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.”