8 — Thursday, March 15, 2018
Sports
The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com

A few weeks ago, Luke Wil-

son almost punched Zavier 
Simpson.

The freshman scout-teamer 

thought Simpson was fouling 
him in practice, and as another 
rough play resulted in Wilson’s 
second-straight turnover, he 
shoved the starting point guard 
in the chest with both hands.

That’s how freshman guard 

CJ Baird, a walk-on like Wil-
son, described it in the Michi-
gan men’s basketball team’s 
locker room in Wichita, Kan., 
the day before the Wolverines 
begin the NCAA Tournament 
against Montana. Simpson and 
Wilson crowded near Baird, the 
independent, third-party story-
teller, making sure they weren’t 
portrayed unfairly.

From all accounts, the situ-

ation didn’t escalate after that. 
Teammates stepped in and 
cooler heads prevailed.

But the scene is emblematic 

of a larger theme. The scout 
team, walk-ons and all, has 
pride too.

Of course, that doesn’t nor-

mally manifest itself in physi-
cal altercations at practice. It 
shows itself in the job the scout 
team has to do: prepare the 
starters by any means neces-
sary.

“(We’re) still trying to learn 

all the concepts of the entire 
system and then still trying to 
show you’re capable to push 
these guys, and you can fit in, 
and you can run scout, and you 
can prepare them,” said fresh-
man walk-on guard Rico Ozu-
na-Harrison. 
“It’s 
definitely 

a challenge every day. … You 
don’t want to get punked.”

That pride comes from more 

than just individual basketball 
skill. Take sophomore guard Ibi 
Watson, for example.

Ask different Michigan play-

ers, and they’ll all tell you Wat-
son can hold his own. But the 
part of a scout-teamer is that of 
a method actor. They meticu-
lously study their role, learning 
the rhythm and movement of an 
opposing player, before emulat-
ing it for themselves. Then they 
move on to the next role.

So Watson isn’t just playing 

like Watson. He’s playing like a 
totally different person.

 “Sometimes 

I get yelled at, 
because I might 
be playing a guy 
who is strictly a 
3-point shooter, 
and I’m trying 
to create or do 
something 
too 

much,” Watson 
said. “But usu-
ally I try as hard 
as I can to play 
as similarly to that player as 
possible.”

Watson had an important job 

this week. His was the role of 
Montana guard Michael Ogu-
ine, a hyper-aggressive slasher 
who averages 15.8 points per 
game for the Grizzlies.

It’s a role that apparently 

allowed Watson to showcase his 
own ability, as multiple team-
mates pointed to him as some-
body who shined on the second 
unit this week. Senior guard 
Muhammad-Ali 
Abdur-Rahk-

man, who often guards Watson 
in practice, was less eager to 
admit his impressiveness. 

“He doesn’t really score on 

me as much,” Abdur-Rahkman 
joked. “… It definitely helps, 
though, when you can have a 
player that caliber on the scout 
team. Sometimes they’re better 
than the people that we’re actu-
ally playing, and that definitely 
helps.”

The rest of the scout team 

had their own assignments. 

Somebody was Oregon transfer 
Ahmaad Rorie, and somebody 
was 6-foot-8 forward Jamar 
Akoh. When the buzzer sounds 
Thursday, barring an unex-
pected upset, those roles will be 
forgotten, and Watson, Baird, 
Wilson and Ozuna-Harrison 
will prepare to emulate either 
Houston or San Diego State.

It’s a thankless job. In fact, 

when coaches and players pub-
licly credit the scout team, it’s 

brushed 
off 

as cliché. The 
NCAA Tourna-
ment is the only 
time all season 
they all get to 
just travel with 
the team.

But 
that’s 

okay with them. 
They find their 
fulfillment 
in 

other ways.

“I think one of the coolest 

things is realizing where you’re 
at, and how lucky you are to be 
in this position,” Baird said. “I 
think the scout team, as a whole, 
takes pride in it, and we go at 
them 100 percent every day.”

The scout team takes pride 

in their day-to-day effort. They 
take pride in acting out a role to 
the best of their ability.

“Whether 
we’re 
running 

(opponent’s) plays or emulating 
how a certain player works on 
the floor, it definitely gives our 
defense a better look and helps 
us prepare better for the game,” 
Baird said. “And it’s really cool, 
once you’ve emulated that play-
er, and you see them out on the 
court next time you play, it’s 
cool to see, like, ‘Wow, that’s 
actually what they do. We actu-
ally worked on that.’ ”

It shows in the team’s prepa-

ration when the bright lights 
are on. And sometimes, it shows 
in practice, with a shove to the 
starting point guard.

