8A —Wednesday, February 7, 2018
Sports
The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com
Michigan falls to Northwestern on the road, 61-52
ROSEMONT, Ill. — One team
made shots and the other one
didn’t.
It’s as simple as a basketball
game can become. There are
reasons for why the Michigan
men’s
basketball
team
shot
38.6 percent from the floor and
Northwestern shot 50 percent
from deep in the second half.
But the reasons don’t matter.
It
doesn’t
matter
that
the
Wolverines (8-5 Big Ten, 19-7
overall) didn’t trail Northwestern
at all in the first 20 minutes of
Tuesday’s game after getting off
to an uncharacteristically quick
start.
What matters is that the
20th-ranked
Wolverines’
stagnant offense and pitiful free-
throw shooting finally caught up
to them, as they eventually fell,
61-52.
“We came out and really
played well,” said Michigan
coach John Beilein. “We had a
good plan. When they adapted
to our plan, we could not adapt
very well. We have some habits
that keep us from getting better,
and the only thing we can do is
practice and try to get better.”
The free throws have been the
least glamorous stat as of late, but
they weren’t the singular issue
by any stretch. The Wolverines
couldn’t
get
anything
going
against Northwestern’s matchup
zone defense. That was part of
the difference in this game as
opposed to last week’s game
between the teams.
Back
then,
Michigan
overloaded one side of the court
and beat the Wildcat defense
with sheer numbers to pull away
in the second half.
This time, the shooting never
woke up. Instead, the Wolverines’
mistakes kept coming.
Meanwhile,
Northwestern
kept
applying
pressure
and
making shots, going 4-for-8 from
beyond the arc. McIntosh got
whatever he wanted wherever
he wanted it, finishing with 24
points.
Michigan, on the other hand,
crumpled, as Wagner was the
only Wolverine with anything
resembling rhythm.
Down eight with just over
four minutes to go, freshman
guard Jordan Poole corralled a
rebound. He looked ahead and
saw sophomore guard Zavier
Simpson streak ahead of the
crowd. Poole attempted a long
bounce pass, but threw it directly
off the foot of Northwestern
forward Scottie Lindsey.
The Wildcats went the other
way, and McIntosh hit a floater in
the lane to extend the lead to 10.
“We
were
pretty
good
(defensively) I think,” Wagner
said. “I mean, a similar gameplan
to last time. Obviously it didn’t
work out as well as we planned
it, because they made a lot more
shots, and they found their way
to the rim a lot better.”
In the first half, things got off
to a rocky start when freshman
forward Isaiah Livers turned his
ankle on an attempted layup and
couldn’t return to action for the
rest of the game.
At first it didn’t seem to
affect Michigan, as it got out
to a quick start right away. A
3-pointer from fifth-year senior
forward
Duncan
Robinson
gave the Wolverines a quick,
13-3 lead at the under-16 media
timeout.
Northwestern battled back,
though. Behind 11 and 10 first-
half points from Lindsey and
McIntosh,
respectively,
the
Wildcats were within striking
distance much of the half. They
trailed by just three at the
intermission.
That’s
when
they
overwhelmed Michigan.
“They have not shot the ball
as well this year. Their numbers
are down,” Beilein said. “…
They spread you out, and all of
a sudden, you’re in close outs,
you’re in close outs, you’re in
close outs. And so, they started
the second half by jamming it
inside, but then, the 3-pointers
got us the rest of the way.”
Who knows if the Wolverines
would
have
been
able
to
overcome
Northwestern’s
shooting
barrage
if
Livers
hadn’t gotten hurt. It’s entirely
possible they wouldn’t have.
Still, Wagner cited Livers’
energy, defensive effort and
versatility as things Michigan
missed, and Beilein mentioned
that the injury likely made
things
tougher
on
fifth-
year senior forward Duncan
Robinson, who had to play 36
minutes in Livers’ stead.
Either way, the poor shooting
the Wolverines have recently
been able to get away with was
exposed this time. They won’t
get another opportunity to
right the ship until they travel
to Wisconsin on Sunday.
