2B — Monday, April 9, 2018
SportsMonday
The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com

For the love of the game or for all the wrong reasons
W

elp, let’s just say 
it hasn’t been an 
easy week to be a 

Michigan fan. 

If you remember what I’m 

talking 
about, I’m 
sorry for 
bringing it 
up again. 
I know 
that your 
professors 
did enough 
of that all 
week. I’ve 
never heard 
so many annoyed groans in 
my life. 

If you don’t remember the 

past week that well, I can 
honestly relate. Whether it’s 
the fact that April showers 
this year have consisted of 
both snow and rain or that I 
turned 21 a week ago and took 
on the Ann Arbor bar scene, 
my sense of time has been 
pretty off lately.

In any case, we need to 

talk about it. Not about the 
National Championship and 
Frozen Four themselves, 
because I know some people 
who have been covering the 
teams all year and did a better 
job of that than I could. 

But what I do want to talk 

about is the different types of 
sports fans I saw on the day 
of the National Championship 
game.

Classes were still in session 

last Monday, but you wouldn’t 
know it based on the turnout 
I witnessed throughout the 
day. To be fair, I missed my 
first class as well. But mind 
you, it was the night after my 
aforementioned 21st. 

I woke up at 10 a.m. in a 

groggy fog and thought the 
day’s festivities had just 
begun, only to find out that I 
was already late to the party. 
The lines at popular gameday 
locations such as Good Time 
Charley’s and Buffalo Wild 
Wings had started forming as 

early as 8 a.m., according to 
my Snapchat. Tip off wasn’t 
until after 9 p.m. 

As I headed to my 11:30 

a.m. work shift in the MLB, 
I expected the usual hustle 
and bustle 
of students 
rushing 
between 
classes. Instead, 
Ann Arbor 
looked like a 
ghost town.

At work, I 

overheard a 
conversation 
at the copy 
machine 
between some of the 
international lecturers in 
the Romance Languages and 
Literatures Department. 
They were asking each other 
about the unusual number of 
absences that morning. They 

didn’t seem to know what the 
big deal was. 

The first class I attended 

was up on North Campus at 
1:30 p.m. Any of the buses 
that go there tend to be pretty 

crowded, 
to the point 
where people 
are essentially 
standing on top 
of each other. 
But I had no 
trouble finding 
a seat that day. 

My acting 

class is pretty 
small as is, with 
just 18 students. 

Even though we were 
rehearsing our final scenes 
to be filmed the next week, 
we just barely hit double-
digit attendees. Fortunately, 
none of the absentees were 
scheduled to go that day.

We have to turn off our 

cell phones in that class 
because they interfere with 
the equipment, which was a 
relief because I had already 
spent too much time watching 
my friends’ 
Snapchat 
stories and 
trying to 
convince myself 
that I could 
take the whole 
day off.

My next 

class was at 4 
p.m, by which 
point even 
Scorekeepers’ 
Bar and Grille and Rick’s 
American Cafe — the popular 
nighttime destinations — had 
opened early so people could 
start their watch parties. If 
they had already pregamed 
through the afternoon, those 

people might not make it to 
tipoff. 

When my class ended at 

5:30 p.m., I thought about 
heading to one of the bars 
myself to join in on the 

action and 
atmosphere. But 
I didn’t. 

The tables 

would have 
been long gone 
by that point, 
and I had no 
intention of 
standing up for 
the duration of 
the game. The 
ridiculously 

long lines would have been 
gone too, but I had no desire 
to watch the game surrounded 
by drunk people who didn’t 
know the difference between 
a point guard and a 3-pointer. 

In all honesty, I watched 

the game alone in my 
apartment, and I’m not 
embarrassed to admit it. 
Before you start laughing, let 
me explain. 

I didn’t take the day off or 

go out to a bar because I knew 
the temptation would be too 
strong. If Michigan won it all, 
I wanted to remember it. I’m 
probably not supposed to say 
that, but as a second-semester 
senior who could have had a 
national championship as a 
birthday present, objectivity 
is hard to come by. I’m 
graduating in three weeks, let 
me have this. 

If you did go out all day 

because you wanted to absorb 
the moment with your friends 
and follow along closely with 
your fellow Wolverines, then 
you would have been doing it 
for the love of the game. And 
you’re in the right.

But if you did it because you 

wanted to drink for the hell of 
it and have an excuse to party 
on a Monday, then you would 
have been doing it for all the 
wrong reasons. And you’re 
really missing out.

The people in the latter 

category would have been 
the ones I heard yelling 
angrily in the streets — I live 
a block away from Skeeps 
— or stumbling out of bars 
on South U sobbing — as my 
friends later told me — after 
the game. The people in the 
former category would have 
surely been disappointed but 
to a lesser degree, because 
they would have known that 
Villanova was always the 
better team. 

