The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com
Sports
Thursday, March 22, 2018 — 5A

ACROSS
1 Fall face first
while skiing, say
6 Mighty silly
11 Part of ROM:
Abbr.
14 Longest-serving
prime minister of
India
15 Austrian actress
Berger
16 Kanye West’s 
“I __ God”
17 Soda fountain
come-on?
19 Monarch catcher
20 Brooklyn
Dodgers legend
Campanella
21 In questionable
taste
22 All excited
24 Radiant glow
25 Italian cheese
26 Earthquake
coverage?
31 Aids in illegal
activity
32 Roberts of “That
’70s Show”
33 Comic Martha
34 One-named
singer with 15
Grammys
36 Neeson of “Love
Actually”
40 Continue gabbing
42 Ship’s seepage
43 List in a quiz
program recap?
47 Latin ballroom
dances
48 Berlin octet
49 One of a Dumas
trio
50 Civil rights leader
Chavez
52 __-tip steak
55 Barnyard sound
56 Lower hulls
fortified?
59 Directional suffix
60 Missouri tribe
61 Not-giving-up
phrase
62 Completed
63 Fishing boot
64 Taboos, and a
hint to the four
longest puzzle
answers

DOWN
1 Career for a sci.
major
2 Flight-related
prefix

3 Unspecified folks
4 Sportswriter
Berkow
5 Clucks of
disapproval
6 __ School: art
movement
featuring NYC
scenes
7 Top out
8 Very dark
9 Abbr. in some
Québec
addresses
10 Contributes
11 Oscar-nominated
“Flashdance”
song
12 Arise
13 San __, California
18 Asian dress
23 Contender for the
crown
24 Steve Rogers, for
Captain America
25 Composer of the
opera “Alfred”
26 At a distance
27 Chicago-based
law org.
28 Illegal fwy.
maneuver
29 Court worker
30 Co. that merged
with Continental

34 Queen’s subjects
35 “And how!”
37 Sort
38 Sit in a cellar,
maybe
39 Club __
41 Base
entertainment
42 Persian Gulf
monarchy
43 Persian Gulf
native
44 Release

45 Egyptian leader
for whom a lake
is named
46 Union foe
47 Gained control of
50 Dressed
51 Advantage
52 1982 sci-fi film
53 Defaulter’s risk
54 Time to beware
57 Spanish 
she-bear
58 Frat letter

By Robert and Marlea Ellis
©2018 Tribune Content Agency, LLC
03/22/18

03/22/18

ANSWER TO PREVIOUS PUZZLE:

RELEASE DATE– Thursday, March 22, 2018

Los Angeles Times Daily Crossword Puzzle

Edited by Rich Norris and Joyce Nichols Lewis

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Jordan Poole’s next challenge

It doesn’t matter if Jordan 

Poole 
never 
makes 
another 

basket. He’s already cemented 
himself 
into 
Michigan 

basketball lore.

You’ve probably seen the shot 

a thousand times. Awkwardly 
released, fully covered, a heave 
in desperation. Yet it still found 
nylon, of course.

On 
Tuesday, 
Poole 
told 

reporters he was poked in the 
eye during the game, making it 
feel like he had a film over his 
pupil. It’s even more reason why 
the play is one of the most — if 
not the most — improbable shots 
of the NCAA Tournament.

Naturally, 
attention 
has 

swarmed Poole. Standing in 
a water-soaked locker room 
amidst a blinding artillery of 
camera lights, he opened his 
phone to 532 texts a half-an-
hour after the buzzer. They came 
from close friends to middle 
school teachers to pastors in his 
hometown Milwaukee.

Poole said his Instagram 

account has nearly doubled in 
followers up to roughly 51,000, 
which makes for the most on the 
team — something the freshman 
wasn’t hesitant to point out. 
Enough people on Twitter even 
mistook him for Jordan Peele, 
prompting the Oscar-winning 
“Get Out” director to fire off an 
ironic tweet about his jump-shot 
practice paying off.

Oh, and Poole graced our 

Sports Monday cover — clearly 
the most exciting of all.

As of Tuesday, Poole said he 

has watched the video of the 
shot at least 500 times. Even at 
that number, he said it doesn’t 
get old.

