2B — December 3, 2018
SportsMonday
The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com

Worth the price of admission
S

eventy dollars.
That’s what some students 
paid 
to watch 
the men’s 
basketball 
team play 
Purdue on 
Saturday night. 
Seventy bucks 
and you’re 
allowed to wait 
outside for 
hours before 
the game, only 
to get in and cram your way into a 
corner of a sold-out Crisler Center, 
stretching from the floor all the 
way to the top of the second bowl. 
Or, if you’re lucky — and really, 
really dedicated to waiting outside 
in the rain — you might get a spot in 
the student section bleachers that 
run behind the benches.
Of course, that price did more 
than just get students a seat in the 
student section. It gave them the 
chance to watch the Michigan 
men’s basketball team grind out a 
top-20 win over the Boilermakers, 
a staple powerhouse team in the 
Big Ten.
Even on Wednesday, 40 bucks 
not only secured students a seat for 
the ‘Maize Out,’ but also a chance 
to see Michigan exact revenge 
over a North Carolina team that 
blew the Wolverines out last year. 
Michigan put on a show en route to 
an 84-67 win over the 11th-ranked 
team in the country.
Which, just like in Purdue’s 
game, featured a sold-out crowd.
Two back-to-back sellout 
games at this time last year wasn’t 
even close to an option for the 
Wolverines. In its first four home 
games this season (excluding 
Northwood’s exhibition), Michigan 
has drawn total crowd of 47,878 
people — last year, in the same time 
span, it was 37,473.
That change in numbers could 
be attributed to a lot of different 
things. Maybe, it’s a result of 
the novelty in opponents the 
Wolverines have been hosting. This 
season’s schedule has seen two 
ranked visitors step on the court 

in the Boilermakers and the Tar 
Heels, while last year, the highest-
profile home matchup Michigan 
had in the same four-game time 
span was with an unranked 
Central Michigan team.
It seems pretty obvious, 
though, that a difference of more 
than 10,000 people probably 
has to deal with more than just 
an uptick in scheduling. Maybe 
it has something to do with an 
undefeated 6-0 run to enter last 
week’s matchups with two ranked 
teams? Maybe it has to do with a 
redemption battle that resulted 
in a win over a team that chased 
the Wolverines out of the national 

championship last year? Or maybe 
people are paying attention 
to a team they think deserves 
the attention after a Final Four 
appearance less than a year prior?
Maybe one. Maybe all of the 
above.
Regardless of the reason, 
momentum is rolling. It’s felt in 
Crisler, spurring sellout crowds 
with fanatic eruptions in instances 
like when redshirt junior Charles 
Matthews threw down a dunk 
against the Tar Heels to secure a 
14-point lead. 
It’s in the arena, that’s for sure 
— but it’s also on the mind of the 
team.

“This energy from our (student 
section) has been fantastic. Thanks 
to every student for rooting for us,” 
said Michigan coach John Beilein 
in a tweet on Saturday after the win 
over North Carolina. “We hear you! 
Hope you are having fun!”
The Wolverines are riding that 
energy, too. Currently sitting at 
No. 7 in the AP Poll — and likely 
to move up after Saturday’s 76-57 
win over Purdue — Michigan 
is embodying the mentality of 
a national contender, riding the 
nation’s top-ranked defense in 
adjusted efficiency to an 8-0 start 
of the season backed by junior 
guard Zavier Simpson and redshirt 

junior forward Charles Matthews. 
Last year, that adopted defensive 
identity took the team all the way 
to the Final Four. 
But this year, that defensive 
identity has been present from the 
start, enabling the Wolverines’ 
unbeaten stretch. That identity will 
stick with Michigan on Tuesday 
night, when it loses the home 
advantage to a midweek game at 
Northwestern. 
“(Michigan) can beat you in 
the nineties, I think they can beat 
you in the sixties, and I think they 
can do it against quality people,” 
said Purdue coach Matt Painter. 
“So it just depends on how they’re 

flowing.”
There’s no doubt the Wolverines 
are on a roll. Eight games with 
multiple wins over ranked teams 
means evident structure, and 
that’s not based on a home-crowd 
advantage, either. But that doesn’t 
matter to the students.
Seventy bucks might be steep, 
but this is a team worth paying for, 
as evidenced by its two most recent 
blowout wins.
So don’t expect big-game tickets 
to get cheaper anytime soon.
 

