4 — December 3, 2018
The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com
SportsMonday

Michigan suffers second-straight 
defeat at the hands of Marquette

At the five-minute mark 
of the first quarter, No. 21 
Marquette led 13-12. A frenetic 
pace and litany of turnovers 
characterized 
the 
opening 
minutes for both teams.
But from that point on, it 
seemed as if only one team was 
running, and the other was 
committing the turnovers.
The 
Golden 
Eagles 
dominated, hitting a trio of 
three-pointers — two of them 
in transition — to eventually 
open up a 10-point lead at the 
end of the first.
The rest of the game featured 
much of the same as Marquette 
(6-1) 
dispatched 
Michigan 
(5-3) easily by a score of 85-74. 
The eleven-point margin was 
deceiving, though.
“I think they did whatever 
they 
wanted 
to 
do,” 
said 
Michigan 
coach 
Kim 
Barnes 
Arico. 
“They 
made 
an 
incredible 
amount 
of 
3-point shots, and they were 
tremendous off the bounce. 
Just really, really difficult for 
us to defend. We couldn’t get 
stops.”
Though 
the 
Wolverines’ 
defense was nowhere to be 
found for long stretches of 
the first half, it was largely 
because they didn’t have time 
to set up in the half court. 
Between 
long 
defensive 
rebounds, quick outlets and 
turnovers, the Golden Eagles 
looked to exploit Michigan in 
transition.
Marquette 
hit 
eight 
3-pointers 
en 
route 
to 
a 
52-point output in the first half 
— more than the Wolverines 
had given up to Mount St. 
Mary’s and Western Michigan 
over the course of 40 minutes.
As a result of the Golden 

Eagles’ 
ability 
to 
shred 
Michigan’s 
defense, 
the 
inexperienced 
Wolverines 
forced 
the 
issue 
on 
their 
end. Quick shots and hasty 
possessions only served to 
exacerbate 
their 
defensive 
issues though.
“We started taking quick 
shots which resulted in poor 
transition 
defense 
because 
they were so quick,” Barnes 
Arico 
said. 
“They 
were 
able to get easy 
baskets 
and 
drive and kicks 
off of our quick 
shots. I think we 
have to realize 
we have to be 
a 
little 
more 
disciplined 
in 
those situations. 
We need to use 
shot clock and 
make them run shot clock.”
Michigan 
struggled 
to 
find a rhythm for most of the 
game. Senior guard Nicole 
Munger poured in 12 points, 
as did freshman forward Naz 
Hillmon. But other than that, 
the Wolverine starters were 
largely ineffective offensively. 
Star senior forward Hallie 
Thome once again struggled to 
assert herself in the paint.
In 
comparison, 
all 
of 
Marquette’s 
starters 
scored 
in double digits. Senior Erika 
Davenport led the way for them 
with 21 points on 9-11 shooting.
“I thought their toughness 
and 
their 
hustle 
was 
tremendous,” 
Barnes 
Arico 
said. “We talked about it a little 
bit, but they really got after 
us and I thought we would be 
better because we had a major 
size advantage. It was a little 
surprising that they came after 
us as aggressively as they did 
and we didn’t respond to it.”

Despite 
a 
poor 
overall 
performance, 
Michigan 
clawed its way back in the 
fourth quarter thanks in large 
part to the play of its bench. 
Sophomore 
guard 
Priscilla 
Smeenge, as well as freshmen 
Ariel Young and Emily Kiser 
particularly impressed. They 
faced a 26-point deficit at 
the beginning of the fourth 
quarter and turned it into 
just an 11-point 
defeat.
“I 
think 
that 
group 
— 
that 
group 
of 
freshmen 
that we have,” 
Barnes 
Arico 
said. 
“You 
know you add 
Priscilla to that 
mix. 
They’re 
very coachable. 
They’re 
very 
open-minded. They want to do 
whatever they can do to help 
our team be successful. And I 
think they showed that tonight. 
They shared the basketball, 
they made extra passes.”
The game may have ended on 
a positive note, but the defeat 
is now the Wolverines’ third in 
the last four games — granted 
they have all been to ranked 
opponents.
Now, 
coming 
off 
that 
difficult non-conference slate, 
Michigan should be able to 
regroup a bit with three mid-
major opponents before Big 
Ten season gets underway at 
the end of December.
“We threw ourselves to the 
wolves a little bit,” Barnes 
Arico said. “But hopefully it’s 
eye-opening where we are and 
where we need to be, and what 
we need to do to get to where 
we need to be. That’s our goal. 
It will be nice to get to work 
and get to practice.” 