EVAN AARON/Daily

Sophomore guard Ibi Watson and Michigan’s scout team will have the Wolverines ready to take on Montana.

Back to do it all again
W

ICHITA, Kan. — 
Moritz Wagner 
thinks back to the 

Oregon game, but not in the way 
you might assume.

He objects to the notion that 

he lost last year’s Sweet 16 game 
on his own. 
He objects 
to the notion 
that anyone 
can lose any 
single game. 
Heck, he even 
objects to the 
notion that 
he played that 
poorly.

“I never 

feel that way,” the junior center 
said Wednesday afternoon, “that 
it’s somebody’s fault, that it’s my 
fault that we lost.”

Wagner went 3-for-10 from 

the field and 0-for-4 from 3-point 
range in the 69-68 season-ending 
loss, scoring just seven points as 
his team bowed out of the field. 
This came less than a week after 
he carried his team to an upset 
win over No. 2 seed Louisville 
with 26 points on 11-of-14 
shooting from the field.

If his performance against 

Louisville was the crescendo 
on an ascendant sophomore 
campaign, the Oregon game was 
the distasteful piano crash at the 
end.

It would have been easy then 

to point fingers, connect some 
dots and assume Wagner’s 
withdrawal from the NBA draft 
months after was some sort of 
impassioned vow to do better — 
to carry this team on his back 
to heights it fell just short of last 
year — all while improving his 
stock to be a surefire NBA player.

That would fit a traditional 

narrative of college athletes. 
To be fair, that’s all part of 
it. He has improved in many 
facets, including going from 
4.2 rebounds per game to 7.1 
rebounds per game. He would 
love to advance past the Sweet 
16 for the first time in his career, 
especially as a team captain and 
leading scorer.

The reality is much more 

simple, though: Moritz Wagner 
loves college basketball.

He loves all the hoopla. He 

loves draining a three and then 
dangling his tongue out at the 
fans or his opponent. He loves 
the conference rivalries and the 

bright lights of March. He loves 
the process of it all as much as 
he yearns for the glory. He loves 
to be loved almost as much as he 
loves to be hated.

“They hate me everywhere,” 

Wagner says, grinning ear to ear. 
“I know that. It’s fun. I’ve kind of 
embraced that role. And I’ve got 
to be honest, I’d hate myself, too.

“I just tell myself, they hate 

you because I’m good.”

All of this came across in the 

locker room the afternoon before 
the first round of an NCAA 
Tournament that may well be his 
last, and could easily define his 
legacy at Michigan.

He won’t look at it that way, 

though, at least not in the 
moment. Wagner isn’t going 
to publicly relish the personal 
accolades that may come from 
the next month. He certainly 
didn’t after winning the Big Ten 
Tournament Most Outstanding 
Player less than two weeks ago. 
There’s a distinction between 
arrogance on the court and 
selfishness off it, and while one 
could argue the former, nobody 
could viably claim the latter.

Wagner, despite his 

boisterous on-court and off-
court persona, is hesitant to 
ever make guarantees or grand 
proclamations. He didn’t come 
back to Michigan to make a 
Final Four, explicitly at least. 
He came back to get better with 
a team he loves at a university 

he cherishes. And he’s not going 
to sacrifice his momentary 
pleasure — no matter how 
minute or trivial it may seem — 
for some external end goal, or to 
overcome a non-existent burden 
from the exit last March.

“These things are fun, these 

things are the things you never 
forget,” Wagner says, peering 
around the locker room. 

To his left, the five walk-ons 

— traveling together for the first 
time on the road with the team — 
are joking around in a circle. To 
his right, freshman guard Jordan 
Poole plays hangman on the 
whiteboard with junior forward 
Brent Hibbits.

“Whether the games go well, 

bad,” Wagner continues, “this is 
the type of stuff that is so much 
fun around here that we would 
never experience in any other 
way.”

Minutes later, Wagner 

gleefully trots through warmup 
calisthenics at the team’s open 
practice with round one of the 
2018 NCAA Tournament set 
to kick off a day later. He and 
Michigan assistant coach Saddi 
Washington trade some playful 
banter, before Washington 
raises his tone a few octaves in 
Wagner’s direction.

“Your time to shine, baby.”

Marcovitch can be reached 

at maxmarco@umich.edu or on 

Twitter @Max_Marcovitch.

EVAN AARON/Daily

Junior center Moritz Wagner returned to Michigan to play on this stage. 

Michigan to begin NCAA Tournament on Thursday

MAX 

MARCOVITCH

Scout team proudly prepares ‘M’

MIKE PERSAK

Managing Sports Editor

“Sometimes 
they’re better 
than the people 
we’re actually 

playing”

