8A — Wednesday, October 24, 2018
Sports
The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com
Harbaugh’s last shot at Dantonio
J
im Har-
baugh
did not
need to host a
press confer-
ence on Mon-
day. Only once,
in fact, had
the Michigan
football coach
done so during
a bye week.
That was a
year ago when a spinal injury to for-
mer Wolverines quarterback Wil-
ton Speight prompted Harbaugh to
criticize Purdue’s football facilities.
It was a calculated message intend-
ed to spark reform by the Big Ten
Conference.
Harbaugh started his weekly
meeting with reporters on Monday
with his standard fare: a limited
update on injuries, compliments
for his players and goals for the bye
week — stuff that fills the morning
sports pages but nothing that makes
you blink twice.
That was until 19 minutes in,
when Harbaugh pulled a piece of
paper out from his back pocket. He
decided it was time to deliver the
message he had come to give.
First was his bureaucratic assess-
ment of the Wolverines and Spar-
tans’ pregame fracas. Then came
his latest cut at Michigan State
coach Mark Dantonio.
“It’s the opposite of B.S. Coach
(Dantonio) said it was B.S. That’s
not B.S., that’s fact. … I’ll go one step
further and use Coach Dantonio’s
words from a few years back,” Har-
baugh said, dipping his head down
to read, “ ‘It’s not a product of a team
but their program.’ ”
“And that’s using his words.”
Those words mean that college
football teams are indicative of their
coaches. And if so, the Michigan-
Michigan State rivalry has hit a new
level of quarrelsomeness.
Harbaugh and Dantonio have
a history of tempered ill-will that
broadened Monday. Last December,
after the Wolverines were picked
ahead of the Spartans to participate
in the Outback Bowl, Dantonio said
he’d “just continue to concentrate
on beating Michigan.”
Harbaugh, as he did Monday,
made sure to counter.
“Saw Coach D comments on con-
tinuing to ‘focus’ on how ‘he’ can
beat Michigan,” Harbaugh tweeted
on Dec. 4. “Congrats on turning
around a 3-9 team, plagued with off
field issues.”
Dantonio then retorted with his
infamous response to Mike Hart’s
2007 “little brother” comments.
“It’s not over, it’ll never be over,
it’s just getting started,” Dantonio
tweeted two hours later.
Michigan State used Hart’s
words as locker room bulletin board
material for years. It fueled the
Spartans to eight wins in the series’
past 11 meetings.
The lasting images from Satur-
day’s game will only add fuel to the
fire. Fifth-year senior defensive end
Chase Winovich repeated Hart’s
quote verbatim in his FOX post-
game interview. Devin Bush Jr., of
course, tore up the Michigan State
logo at midfield after his pregame
exchange with the Spartan Walk.
“I don’t blame Devin,” Harbaugh
said when asked about his message
to the junior linebacker. “I like the
way our guys handled it.”
Hear that? Jim Harbaugh doesn’t
mind his players participating in the
pettiness. He wants them to get into
it. His note read that teams are a
product of their programs — and he
has certainly chosen to battle with
Dantonio.
It’s no surprise, then, to see the
two sides continue to go back and
forth.
“That’d be like going back and
saying ‘Oh, look at Devin Bush!
Look at him out there, he’s out at
midfield scraping up the logo,’ ”
Harbaugh continued, pointing
and working his hands in a dig-
ging motion. “After what just took
place, I mean, that’s right out of the
Pistons’ playbook. Do something to
them, say something to them, elbow
them, and then when somebody
else does something back, then
flop.”
Harbaugh was referring to the
Bad Boys Era Detroit Pistons, who
were famous for doing anything
necessary — trash talk, cheap shots
and pure disrespect included — to
get under their opponents’ skin.
Whether Dantonio “orches-
trated” a “stormtrooper” march
to provoke the Wolverines is up to
who you ask. That is how Harbaugh
saw it, but Michigan State released
a statement Monday night saying it
followed the planned protocol and
the tradition had “never” caused
issues before.
One way or another, Harbaugh
came to Schembechler Hall with a
mission: to provoke Dantonio, just
as he thought the Spartan coach
had done to him two days earlier.
Eventually, Harbaugh ended
his spiel and press conference on a
rosy note, quoting legendary radio
announcer Bob Ufer before calling
defensive coordinator Don Brown
the best coach he’d been around.
Mission accomplished.
On Tuesday, however, Dantonio
refused to answer questions about
Harbaugh’s comments, seemingly
ending things for the time being.
But if the both the rivalry and
coaches’ history is any indication,
this won’t be the last spat between
Jim Harbaugh and Mark Dantonio.
Calcagno can be reached
at markcal@umich.edu or on
Twitter at @MWCalcagno.
MARK
CALCAGNO
EVAN AARON/Daily
Michigan coach Jim Harbaugh commented on the pre-game antics between Michigan and Michigan State on Saturday.
With Gary out, Uche stars on defensive line
Eyes and ears were fixated
as Chase Winovich repeated
Mike Hart’s “little brother”
remarks on television after
topping Michigan State. All of
the hype, eye-rolls or whatever
you felt was translated to a
sustained social media frenzy.