CONNOR BRENNAN
Daily Sports Writer

“We threw 
ourselves to the 
wolves a little 
bit.”

Jordan Poole and finding a good shot

The 
dorm 
rooms 
at 
LaLumiere 
School 
are 
uniform. Pale. Dry. The exact 
same. So one day, coming off a 
national championship win, a 
young Jordan Poole turned to 
his roommate, future top-five 
NBA Draft pick Jaren Jackson 
Jr., with an idea in mind.
“Yo, Jaren, this room — it 
looks weak,” Poole recalled 
saying. “Let’s try something 
else. Let’s try something new.”
“Well, what are you trying to 
do?” he remembered Jackson 
asking.
“I don’t know, let’s just start 
moving 
stuff 
around. 
And 
whatever we come up with, we 
come up with.”
The beds got moved to the 
far wall, next to each other 
— a desk in the middle. Their 
TVs moved next to each other, 
as did the refrigerators, with 
chairs 
more 
conveniently 
placed. They took out some of 
the furniture they didn’t like.
“It was basically like one big 
game of Tetris or something,” 
Jackson recalled in a phone 
interview.
That’s Poole’s personality, 
too, rolled up into one story. 
He’s 
excitable, 
bordering 
on 
reckless 
at 
times, 
but 
everything 
he 
does 
helps 
a whole lot more than it 
hurts. That setup was better, 
allowing more space for more 
people. It is like his basketball 
game. When Poole finds a 
balance between reckless and 
aggressive, he shines.
Which brings us to Saturday 
on Michigan’s first possession 
of the second half, when Poole 
looked up, ball in his hands, 
and saw Purdue’s Matt Haarms 
squared up on him.
The sophomore guard jab-
stepped. He started a drive, 
then crossed over, leaving the 
Boilermakers’ 7-foot-3 big man 
a step behind. And then he 
spotted junior guard Zavier 
Simpson under the net — the 
paint otherwise vacated — and 
he whipped a one-handed pass 
for an uncontested layup.
It was a small flash, just 

another easy bucket in a game 
filled with them for both 
Poole and the Wolverines. 
As 
Michigan 
dominated 
Purdue, 76-57, Poole dropped 
21 points, a season high, on 
8-of-9 
shooting 
from 
the 
field, making all five of his 
shots from beyond the arc — a 
performance as notable for the 
shots he didn’t take as it was 
for those he did.
A year ago, Poole doesn’t 
make that pass to Simpson. He 
doesn’t pass out of a potential 
stepback 
3-pointer 
earlier 
on in the game with Carsen 
Edwards recovering to contest 
either. He didn’t all last year, 
and often got pulled as a result.
He has learned which shots 
to take and which to pass 
up. Games like Saturday’s — 
efficient, and lethally effective 
— are the result.
“(He has) gradually learned, 
less is more,” Michigan coach 
John Beilein said. “And he can 
get better shots. Guys like that 
that can get their own shots, 
have a lot of confidence, gotta 
realize, ‘I’ll take less shots but 
I’ll score more points.’ That 
usually is pretty motivating to 
people.”
Beilein is more willing to 
let Poole play through his 
mistakes now. The sophomore 
got called for a carry early 
in the second half against 
Purdue. Then, on the ensuing 
defensive possession, he forced 
a miss from the Boilermakers’ 

Evan Boudreaux, scrambling 
to contest a player with a 
three-inch height advantage at 
the rim.
Poole 
himself 
cited 
a 
turnover against Purdue where 
the coach said nothing to him, 
knowing he could play through 
it. He did, drawing a charge.
As 
for 
shooting, 
Poole 
struggled at the start of the 
season. He made one of his 
first 10 attempts from 3-point 
range. He’s now made nine of 
his last 10 — and, saving for one 
towards the end of a blowout 
win over North Carolina that 
went in, none have fallen 
under the label of reckless. 
Any mistakes he was making 
in that department seem well 
behind him.
Asked about any shift in his 
shot selection and how it might 
have happened, Poole took a 
long pause.
”I couldn’t tell you, bro. I 
don’t know,” Poole said. “When 
I shoot and coach (Beilein) 
don’t yell at me for saying it’s a 
bad shot. I feel like in practice 
I hit tough shots and I hit shots 
a lot of the time. When coach is 
able to see that I can hit those 
shots on a consistent basis, 
he lets me shoot them in the 
game.”
Beilein is letting him shoot, 
and Poole is providing the 
reward.
And like one big game of 
Tetris, his game is falling into 
place.

