2B — Monday, February 5, 2018
The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com
SportsMonday

Poor free-throw shooting nearly dooms Michigan in win over Minnesota

When his team isn’t hitting 

free throws, John Beilein has 
simple advice: picture your loved 
ones.

“I usually tell them to think 

about their mother … relax them 
a bit.”

Beilein admitted he didn’t 

relay the message to his team 
on Saturday against Minnesota, 
only one miscue of many that 
contributed to the Michigan 
men’s 
basketball 
teams 
foul 

shooting woes. Despite a 76-73 
overtime victory over the Golden 
Gophers, the stench of a 12-for-
28 performance from the charity 
stripe reeked and lingered.

“I didn’t look at the box score 

because I’m just very happy we 
won,” said junior forward Moritz 
Wagner. “Obviously we weren’t 
shooting well (from the line), but 
the good thing is we can learn 
from victory now and not from 
defeat.”

At many times throughout 

the game, the misses seemed 
unfortunate, but non-essential. 
The Wolverines, victims of a two-
point halftime deficit thanks to 
tactical scoring by Minnesota’s 
backcourt, shot 5-for-6 from the 
line in the first half. Redshirt 
sophomore 
guard 
Charles 

Matthews missed six consecutive 
free throws in the first six 
minutes of the second half, and 
Michigan was still within three 
points.

The 
moans 
and 
muddled 

chatter of fans at Crisler Center 
longing for a made free throw 
were audible, but hope still 
didn’t waver. Then sophomore 
center Jon Teske bricked the 
front end of a one-and-one, the 
Golden Gophers’ lead ballooned 
to ten the next possession and the 
restlessness escalated.

“It’s basically like a turnover 

when you miss two free throws,” 
said senior guard Muhammad-
Ali 
Abdur-Rahkman. 
“You’re 

turning the ball over, you don’t 
get that possession. And then it’s 
tough, you gotta make at least 
one.”

Down only one point with four 

minutes remaining in the second 
half, Abdur-Rahkman — a 91 
percent free throw shooter before 
Saturday’s contest — drew a foul, 
and the arena exhaled in relief. 
But the senior promptly bounced 
the ball off the iron and out. Both 
times. 

A 6-0 Michigan run gave it a 

five-point lead with 18 seconds to 
go, Abdur-Rahkman went to the 
line again to put the game to bed. 
Once again, two misses for the 
typically rock-solid foul shooter.

Abdur-Rahkman called it a 

rare “mental block.” Minnesota 
charged down the court with a 
layup, forced a turnover on the 
inbounds pass and hit a three to 
tie the game. One more made free 
throw amongst a 5-for-17 second-
half showing would have made 
the Golden Gophers’ comeback 
efforts obsolete — no overtime 
and a quicker win. But that wasn’t 
the case.

In the extra period, free throws 

once again almost doomed the 
Wolverines. With 1:45 remaining, 
sophomore point guard Zavier 
Simpson — a 50 percent free 
throw shooter — clinked two 
off the rim with only a one point 
advantage. After a Minnesota 
bucket, Matthews hit only one of 
two free throws to tie the game 
at 71.

For Beilein, the free throw 

issues facing his team had him 
digging 35 years into the archives 
of his coaching career.

“I think of my Le Moyne team,” 

Beilein said, reflecting on his 
nine-year stint with the school. 
“We had a bunch of big guys in 
1983 or ‘84 that was the same 
thing. It’s been a good 30 some 
years since then we’ve had this 
issue. … If you hear frustration 
from me it’s because I can’t find 
the answer yet. And I don’t recall 
having it except for 30 years ago.”

With four seconds on the clock 

in a tied contest, Abdur-Rahkman 
drove to the hoop, pirouetted 
around his defender while getting 
fouled and converted a layup. 
Fittingly, after facing palpable 
uncertainty at the line, Abdur-
Rahkman dribbled, relaxed his 

shoulders and calmly sunk the 
and-one foul shot, leaving the 
Golden Gophers to chuck up a 
deep prayer that wouldn’t fall.

In 
the 
post-game 
press 

conference, Beilein praised the 
Michigan’s defense and showed 
gratitude that his team could 

somehow pull out the win. The 
free throw woes, on the other 
hand, are something he would 
like some help with.

“We’re ready for anything right 

now,” Beilein said. “A hypnotist? I 
wanna find out everything we can 
do right now.”

ETHAN WOLFE
Daily Sports Editor

SAM MOUSIGIAN/Daily

Redshirt sophomore wing Charles Matthews and Michigan struggled at the line in a 76-73 overtime win over Minnesota.

Hanging on

I

t’s not too often that a vic-
tory prompts cautionary 
words.

But Friday 

night, Mel 
Pearson 
proved to be 
an exception 
to the rule. 
His Michigan 
hockey team 
(8-10-2 Big 
Ten, 13-13-2 
overall) came 
away with 
a 5-3 win 
against No. 18 Wisconsin (8-9-
2-1, 14-13-3), but after taking 
a three-goal lead into the 
third period, the 20th-ranked 
Wolverines let their foot off 
the pedal.

