8 — Tuesday, January 30, 2018
Sports
The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com
Three takeaways: ‘M’ reversing trends after being swept by Ohio State
On a weekend when everything
could go wrong against fifth-
ranked Ohio State (10-5-1 Big Ten,
17-5-4 overall), it did.
The No. 20 Michigan hockey
team (7-9-2, 12-12-2) lost all
momentum it had built up over
the past two weeks in dramatic
fashion. The Daily breaks down
three takeaways from a dismal
weekend in Columbus.
Not so special teams
On
the
weekend,
the
Wolverines went on the power
play seven times, with no goals to
show for it.
“We didn’t have one (power
play) for the longest time,” said
Michigan coach Mel Pearson
after the game Saturday. “I think
they had three to our zero there
for the longest time and … we
had some good looks. Even on the
five-on-three Jack Becker was all
alone on the side of the net, and
we’ve got to put those in.”
In Michigan’s 4-0 loss Friday
night, the Buckeyes went on
the power play three times and
managed to capitalize on two of
them.
While the inability to score on
the power play isn’t necessarily
a demarcation of an ailing team,
the Wolverines’ defense on the
man-disadvantage was certainly
problematic.
Ohio State forward Mason
Jobst even scored a short-handed
goal in the third period Saturday
that made fans reminisce about
the Michigan defense at the
beginning of the season that gave
up countless breakouts form from
numerous turnovers.
“We’ve got to be better on the
power play,” Pearson said after
Friday’s loss. “I think that’s an
area that I talked a little bit before
the weekend that that was going
to be critical here. They scored on
the power play, and obviously we
didn’t.”
First line woes
In the Wolverines’ win over
now-No. 12 Minnesota on Jan. 12
– which was the genesis of the
KATELYN MULCAHY/Daily
Freshman defenseman Quinn Hughes and Michigan gave up nine combined goals against Ohio State this weekend.
WINNING UGLY
If you spill a drink at a party,
it’s a party foul.
If the party’s theme was “spill
your drink,” then, well, you did
what you had to do and nothing
more.
For
the
beginning
of
Monday night’s contest against
Northwestern, the Michigan
men’s
basketball
team
was
exactly in this position. Facing
the Wildcats’ zone defense,
the Wolverines started 1-for-
12 from three and coughed
up the ball four times in the
first 15 minutes, while also
missing a number of defensive
assignments.
Michigan was metaphorically
spilling all over itself after an
offensive onslaught in its loss
to Purdue on Thursday. Luckily
for the Wolverines, a wholly
lackluster
performance
was
still just enough. Northwestern
(4-6 Big Ten, 13-10 overall) were
almost equally abysmal from
the field — they shot 18-for-
47 for the game with Scottie
Lindsey as the lone double-digit
scorer — and simply ran out of
counter-punches, giving No. 24
Michigan (7-4, 18-6) room to
leave with an uninspiring 58-47
victory.
“I didn’t think after the first
10 minutes of that game that
I’d be walking in here with a
W,” said Michigan coach John
Beilein as he entered the press
room. “… They punched us in the
mouth in the beginning and it
took us a while to get used to it.
I’m really pleased we came back
and made some shots, but our
defense … it was exceptional.”
Added Northwestern coach
Chris Collins: “I thought our
guys competed, we just couldn’t
put it in the basket. Some of
that was us, I thought we shot
ourselves in the foot sometimes.
Some ill-advised turnovers. But
it was also Michigan. They were
very physical, organized and
made it tough on us.”
Besides
3-point
shooting
woes, the Wolverines were
even struggling to stick to
the basics in the first half. On
two separate occasions after
collective defensive rebounds,
Michigan threw the ball away
before having the chance to
normally bring it up the court.
Duncan Robinson was involved
in one of those instances, and
it served as a microcosm of the
Wolverines’ woeful half. The
fifth-year senior forward shot
0-for-5 from beyond the arc, but
also converted three open looks
in the paint for a team-high of
just six points in Michigan’s
21-19 halftime lead.
“We were up two at half.
Are you kidding me?” Beilein
said. “We didn’t make shots, we
didn’t make foul shots but we
held them and that was the key
to win.”
