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”