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 FOR RENT SUMMER EMPLOYMENT 2 & 4 Bedroom Apartments $1400‑$2800 plus utilities. 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(906) 847‑7196. www.theislandhouse.com Classifieds Call: #734-418-4115 Email: dailydisplay@gmail.com 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