In the following half, the
game’s theme switched from
just playing bulwark defense
to adding some offense. The
Wolverines scored in their first
four possessions, but even the
Wildcats were finding luck
after nine consecutive scoreless
minutes, starting 5-for-9 to
keep the game close.
“One, we had to get more stops
on the defensive end and then
get out in transition and two, we
couldn’t just settle for threes,”
said redshirt sophomore wing
Charles
Matthews.
“When
they threw a zone at us at the
beginning, we just gotta rocket-
line it, we still have to go to the
paint and get two feet in.”
As a result, it took about
11 minutes for the teams to
surpass their total first half
outputs. In that span, junior
forward Moritz Wagner made
his presence known with a spot-
up trey and a mid-range leaner
after registering a scoreless first
half. He also surprised with his
defense as his matchup, Wildcat
forward
Dererk
Pardon,
couldn’t get anything going on
the other end and was held to
just nine points.
It was Matthews, though,
who was able to inject life and let
the Wolverines get comfortable.
He came through with two
emphatic dunks and a 3-pointer
to widen Michigan’s lead to the
point of no return. Mathews
and senior guard Muhammad-
Ali Abdur-Rahkman were the
Wolverines’ only double-digit
scorers, with 14 and 11 points,
respectively.
“We knew their zone was
gonna give us space in the
beginning and we hadn’t seen
anything like that in a while,”
Abdur-Rahkman said. “We just
had to adjust to it and once we
did we were fine.”
It surely wasn’t pretty — few
games have been that way for
Michigan recently. But in the
case of Monday’s game, the
Wolverines did exactly what
they needed to do.
Just last week, the Michigan
men’s basketball team gave up
92 points.
No. 3 Purdue torched the
Wolverines, doing whatever it
wanted offensively.
That performance stuck in
the minds of No. 24 Michigan,
and
it
showed
Monday,
when the Wolverines played
Northwestern.
The Wildcats were mystified
offensively, shooting 38 percent
from the floor, turning the ball
over 16 times and losing, 58-47
— tied for the second fewest
points the Wolverines have
given up this season.
“This
whole
game,
this
whole press conference, should
be about our defense. It was
exceptional,” Beilein said. “I
don’t want to get into rating it
against others, but I told our
guys, it’s as good as we’ve played
right now, and it had to be.”
The defense had no choice
but to step up with how much
Michigan
struggled
on
the
offensive end, namely in the
first half. It scored a paltry 21
points and shot 36 percent. Its
leading scorer, fifth-year senior
forward Duncan Robinson, had
just six points on three-of-eight
shooting.
If the Wolverines’ defense
hadn’t shown up, they might
have been run out of the gym
by that point. Luckily for them,
it did.
Junior
forward
Moritz
Wagner
has
been
much
maligned
for
his
defensive
ineptitude. Against Purdue, he
was bullied by its center, Isaac
Haas. But Monday, Wagner held
Northwestern
center
Dererk
Pardon to just nine points and
added two steals in the process.
“It was great,” Beilein said.
“Guarding Haas is just like a
whole different, it’s just very
difficult. All these years, I’ve
never seen anything like it. And
so, that is not who (Wagner) is.
At the same time, he was really
good on Pardon, and Pardon is a
really good player.”
It wasn’t just Wagner who
stepped up for the Michigan
defense.
Sophomore
guard
Zavier Simpson was a pest,
as usual, and junior forward
Charles Matthews led the team
with three steals. Even Robinson
and
freshman
guard
Jordan
Poole
—
who
have
struggled
defensively
in
the
past
—
earned
compliments
from
Beilein
after the game.
The
Purdue
loss
aside,
stout defense is
slowly becoming paramount to
the Wolverines’ identity. They
have the 25th-best defensive
efficiency
rating,
according
to KenPom, and have held
opponents in the 50s and low-
60s more consistently.
That’s not typical of a Beilein-
coached team. Yet it’s something
that other teams are beginning
to take notice of.
“Normally, for them, they
don’t win a game 58-47,” said
Northwestern
coach
Chris
Collins. “So it just shows that
they’ve made a lot of strides on
that end of the floor, and I was
impressed with their defense
tonight.”