So all that’s left to do now
is wait, hope a healthy Livers
can return with the energy his
teammates value and see if the
hot shooting that’s been flashed
in select games this season can
return.
CLAIRE MEINGAST/Daily
The Michigan men’s basketball team has played poorly over the past few weeks, especially on offense, an area in which it struggled against Northwestern.
From ugly to uglier
R
OSEMONT, Ill. — The
message is clear as day for
the Michigan men’s bas-
ketball team:
There isn’t
much to gain
from beating
low-tier Big
Ten teams
in its final
stretch of
regular sea-
son games,
but there’s a
hell of a lot to
lose.
Despite a 19-6 record coming in
to Monday’s game against North-
western, an NCAA Tournament
bid is far from a lock. Based on
their recent press conferences,
those stakes did not look to be lost
on coach John Beilein and the
20th-ranked Wolverines. After
all, they have eked into the Tour-
nament by the skin of their teeth
the past two seasons thanks to
miraculous Big Ten Tournament
runs and a kind selection com-
mittee.
And yet, as Michigan entered
Allstate Arena to a crowd that
was overwhelmingly made up of
Wolverine fans to face a Wildcats
team they had limited to just 47
points eight days prior, you would
have never known. The nearly
unwatchable display of basket-
ball that fell in Northwestern’s
favor, 61-52, was resemblant of a
Michigan team that seemed on
the outside looking in. It would
have perhaps inspired the casual
observer to turn the TV off and
read a book. Or socialize with
others. Or anything else.
The deflated showing began
early at the 18:23 mark, when
freshman forward Isaiah Livers
rolled his ankle on a transition
layup. His day of contributions
would be done after two minutes.
Perhaps as much can be said of
Michigan.
The first half offered poised,
but unremarkable basketball. A
32-29 halftime advantage might
as well have been a tie. Both
teams looked lazy and hesitant.
“I don’t think we fastbreaked
well. I don’t think we got two feet
in the paint well,” Beilein said.
“We’ve got a situation where we
fake a jump shot, the guy jumps
out of the way and we just pass
it to somebody else. It’s just hab-
its that we’ve gotta continue to
change.”
As for the second half, that’s
when the wheels really came off.
But when the Wolverines falter,
they don’t do it with turnovers or
obvious sloppiness. It’s a sweep-
ing malaise that permeates every
other facet of their game. They
shot 5-for-20 the entire half
including 1-for-10 from 3-point
land, a byproduct of Northwest-
ern’s zone adjustments and a
simple inability to hit open looks.
“We’ve gotta shoot the ball bet-
ter,” Beilein said. “We’re not made
that way. But when we’re shooting
the ball well we’re pretty good.
When we shot like we did today,
it’s not gonna do much good.”
Added junior forward Moritz
Wagner: “We didn’t do a good job
of making decisions, (we) missed
shots that we usually make. … I
think there were a lot of shots that
we could’ve made and that we’ve
made in the past.”
Dare I mention their free
throw woes, too? Going 13-for-19
on the night is considered a tre-
mendous improvement after Sat-
urday’s abysmal 12-for-28 output
against Minnesota.
“It sucks,” Wagner said. “You
play basketball to make shots.
It’s fun to win. If you miss free
throws - I think we missed like
five free throws in a row, that’s
not fun. Especially in crunch
time.”
In multiple instances, even the
basics were thrown out the win-
dow. In a 2-on-1 fast break down
eight points, freshman guard Jor-
dan Poole tried to rifle a pass to
a cutting Zavier Simpson that hit
Northwestern’s Scottie Lindsey
square in the leg. Shortly after,
Muhammad-Ali Abdur-Rahkman
nearly turned the
ball over going up
the court on an
errant pass over
Duncan Robin-
son’s head, saved
by a timeout.
An anomalic
performance
should not neces-
sarily be a cause
for concern — no
team in college
basketball has skirted that fate
this season. But at this point, it’s
not an anomaly.
