4B — Monday, April 2, 2018 SportsMonday The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com ‘M’ embraces underdog role again SAN ANTONIO, Texas — The Michigan men’s basketball team is playing in the NCAA Championship game against No. 1-seeded Villanova on Monday Night. No need to go to check your glasses, you read that correctly. The Wolverines (33-7 overall) have juggled elite defensive performances, scattered offensive spurts and a dash of luck to get to this point. But on paper, Michigan’s performance isn’t an accident — it’s been the favorite in all five tournament games its played in thus far. But now, the Wolverines come in as the underdog, and even that’s an understatement. Some media members have asked if the championship trophy can be gifted prematurely to the Wildcats. The overreaction is baseless but unsurprising. Villanova (35-4) rained 13 3-pointers just in the first half as part of a 95-79 walloping against Kansas on Saturday. It was a game that Michigan coach John Beilein said he was glad he didn’t have time to watch. The Wildcats are led by guard Jalen Brunson — who averages 19.2 points per game — on an already-complete roster. “As a point guard, and one who wants to be elite at the next level, who wouldn’t want to look forward to a matchup like Brunson (who is) a National Player of the Year?” questioned sophomore point guard Zavier Simpson. “They’re a great team. They aren’t No. 1 in the country for no reason. We have to come ready to play, or we’ll get embarrassed.” Added assistant coach Saddi Washington: “At this point in the season, you’re not really gonna out- trick your opponent. You’ve just gotta be the best version of who you are and hope that’s good enough.” So yes, Michigan is the clear underdog. But that’s right where this team wants to be. “When you’re the favorite, especially playing against lower seeds in the NCAA Tournament, it just adds more pressure,” said senior guard Muhammad-Ali Abdur- Rahkman. “You just don’t want to be that team that gets upset. I think our identity from the beginning has been being underdogs throughout the season.” Michigan coach John Beilein said that the Wildcats have many similarities to Loyola-Chicago, with more size and another shooter at the “5” spot. Villanova’s frontcourt of Omari Spellman and Eric Paschall not only brings athletic shot-blocking prowess, but the duo has also combined for 100 triples this season. The Wildcats’ strategy isn’t new to the Wolverines. But Villanova spaces the floor well and knocks down shots at a higher clip than anyone Michigan has faced this year. “We’ve faced some shooting post players like Nebraska, Michigan State when they would go with a smaller lineup with Jaren Jackson Jr., those types of teams,” Washington said. “Spellman, Paschall — those guys are playing at an unbelievable level right now. What they did last night (against Kansas) was impressive.” For a team as volatile as Michigan, it knows not to get intimidated by how the Wildcats breezed through the tournament to get to this point. It’s another chip on the Wolverines’ shoulders, who are comfortable “getting in the mud,” according to fifth-year senior point guard Jaaron Simmons. But they will have their work cut out stopping Villanova’s 3-point shooting. The Wildcats have made the most treys in the country, ahead of the second-place team by 1.6 threes per game. In the tournament, Michigan has held opponents to just 24 percent on 3-pointers, while Villanova has converted on 42.3 percent of their attempts. If the Wildcats can’t hit their threes, it could turn into a rockfight — a type of game that the Wolverines are accustomed to playing. It’s not flashy. Perhaps it’s why Michigan was hardly on the national radar before the Big Ten Tournament. But now the Wolverines are here in the title game, and they don’t care how they are being labeled. “Very few people have been paying attention to us all year. That’s fine with us,” Washington said. “We just go about our business each and every day. That’s the beauty of athletics — one day you’re the darling, one day you’re the hunted and one day you’re the hunter.” Wolverines recognize role of luck SAN ANTONIO, Texas — Before Saturday’s game, the Michigan men’s basketball team huddled around Jordan Poole just outside its tunnel. The fiery freshman is adept at hyping up his team, and he looked around before giving a galvanizing message. “We’re not supposed to be here.” Poole was almost definitely referring to how the Wolverines have been doubted all season. Nobody expected them to be in the Final Four. But there’s an underlying message that comes with Poole’s statement. Along Michigan’s run to this point, it needed some lucky breaks to stay alive. Poole’s buzzer beater to beat Houston, even with the preparation to make it possible, needed some luck to go down. The Wolverines’ path to the NCAA Championship game, littered with lower-seeded teams, needed a bit of luck to materialize. Those are fortunate happenings that could have gone either way. Perhaps Michigan isn’t supposed to be here. That’s not a slight. Michigan coach John Beilein recognizes it’s necessary to have some luck this time of year. “It’s been an incredible year for Michigan with very few injuries, a ton of breaks to be to this point,” Beilein said. “And I feel guilty sometimes about some of the games we won because we just had this grace fall on us all of a sudden. But at the same time it’s gone the other way many times for some of our teams and you beat yourself up as a coach, and what could I have done. But as I get more experience in this game, I realize that’s what it’s about, and you can’t do anything about those