Moritz Wagner was held in check by the Cornhuskers, scoring just two points on 1-of-5 shooting in 32 minutes played.
MIKE PERSAK
Managing Sports Editor
Patterson’s eligibility still unknown
Shea Patterson is already
the
most
highly-anticipated
quarterback of the Jim Harbaugh
era, even before taking a snap.
The
Michigan
football
team has played the following
quarterbacks in Harbaugh’s four
years at the helm:
A graduate transfer from Iowa
for 13 games. A now-departed,
three-star quarterback for 21
games. A transfer from Houston
for 17 games. And a redshirt
freshman for six games.
So it would make sense that the
former top-ranked quarterback
in the 2016 recruiting class who
threw for over 300 yards per
game and 23 touchdowns in his
10 starts at Mississippi would
pique the interest of fans. Pro
Football Focus graded Patterson
as the third best quarterback in
the SEC last year. At a position
of need, that’s hardly a pedigree
the Wolverines can afford to turn
their nose up at. That they even
pursued Patterson signals less
a concern about the personnel
in the program, but a unique
opportunity to bring a special
talent in.
No matter how confident
you are in the development of
redshirt
sophomore
Brandon
Peters or redshirt freshman
Dylan McCaffrey, the presence
of Patterson undoubtedly brings
a new level of intrigue.
But exactly when he takes
that anticipated first snap in the
winged helmet — whether in the
fall of 2018 or in 2019 — might be
the preeminent question heading
toward spring practice.
Patterson
transferred
to
Michigan in January without
knowing whether he can even
play in the upcoming season.
A transfer from a four-year
school
to
another
four-year
school,
by
rule,
requires
a
mandated year off. The player
can practice but not play in
competitive games until the
following year.
But it’s a tenuous rule.
According
to
the
NCAA
website,
a
transfer
from
a
four-year school can only be
immediately eligible at another
school if he is academically
eligible and the school files a
petition to the NCAA, detailing
grounds for an exception.
According to an email sent
by Patterson’s lawyer to Land of
10, Michigan has yet to submit
the petition to the NCAA. He
anticipates the NCAA will rule
on Patterson’s case by the end of
February, but cautions that the
timetable remains unclear.
Patterson left Mississippi after
the program was hit with a bowl
ban and other sanctions due to
recruiting violations. Because
of the ban, seniors were granted
the freedom to transfer with
immediate eligibility.
For
Patterson
and
other
underclassmen who chose to
transfer? That’s a gray area.
There
has
long
been
a
prevailing sentiment of optimism
that Patterson and his former
teammates who also chose to
transfer — notably, receiver Van
Jefferson and safety Deontay
Anderson
—
would
receive
immediate eligibility. Michigan
pursued the other two, though
Jefferson ended up at Florida and
Anderson at Houston.
Of course, even if Patterson
does receive eligility, the job
won’t be handed to him. That’s
never
been
how
Harbaugh
operates.
Given
McCaffrey’s
and Peters’ experience in the
offensive system, it would be a
fool’s errand to rule either out
in the inevitable quarterback
competition. All three have their
merits.
“The
only
thing
that
is
guaranteed
here
is
an
opportunity,” Harbaugh told the
media Dec. 20.
But
Patterson’s
presence
immediately
elevates
the
potential at a position that was
a clear weakness on the 2017-18
team.
“There’s always a guy you
look back at that you didn’t get,”
tweeted director of recruiting
Matt Dudek after Patterson’s
commitment. “Never been so
happy to get a 2nd chance! Here’s
to looking forward!”
But whether Dudek and others
will have to look even further
forward remains to be seen. For
now, it’s a waiting game.
FOOTBALL
MAX MARCOVITCH
Daily Sports Editor
“I don’t know
what we were
doing a few
times.”
“We can’t just
think we can
turn it on and
off.”