The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com
Sports
Friday, March 9, 2018 — 7
Doubt Zavier Simpson? Prepare to be proven wrong
When he first came to campus,
Isaiah Livers didn’t know much
about Zavier Simpson.
So during one of the Wolverines’
summer workouts, the freshman
forward
decided
he’d
post
Simpson up. It seemed like obvious
mismatch. Livers, listed at six-foot-
seven, 230 pounds, is one of the
most physically imposing players
on the Michigan men’s basketball
team. Simpson, meanwhile, is
sturdy but stands at a layman’s six-
foot-nothing.
Livers
bent
his
knees
for
leverage, faked one way and
attempted to beat Simpson going
the other. He got nowhere. At that
moment, Livers learned everything
he needed to know about Simpson.
“I tried to post up on him — no
way,” Livers recalled last weekend.
“He’s so low to the ground.
“He’s a pitbull.”
And if Simpson’s a pitbull, the
defense is his marked territory.
Teammates
are
quick
to
acknowledged that the diminutive
point guard keys the Wolverines’
ninth-ranked
scoring
defense.
Livers
calls
him
Michigan’s
energy guy. Junior forward Mortiz
Wagner said he’d be lying if he
didn’t say Simpson sets the tone
defensively.
Simpson knows this. He says
he’s
the
Wolverines’
middle
linebacker on hardwood, where is
energy is contagious.
“If they see me start doing it,”
Simpson said, “they’ll start doing
it.”
On the surface, it’s no surprise
that Simpson is where he is. That
power and grit he flashed against
Livers has helped him become an
essential part of a Michigan team
primed for a deep run in the NCAA
Tournament.
But none of this came easy to
Simpson. At almost every stage of
his career, he has been doubted,
looked over and passed up.
Many
players
would
become
discouraged
by
such
disappointments. But that’s the
point: Most players aren’t Zavier
Simpson.
***
Back in high school, Simpson
probably
irked
some
of
his
teammates, especially when it
came time to run.
Quincy
Simpson,
Simpson’s
father and coach his junior and
senior year at Lima Senior (OH),
would put 60 seconds on the
scoreboard. The drill was simple:
Run 10 lengths of the floor in the
allotted time — suicide style.
The whistle would blow, and
the whole team would burst off
the baseline — with the exception
of Simpson. He wanted more of a
challenge, starting after each of his
teammates had run the first length,
charging towards them like a mad
man while yelling in their faces.
“He wouldn’t always win,”
recalled Lima Senior assistant
coach Brock Howe. “But he would
still make it under a minute and
beat half the team.”
And when his teammates didn’t
make the time, Simpson would
really go in. He’d yell for another
60 seconds to be put on the clock
repeatedly until all his teammates
made it. Sometimes, it got to the
point where even his coaches
wanted to move on.
“He would call out every kid
who didn’t make it like, ‘You’re
faster than that, you’re faster than
that,’ ” Howe recalled. “ ‘Man,
you’re going to state in track, and
you can’t make this time? Because
you’re soft.’ ”
It was that type of work ethic
and
leadership
that
defined
Simpson’s high school career.
Even when they weren’t at the
same school, Quincy and Simpson
would head to the YMCA for
workouts at six in the morning
four times a week. And when
Simpson didn’t think that was
sufficient, they went even earlier —
sometimes 5:00 or 5:30.
“Everything that he’s gotten at
this point has been earned,” Quincy
said. “He wasn’t blessed with a lot
of natural abilities, so therefore we
had to work extra hard.”
Added Howe: “I’ve never seen
anyone enjoy being in the gym
more than him.”
It all soon began to pay off.
Simpson scored 59 and 65 points
in games during his senior year.
Scouts crammed into high school
gyms to watch him play. He was
rated as a four-star recruit, and the
offers started to stack up.
For a while, though, there wasn’t
one from Michigan. Coach John
Beilein and his staff were instead
focused on Detroit Jesuit star
Cassius Winston — their primary
point guard target for the 2016
class.
Winston, however, was set on
Michigan State. That opened the
door for Simpson to fall in love with
Michigan and follow the footsteps
of fellow Ohioans Trey Burke and
Caris LeVert.
But even as Simpson found a
home with the Wolverines, he
wouldn’t forget about Winston —
the man who could’ve taken his
spot.
***
Simpson was hesitant to admit
it publicly before
the
semifinals
of
Big
Ten
Tournament. But
he craved another
battle
with
Winston. So much
so that fifth-year
senior
forward
Duncan Robinson
said Simpson was
literally
licking
his
fingers
in
anticipation of the matchup.
It showed. Simpson was keyed
in during an emotion-filled affair,
diving for loose balls and talking
trash throughout. He held Winston
to a lackluster 3-for-10 effort, as the
Wolverines topped the Spartans en
route to back-to-back conference
championships.