“Every time I watch it,” Poole 

said, “I keep getting goosebumps 
and butterflies because it’s just 
amazing that I hit the shot.

“I just can’t not smile every 

time I look at it, like, ‘Yo, I 
actually hit that.’ ”

There’s probably no other 

Wolverine who would enjoy 
these circumstances more than 
Poole. Guys like sophomores Jon 
Teske and Zavier Simpson, along 
with even captains Duncan 
Robinson and Muhammad-Ali 
Abdur-Rahkman are relatively 
reserved when swarms of media 
gather around after big-time 
performances.

But that’s not Poole. He was 

born for the spotlight, relishing 
almost all the focus that’s come 
his way.

“I mean, he’s got a lot of 

confidence, and he’ll tell you 
about it, too,” Michigan coach 

John Beilein told reporters on 
Saturday.

It’s 
that 
confidence, 
or 

“overdose 
of 
swagger” 
as 

Beilein said in 
a TV interview 
directly after the 
buzzer-beater, 
that 
allowed 

Poole to drill the 
shot and create 
memories 
for 

Michigan players 
and 
fans 
that 

will carry on for 
years.

But 
there’s 

still basketball left to be played. 
After all, just two wins separate 
the Wolverines from the Final 
Four. And that’s where Poole’s 

quandary comes. His “overdose 
of swagger” can be exactly that 
sometimes: an overdose.

Early in Big Ten Play, heat-

check 3-pointers, 
lapses 
on 

defense 
and 

the 
occasional 

failed highlight 
would 
irk 

Beilein, making 
an 
already 

short leash even 
shorter. As such, 
Poole 
played 

just 10.5 minutes 
through 
the 

season’s first 16 games.

But 
Poole 
soon 
began 

executing 
the 
simpler 

maneuvers — “winning plays” 

as Beilein describes them — and 
was rewarded with more agency 
and playing time.

And after a sturdy drought, 

Poole began to take off in late 
January. Fifteen points against 
Ohio State. A trio of 3-pointers 
against Maryland. A posterizing, 
SportsCenter-top-play 
dunk 

against Penn State. Poole was so 
effective that he began cutting 
into Charles Matthews’ minutes 
— the redshirt sophomore guard 
who led Michigan in scoring 
during non-conference play.

“(Poole) wasn’t in the rotation 

because he was learning so 
much about basketball that he 
wasn’t helping us,” Beilein said 
Feb. 20. “He was going to help 
us win games, but he matured. 

He got better.”

But 
then 
the 
Big 
Ten 

Tournament hit, and Poole’s 
shot was off. After a 1-for-
9 effort in the quarterfinals, 
freshman forward Isaiah Livers 
was asked about his roommate’s 
struggles.

“He’ll pop out of his slump 

sometime,” Livers said. “He’s a 
natural scorer.”

“Slump?” Poole interjected 

from the locker over.

“You’re in a slump right now, 

bro,” Livers responded.

“Watch tomorrow. I’ll pop out 

of it.”

But under the bright lights of 

Madison Square Garden, Poole’s 
attempts simply wouldn’t fall, 
finishing with just 13 total 
points over four games.

Last Saturday, however, he 

still hit the shot. All the pressure 
and all the talk of a slump has 
become a distant thought.

But 
now, 
the 
Wolverines 

need a strong Poole to beat 
Texas A&M on Thursday. The 
Aggies thwarted No. 2 seed 
North Carolina’s interior on 
Sunday. The Tar Heels failed 
to open up lanes for slashers 
and opportunties on the block, 
shooting 
an 
abysmal 
6-for-

31 from beyond the arc and 
allowing Texas A&M to advance 
in emphatic fashion.

To 
avoid 
the 
same 
fate, 

Poole and Michigan need to 
knock down 3-pointers — and 
efficiently 
so. 
That 
means 

making those winning plays and 
avoiding heat checks — despite 
the greatness of Poole’s last shot.

And 
to 
his 
credit, 
even 

through all the hype, new 
Instagram 
followers 
and 

celebrity shootouts, Poole seems 
to understand just that.

“(Coach) definitely told me to 

live in the moment, and take it 
all in,” Poole said. “But it’s only 
so long you can do it before you 
move on to the next game.”

