8 — Tuesday, March 6, 2018
Sports
The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com
Two best friends experience the Big Ten Tournament
NEW YORK CITY, NY. —
The Michigan men’s basketball
team’s locker room was rattling
after it dismantled Nebraska,
77-58, to reach the semifinals of
the Big Ten Tournament. The
Wolverines’ Jan. 18 defeat in
Lincoln was an afterthought. A
date with then-No. 2 Michigan
State loomed.
Reporters shuffled into the
tight guest locker room, elbows
were bumped and recorders were
stuffed in the student-athletes’
faces.
Scrums
accumulated
around
usual
suspects
—
Muhammad-Ali
Abdur-
Rahkman and Moritz Wagner.
Finding a player without a smile
was hard.
Except for Jordan Poole. The
freshman guard furrowed his
brows and asked antsy journalists
to wait a second before he would
answer questions. He scoured
the room, shouting.
“Where my best friend at?
Where my best friend at?”
Poole’s missing best friend
was fellow freshman Isaiah
Livers. The 6-foot-7 forward
simply hadn’t reached the locker
room yet as he traipsed slowly
off the court and past the team
showers, but best friends don’t
leave each other behind. Once
Livers had entered the room, the
two embraced and sat down in
their typical spots — side by side
lockers — and faced the media.
“He’s a big drama guy,” Livers
said of Poole.
Drama, as they would soon
discover, was fitting for the
occasion. The two freshmen
and the rest of Michigan would
theatrically display impeccable
chemistry in their next two
contests en route to a Big Ten
Tournament Championship.
Their season isn’t over yet,
but Poole and Livers can already
check off one of their goals on
their college bucket list.
“It feels amazing,” Poole said
after
beating
Purdue
in
the
finals.
“Being
able to go out in
a situation like
this
and
beat
(Michigan State
and
Purdue)
and
Nebraska
and
Iowa,
it’s
just
amazing.
Being
able
to
experience
something like this at such a
historic arena puts the cherry on
top.”
Playing
high-stakes
games
at Madison Square Garden is
usually enough to give any first-
year player pause. But for a guy
as boisterous as Poole, that isn’t
necessarily true. He had played
at the Garden when he was in
high school at La Lumiere, one
of the nation’s
premier
high
school programs.
For Livers, on
the other hand,
the bright lights
and
spacious
arena
were
a
shock
to
the
system.
The
Kalamazoo,
Mich.
native
described
his
high school days as spent in a
“little, tiny gym” absent of the
grandiose pageantry. It was
big enough to contend and win
Michigan Mr. Basketball, but not
enough to walk into the World’s
Most Famous Arena without
awe. Like Poole, though, Livers
found comfort in it.
“I like the atmosphere at
Madison Square Garden,” Livers
said. “I felt it right during shoot
around. I was like ‘Dang, this
is pretty big.’ That just kinda
pushed me to play better.”
Poole
and
Livers
weren’t
significant contributors in the
tournament — they combined
to post just 6.8 points and 4.6
boards each contest. Though it
was a lackluster weekend for the
two, they still had an opportunity
to marvel at the big stage.
The pair took time to admire
the history of MSG when they
first arrived. When they settled
into the New York Knicks’
locker room on Thursday to
play Iowa — the only time the
team suited up there during the
tournament — they gazed at the
wooden lockers. They saw the
names of two former Michigan
greats embellished on them, and
harbored an inclination to be
like them in the
future.
“You got Tim
Hardaway
Jr.
over there, you
got Trey Burke,”
Livers
said,
pointing out their
lockers. “They’re
doing what we
wanna do in a
couple years. It
just motivates me
to go out there and play hard.”
Added Poole: “We see guys
who were in the same situation
that we were. They just kept
working, kept fighting and they
were able to accomplish their
dreams. At the end of the day,
that’s what you play basketball
for. … We find it motivating.”