It seems like that statement
would make sense for any team.
Scoring less than 58 points is not
a recipe for success.
Still,
the
sentiment
that
Michigan now has the ability to
win the grind-it-out games is an
important one. The Wolverines
have shown this season that
they are prone to bad games
on offense. There have been
countless times when they’ve
come out slow in the first half,
hung around with tough defense
and roared back in the second
20 minutes.
Tuesday, that was once again
the case.
“It just shows how resilient
we are,” Abdur-Rahkman said.
“We come to work every day,
we fight hard, we practice hard
and it shows in
the end.”
Resilience
may be the key
for
Michigan
offensively.
Eventually,
it
will
have
to
make more shots
and consistently
flash
the
offensive
prominence
that was present in its games
against Michigan State and the
Boilermakers.
Until
that
time
comes,
though,
the
Wolverines’
defense is keeping them rolling
along.
No. 24 Michigan trudges to victory over Northwestern
Defense leads Wagner, Wolverines to low-scoring win
ROBERT HEFTER
Daily Sports Editor
recent successes that the team
has seen – both senior forwards
Dexter Dancs and junior Cooper
Marody scored, with senior Tony
Calderone recording two assists.
However, the line that has
notched 76 points thus far this
season was silent this weekend.
“We have to get back to our
game and manage the puck
better,” Pearson said. “ … You
can see the goals that they got
this weekend, we got caught out
of position, we’re thinking too
much on the offense, we turned
the puck over in some bad spots
that led to some of their goals.”
But historically the other lines
would be able to pick up the slack
for the top line from the likes of
sophomore Jake Slaker and even
from freshman defender Quinn
Hughes.
The pair produced a late goal
in the third period Saturday, but
it wasn’t enough.
Despite a respectable 63 shots
on the weekend, they were either
unworthy of finding the back of
the net or stopped by Buckeye
goaltender Sean Romero.
“We created a couple things,
but we just made the wrong play,”
Pearson said Friday. “We have
two or three options that we try
and give the guys and then you
have to play off of that and tonight
it just seemed like the option was
available to us, we just picked the
wrong one.”
Added Calderone: “Yeah, we
started off pretty well, I think
we were getting pucks to the
net, but they did a very good job
of collapsing in the middle, and
we didn’t get to the greasy areas
enough.”
Romero, along with the rest
of Ohio State’s defensive front,
certainly had something to do
with the Wolverines squandering
some of their best options, as
nothing seemed to work no
matter how creative Pearson and
the offense got.
Michigan will be facing more
elite goaltenders such as No. 2
Notre Dame’s Cale Morris and
will have to figure out how to
work out its offensive struggles.
Lackluster Lavigne
At the start of the calendar
year,
sophomore
goaltender
Hayden Lavigne all but solidified
his spot as the go-to keeper. And,
his performances in the past
two weeks have been nothing
short of miraculous, as his leaps
across the crease have secured
victories and strengthened a
faulty defense.
If his recent efforts mean
anything, it’s that he was the
undeniable leader of the back
line.
So, it may be reasonable to
place some of the blame on him
for the nine goals allowed against
Ohio State.
Everyone knows the level
that Lavigne can play at, and an
all-around
poor
performance
on both ends of the ice is
ultimately the reason for why the
Wolverines lost.
But nine pucks did find their
way past him, and everyone on
the ice is accountable for that.
“I think we were a little bit off-
sync tonight,” Calderone said, “so
I think once we can get in-sync
and
everyone’s
cooperating
together I think we’ll be fine.”
Ultimately, there were high
expectations going into the bout
against the Buckeyes and this
weekend was certainly a misstep,
but if Michigan can fix the power
play and get back to the hockey
they were playing two weeks ago,
Calderone’s “we’ll be fine” will
ring true.
ETHAN WOLFE
Daily Sports Editor
EVAN AARON/Daily
Redshirt sophomore wing Charles Matthews led Michigan with 14 points.
MIKE PERSAK
Managing Sports Editor
“... It’s as good
as we’ve played
right now, and
it had to be.”