2B — Monday, February 12, 2018
Sports
The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com

T

here’s a small family-
owned deli on Long Island 

— tucked in 
between a 
pizzeria and 
a liquor store 
— in the town 
of Rockville 
Centre.

It has 

a stone 
storefront and 
lounge chairs 
you’d probably 
see more often in a backyard than 
on the sidewalk. Drive by at night, 
and you’ll find four overhanging 
lamps spotlighting the words 
“Greystone Delicatessen.”

Walk inside and there are wood 

floors, with chalkboards hanging 
across the right wall listing every 
item on the menu.

There are two people currently 

residing in Ann Arbor who have 
worked at this deli.

One came to Michigan and 

decided to write for his student 
newspaper. That’s me.

The other?
Kevin Conry, the new head 

coach of the Michigan men’s 
lacrosse team.

***
Warde Manuel doesn’t 

remember exactly who 
recommended that he sit down 
with Conry, but he does remember 
that Conry was the first assistant 
coach brought to his attention.

It’s easy to imagine why that 

was the case.

Conry graduated from Johns 

Hopkins — where he was a four-
year member of the Blue Jays’ 
lacrosse team — before embarking 
on his coaching journey that saw 
him make stops at Siena, Penn 
State, Fairfield and, most recently, 
Maryland. It’s at all of those stops 
that Conry says he “sharpened the 
knife” of his values.

Conry’s professional 

aspirations were always to be 
a head coach. And Michigan 
offered similar resources with the 
chance for him to build a program 
of his own.

He finished his final season at 

Maryland — one that ended in a 
national championship — before 
turning toward the future. Staying 
in the present, he says, was 
something he said he owed to his 
players.

But eventually he went to 

administrators at Maryland, 
asking if the Michigan job was still 
open. It was, and through a series 
of connections, Conry ended up 
sitting down with Manuel in Ann 
Arbor.

“This is a Big Ten university 

with unbelievable facilities,” 
he says. “It has an unbelievable 
academic and athletic reputation, 
so when you’re looking around 
you’re saying, ‘Oh man, that would 
be a gem.’ And I was just fortunate 
to be in the running of that one. 
Why now? It was just all the stars 
aligned.”

And on June 21, it became 

official. Conry was taking over the 
program, and he made sure to call 

each of his future players to let 
them know.

***
If you were to walk past 

Michigan’s locker room Saturday, 
in the bowels of the newly-
constructed U-M Lacrosse 
Stadium, you would have found a 
somewhat peculiar sight.

Members of the Wolverines 

— fresh off a 15-5 victory over 
Cleveland State in their season 
opener and dressed in postgame 
suits — walked the hall picking up 
stray pieces of athletic tape.

It seems innocuous enough, 

but the scene is emblematic of 
the broader principles Conry has 
begun to instill.

As Brent Noseworthy 

describes, he has had to pick up 
other people’s garbage. His new 
coach is insistent that the team 
leaves places better than they 
found it — whether that be a bus, 
a hotel room or a piece of athletic 
equipment.

“How you do anything is how 

you do everything, and that’s 
something Coach Conry has really 
harped on,” Noseworthy says. 
“One of the thing he encourages 
us — make your bed every 
morning, because then you start 
your day off productive and you 
have something done.”

As for Conry’s explanation?
“Much like everything, you 

kind of grow up a certain way,” he 
says. “You kind of grow up with 
that respectful mindset, being 
accountable to all your decisions 
and your mistakes. Part of our 
mission here and what we talk 
about is we’re gonna play the 
game like we live our life and you 
live your life like you play the 
game.”

The culture change doesn’t end 

with garbage duty, though.

Last Friday, Conry had the 

freshman class and his senior 
captains over for dinner.

Noseworthy says he thinks 

the plan is to make sure every 
class goes over at least once, and 
that in the first iteration, the 
team spent time meeting Conry’s 
family. The assistant coaches 
brought their kids over too.