Josh
Uche’s
TV
interview
followed
and
hardly a peep
was made of it.
Speaking
after
Winovich,
one
could
imagine,
is a tough act
to follow. With
his eyes wide-
open, the junior
defensive
end
was loud and clear.
“All that celebrating, all
that
talking
(the
Spartans
were) doing before the game,
all that just fueled the fire,”
a fiery Uche shouted into the
microphone. “We love that,
man. We love that shit. Excuse
my language, but this is what
we do. If you want to talk
that talk, well, we can walk
that walk. We just came out
and dominated like we were
supposed to.”
Uche rarely, if ever, likes to
talk about himself — his impact
is often muffled amongst a star-
studded defensive unit anyway.
But in the wake of an injury
with an unknown timeline to
defensive end Rashan Gary,
Uche has seamlessly filled his
absence and shined. His two
sacks against Michigan State
upped his season total to five —
a team high.
Not too shabby for a second-
stringer.
“Yeah, Josh Uche’s playing
really
good
ball,”
said
Michigan coach Jim Harbaugh
on Monday. “Two big sacks in
the game. Really coming off
the edge with speed and power,
and impacting the games. He’s
doing a great job.”
It’s difficult to characterize
Uche’s play as surprising given
the track record of Don Brown
defenses. But the ascendance
of Uche rests squarely on his
shoulders.
It started with a conversation
Brown recalled with Uche.
“After the (2017) bowl game,
we had a discussion because he
wanted to play more,” Brown
remembered prior to the 2018
season opener. “He wanted to
fight me, I think. He wants to
play. It’s easy to
say, ‘Hey coach,
I want to play.
Let me play.’
Go earn it, how
about
that?
How about go
earn it? Well,
he’s earned it.
I think that’s
probably fair to
say.”
Uche’s
no-nonsense pragmatism has
become his trademark. It could
just be a byproduct of being on
the No. 1-ranked defense in the
country through eight weeks.
When asked about what the
team’s trademark was, Uche
retorted “You tell me?” like it
was sacreligious that he was
being asked to spell it out.
He’s blunt and confident,
beyond
overused
media
platitudes. What did he have to
say after a second-half shutout
and game-ending sack against
Northwestern?
“We knew they couldn’t
really hang with us.”
And
after
a
sack
and
dominant performance against
Wisconsin?
“We’ve been a dominant
defense all year, that’s what
we do. … If they
gave up, that’s
on them, that’s
a
personal
problem on their
side.”
Beating
offenses
into
submission has
been
a
theme
of
Michigan’s
2018
defense,
though,
and
Uche has been a spark plug
for that tendency. He is listed
at 238 pounds and runs a 4.5
forty-yard dash according to
Brown, who also said he “gave
(strength
and
conditioning
coach) Ben Herbert a kiss on
the lips for that.”
But his technique has also
been
revelatory.
Scrolling
through Uche’s Twitter, you
can find videos he retweeted
after
the
Michigan
State
game with hundreds of likes
that dissects how he swatted
an
opposing
lineman’s
hands to create a path to the
quarterback.
If Gary returns this season,
the defense will have that
much of an easier time staying
as the top-ranked defense, with
Uche maintaining a prominent
spot
in
that
defensive
line
rotation.
He may not
be a household
name
like
Winovich,
Gary or junior
linebacker
Devin
Bush
Jr.
But
Uche
has the same
intensity, if not
greater. In that same post-game
interview, he was asked what
he felt about Bush’s pre-game
yelling and field stomping.
“We from the same place,
I wouldn’t expect anything
less than that,” Uche said. “I
would’ve done the same thing.”
And
he
stared
at
the
interviewer like he was angry,
even in the most celebratory
moment of Michigan’s season.
ETHAN WOLFE
Daily Sports Writer
KATELYN MULCAHY/Daily
Junior defensive end Josh Uche leads Michigan’s football team in sacks with five throughout the 2018 season.
“If you want to
talk that talk,
well, we can
walk that walk.”
“We knew
they couldn’t
really hang
with us.”
Michigan sweeps at
ITA Midwest Regional
There was a lot on the line
for
the
Michigan
women’s
tennis team as it hosted the ITA
Midwest Regional.
The
six-day
tournament
featured 22 teams, eight top-100
ranked players and automatic
berths
to
the
Oracle
ITA
National Fall Championships.
And
once
the
tournament
wrapped up Tuesday, it was
clear the Wolverines had the
most dominant performance.
In an event where all players
were
entered
individually
and weren’t affiliated as a
team, Michigan found its most
common opponent to be, well,
Michigan.
Senior Kate Fahey swept the
weekend, winning the doubles
and singles draws. But in order
to claim the singles crown,
Fahey had to get past two of her
own teammates. After breezing
through her first three rounds
— outscoring her opponents,
36-4 — Fahey
faced her biggest
challenge of the
tournament
in
the semifinal.
