The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com Sports Thursday, March 8, 2018— 5A ACROSS 1 Vaccine pioneer Salk 6 Biblical verb 10 Sever, with “off” 13 “The Good Wife” wife 15 Irrawaddy River locale 16 Hubbub 17 Grilled sandwich 18 *Hobbyist’s broadcasting equipment 20 Checked out 21 Gather 23 Domestic sock eater? 24 Storied climber 26 Little limb 27 *Drama in the Nielsen top 10 four times during the ’70s 32 Special __ 35 Mets modifier of 1969 36 Noggin 37 Case in Lat. grammar 38 Twit 39 Cuts and pastes, say 41 Trellis climber 42 Corner PC key 43 Expert 44 Mysterious girl on “Stranger Things” 46 “Zip it!” 47 *Ball of fire 49 “No __!”: “Sure!” 51 Lose one’s coat 52 Moves to the melody 54 “__ Encounter”: SeaWorld show 56 Shakespearean “You as well?” 60 *“Oh boy, it’s starting!” 62 First words 64 Muffin grain 65 Believe 66 Wind farm blades 67 Like some grins 68 People 69 Liquid whose chemical formula is a homophonic hint to the answers to starred clues DOWN 1 Zinger 2 Body wash brand 3 Largest single- digit square 4 Genre incorporating elements of funk and hip-hop 5 Transgression 6 “LOL” 7 “Right away!” 8 Dickens boy 9 Taxing and successful 10 Coventry rider 11 Dog that licks Garfield 12 Low-quality 14 Where many missed connections occur 19 MLB’s D-backs 22 2003 holiday film 25 IV lead? 26 Bouffant feature 27 Flame-haired villain in Disney’s “Hercules” 28 Mennonite sect 29 Super Bowl gathering, e.g. 30 Mediterranean vacation island 31 Zoo doc 33 “The Hunger Games” land 34 __ pad 40 Barely lit 41 Blood feud 43 List of notables 45 Soap chemical 48 Defense advisory gp. 50 __ whiskey 52 Thing to put on 53 Put on 54 Look bad? 55 Slender cylinders 57 Budweiser Clydesdales’ pace 58 Shredded 59 TASS country 61 Many years 63 “Spring the trap!” By Brian Thomas ©2018 Tribune Content Agency, LLC 03/08/18 03/08/18 ANSWER TO PREVIOUS PUZZLE: RELEASE DATE– Thursday, March 8, 2018 Los Angeles Times Daily Crossword Puzzle Edited by Rich Norris and Joyce Nichols Lewis FOR RENT SUMMER EMPLOYMENT 2 & 4 Bedroom Apartments $1400‑$2800 plus utilities. 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(906) 847‑7196. www.theislandhouse.com Classifieds Call: #734-418-4115 Email: dailydisplay@gmail.com Akienreh Johnson was ready to let her frustration out into the open. Johnson had torn her ACL in the midst of the 2016-17 season, then gotten cleared in time for the start of the season. She had put in the work in practice and extra workouts. And she wasn’t seeing the results. The sophomore guard met with Michigan coach Kim Barnes Arico not about playing time, but about finding a way to start seeing the returns on those hours. “AK, you’re doing great,” she recalled being assured by Barnes Arico and assistant coach Melanie Moore. “Just keep working, like, your time will come.” Cliches and platitudes aren’t the most reassuring thing. There turned out to be some truth to them this time. The door opened for Johnson the following week at Breslin Center, in the midst of an upset loss to Michigan State. Freshman forward Hailey Brown went down with a leg injury and Johnson’s name was called as much out of necessity as want. Three days later, at Minnesota, she would be in the rotation. Johnson had played just 12 minutes in the last six games, sitting on the bench for the duration of four. When she got on the floor during that span, it was a stream of errors — a turnover, a missed shot, a long walk back to the bench. “Okay, I know I haven’t been playing but I have to make sure I know the plays,” Johnson told herself before the trip to Minneapolis. “Have to make sure I know multiple positions, have to make sure I was ready.” 26 minutes and 19 points later, it was clear she had done at least that much. As the Wolverines await a likely bid to the NCAA Tournament, Johnson has emerged seemingly out of nowhere as a go-to scorer. The contest against the Golden Gophers was the first sign. After the game — a 93-87 loss for the Michigan women’s basketball team — Johnson’s teammates were impressed her output. She didn’t even realize how well she had played. “All I know is that we lost,” Johnson said. “So after the game, my teammates told me, they said, ‘You know you had 19 points.’ And I was like, ‘Really?’ I thought I had like, seven or eight.” With that, something clicked. Johnson was already coning off a torn ACL when she came to Michigan, having suffered the same injury during her senior year at Rogers High School. When her knee twisted the wrong way during an early morning practice in 2016, she didn’t even realize she had torn it again. “I went like a week walking around on it thinking I was gonna come back to playing,” Johnson said. “Until I got my MRI.” The second time around, Johnson’s rehab was longer than before, but she knew what was coming. When her knee didn’t bend, she knew it eventually would. When she still couldn’t walk, she knew she eventually would. Even so, there were anxieties in returning. It took Johnson time to trust a knee that had twice suffered such a serious injury. “I would like fall — and I’d be completely fine, like I wouldn’t be hurt — I would just fall,” Johnson said. “And I would have to sit out (of practice) because I was just nervous.” With the sole exception of a midseason stretch filled mostly with non-conference blowouts, Johnson played sparingly. Whether she got on the floor for one minute or 20, though, her parents gave her feedback. If possible, Johnson would watch back the tape with them. If not, they’d watch it and give her feedback — constantly reminding Johnson of how far she’d come to be on the court at all. “It’s like a really positive thing and they just wanna keep my head up,” Johnson said. “Because sometimes, you know, you get down on yourself if you don’t play.” After taking off against Minnesota, Johnson has stayed in orbit. She played the hero on