Byler can be reached by 

email at dbyler@umich.edu 

or on Twitter @laneybyler

‘M’ beats Purdue, 76-57, behind hot shooting

Remember when Michigan 
scored 
119 
points 
combined 
against Norfolk State and Holy 
Cross, shooting 20 percent from 
downtown?
That was just three weeks ago. 
It certainly didn’t feel that recent 
Saturday against Purdue.
In a dizzying first 10 minutes 
of basketball, the seventh-ranked 
Wolverines (8-0 overall, 1-0 Big 
Ten) hit six of their first seven 
3-pointers to take a 31-16 lead, 
setting the nets, and Crisler 
Center, ablaze. That early stretch 
of dominance was all Michigan 
needed, as it ran away with a 
76-57 win over the 19th-ranked 
Boilermakers (5-3, 0-1) in its first 
Big Ten game of the season.
The dominance started in 
earnest two minutes into the 
game. Sophomore guard Jordan 
Poole took a Charles Matthews 
pass on the right wing, stepped 
into his shot and drained a wide-
open three. Matthews, a redshirt 
junior wing, hit one of his own 
on the next possession, and two 
minutes after that, Poole took a 
couple jab-steps and confidently 
drilled a trey right in the face of 
7-foot-3 center Matt Haarms to 
give the Wolverines a 16-7 lead.
“If I hit one, I definitely feel 
like I’m hot,” Poole said. “But 
then I hit another one and I’m 
like, ‘Alright, well, I’m definitely 
extremely hot right now, let me 
try to get up another one.’ ”
The 
Boilermakers’ 
switch-
happy defense was no match 
for Michigan in the early going. 
With 12:40 to play in the first 
half, junior point guard Zavier 
Simpson drove past Haarms 
for an easy layup, and kicked 
out of drives to find Poole 
and Matthews for wide-open 
3-pointers.
“They switched everything we 
did,” said Michigan coach John 
Beilein. “So the best thing when 
you get in those situations, is 
get downhill when their big guy 
steps out to guard, get downhill. 
And we used the alleys really to 
get penetration and find other 
people.”
A possession after Matthews’ 

trey, junior center Jon Teske 
provided the hammer blow to cap 
off the initial outburst, catching 
Matthews’ over-the-shoulder lob 
and thundering down an alley-
oop on the Boilermakers’ Ryan 
Cline.
As the Wolverines made it 
rain, Purdue could only manage 
to stay afloat. Big Ten Preseason 
Player 
of 
the 
Year 
Carsen 
Edwards 
— 
averaging 
25.3 
points per game 
heading 
into 
the contest — 
scored 19 but 
had 
to 
fight 
for 
everything 
against 
the 
fierce 
defense 
of 
Simpson, 
making just seven of 21 mostly 
challenging looks.
“Carsen got his a little bit, but 
he was, I think 1-of-5 from three, 
and he was averaging like five or 
six,” Teske said. “And Cline had 
three in the first half, and I think 
Charles wore him down in the 
second half. It just starts with 
(assistant coach Luke Yaklich), 
and it trickles down to Charles 
and (Simpson) and the whole 
team just kind of follows them.”
Purdue hung somewhat within 
reach, though, and continued to 

chip away at the lead throughout 
the game. Michigan suffered 
through a five-minute scoring 
drought midway through the 
second half, and with 6:55 to 
play, Boilermaker guard Aaron 
Wheeler’s 
3-pointer 
cut 
the 
deficit to 62-50.
The Wolverines needed a 
response, and a response they 
got. Appropriately 
enough 
for 
an 
afternoon 
where seemingly 
everyone 
was 
on 
fire, 
Teske 
— 1-for-10 from 
deep coming into 
Saturday — hit 
two free throws 
and then a pick-
and-pop 
three, 
his second of the 
game, to push the lead back to 17.
“It was ready to go the other 
way,” Beilein said. “If they had 
gotten it lower than that it would 
have been tough, because we 
were not able to score the ball. 
So I think probably getting those 
stops when they got it to 12, and 
then … Jon made the two foul 
shots and then hit a three, that 
probably was (the turning point) 
because five minutes to go, a 12- 
point lead against those guys is 
nothing.”
Twenty-three seconds later, 

Poole canned his fifth trey, which 
just about put the contest to bed.
“We’re just confident,” Poole 
said. 
“We 
practice 
in-game 
situation threes and we run our 
plays and we know how the looks 
that we’re going to get. ... Being 
able to knock down those shots 
from the ‘1’ to the ‘5’ is definitely 
huge for us.”
Poole had the hot hand from 
the start, scoring 21 points and 
drilling all five of his attempts 
from outside. Matthews (nine 
points), Teske (17), and freshman 
forward Ignas Brazdeikis (14) 
chipped in with three, two and 
two, respectively, while Simpson 
ran the offense efficiently once 
again with seven assists to 
only one turnover. As a team, 
Michigan was 13 for 26 from 
3-point range.
“They can beat you in the 
nineties, I think they can beat 
you in the sixties, and I think 
they can do it against quality 
people,” said Purdue coach Matt 
Painter. “So it just depends on 
how they’re flowing.”
On Saturday, the Wolverines 
were flowing as well as they’ve 
done all season. That meant 
trouble for the Boilermakers — 
and with a Michigan offense 
that’s finally catching up to its 
defense, it means trouble for the 
rest of the Big Ten.