Another
Michigan
great,
2017
graduate
and
current
G-League player Zak Irvin, has
been keeping tabs on Poole and
Livers. And when Irvin, who
attended the matchup against
the Hawkeyes, embraced the
two freshmen in the locker room
afterwards, they conversed like
they were longtime teammates.
“The guys before me did the
same thing to when I came in
even though I didn’t get to play
with them,” Irvin said of his
relationship with the freshmen.
“They still took me under their
arms. It’s the same thing I’m
doing with them. They’re a
talented group. They’ll be leading
Michigan here in the future.”
Between the commotion of
games in Madison Square Garden
and the noise from teammates
and former players coming in,
basketball engulfed the social
lives of Poole and Livers. The
team took a brief walk around
Times Square before their first
game, but didn’t do much else
besides mimicking plays in their
hotel’s ballroom and lounging in
their rooms.
It really was
a business trip
for
the
wide-
eyed
freshmen.
And even if they
didn’t cause too
much of a stir,
they still deemed
their experience
unimaginable.
With the two
best
friends
drenched
in
water, egging on a dancing John
Beilein as they celebrated the Big
Ten Tournament Championship,
they looked ready to conquer the
next big stage in March Madness.
It was clear that business was
booming.
ETHAN WOLFE
Daily Sports Editor
KATELYN MULCAHY/Daily
Freshmen Isaiah Livers and Jordan Poole are inseparable roommates who just experienced their first Big Ten Tournament together in New York City.
“They’ll
be leading
Michigan here
in the future.”
Lavigne shows off mental resiliency in sweep
Hayden Lavigne had a rocky
start Friday.
The sophomore goaltender —
who has championed the No. 11
Michigan hockey team’s defense
in the second half of the season
as a stalwart brick wall in front
of the net — wasn’t playing to his
potential.
While the Wolverines (11-10-
3 Big Ten, 20-13-3 overall) got
out to a one-goal lead, Wisconsin
defenseman
Tyler
Inamoto
started an onslaught that would
see three total Badger goals in the
first period.
Though Michigan would go on
to steal a 6-5 victory and later a
weekend sweep over Wisconsin
(8-13-2-1, 14-19-3), that wasn’t
evident at the 15-minute mark
when arguably the Wolverines’
greatest
defensive
asset
was
left looking up into the air in
frustration.
Michigan coach Mel Pearson
even mentioned after the game
Friday that he considered pulling
Lavigne after he allowed a third
goal in the first period.
And with the game’s momentum
arguably on the line at this point,
Pearson called a timeout to
reassure his players and his star
goaltender.
“We just talked about … (How)
we hadn’t played yet, we hadn’t
played,” Pearson said Friday. “We
were just out there spectators, they
should’ve charged us for admission
tonight to come into the building
the way the first 10 minutes went.
“Then we started to play. And
it wasn’t everybody, but you know,
a lot of guys haven’t been through
this, we’re still a young team. …
We were very loose, and we need
everybody.”
He squashed the temptation
of ending Lavigne’s night, and
what happened next proved that
Lavigne
could
withstand
the
pressures of postseason hockey.
“Hayden, I think the guy gave
up five goals that maybe he had a
tough night,” Pearson said, “but
other than the one, I thought he
played excellent tonight.”
Senior forward Tony Calderone
— who scored the Wolverines’ first
tally — started a four-goal scoring
streak that Wisconsin would not
ultimately recover from.
“He knows how to handle
himself in good and bad times,”
Calderone said. “He struggled
in the beginning of the year but
pulled himself out
of it. So, I think
he’s one of those
guys that you’ve
got to let him go
and let him do
his thing because
you
know
he’s
gonna do the right
thing.”
And doing the
right thing in this
case was a career-
high 48 saves that proved to be just
enough to hold Michigan’s one-
goal lead — good for the opening
night victory.
While five goals allowed doesn’t
look too pretty on the box score,
Lavigne gave a veteran comeback
performance where significant
early struggles seemed miniscule
in the end.
“I don’t think it was Hayden’s
fault, I think we made a bunch of
mental mistakes,” Calderone said.