Call me a purist or 

pretentious, there is probably 
truth to both. But the point is 
that championship games only 
come around so often. When 
they do, you should really be a 
part of the former. 

Ashame can be reached at 

ashabete@umich.edu or on 

Twitter @betelhem_ashame.

FILE PHOTO/Daily

Michigan students could have taken in the Wolverines’ national championship game in two ways. Get drunk for the hell of it, or pay attention and enjoy.

BETELHEM 
ASHAME

They didn’t 
seem to know 
what the big 

deal was.

I’m graduating 
in three weeks, 

let me have 

this.

‘M’ finishes second at Big Ten Championships

As Jacob Moore prepared 

for his final tumbling pass, the 
crowd at Crisler Center cheered 
for him to stick the landing of the 
triple twist. He landed with his 
feet glued to the floor, just as he’s 
done multiple times this season.

The 
judges 
rewarded 
the 

freshman’s clean floor routine 
with a score of 14.700 — the 
highest score of the night on the 
event — in the team competition 
of 
the 
men’s 

gymnastics 
Big 
Ten 

Championships, 
where 
No. 

5 
Michigan 

finished 
in 

second 
place 

with a score of 
408.600, 
just 

over five points 
behind 
No. 
8 

Illinois’ score of 
413.900. 

The 
Wolverines 
opened 

the competition on floor, with 
Moore, redshirt junior Marty 
Strech and junior Emyre Cole 
executing their routines well to 
earn scores in the 14s. All three 
qualified for Saturday’s event 
final, and the scores for the team 
competition allowed Michigan to 
get out to a strong start.

“Strong scores, pretty good 

landings for almost everybody,” 
said Michigan coach Kurt Golder 
of the first event. “A good start 
to the meet, good event for us to 
start on.”

Moore led off on pommel 

horse with a low-scoring routine, 
requiring his teammates to step 
up and hit clean routines to get 
the team back in the hunt for a 
Big Ten title. Sophomore Mack 
Lasker answered the bell with 
a score of 14.000, tied for his 
second-best mark of the season.

The 

Wolverines 
built 
on 
the 

pommel 
horse 

momentum 
and 
earned 
a 

competition-
high 68.700 on 
rings, with each 
gymnast scoring 
into 
the 
13s 

and 
freshman 

Cameron 
Bock 

scoring 14.050, just .05 below his 
best mark of the season.

Senior Dmitri Belanovski was 

up first on rings and capped a 
well-executed routine with a 
stuck dismount to score 13.850. 
Three of his four teammates also 
stuck their dismounts, earning 
Belanovski, Bock and junior Ryan 
Dunning spots in the individual 
event final.

“We had our highest stick 

percentage on rings since I’ve 
been 
at 
Michigan 
tonight,” 

Golder said. “You eliminate some 
deductions, you get some bonus 
points. It’s just steady, keep 
plugging away, and usually you 
get better.”

Vault has been a strong event 

for Michigan all season, and 
that trend continued Friday. 
Freshman Nick Guy and Moore 
both stuck their vaults, and Cole 
took just a small step on his own 
vault landing.

Junior Anthony 

McCallum 
returned to the 
vault lineup for 
the 
first 
time 

since suffering an 
injury in January 
and 
landed 
his 

Tsukahara double 
pike on his feet for 
the first time all 
season to earn the 
second-highest 
score of the day on the event.

“It was nerve-wracking, it 

actually was a little bit more 
nerve-wracking than I wanted 
it to be,” McCallum said. “Last 
night I was like, ‘Okay, it doesn’t 
matter if I fall,’ just to give myself 
a little bit of margin for error, but 
once I got up there I was like, 
‘Wow, I really wanna land this 
because I wanna help the team.’ 

… Once I landed it, I was just 
excited to have that over with.”

The Wolverines headed into 

the fifth event, parallel bars, 
with the best score among teams 
that had already taken their bye. 
Belanovski led off with a clean 
routine, but trouble ensued when 
junior Uche Eke stepped up to 
the bars.

Eke struggled early in his 

routine before falling on his 
dismount, notching a score of 
only 11.300. Cole, McCallum 
and Bock all hit clean routines 

with McCallum 
securing 
a 

spot 
in 
the 

event 
final, 

but the scores 
left 
Michigan 

in need of a 
season-best 
performance 
on high bar to 
secure the win.

A 
week 

after 
earning 

their best score of the season, 
inconsistency crept in for the 
Wolverines. Redshirt junior Alec 
Krystek stuck his dismount and 
earned a score of 13.250 in the 
leadoff spot, followed by another 
clean routine from Strech.

Belanovski started well, but he 

slipped going to a handstand and 
nearly fell, which caused him to 
receive a large deduction and 
score 12.550. Then Eke missed 
the bar on his difficult Kovacs 
release 
and 
fell, 
effectively 

ending Michigan’s chance at a 
win.