The Badgers lit the lamp 

twice in the final frame and 
pulled their goaltender early in 
an attempt to turn what looked 
like a blowout into a far more 
competitive contest. And yet, 
Dakota Raabe’s open-netter 
proved to be Michigan’s saving 
grace.

Wisconsin’s resurgence, 

though, left something to be 
desired from Pearson.

“Discipline was not good,” 

he said after the game. “You 
could see right at the start of 
the second period after we got 
the lead that they were gonna 
come out and play physical 
and try to get us off our game 
a little bit. And they did a good 
job, and we fell right into it.

“… We’ve gotta understand 

that we have to stick to our 
game plan, we have to play 
with that poise and that 
patience. We have to learn how 
to play with a lead and do the 
things that got us that lead, 
and I thought we got away 
from that.”

The Wolverines, however, 

never got the chance to play 
with a lead again on the 
weekend. The Badgers buried 
Michigan with a four-goal 
deficit in the second period 

Saturday night and never 
looked back.

The loss, perhaps, made 

Pearson’s comments from 
Friday night even more 
illuminating.

Pearson said 

Friday night’s 
victory gave 
Michigan a 
chance to have 
a “heck of a 
weekend.” It 
would have 
been a heck of a 
weekend indeed 
— one that could 
have marked the 
Wolverines’ third sweep over 
a ranked opponent in their last 
four series. Instead, they were 
forced to settle for a split.

It was Friday night, too, 

that Pearson was asked about 
Raabe’s progress, only to shift 

his answer toward a more 
holistic evaluation of this 
Michigan hockey team.

“Our team has tremendous 

room for growth, I talk about 

that all the 
time,” he said 
then. “And you 
can see it in 
little doses. Now 
we’ve gotta just 
continue to do 
that all the time, 
and continue to 
come out of our 
comfort zone.”

That same 

optimistic 

outlook for the Wolverines’ 
progress, however, was 
measured with a dose of 
reality.

“We’re running out of time,” 

Pearson said. “Our seniors are 
running out of games. We’ve 

gotta grab it and run with it. 
We grabbed it and started 
to run a little bit, and then 
decided we were gonna slow 
down.”

Such is the 

reality for 
Michigan.

On Jan. 12, 

the Wolverines 
began a four-
game unbeaten 
streak — 
sweeping then-
No. 9 Minnesota 
at Mariucci 
Arena before 
sweeping then-
No. 12 Penn State at home, too.

Since then, as Pearson 

put it, Michigan has slowed 
down. The Wolverines went 
to Columbus only to be 
unceremoniously swept by the 
sixth-ranked Buckeyes.

This weekend, at least in 

part, was another hiccup.

Make no mistake; with six 

teams — including Michigan 
— ranked in the top-20 

nationally, 
sweeps are 
hard to come 
by in this year’s 
iteration of the 
Big Ten. But 
at this point, 
they may be 
necessary.

The 

Wolverines 
currently sit 
16th in the 

Pairwise rankings. Taken 
at face value, that would 
put Michigan in the NCAA 
Tournament for the first time 
since the 2015-16 season.

But the Pairwise rankings 

are not an exact science, and 

with three Big Ten programs 
ranked higher, it’d be more 
accurate to say the Wolverines’ 
aspirations of joining the 
16-team field are sitting on the 
bubble.

That bubble very well may 

pop, which leaves little room 
for error in the coming weeks. 
Michigan will close out its 
regular season slate with a 
series against Michigan State, 
No. 2 Notre Dame and Arizona 
State.

It’s a six-game stretch that 

is simultaneously dangerous 
and enticing. Losses to the 
Spartans or Sun Devils could 
jeopardize a season-long 
resume. A win, or two, against 
the Fighting Irish could make 
the postseason selection much 
easier.

But as the Wolverines found 

out both Friday and Saturday 
— and have found out plenty 
of times this season — if they 
stray from the system Pearson 
is so desperate to implement 
for good, they could very well 
end up on the wrong side of 
that hypothetical.

“We’ve got to understand 

that, and until we do we’re 
gonna hold on for our dear 
lives in games like this against 
good teams,” Pearson said 
Friday. “They’re all good 
teams, and you give them a 
little momentum, a little bit of 
spark, (and) it’s like that dry 
kindling. You pour some gas 
on it, all of sudden you decide 
you’re gonna put one match on 
it and boom, and now you’re 
just holding on.”

And as the season continues 

to wane, one thing is clear: In 
its next six contests, Michigan 
won’t just be holding on to 
games. The Wolverines will 
be holding on to an ending — 
and beginning — to Pearson’s 
inaugural season.

Santo can be reached at 

kmsanto@umich.edu or on 

Twitter @Kevin_M_Santo

EVAN AARON/Daily

The Michigan hockey team soiled an opportunity to have what Mel Pearson said would have been a “heck of a weekend” when it lost to Wisconsin on Saturday.

KEVIN
SANTO

“We have to 
learn how to 
play with a 

lead.”

“Our team has 

tremendous 

room for 
growth.”