The freshman guard has cemented himself in Michigan lore. Now, he and the Wolverines will look to take down Texas A&M

MARK CALCAGNO

Daily Sports Editor

EVAN AARON/Daily

Freshman guard Jordan Poole entered school lore when he hit a last second, game-winning 3-pointer to give Michigan a 64-63 win over Houston.

“Every time 
I watch it, I 
keep getting 

goosebumps ...”

Abdur-Rahkman, Michigan look to solve shooting struggles against Aggies 

SAM MOUSIGIAN/Daily

Michigan shot under 40 percent from the floor and 28 percent from deep in the first two games of the NCAA Tournament.

this time of year. The Wolverines 

snuck into the Sweet Sixteen 

despite struggling to score.

If that performance is repeated 

this weekend, they might not be so 
fortunate.

LOS ANGELES, Calif. — There 

are two lines of thinking when a 
good team plays badly.

One is that it’s a problem to be 

taken seriously, because any sort 
of slump in the postseason can 
easily spell doom for a team.

The Michigan men’s basketball 

team, after shooting under 40 
percent from the floor and 28 
percent from deep in two games 
last weekend, has taken the 
second train of thought. The 
Wolverines believe their play, and 
their shooting in particular, will 
regress to the mean eventually.

“We didn’t make them last week, 

but we’ve got to stay encouraged 
and still have that confidence to 
take and make open shots,” said 
senior 
guard 
Muhammad-Ali 

Abdur-Rahkman. “That’s what 
we’ve been doing, we haven’t 
really changed anything.”

“We’ve been winning,” added 

sophomore guard Zavier Simpson. 
“We’re on a good winning streak. 
We want to continue what we’ve 
been doing, and hopefully the 
shots fall. We want to make sure 
everybody stays confident, and 
when (the shots) fall, that’s when 
it’s a whole different ballgame.”

For 
Michigan, 
that’s 
the 

positive side of things. Even with 
lackluster shooting numbers, it’s 
still playing basketball because 
of freshman guard Jordan Poole’s 
game-winning 
shot 
against 

Houston.

And to a man, it seems the 

Wolverines are thinking positively 
about their next opportunity to 
break out of their slump against 
Texas A&M on Thursday.

“Zavier takes pride in that,” 

said freshman forward Isaiah 
Livers. “He was like, ‘Dang, we’re 
up two and we’re not even playing 
our best right now,’ at halftime. 
And I was like, ‘Yeah, you’re right, 
X. We’ve just gotta come out and 
play better.’ And that’s why I said I 
was really looking forward to this 
game to see what happened over 
the week and if we’re gonna hit 
that shot or not.”

The 
concerning 
side 
to 

Michigan’s shooting struggles last 
week is that there isn’t a strategic 
change that can be made to fix it. 
The Wolverines got good shots 
against Houston and Montana, 
but they weren’t falling.

Shooting 
is 
variable, 
and 

it’s contagious. When a good 
shot doesn’t go in, there isn’t 
much more to do but shrug your 
shoulders and shoot it again the 
next time. Michigan coach John 
Beilein said as much Wednesday.

“I see us just going to play on,” 

Beilein said. “We were fortunate 
to be here, and we played the best 
basketball we could play. It wasn’t 
as good as some of our other 
games, but that just happens. 
Everybody is always asking for 
reasons why. There is no reason 
why. It just happens. They’re 
19-year-old kids. It just happens.”

So what do you do in practice 

the next week to improve you 
shooting? You shoot.

At least with that, according to 

Beilein, there is a silver lining.

“Yesterday, we did our shooting 

drills, and it was the highest 
numbers we’ve ever gotten as 
a team as far as our shooting 
drill,” Beilein said at his press 
conference Tuesday. “It was just a 
five-minute shooting drill, but the 
lowest guy had 55 threes in five 
minutes, and that was the lowest 
guy. And the standard used to be 
50 until we became good at it, and 
now it’s 60. Of our 12 players, 10 
got 60.”

And there is the confidence 

again. Every Michigan player and 
coach says that the shooting woes 
won’t continue. After all, this is 
the same team whose offense lit 
up Madison Square Garden to win 
the Big Ten Tournament.

But they’d better be right. The 

margin for error is much less 

MIKE PERSAK

Managing Sports Editor