ALEXIS RANKIN/Daily
Jordan Poole has shown growth in his shot selection this season.

ETHAN SEARS
Daily Sports Writer
3-point shooting keys ‘M’ in victory

Just three weeks ago, when 
the Michigan basketball team 
beat Holy Cross in the second 
game of the season, the win 
carried a solemn air. It took the 
Wolverines to 2-0 but, for the 
second time in five days, they 
had shot less than 25 percent 
from deep.
Michigan’s defense meant 
it could survive its shooting 
woes, but for a program whose 
offensive identity has revolved 
around the 3-pointer under 
coach John Beilein, making 
just nine of its 45 3-point tries 
was a problem.
“If you look at our numbers 
in practice and everything, 
it’s just—it’s not happening,” 
Beilein said at the time.
Six 
games 
later, 
the 
Wolverines 
look 
like 
a 
legitimate 
national 
title 
contender. 
Their 
defense 
continues to be the main 
reason for that — they lead the 
country in adjusted defensive 
efficiency and have held two 
top-11 offenses under 70 points 
in the past four days.
But Michigan’s offense is 
starting to pull its weight, 
and it has its 3-point shooting 
to thank. The Wolverines — 
buoyed by a combined 24-of-
48 effort from three — looked 
like an offensive machine at 
points in this week’s wins over 

North Carolina and Purdue, 
finding open looks with ease 
and nailing contested threes 
when they had to.
“It’s all about our passing 
really, that we’re seeing each 
other,” Beilein said after a 
13-of-26 3-point performance 
against the Boilermakers. “The 
ball stuck a couple of times 
today, but other than that, if we 
can just keep moving the ball 
and get live action, somebody’s 
gonna come open. Somebody’s 
gonna make a mistake and 
leave one of our guys.”
Before the season, whenever 
Beilein was asked who would 
step up after Michigan lost 
its top three 3-point shooters 
from last season, he defaulted 
to sophomore guard Jordan 
Poole. But Poole opened the 
season by making just one 
of his first 10 attempts from 
three, and his struggles seemed 
to infiltrate the offense as a 
whole.
Now, the Wolverines have 
found the balance to survive 
when Poole struggles, as he did 
in the first half against the Tar 
Heels. But when Poole makes 
his threes, the full firepower 
of Michigan’s offense is on 
display.
That was the case Saturday 
afternoon against Purdue, as 
Poole went 5-of-5 in a 21-point 
performance.
“I’ve worked so hard in the 
gym,” Poole said. “Me and 

(assistant) 
coach 
(DeAndre 
Haynes) alway find ways that 
I can get my shots. They’re 
gonna 
fall 
eventually, 
you 
know what I’m saying?”
Added Boilermakers coach 
Matt Painter: “You can’t let 
Jordan Poole get five good 
looks.”
That showing on Saturday 
forced Purdue to keep an eye on 
Poole throughout the contest, 
allowing 
redshirt 
junior 
forward 
Charles 
Matthews 
and junior center Jon Teske 
to go a combined 5-of-8 from 
three. When the Boilermakers 
held the Wolverines without a 
field goal for over nine minutes 
in the second half, it was Teske 
who broke the drought with a 
pick-and-pop three.
“We got guys like Jon and 
(junior point guard Zavier 
Simpson) 
and 
(sophomore 
forward) 
Isaiah 
(Livers) 
staying after practice to shoot 
threes because we know that 
it’s a huge part of our game,” 
Poole said. “So being able to 
knock down those shots from 
the ‘1’ to the ‘5’ is definitely 
huge for us.”
On 
Saturday, 
that 
same 
effect worked in reverse. One 
possession after Teske’s three, 
he got the ball at the top of 
the arc and looked to shoot. 
Recognizing the threat, two 
defenders closed in on Teske, 
leaving Poole wide open to 
his left. Teske found Poole, 
and just like that, Michigan 
had shut the door on Purdue’s 
comeback hopes and restored 
its lead to 20.
“I’m 
not 
gonna 
force 
anything,” Teske said. “I was 
gonna try to shoot that third 
one, but Carsen (Edwards) 
was right there so I kicked it 
to (Poole), I know (Poole is) a 
better shooter than me.”
As the Wolverines’ perfect 
start has proven, they can win 
with defense. This morning, 
Beilein woke up, flipped his 
calendar to December and 
reflected on what he called a 
“pretty good” November.
If 
Saturday’s 
3-point 
shooting is any indication, 
December could be even better.

WOMEN’S BASKETBALL

MEN’S BASKETBALL

THEO MACKIE
Daily Sports Writer