“We’ve already changed the 

routines,” Golder said. “I think 
maybe in (Belanovski’s) case he 
was trying to be too perfect, he 
put it right in the handstand and 
it went the wrong way. Uche just 
happened to miss the release, the 
rest of it was okay, and when you 
do that skill, you know, it’s a D 
because it’s high risk. D-value, 
you run a little higher risk, and 
sometimes you miss it.”

Inconsistency on parallel bars 

and high bar has been an issue 
for the Wolverines all season, 
and Friday night, it cost them a 
Big Ten title.

In two weeks, it could cost 

them a chance at a national title.

BAILEY JOHNSON

Daily Sports Writer

ALEC COHEN/Daily

The Michigan men’s gymnastics team struggled down the stretch to finish in second place at Big Ten Championships.

“A good start to 
the meet, good 
event to start 

on.”

“We had our 
highest stick 
percentage on 

rings.”

Michigan falls short 
at NCAA Regionals

It was a moment of triumph amid 

heartbreak.

Brianna Brown was up on the 

uneven bars. It was the Michigan 
women’s gymnastics team’s last 
routine of the night — and of its 
season. But for the senior, it wasn’t 
over yet.

Her lines were crisp and clean, 

her releases high, her handstands 
straight. And she stuck her double 
layout dismount with precision. 
She scored a 9.95, enough to put her 
on the podium as the uneven bars 
champion. But for the rest of the 
team, it was too little, too late.

Entering 
Saturday’s 
NCAA 

Regional, 
the 
seventh-ranked 

Wolverines were heavily favored to 
earn one of the two available NCAA 
Championships berths. But heavily 
favored doesn’t mean a thing if you 
can’t capitalize, and uncharacteristic 
errors from Michigan left it with a 
score of 196.350 to finish in fourth 
— behind No. 6 Alabama, No. 18 
Georgia and No. 23 Illinois.

“It’s extremely upsetting,” Brown 

said. “ … We wanted nothing more 
than to be out there with our team 
in prelims and Super Six. It’s not 
something you really expect to 
happen.”

Right off the bat, there were signs 

of trouble. On the balance beam — 
generally the Wolverines’ strongest 
event — all six gymnasts hit their 
routines. But there was a bobble 
on a flight series here and a messy 
dismount there. It would become a 
theme.

On the floor exercise, senior 

Lauren Marinez over-rotated her 
double pike and sat it down. It 
wasn’t a fatal mistake in isolation 
— teams, after all, can drop one 
score. But it eliminated Michigan’s 
margin for error. A short landing 
here and a stumble back there, and 
the Wolverines found themselves 
counting a 9.625. Even junior Emma 
McLean — the team’s most dynamic 
floor worker — didn’t have her best 
routine, garnering a 9.85.

By the time the vault rolled 

around, it was clear that Michigan 
would need to put up big scores on its 

final two events to pull off a top-two 
finish. But the Wolverines’ lineup 
was depleted by the absence of junior 
Olivia Karas due to a torn Achilles, 
and a bruised heel forced McLean 
to water down her difficulty. When 
freshman Syd Townsend — the 
only remaining gymnast to vault a 
difficult Yurchenko 1.5 — couldn’t 
hold onto her landing, it was clear 
that it wasn’t Michigan’s night. 
Bent legs here and a piked-down 
landing there, and all of a sudden, the 
Wolverines needed to average a 9.9 
— an almost impossible proposition 
— to even finish in second.

Before the uneven bars, Michigan 

had a bye. It was a chance for the 
Wolverines to clear their heads. 
They had to perform knowing 
their chances of making the NCAA 
Championships were all but over.

“We basically just said, ‘We know 

what we have to do,’” Brown said. 
“‘We just have to go out there and do 
what we practiced. And if we do that, 
we’ll be fine.’”

Before going up, Brown cleared 

her head. She thought about her 
weekend plans. She thought about 
her sister’s volleyball tournament. 
She thought about everything but 
her bar routine, and she went out 
there and hit. It was one high note in 
a meet full of sour ones.

Brown’s 
performance 
was 

enough for a third-place finish in 
the all-around in addition to the 
bars title. That placement qualified 
her for NCAA Championships as an 
individual. But without the rest of 
her team, the victory felt hollow.

“We came in here thinking we 

were the team to beat, and yes, we 
probably were the team to beat,” 
Brown said. “But that’s just not how 
it worked out.”

It wasn’t a dramatic collapse. 

Rather, it was a bobble here and a 
misstep there. It was little things 
that added up to become big things. 
It was a bad night at the worst 
possible time.

“I’m incredibly heartbroken for 

these young women,” said Michigan 
coach Bev Plocki in a statement. “... 
They deserved more and we didn’t 
get it done today. It hurts, but I am 
very proud of these women for all 
they have accomplished.”

WOMEN’S GYMNASTICS

ARIA GERSON
Daily Sports Writer