For all the firepower Winston
has and all the criticism Simpson
receives
for
his
offensive
shortcomings, the stereotypes have
been flipped in their two matchups
this season. Winston was stymied
twice, shooting just 35 percent
with 22 total points. Simpson,
meanwhile, scored a combined 31
points on 9-of-16 shooting.
And therein lies another piece
to Simpson’s game: he takes every
matchup personally. It doesn’t
matter if it’s suicides in a high
school practice or postseason
basketball in Madison Square
Garden.
“I’m not the type of guy who
likes to get scored on,” Simpson
said. “When you have pride in your
defense, you’re not going to be
passive. You’re going to take things
personally if you get scored on,
and you’re gonna try to win your
matchup.”
That’s something Quincy has
preached throughout his son’s
basketball career, emphasizing the
value of taking the opposing player
out of the equation.
In an age where point guards
are becoming more and more
offensively adept, Simpson is a
rarity. A look around the country
and the NBA shows that an efficient
outside stroke is paramount, and
youth and high school coaches are
teaching accordingly.
In that sense, Simpson is an
old-timer. Defense, not shooting,
comes first.
“I feel like it’s
just my mindset
and
my
pride,”
he said. “Just not
wanting him to
score — that’s what
it
comes
down
to.
There’s
no
secret, no special
ingredient,
just
taking it personal
and not wanting to
let him score.”
But with that mindset comes
aggressiveness — and sometimes
too much of it.
Simpson
played
just
nine
minutes per game last season. Of
course, he was behind a four-year
veteran star in Derrick Walton.
But when Simpson saw the court,
fouls kept him on a short leash as
he averaged nearly six infractions
per 40 minutes.
“Last year, we couldn’t put
him on the floor because he’d foul
somebody within 30 seconds,”
Beilein recalled, “and it wouldn’t
help anybody.”
Though Simpson had moderate
expectations for his freshman year,
he didn’t realize being a backup
would equate to such limited
playing time — which contributed
to some apprehensiveness.
Simpson
seldom
looked
comfortable on the floor. He
couldn’t finish around the rim. His
offense stalled frequently.
“I always told him there was
no reason to be timid or second-
guessing himself,” Walton said.
“We already (thought) he was good
enough. We know you’re good
enough.”
Naturally, Simpson’s struggles
culminated in frustration. Here
was a player who’d always been the
best on the floor, now barely seeing
it.
“It was definitely a hard pill to
swallow,” Quincy said.
Added Walton: “I told him, ‘I’m
only here for a couple more months.
So you only got to deal with this for
a little longer.’ ”
***
It was supposed to be a
straightforward progression for
Simpson. Learn behind Walton for
a year, then run the show the next.
But a month after Walton
played his last game in a Michigan
uniform, Beilein called Simpson
into his office. The message was
direct: The coaches hadn’t seen
enough out of Simpson; they had
decided to add graduate transfer
Jaaron Simmons as insurance.
Suddenly, it seemed like Simpson
would have to wait another year to
take the reins. Simmons was a star
at Ohio, averaging nearly 16 points
and seven assists per game. He
possessed the offensive acumen
the Wolverines had missed with
Simpson on the floor.
“I had three options,” Simpson
said. “Beat him and (freshman
point guard Eli Brooks) out for the
position, be in-between, or be last.”
Simpson chose the first. Thanks
to his knowledge of Beilein’s
complex offensive system, Simpson
was the starting point guard at the
onset of the year.
But he wouldn’t be there for
long. Those fouls crept back into
his defense. He couldn’t move the
ball effectively on the other end.
Beilein thought Michigan’s offense
had more flow with Brooks.
So just four games into the
season, Beilein made the switch.
“Zavier didn’t earn it,” Beilein
said. “He was starting because he
knew more than the other guys,
and then he wasn’t doing some of
the intangibles you need.”
It was back to square one for
Simpson. This was supposed to be
his opportunity. Yet, a freshman
had just taken his job.
The possibility of Simpson
transferring
seemed
realistic.
He already didn’t match Beilein’s
traditional, 3-point heavy offense.
Now, he’d been handed another
roadblock in young career already
chock-full of frustration.
But that’s not Simpson. He’s too
hardworking, too competitive to
quit.
“We
never
even
discussed
(transferring),” Quincy said. “I
told him to keep his head up,
keep working. I told him to be a
good teammate and challenge
and compete daily in practice. It’s
adversity.”
***
After a month of inconsistency
at the point guard spot, Simpson
returned to the
Wolverines’
starting
lineup
on
Jan.
6.
As
has
sometimes
been
the
case
this
season,
his
performance
didn’t exactly stick
out in the box score
— five points on
1-for-5
shooting.
