8A — Wednesday, March 14, 2018
Sports
The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com

Montana Kaimin writer offers insight into Michigan’s first round opponent

Montana’s name popped up on 

the screen as the Michigan men’s 
basketball 
team’s 
first-round 

opponent and you froze. You 
knew nothing about the Big Sky 
Tournament champions. And you 
weren’t alone.

Michigan coach John Beilein’s 

initial reaction was equally tepid. 

“Is Montana the Grizzlies?” 

Beilein said shortly after the 
bracket announcement. “I’m sure 
they’ve got a great team. They 
wouldn’t have 26 wins without a 
great team.”

And as Beilein and his staff are 

busy cutting tape and concocting 
a gameplan, The Daily reached out 
to Jackson Wagner — a reporter 
for the Montana Kaimin, the 
University of Montana’s student 
newspaper — to get the lowdown 
on the Grizzlies ahead of Thursday 
night’s 9:50 pm ET tipoff:

The 
Michigan 
Daily: 
For 

Michigan fans who maybe haven’t 
seen Montana play, who are the 
main two guys to watch out for and 
the skillsets they bring?

Wagner: I’d say the main two 

guys to watch out for is Montana’s 
backcourt. Mike Oguine is a 
hyper-athlete basically. He gets to 
the rim almost relentlessly. He’ll 
try, bacially everytime he gets 
the ball, to get to the rim, but he 
also has expanded his shot this 
year. He’s our Big Sky Conference 
Tournament MVP and the Big Sky 
Defensive Player of the Year. Just 
all over the floor. He plays with a 
ton of energy. And Ahmaad Rorie 
is the Oregon transfer that is easily 
the best scorer on the team when 
his shot’s falling. He’s had some off 
games, but when he gets hot, he’s 
a really, really good shooter and a 
really good ballhandler. He made 
the SportsCenter Top 10 with a 
crossover in the Championship 
game. Those two are the main guys 
to watch for, I’d say.

TMD: You wrote in your article 

the Big Sky Tournament run was 
improbable. How so?

Wagner: I think it was just kind 

of the nature of what happened. 
This is the best Montana team 
we’ve seen in awhile. I would say 
it’s the best since the mid-2000s 
when they beat Nevada in an 
NCAA (Tournament) game, but 
they just trailed in a lot of games 
and it seemed like everything was 
kind of going against them. We’ve 
been good with this coach, Coach 
Travis Decuire, but haven’t gotten 
it done in the Big Sky Tournament. 
So when things started to go 
against them, it looked like it was 
going to be another early exit. 
But they came back in multiple 
games, they were down 11 in the 
championship game, came back. 
That’s something we have seen 
from them all year — they’ve been 
a super good second half team. 
Decuire has made a ton of halftime 
adjustments where, they would go 
in down five or six and come out 
and win games by 15 points. It was 

something we had seen all year, but 
come tourney time it seemed like 
teams had made the adjustments 
in the first half and then Decuire 
would outsmart them in the second 
half to get those wins.

TMD: Was there a pattern to 

those adjustments?

Wagner: I think it was mostly 

defensive changes that he made. 
Eastern Washington has a player, 
Bogdan Bliznyuk — the Big Sky’s 
MVP of the regular season. He’s 
kind of a bigger guy, so Decuire 
started with the post on him to try 
to keep him outside, but then he 
was controlling the (championship) 
game basically as a point forward. 
So Decuire switched Rorie, who’s 
our smallest player, and typically 
not a great defender, onto him 
and it just threw everything that 
Eastern Washington was doing 
off. That’s kind of been what’s 
happened in a lot of games — 
defensive changes that he makes. 

They’re kind of balanced as far as 
where they’re at in rankings terms 
of offense and defense, but it’s the 
defense that’s won more games for 
them this year.

TMD: What are a couple 

strengths and weaknesses of this 
team?

Wagner: The biggest strength 

has been that anybody can be on 
on any night, which especially 
looking forward against a team 
like Michigan is going to be harder 
to do. But against Big Sky teams 
they basically have — one through 
seven — that anyone can go off for 
a 15-to-20-point game. Timmy 
Falls and Sayeed Pridgett both 
off the bench have been pretty 
dynamic as far as, if the Grizz are 
lacking scoring they just plug one 
of those two guys in and it seems 
like every time they get a response 
from them. The big guys down low, 
Jamar Akoh and Fabijan Krslovic, 
have both just been pretty efficient. 

They look to Akoh a lot more, but 
Krslovic is a high efficiency guy. He 
doesn’t get a lot of looks, but he’ll 
probably get close to 10 points in a 
game just on layups coming from 
people focusing elsewhere. One 
through seven being able to step up 
has definitely been their strength 
— they’ve failed in the past because 
of (isolation) and guys trying to 
take over games on their own, and 
that hasn’t happened this year. 

The weakness, I would say, is just 

the size, kind of, and athleticism. 
6-foot-8 is basically as big as we 
go, and not dominant down low 
defensively. There’s no real rim 
protector on this team. Krslovic 
and Akoh are both good defenders. 
Krslovic is a really smart defender, 
but not very athletic and not great 
at defending the rim. They’ll try to 
take a lot of charges but not get a lot 
of blocks, I would say.

TMD: A lot of talk in Michigan 

has been about the matchup 

problem with Michigan’s bigs 
who can stretch the floor. Is that 
a problem you agree with? Why or 
why not?

Wagner: I think, especially 

looking at Wagner, that’s a guy 
already with three inches on 
basically anyone the Grizz will put 
on him, and the ability to stretch 
the floor. I dont think that’s as 
huge of a thing, because we don’t 
have big guys that just sit in the 
paint and protect the rim. Both of 
them can move pretty well. As far 
as getting out to him on the three-
point line, I think they’ll be OK. 
But just the sheer size. If Michigan 
decides to pound the ball into him, 
I don’t really see the Grizz having 
much of an answer for that.