Senior Night, hitting a 3-point dagger against then-No. 13 Maryland to cap a 17-point performance, a shot she says she knew was going in before ever touching the ball. Johnson joked that night her success was because the Terrapins hadn’t included her on the scouting report. At the Big Ten Tournament, Penn State’s players shouted “Right driver!” every time she touched the ball. Johnson scored 13 on 5-of-9 shooting in a blowout victory for the Wolverines anyway, driving whichever way she pleased. Now, there are no more frustrations. Johnson has an easygoing demeanor about her as she sits in the Crisler Center’s media room after practice. “I know that I can get to the basket either if they know what I’m gonna do or not,” she says. “... I know that I can score.” The sophomore guard has recovered from two torn ACLs in the past three seasons and now plays a big role for Michigan After frustrating season, Johnson emerges as key scorer for Wolverines ETHAN SEARS Daily Sports Writer ZOEY HOLMSTROM/Daily Sophomore guard Akienreh Johnson has developed into a potent scoring threat for Michigan down the final stretch of this season. She didn’t even realize how well she had played. “I would have to sit out because I was just nervous.” Final stretch leads back to Ohio State P redictions are a funny thing. Of course, they must first be based off some prior knowl- edge, oth- erwise they would have little cred- ibility. Before the season started, the odds were not in the Michigan hockey team’s favor. After an ugly 2016-17 season, in addition to a head coaching change for the first time in 33 years, the team seemed likely to head into a transition year. In that regard, the Wolverines’ projected finish of second-to- last in the Big Ten Preseason Coaches Poll was a fair one. At the same time, predic- tions are, at best, guesses. And with a season as long as that of collegiate hockey — a late-September to April mara- thon for teams who make the postseason — these forecasts seem even more arbitrary. But from the start, despite scrutiny, this team was always the biggest advocate for itself. “Coming into the season, we knew we were going to be good,” said senior forward Dexter Dancs. “I know a lot of people in the media and outsid- ers were kind of saying ‘This is a transition year.’ ... But that’s not what we were thinking. We were thinking we were going to be in the spot that we are now.” And ‘transition’ certainly wasn’t in this team’s vocabu- lary. Come January, any remaining critics had been quieted after Michigan rattled off four straight wins against ranked opponents in Min- nesota and Penn State. Come February, it had swept Notre Dame, the then-No. 1 team in the nation, and become a rel- evant player in the NCAA tour- nament conversation. The Wolverines have done what they came to do this sea- son, all while shocking those who watched an accelerated transformation unfold, partic- ularly with the offensive unit. Tony Calderone led the Wol- verines’ offense last season with a mere 15 goals. This year, the senior forward has already scored 23 goals among his 39 total points. Calderone is best- ed by junior linemate Cooper Marody who led the Big Ten with 44 points — an amount over double that of any individ- ual on the roster last season. Michigan, which finished 37th in the PairWise Rankings last season, now sits tied for No. 7 — a position that almost assuredly locks in a tourna- ment bid come the Selection Show on March 18. But make no mistake — while the Wolverines’ season won’t come to an end regard- less of what happens this weekend, by no means does that make it any less impor- tant. There is only one Big Ten team Michigan hasn’t defeated yet this season. It is the same team it will face Saturday in the semifinal round of the Big Ten Tourna- ment. Oh, and it happens to be the Wolverines’ most notorious rival, as well. Don’t get me wrong, Michi- gan doesn’t have to do any- thing more to prove itself this season. It will, barring an unforeseen circum- stance, have a chance at a run in the NCAA Tournament. An exit in the semifinal round of the conference tournament certainly would not mar their already rewarding season. But defeating Ohio State this weekend would put the Wolverines over one final hump. A victory in the first round of single-elimination play would undoubtedly spur postseason momentum. A vic- tory would put them one game away from a Big Ten Tourna- ment championship. And as Michigan has defeated both the Nittany Lions and Fighting Irish this season, claiming the title would hardly be incon- ceivable at that point. Getting through this week- end, though, is going to be a taller task. The Buckeyes have defeated the Wolverines in all four of their meetings during the regular season, mostly doing so with ease. But as the cliché goes, the postseason is a whole differ- ent ballgame. At practice this week, Mel Pearson provided his team with a personal anec- dote to highlight this phenom- enon. During his tenure as an assistant coach for Michigan, Pearson recalled the senior year of Brian Wiseman and Steve Shields — two members of his current coaching staff. The Wolverines had played and defeated Lake Superior State five times during the regular season. “We played them again in the regional final, up at Munn Ice Arena in Lansing, and the winner went on to the Frozen Four,” Pearson described. “And they beat us in overtime. … Lake Superior went onto win the national championship, and we had beaten them five times. “We know we haven’t beaten (Ohio State), but we get another kick at the can.” Maybe the fifth time will be the charm. Anna Marcus can be reached at annahm@umich.edu or on Twitter @Anna_H_Marcus. ANNA MARCUS With NCAA Tournament bid all but sealed up, Wolverines looking for elusive first win against rival Buckeyes “Coming into the season, we knew we were going to be good.”