Surely Fahey
had
played
fellow
senior
Brienne
Minor
many times in
practice, but this
time
around,
there was more
on the line. Either side refused
to budge in the first set, sending
it to a tiebreaker. Minor just
barely took the set, giving her
the momentum in the second
set. She was one game away
from the championship match,
but Fahey rattled off nine of the
match’s final 12 games to steal
the match from Minor.
“I was telling my mom if Bri
had played one more good game,
I was out of there,” Fahey said.
“But she played really, really
well the whole tournament.
… It kind of just came down to
toughing it out, toughing that
second set out, and the third
set I played well again. It was
good.”
But the battle wasn’t over.
Awaiting Fahey in the finals
was another teammate, junior
Chiara Lommer.
Fahey cruised to an early 5-1
lead and even as Lommer tried
to battle back, Fahey took the
first set, 6-4. The second set
was much less contested and
Fahey punched her ticket to the
National Fall Championships
with a 6-2 victory.
“It’s brutal,” Fahey said. “Like
Chiara and I room together and
we were studying together last
night. It’s tough obviously and
you never want to do it, it feels
like a practice match. But it
gets pretty competitive. I mean,
obviously we both want to win.
“Obviously, when I played Bri
and Chiara, there’s both mutual
respect there.”
While Fahey triumphed in
the singles draw, that’s not
the only thing she has to show
for her weekend. Just days
before knocking Minor out
of the singles draw, the duo
clinched the doubles title and
earned themselves a spot at
the fall championships. The
pair outscored their opponents,
40-13, over six games.
The all-senior pairing isn’t
one fans are used to. While it
is rare for Minor and Fahey to
play together, it usually proves
beneficial for the Wolverines.
“I love playing with Bri,”
Fahey said. “I love playing with
everyone, but playing with Bri
is special, being the same year.
We’ve been through a lot. … It’s
just really fun.
I
think
she’s
one of the only
people who can
make me smile
on
a
tennis
court.”
There seems
to
be
plenty
for Fahey and
Michigan
to
smile
about
after
the
tournament they had and it
has
Michigan
coach
Ronni
Bernstein thinking about what
this means for January and the
team’s spring season.
“We have the best teams in
the region here so it’s exciting
to see where we are in October,”
Bernstein said. “I thought it was
good that we didn’t really have
to play each other until the very
end. You know, with so many
people in it sometimes, they can
play early and knock each other
out.
“I’m proud of the girls, we
saw a lot of good stuff and to see
Chiara and Kate playing each
other in the finals is really good
for the program.”
Fahey continues to prove
herself as the frontrunner of this
Wolverine squad, but there were
many bright spots coming from
this weekend. All Michigan
players won at least one match
throughout
the
tournament
and four Wolverines made it to
the quarterfinals of the singles
draw. Bernstein is excited about
where her team is at right now,
but what may be even more
exciting is where it will be next
spring.
2020 guard Zeb Jackson
commits to play at ‘M’
John Beilein picked up his
first commitment of the 2020
cycle on Tuesday night.
Zeb Jackson, a four-star
guard from Maumee, Ohio,
committed to Michigan over a
final seven that included Ohio
State, Michigan State, Butler,
Purdue, Arizona State and
Marquette via a video on his
Twitter.
Jackson, who plays for junior
guard Zavier Simpson’s father,
Quincey, with Under Armour
C2K Elite’s AAU program, has
developed a close relationship
with
the
Wolverine
point
guard.
“Zavier’s like my brother,”
Jackson said over the phone
last month, “so we talk a lot.”
Jackson
never
officially
visited Michigan because he
lives just 45 minutes away,
making Ann Arbor an easy
weekend jaunt. In addition to
Simpson, he also mentioned
Jordan Poole, Isaiah Livers
and David DeJulius as players
with whom he’s close. Jackson
camped with the Wolverines
in June, and though he nearly
announced
a
commitment
to Butler in August, saw his
profile rise from there. In
September, after coming to
watch him work out, Beilein
extended Michigan’s first offer
of the 2020 cycle to Jackson.
In addition to location and
Simpson, there was another
connection
working
in
Michigan’s
favor.
Assistant
coach
DeAndre
Haynes,
who took a lead in Jackson’s
recruitment, was on Toledo’s
staff when the Rockets offered
him in eighth grade.
“A close relationship with
the head coach, a place where
I’ll feel comfortable to play
my game,” Jackson said when
asked what he looked for in a
school. “Life after basketball,
like, having a coach who can
teach me how to be more than
a player, be a man. Go to a
school where a degree goes a
long way. And my final goal is
to go to the NBA. And win, and
win.”
Jackson, a scorer who can
make plays off ball-screens,
fits well in Beilein’s system.
On a 2020 roster that will have
lost Zavier Simpson, adding a
guard was an important step
as well.
As of now, the Wolverines
have
allotted
12
of
13
scholarships for the 2020-21
season, as with the 2019-20
season, and will likely plan for
departures between now and
then. Four-star Ethan Morton
is currently their only other
offer for the class of 2020.
ETHAN SEARS
Daily Sports Writer
MEN’S BASKETBALL
PAIGE VOEFFRAY
Daily Sports Editor
“I mean,
obviously we
both want to
win.”