Wolverines swept over 
weekend by Spartans

Losing to your rival always stings. 
But for the No. 14 Michigan hockey 
team (6-6-3 overall, 2-3-1-2 Big Ten), 
this one had to sting a little more.
In a game that was largely 
dominated by the Wolverines, they 
failed to capitalize on many scoring 
opportunities despite outshooting 
Michigan State (6-7-1 overall, 2-0-1-1 
Big Ten), 40-19, and ultimately losing 
in a shootout after a 1-1 draw.
The Wolverines are used to playing 
fast — they utilize the quickness on 
their roster to create opportunities 
in transition. On Saturday, they had 
a difficult time creating good scoring 
opportunities as Michigan State 
continually dropped back on defense, 
which clogged the ice and prevented 
transition opportunities.
Both sides, though, created a 
couple early scoring opportunities 
in the first period, but the chances 
were few and far between in what 
Michigan 
coach 
Mel 
Pearson 
described as an “ugly game.” At the 
end of the opening period, Michigan 
had nine shots on goal compared to 
six for the Spartans.
Junior defenseman Nick Boka 
eventually opened up the scoring 
on one of those early opportunities. 
It came just over eight minutes into 
the first period on the power play. 
Boka fired a one-timer from the left 
slot on a pass that navigated through 
traffic in front of the crease from 
sophomore 
defenseman 
Quinn 
Hughes who was set up in the right 
faceoff circle. The shot fired past 
Michigan State goaltender Drew 
DeRidder for Boka’s first goal of the 
season and gave the Wolverines a 1-0 
lead.
Michigan looked to have all 
of the momentum early on in the 
second period, as the Spartans 
were unable to create any scoring 
chances through the first five 
minutes. That momentum was 
halted by a penalty for checking from 
behind on freshman defender Nick 
Blankenburg 5:23 into the period. 
About 30 seconds into the power play 
for Michigan State, an attempted 
clearance deep in the defensive 

zone from sophomore forward Josh 
Norris found a wide open forward 
Taro Hirose at the point. He skated 
forward into the slot and fired past 
freshman goaltender Strauss Mann 
to knot the score at one.
The Wolverines looked in control 
for the majority of the period 
and generated plenty of scoring 
opportunities as a result. Perhaps 
none better than on the power 
play with 5:42 remaining. The top 
defensive pairing for Michigan along 
with the top forward line retained 
possession for the entire power play 
but were unable to capitalize.
The shots finished 20-11 in favor 
of the Wolverines, but the score 
remained 1-1 heading into the second 
intermission.
In the third period, play was much 
more balanced in terms of scoring 
opportunities. 
Both 
Michigan 
and Michigan State had plenty of 
chances, including two power plays 
for the Wolverines and three for the 
Spartans. But the defenses remained 
stingy, jumping on loose pucks in 
front of the net and doing everything 
they could to prevent either side from 
getting an edge.
And for the fourth time in the last 
five games, the Wolverines went into 
overtime.
The 
first 
overtime 
period 
featured plenty of scoring chances 
for Michigan but its inability to 
score continued. Michigan State did 
not record a single shot in the first 
overtime period. More of the same 
ensued for three-on-three play. 
Michigan State
The winner of the game would 
be determined in a penalty shootout. 
Norris opened up the shootout but 
had his shot saved, as he failed to lift 
the puck above DeRidder’s left pad. 
It took until the fourth skater for the 
winner to emerge. Spartan forward 
Brennan Sanford slowly skated 
up from center ice, taking a wide 
angle. He skated across the slot from 
Mann’s left to right side and fired 
the puck above the goaltender’s left 
shoulder.

HOCKEY

JORGE CAZARES
Daily Sports Writer

JACOB SHAMES
Daily Sports Writer

LANEY 
BYLER

AMELIA CACCHIONE/Daily
The Michigan basketball student section has been packed for the Wolverines’ last two games, and they have been rewarded with two blowout wins over North Carolina and Purdue.

ANNIE KLUS/Daily
Junior center Jon Teske scored 15 points and hit two 3-pointers in Michigan’s win over Purdue on Saturday.

“Alright, well, 
I’m definitely 
extremely hot 
right now.”

Read the full story online at 
MichiganDaily.com