The food wasn’t bad either, 

complete with a spread of flank 
steaks, chicken, pasta and mac and 
cheese.

“It’s catered,” joked freshman 

Alex Buckanavage. “He doesn’t 
know how to cook.”

“I punted on that one,” Conry 

admits. “I couldn’t put that one on 
Mrs. Conry.”

Home-cooking or not, the 

purpose behind the dinner 
remains the same.

“I think we want to foster 

more of a family environment,” 
Conry says. “I want them to 
know my kids and watch my 
kids kind of grow up around this 
program. … But I want to build 
a championship culture, and 
everything that’s entitled to it. 

Part of it is the family orientation, 
but it’s also just excelling at 
the smallest details in every 
department.”

***
Look around the Big Ten, 

and you’ll quickly come to a 
realization. Five teams are 
currently ranked in the top 20 
nationally. Michigan, the sixth, is 
not one of them.

The growth will have to come 

incrementally. No one is blind to 
that.

“The expectations were high,” 

says Warde Manuel, “while at 
the same time understanding, it’s 
not just gonna be built overnight 
because we have a new stadium, 
and now we’re gonna all of a 
sudden win.”

Conry admits that, as a first-

time head coach, there are some 
things that no amount of advice 
can prepare you for. He says the 
best coaches, in his mind, adjust to 
those mistakes.

But there’s a sense of humor 

mixed in with the introspection.

He’ll say he misses bagels, 

pizza, crab and his family on the 
East Coast. But lacrosse and film 
study, he’ll joke again, have filled 
the void and improved his diet.

If Saturday was any indication, 

though, he’s been looking at more 
than just lacrosse and film since 
June.

“I’m a relationship guy,” Conry 

says. “… The relationships of life 
is what you take away. Everybody 
leaves a little coin in the well of 
your life and so you kind of build 
that foundation from there. For 
these guys, I’m gonna be around 
them 20-something hours a week 
to make sure I’m always a steady 
presence in their lives.

“They want to make sure they 

know me, get to know me for real, 
and build a foundation of success 
around it.”

Santo can be reached at kmsanto@

umich.edu or on Twitter @Kevin_M_

Santo. This wasn’t supposed to 

be an endorsement for Greystone 

Delicatessen, but if you’re ever in 

Rockville Centre, order The Big Spicy.

Conry’s vision

PRASHANTH PANICKER/Daily

Michigan men’s lacrosse coach Kevin Conry is trying to build the program in his first year in Ann Arbor after serving as an assistant coach at Maryland. 

Robinson, hot first half boost Wolverines to road win against Wisconsin

When Zavier Simpson kicked 

the ball out to Duncan Robinson 
in the closing minutes of the 
first half, there was no question 

what was going to happen next.

Even with a defender right in 

his face, 23 feet away from the 
basket, the fifth-year senior 
guard lifted, fired and drained 
a 3-pointer. It was his fourth 
triple of afternoon and the 

final piece of a nearly perfect, 
4-for-5 effort from beyond the 
arc in the first half.

And in a rare display of 

emotion, he let the 15,000-
plus fans in attendance at the 
Kohl Center know it with a 

confident, fist-pump filled jog 
down the floor.

“It felt good just to see some 

go in,” Robinson said.

This 
year, 
Robinson 
has 

probably expected to see a few 
more go in than has been the 

case.

In 
his 
final 
season 
at 

Michigan, the forward has 
lost his starting job and shot 
a career-worst 35 percent 
from the floor. And even 
with 
all 
his 
experience, 

the fifth-year senior hasn’t 
played with the confidence 
one might anticipate. After 
the Wolverines’ victory over 
Rutgers last month, John 
Beilein 
said 
he 
thought 

Robinson was tentative and 
“asking for permission” too 
often.