TMD: What do you think is the 

formula for an upset?

Wagner: I think the formula 

basically is they have to be almost 
perfect 
offensively. 
I 
think 

defensively, Michigan is going 
to exploit the mismatch down 
low. Other than that, I think 
Oguine and those guys can kind 
of hold their own. They’re a good 
enough team defensively that I 
don’t think Michigan will be able 
to just beat them by scoring 90 
points, like we see with some of 
these matchups. But for Montana, 
Ahmaad Rohrie is going to have 
to have a big day. They’re going 
to have to be knocking down the 
3-point shot, which is something 
they’ve struggled with at times this 
year. Their starter at the ‘3’, Bobby 
Moorehead, hit a huge shot when 
they were down in the Big Sky 
Conference Tournament, but he 
hasn’t really proved himself from 
the 3-point arc. But I think that’s 
going to be basically what Montana 
needs — to get a few buckets down 
low early, to get shooters open, 
then they just need to be almost 
perfect shooting the ball.

TMD: Prediction?
Wagner: I think Michigan is 

easily the favorite. You guys are 
coming in super hot and have more 
talent and athleticism. I think it’ll 
be fairly low scoring, maybe like 
66-52, Michigan.

Marody, Hughes headline Big Ten Honors 

While the Michigan hockey 

team awaits its destiny in the 
looming 
NCAA 
Tournament, 

five players already have reason 
to celebrate after earning all-
conference 
awards 
Tuesday 

afternoon.

Junior 
forward 
Cooper 

Marody netted All-Big Ten first-

team honors and clinched the 
Big Ten scoring title. Freshman 
defenseman Quinn Hughes was 
named to the All-Big Ten Freshman 
Team and was also a second-team 
conference selection.

KATELYN MULCAHY/Daily

The Michigan men’s basketball team will face No. 14 seed Montana on Thursday. The Grizzlies enter the game with a 26-7 record.

MAX MARCOVITCH

Daily Sports Editor

BENJAMIN KATZ

Daily Sports Writer

MAX KUANG/Daily

Junior forward Cooper Marody earned the Big Ten scoring title with 27 points in 24 conference games.

Senior 
forward 
Tony 

Calderone also earned second-
team distinction and sophomore 
goaltender Hayden Lavigne was 
an honorable mention. Senior 
defenseman Sam Piazza was voted 
Michigan’s Big Ten Sportsmanship 
honoree for the second straight 
season.

Marody notched 27 points in 

24 conference games, becoming 
just the third Wolverine ever to 
be the Big Ten scoring champion. 
In his first full season donning 
the maize and blue, the Brighton, 
Mich. native boasted 46 points — 
14 goals and 32 assists, which rank 
third in the country and first in the 
Big Ten.

Hughes entered the season 

as a blue-chip prospect for the 
upcoming 2018 NHL Entry Draft 
and didn’t disappoint. Described 
by Michigan coach Mel Pearson to 
be “worth the price of admission,” 
he tallied 24 assists, first among Big 
Ten freshman, third nationally and 
the most by a rookie defenseman 
in program history. The youngest 
player in college hockey, Hughes’ 
28 points tied for 12th in the 
NCAA, and rank third among Big 
Ten freshman and third most for a 
freshman in Michigan annals.

On 
a 
team 
with 
16 

underclassmen 
— 
the 
third 

youngest in college hockey — 
Calderone’s 
veteran 
presence 

shined when the lights were 
brightest and Michigan needed a 
leader. In his senior campaign, the 
captain posted career-highs with 
40 points, 17 assists and 23 goals 
— most in the Big Ten and eighth 
nationally.

When asked about the line of 

Calderone, Marody and senior 
forward 
Dexter 
Dancs 
after 

Saturday night’s 3-2 overtime 
loss to Ohio State in the Big Ten 
Tournament semifinal, Pearson 
was quick to praise its leadership.

“They gave us what they have 

all year … on and off the ice when 
we need a goal,” he said. “That’s 
what you expect from seniors and 
juniors. It’s been fun for me to be 
around these guys, I hope I get 
another couple of weeks.”

While Hughes protected the 

blueline, 
Pearson 
constantly 

underscored the importance of 
the goaltender being the best 
defenseman on the ice. After 
splitting starts with classmate 
Jack LaFontaine, Lavigne assumed 
the starting job halfway through 
the season. He recorded a career-

high 16 wins in 30 starts, averaging 
2.79 goals allowed per game and 
posting a .910 save percentage.

Helping 
Lavigne 
in 
the 

defensive zone was the always-
dependable Piazza. During his 
final season in Ann Arbor, he set 
career bests in games played (35), 
assists (13), points (15) and shots 
(64). The blueliner was nominated 
as a finalist for the Senior CLASS 
award, 
recognizing 
student 

athletes who shine on and beyond 
the ice.

The 
prestige 
of 
awards 

notwithstanding, after a dismal 
15-win campaign in 2016-17, the 
Wolverines are less than a week 
away from returning to the NCAA 
Tournament and having a chance 
at a national championship. And 
that’s in part because of those 
awarded Tuesday.

“Coming in at the start of the 

season, nobody really believed in 
us,” Marody said. “Nobody saw 
us having any success this year, 
and we proved people wrong. We 
did that by out-working opponents 
and coming together as a team. 
Battling to the end is something we 
take a lot of pride in, and we know 
we’re going to have to do that to 
have success in the Tournament.”