Still, it was a vote
of confidence from his coaches —
one that Simpson needed.
In the games that followed, he
began to play more freely and, most
importantly, became a player who
Beilein could trust to play both
ways.
“It’s not like the other guys
flunked the test,” Beilein said. “He
became a defensive stopper, and
a guy who was playing winning
basketball.”
Since taking back the starting
job, Simpson is averaging almost 10
points with four assists per game,
helping Michigan find an offensive
rhythm it occasionally missed
earlier in the year.
In
mid-January,
when
Nebraska’s defense stalled the
Wolverines by switching screens
— a strategy Beilein anticipated
others would follow — it looked
like
the
Cornhuskers
had
cracked the code to defending
Michigan. Instead of relying on
Wagner’s pick-and-pop game, the
Wolverines needed a slasher to
keep the opposition honest.
Simpson stepped up. Against
Purdue’s
massive
frontcourt
two games later, he rendered the
Boilermakers’ defense ineffective
with a newfound aggressiveness,
scoring
16
points
en
route
to
Michigan’s
best
offensive
performance of the season.
“At the beginning of the year,
he still had some of his rough
spots,” said assistant coach Saddi
Washington. “At the point things
clicked, the game slowed down for
him, and he really was able to take
control of the team on both sides
of the ball. I think that’s when our
team really started to catch our
flow.”
Of course, just like in high
school,
Simpson’s
influence
extends beyond just the floor.
On Feb. 24, Michigan finished
the regular season on a six-game
winning streak, capped off by a
drubbing of Maryland in College
Park.
During
the
next
practice,
though, a sleepy feeling loomed
around the team.
“We were just lethargic,” Beilein
said.
So Beilein turned to the player
who could most effectively ignite
his team. Not captains Duncan
Robinson
and
Muhammad-Ali
Abdur-Rahkman.
Not
Wagner.
Rather, it was Simpson who Beilein
called over.
“I talked to Zavier, ‘We need
you right now, right now,’ ” Beilein
recalled. “He started getting after
people a little bit, and practice
changed.”
From a distance, Simpson is
reserved — quiet even. In front
of the media, he contrasts the
unabashed energy of freshmen
Jordan Poole and Isaiah Livers, or
the brashness of Wagner.
But away from the cameras,
Simpson is the epitome of a vocal
leader,
challenging
teammates
with
both
his
voice
and
play
throughout
workouts
and
practices.
“I think when
Derrick left, there
was a void there,
and I think he’s
really
stepped
into it,” Robinson
said. “He’s very
very vocal, and
that’s huge for us just because of his
energy. He’s always talking during
practice, so I think that’s been big.”
Simpson
has
always
been
this way. In high school, his dad
described him as a coach on the
floor, a coach in the locker room
and a coach off the floor. Even in
the summer of 2016, Walton knew
Simpson had the potential to lead
the team.
“He was kind of like I was — just
strong and demonstrative,” Walton
recalled. “When he’d say stuff, he’d
mean it.”
***
It was unintentionally fitting.
Simpson, despite consistently
holding
the
conference’s
best
point guards below their season
averages, wasn’t a selection for the
Big Ten All-Defensive team.
Another day, another look-over.
Simpson, of course, has bigger
things to worry about. The NCAA
Tournament starts next Thursday,
and the Wolverines are trying to
balance what will be nearly two
weeks off before since their last
game.
But if the past is any indication,
he won’t forget about the snub.
“We were all shocked he didn’t
get any All-Defensive team love,”
Washington said. “But because
(he’s) is such a competitive kid,
he’ll really use that to motivate
(himself).”
Such
has
been
the
case
throughout Simpson’s career. He
wasn’t Michigan’s first choice for
the class of 2016. He barely played
as a freshman. He wasn’t trusted
to be the point guard immediately
after Walton. He was benched in
the fall.
And yet here he is — the
Wolverines’
definitive
spark
plug, leading Michigan its best
basketball of the year when it
matters most.
“Talk about a chip on your
shoulder,” Beilein said. “He’s got
the chip now, and that’s really
been good. … I’m partially guilty of
putting that chip there, and I want
to keep it there.
“I’m tough on him, but he always
responds.”
That’s
simply
what
Zavier
Simpson does. Just ask Cassius
Winston.
MARK CALCAGNO
Daily Sports Editor
KATELYN MULCAHY/Daily
Sophomore point guard Zavier Simpson craved his rematch agianst rival Cassius Winston in the semifinals of the Big Ten Tournament, and it showed.
KATELYN MULCAHY/Daily
Simpson has been a large part of Michigan’s transformation into a defensive juggernaut, with teammates referring to him as a “pitbull.”
“I’m tough
on him, but
he always
responds.”
“I’m not the
type of guy
who likes to get
scored on.”