“Hayden’s been great for us all year
and I think he played great tonight.
I think it was a lot of mental
breakdowns by us that caused that.
So, no, I don’t think he needed any
picking up. I think
he’s pretty solid
mentally.”
Lavigne
continued
his
steadfast
performance
with 28 saves in
the
quarterfinal
round
against
the Badgers with
28 saves, though
his prowess was
an afterthought due to another
round of high-output play from the
Wolverine front line.
Lavigne’s comeback in the
second and third periods Friday
shows that Michigan holds a
mentally durable backline able to
withstand the demands of what,
from now on, will be postseason
single-elimination hockey.
Slow start dooms Michigan
to sixth at Big Ten Indoors
The
Big
Ten
Indoor
Championships were in full
throttle last weekend as the
Michigan men’s track and field
team finished sixth with 57
points.
In the shot put, junior Andrew
Liskowitz and senior Grant
Cartwright finished fourth and
fifth, respectively, to contribute
nine points toward the team
score.
The relay team, consisting of
senior Ryan Wilkie, sophomore
Desmond Melson, junior Matt
Plowman
and
sophomore
Andrew Lorant also added extra
points after taking sixth place in
the distance medley event.
“I thought we had a good day
(on Saturday),” said Michigan
coach Jerry Clayton. “We had
a little bit of a rough start the
first day. We were hoping to get
a few more people qualified to
the finals, but it is what it is. The
people that we did get through,
I thought they lined well in that
final day which helped us finish
as high as we could.”
The
second
day
of
the
tournament featured a historic
performance from the weight
throwers. Junior Joe Ellis, in
particular, was
the team’s star at
Saturday’s meet.
Ellis broke the
program weight
throw
record
with a distance
of 23.31 meters
—
breaking
Cartwright’s
record
last
season.
Ellis
continued
his
record-
breaking performance with a
championship winning throw
of 23.64 meters. Ellis’ record
is
currently
ranked
second
nationally and 13th in collegiate
history.
“It’s the first big step towards
becoming a legendary year,”
Ellis said. “It certainly feels
good. Setting a personal record
at the Big Ten Championships is
definitely a big deal.”
Cartwright also earned a spot
on the podium by placing third
with a season-best toss of 22.87
meters, losing to Penn State’s
David Lucas.
“Penn State’s got a great team
over there,” Ellis said. “We
are all really close and close
competitors.
Me
and
Grant
(Cartwright)
were
fighting
against David Lucas and Morgan
Shigo. We got more points at the
end so job well done.”
Ellis
and
Cartwright’s
combined throws totaled 46.51
meters. Their record went down
in the books as the farthest
combined throw by a pair of
teammates
in
a
non-NCAA
Championship
meet.
Their
total score also finished as one
of the best duo added totals in
collegiate history.
Clayton
believes
the
Wolverines
should
rank
in
the top 20 nationally, and is
relying
on
certain
athletes
to get the team to the NCAA
Championships.
Ellis
and
Cartwright
are
guaranteed
spots in the weight throw, while
Liskowitz is waiting on other
national results
to
see
if
he
qualifies in the
shot put. Senior
distance runner
Ben Flanagan is
also hoping to
qualify in the
5000-meter.
“It’s
attainable
if
we get all four
of them in the
meet,”
Clayton
said. “We’ve come relatively
close to that. We always want
people challenging for the top
three and for the championship.
That’s a direction that we need to
keep working hard and moving
towards in this outdoor season.”
MEN’S TRACK AND FIELD
JODI YIP
For the Daily
EMMA RICHTER/Daily
Sophomore goaltender Hayden Lavigne shrugged off a rocky start to Friday’s game to finish with what Mel Pearson called an excellent game.
New York Jump
“I like the
atmosphere at
Madison Square
Garden.”
ROBERT HEFTER
Daily Sports Editor
“Hayden’s
been great
for us all
year.”
“We had a little
bit of a rough
start the first
day.”