things.” Fifth-year senior forward Duncan Robinson understands this balance too. The year he redshirted, after transferring to Ann Arbor, the Wolverines went 16-16. His next three seasons, they barely made the tournament, lost in the Sweet Sixteen and now have made it to the title game. Robinson has seen things break both for and against him and his teams. It helps him value just how tough it is to get to this spot. “I would just say you learn very easily not to take things for granted, in particular in that Houston game,” Robinson said. “You know, Jordan doesn’t hit that miraculous shot, none of us are sitting here. ... So, I mean, when you think about it like that, the only thing you can do is just be appreciative that, for whatever reason, it’s you and it’s your team.” For Beilein and Robinson, experience has given them perspective. For the younger Michigan players, the perspective hasn’t come yet. It’s easy for them to take it for granted, because this is the only thing they’ve experienced. The veterans try to let them know how lucky they are, though. “Moe was telling Jordan and I, I think we were like traveling and we said something (that) doesn’t really matter,” said freshman forward Isaiah Livers. “And Moe was like, ‘What? Do you know how hard we’ve worked to get to the place we are at right now? You guys are spoiled.’ Moe was saying, ‘You’re spoiled. You’re spoiled.’ I said, ‘Hey, I guess we’re just lucky to be spoiled people.’ ” Added Robinson: “It’s hard because you can say that, but they’re just words. You’ve gotta experience it for yourself. Like I try to tell the freshmen, ‘The next three years here, you could have a team that’s far better than us, and you still won’t get to this point.’ And I’m not saying that won’t happen for them, but it very well could. Getting here is obviously, it’s so tough to do. And really good teams and really good coaches and really good players haven’t gotten to this point in their careers.” Whether by luck or skill or more likely a combination of both, though, the Wolverines are here now. They’ve used their underdog feeling as motivation. Now, their ability to stay alive is fueling them. Michigan will play in Monday’s NCAA Championship Game for just the seventh time in program history, so close to a goal that’s almost impossible to reach. With one game left, Michigan could be a few good bounces away from winning it all. “Sometimes I feel like we’re not supposed to be here,” said sophomore guard Zavier Simpson. “So we’ve got to give it our all.” ETHAN WOLFE Daily Sports Editor KATELYN MULCAHY/Daily Jaaron Simmons and Michigan enter the national championship game as the clear underdog to Villanova. MIKE PERSAK Managing Sports Editor SAN ANTONIO, Texas — John Beilein looked despondent. The Michigan head coach was unhappy with the result, an 86-71 throat-slashing at the hands of North Carolina, and even less happy with the effort. “(North Carolina) might be that good,” Beilein said after that Nov. 29 contest in Chapel Hill, “but we’re definitely not that bad.” Then he added a remarkably confident quibble about his young team, one that aged quite well in hindsight. “Just watch this team grow. You’ll like what they do.” Fast forward five months, and the Wolverines are on the doorstep of a national title — assistant coach Saddi Washington says he can hardly remember the last time they lost. But these staggering peaks didn’t come without deep valleys. That defeat that slipped Washington’s mind came 56 days ago, a 61-52 loss at Northwestern that saw Michigan’s offense wither at the feet of the Wildcats’ sprawling zone. Since, the Wolverines have won 15 games in a row. A 16th would bring a national title back to Ann Arbor. And ask anyone in Michigan’s locker room: the turning points of the season didn’t come in big wins, but in those stinging lossess. Just 24 hours from the Wolverines’ biggest basketball game in five years, and the biggest of each player’s life, the athletes and coaches were able to appreciate the depths that helped them reach these heights. “(Northwestern) played this really crazy matchup zone,” said freshman guard C.J. Baird, on the last time his team lost. “That threw us for a loop. We were definitely wondering, ‘Where do we go from here? What’s our next step?’ ” Since then, Michigan has faced several zone defenses, including Texas A&M’s in the second round of the NCAA Tournament, one the Wolverines torched to the tune of 99 points and 14 made threes. Less than a month prior to the loss to the Wildcats, the Wolverines went to Lincoln and were dealt their worst loss of the season, a 72-52 shellacking at the hands of the Cornhuskers. Nebraska notoriously switched every ball screen in that game, a strategy that held Michigan center Moritz Wagner to just two points. The loss sent shockwaves through a team whose offensive flow hardly resembled Beilein’s trademark offenses. At the time, it seemed to be a team more likely destined for the NIT than the Final Four. “That was definitely a turning point with the coaching staff,” Baird said, “because they noticed teams would do that now and follow suit. I mean, we lost by 20.” Instead of praying teams wouldn’t mimic Nebraska’s formula, Beilein and his staff devised a plan to beat it. Nearly every team since then has tried to reenact the Cornhuskers’ success, and guided by increasingly aggressive guard play, the offense has made the necessary adjustment. Resoundingly. Monday night, Michigan will invariably see it again, as Villanova thrives on defensive versatility and athleticism. It’s only right that the truest measuring stick of growth will come on the sport’s biggest stage. “I think our