But in Michigan’s 83-72 

victory 
over 
Wisconsin, 

Robinson refused to ask for 
anything — even when recent 
history suggested he could 

have — scoring 16 points on 
5-for-9 shooting in 37 minutes.

“Duncan’s a great shooter, 

and we know that,” said junior 
forward Mortiz Wagner, “so 
I’m very happy his shots were 
going down.”

Robinson’s 
struggles 
had 

hit possibly their lowest point 
prior 
to 
Sunday’s 
contest, 

having made just two of his last 
13 triple attempts the past three 
games. Yet, with the injury 
to freshman forward Isaiah 
Livers, Robinson was thrust 
back on the starting lineup 
Sunday, where the Wolverines 
needed him to perform.

And channeling a strong 

performance in practice from 
earlier this week, he did just 
that.

“The other day, there was 

the goal of making 48 3s in 
four minutes. He made 50 out 
of 55 shots on the run moving,” 
Beilein said. “I know he can 
really shoot the ball, and I 
encourage him to shoot the 
ball. He did today.”

Like 

Robinson, 
Michigan 
has 

had 
its 
fair 

share of recent 
offensive 
struggles. 
The 

Wolverines shot 
just 5-for-20 in 
the second half 
of Tuesday’s loss 
at Northwestern 
— 
part 
of 
a 

three-game stretch where they 
averaged just 62 points-per-
game.

But 
it 
wasn’t 
that 
type 

of 
afternoon 
Sunday. 
Two 

minutes 
and 
change 
in, 

Robinson 
collected 
himself 

and knocked down a 3-pointer 
to put the Wolverines up, 7-0. 
Minutes later, that advantage 
would grow to 15-2 when a 
pick-and-roll set up an open 
look for Wagner, who splashed 
his first of three triples on the 
day.

That type of ball movement 

was the clear difference from 
the Northwestern loss, when 

the Wolverines often resorted 
to 
1-on-1 
play 
when 
they 

couldn’t immediately solve the 
Wildcats’ 2-3 zone defense.

Instead, Michigan assisted 

on 
all 
eight 
of 
its 
made 

3-pointers in the first half 
Sunday, as sound passing even 
created shots for players who 
seldom 
get 
them. 
Midway 

through the first half, fifth-
year 
senior 
guard 
Jaaron 

Simmons hit his first triple 
since Nov. 29 after catching a 
kick-out pass from Wagner for 
an open look.

Michigan 
went 
17-for-26 

from the field to score 44 points 
in the opening frame — its most 
in the first half since Jan. 2 at 
Iowa (48).

“We know that it (would) 

correct itself, and we got really 
good shooters on the team, and 
we’ve got really good passers,” 
Beilein said.

That shooting touch evaded 

the Wolverines at some points 
in final 20 minutes, allowing 
the Badgers to cut deficit to 

single 
digits. 

But 
the 
ball 

movement 
didn’t.

With 

Wisconsin 
threatening, 
senior 
guard 

Muhammad-
Ali 
Abdur-

Rahkman 
threaded 
the 

needle to diving 

Wagner for a dunk, giving 
Michigan a 13-point lead with 
less than eight minutes to play.

The Badgers would make 

addition 
comeback 
efforts 

from there, but near perfect 
free-throw shooting down the 
stretch gave Michigan the win 
it needed to have.

“It really feels good just to 

have our guys just go out there 
and play,” Beilein said.

And behind on the best 

passing performances in some 
time, 
that’s 
exactly 
what 

Robinson and the Wolverines 
did Sunday — no question about 
it.

KATELYN MULCAHY/Daily

Fifth-year senior forward Duncan Robinson hit his first four 3s against Wisconsin and finished with 16 points on 5-of-9 shooting. 

The fifth-year senior forward made a triumphant return to the starting lineup, scoring 16 points on 5-of-9 shooting

MARK CALCAGNO

Daily Sports Editor
“It really feels 

good to have our 

guys just go out 

there and play.”

KEVIN 
SANTO