Since its 20-point defeat at
Nebraska, Michigan’s offense
has shown that it plays to the
level of its competition. And with
the exception of the game at No.
3 Purdue — where Michigan
dropped 88 points in a narrow
loss — that hasn’t been a good sign
when playing conference cellar-
dwellers.
“It’s getting late in the season,
a lot of film out there,” Abdur-
Rahkman said. “A lot of teams are
doing a lot of things and adjusting
to the way people
are playing. We
just gotta make
adjustments, too.”
The Wolver-
ines have hardly
impressed in their
past five games
to be considered
locks for the
tournament, let
alone the 20th-
best team in the
nation. Maybe this punch in the
face will bring them back to the
reality.
If that’s not the case, then
the ugly play is only going to get
uglier.
CLAIRE MEINGAST/Daily
Michigan coach John Beilein thought his team failed to adapt after playing well early in its 61-52 loss.
ETHAN
WOLFE
“It’s getting late
in the season,
a lot of film out
there.”
Wolverines look scared
against strong defenses
The
Michigan
women’s
basketball team is now in a two-
game slump after ending its six-
game win streak last Thursday
in a matchup against Purdue.
Though
the
Boilermakers
came out strong, the Wolverines
fired back and held a significant
lead until Purdue went on a
16-point run to tie the game.
Sophomore
forward
Kayla
Robbins had a chance to win the
game with two free throws, but
missed both and sent the game
into overtime.
“The game was not based on
one play,” Michigan coach Kim
Barnes Airco told WTKA.“There
were
a
lot
of
different
opportunities throughout the
course of the game when we
could’ve gotten one stop or one
score and the game would’ve
been different.”
It seems that the downfall of
the Wolverines was based on
Purdue’s
defensive
pressure.
The Boilermakers changed the
defense halfway through the
game to four guards, playing
into freshman forward Hailey
Brown’s weakness.
“So we got kind of settled
in to what they were doing
defensively
and
then
they
switched it,” Barnes Arico said.
“Once they changed the defense,
we were never really able to get
in a rhythm.”
The
defensive
aggression,
even at the beginning, clearly
threw Michigan for a loop. The
Wolverines were able to recover
at halftime, but then lost their
footing.
“Purdue made a run and we
really couldn’t stop the run.
We were in a position to win
the game a few times down the
stretch and we weren’t able to
do that,” Barnes Arico said to
WTKA. “But it was probably
the first time all year where we
looked a little scared and looked
different prior to any other
games we had played in this
year.”
Shortly after the tough loss on
Thursday, Michigan traveled to
Rutgers to face another strong
defensive team.
This
time,
the
Scarlet
Knights didn’t rely on a mid-
game defensive shift to beat the
Wolverines, but instead applied
the pressure early on which
resulted in 26 turnovers.
“That’s been a theme of
ours this season and when
we’re successful we really do
a great job of taking care of the
basketball
and
Rutgers
just
swarmed us,” Barnes Arico
said to WTKA. “We got rattled
a little bit, that’s a tough place
to play. They really do it on
the defensive end; they’re a
swarming defensive team. They
pressured us, and they forced us
into a lot of turnovers.”
It is clear that the Wolverines
are afraid to suffer another loss
and strong defensive teams
seem to be their weakness.
The Boilermakers and Scarlet
Knights used their defensive
skills to out-maneuver Michigan,
which led the Wolverines losing
back-to-back games for the first
time this season.
“That’s what Purdue and
Rutgers are both known for
— is their toughness on the
defensive end, really physical,
really scrappy, really in your
face,
bumping
and
clawing
and playing aggressive on the
defensive end,” Barnes Arico
said to WTKA. “Probably the
two most defensive programs we
have in our league.”
The Wolverines will look to
stop those defensive setbacks
and bounce back to stop the
losing
streak
on
Thursday,
when they face off against
Northwestern.
WOMEN’S BASKETBALL
SARAH HURST
Daily Sports Writer
MIKE PERSAK
Managing Sports Editor