losses have shown through really throughout the entirety of our season — just with handling adversity, also with handling success,” said fifth-year senior Duncan Robinson. “With us, it’s all about growing through everything, victory (and) defeat. That’s something Coach Beilein stresses with us, the good teams grow from both.” Added Washington: “I think that speaks to the genius of Coach Beilein. Whether you win or lose a game, it’s an opportunity to grow. It’s an opportunity to learn something new about yourself.” “Growth” for Beilein’s squad doesn’t come in heaps and mounds. He’s not big on “rah-rah” speeches or big-picture turning points. It comes in incremental, day-to-day dedication. As cliche as it may sound, there was no magic elixir that transformed an early season pretender into a national championship participant. “It’s just one of those things Coach has been saying lately,” Washington recalled Sunday afternoon. “‘You don’t try to eat the whole elephant, you just take a bite at a time.’ ” That elephant has been reduced to a morsel. There’s only one more bite left to take. The losses that shaped a contender SAN ANTONIO, Texas — Standing against a ten-foot mural of Moritz Wagner, John Beilein spoke to a herd of reporters with a pleasant tone. The Michigan men’s basketball coach had just earned the second National Semifinal victory of his career, largely due to Wagner’s historical showing of 24 points and 15 rebounds. But when probed to articulate his starting point guard’s performance, the mood shifted. “Zavier (Simpson) did not have a great day with the ball,” Beilein said. “A couple of (turnovers) were just careless.” Though the Wolverines managed to escape Loyola, Saturday was one of Simpson’s worst performances of the season. He was uncharacteristically sloppy with four turnovers, and his shot was well off the mark, finishing scoreless on 0-of-6 shooting. “You cannot play that way,” Beilein said. “Michigan basketball cannot win if we’re careless with the ball.” Though it was indeed a blanket statement, Beilein’s comment carries serious weight as the Wolverines get set for Monday’s title matchup. Against Villanova — the country’s most efficient offensive team — Michigan can’t afford as many miscues from Simpson. Yet, that’s not even the sophomore’s most prominent obligation. Simpson will be tasked with defending Jalen Brunson, the AP Player of the Year who averages 19.2 points per game on 53-percent shooting. Simpson, of course, is known as a shutdown defender. He has forced elite point guards like Houston’s Rob Gray, Penn State’s Tony Carr and Michigan State’s Cassius Winston to substandard nights. A week ago, Simpson made T.J. Starks — Texas A&M’s self-described “unstoppable” point guard — look foolish. But Brunson is a different animal. He can ball-handle defenders into submission. He can shoot, he can pass. He can even post up. “You got two pitbulls playing against each other, that’s what it’s going to be,” said assistant coach DeAndre Hayes. “He’s gonna do some things we haven’t seen out of a guard.” But Simpson has two things working in his favor. For one, Saturday’s performance is already behind him. Players make statements about amnesia and how they’re not thinking about this or that. But when the no-nonsense Simpson says it, it feels more truthful, and that’s evident to those around him. “One thing about X is that he’s strong-minded — he doesn’t dwell on the past, he always moves forward,” Haynes said. “When I played in college, my coaches they made me write on my shoe, ‘Short-term memory.’ I tell all my guards that now.” When it comes to understanding his opponent, however, Simpson’s memory is indelible. On Sunday, he and the Wolverines will go through a rigorous preparation routine — one that has endured throughout Beilein’s tournament runs. First, Simpson will read the scouting report on Brunson, which is usually prepared on a white board in the team locker room. Then he’ll watch film, with each clip corresponding to a certain aspect of the Wildcats. It’s all taken to practice, where it’s the scout team’s responsibility to mimic Brunson’s game. That responsibility falls on freshman Luke Wilson, Michigan’s walk-on point guard. His job won’t be easy. Both are left-handed, but Brunson posts up like a big man. Wilson’s post moves … well, let his teammates assess them. “(Luke) can’t post up,” barked Eli Brooks in the Wolverines’ locker room. “I’ll make him turn red today,” Simpson added. “You’re all talk, dude,” Wilson responded. “Alright, say that for 40 minutes.” The back-and-forth, right in front of a media scrum, is emblematic of the everlasting intensity Simpson carries. A month ago, he and Wilson nearly fought in practice. In one drill, Simpson was guarding Wilson, denying consistently and pushing the ball out of bounds. When Wilson finally caught the ball, Simpson got in his face — so close that Wilson pushed him over. “Everyone was like ‘Oh my gosh,’ ” recalled freshman guard C.J. Baird. That’s just the type of competitor Simpson is. It doesn’t matter if he’s facing a walk-on or star. He’s not in it to lose. On Monday, in the biggest game of the year against the country’s best player, that’s what Simpson will attempt to prove once again. “Definitely a matchup that I’m looking forward to. Who wouldn’t?” Simpson said. “In order to be the best, you have to compete with the best.” Simpson’s ultimate test: Jalen Brunson MAX MARCOVITCH Daily Sports Editor MARK CALCAGNO Daily Sports Editor KATELYN MULCAHY/Daily Zavier Simpson will most likely be tasked with guarding Jalen Brunson, Villanova’s star point guard. “Sometimes I feel like we’re not supposed to be here.”