Doing it the hard way

EVANSTON — Maybe it was 
just a slip of the tongue.
A 
minute 
into his press 
conference, 
trying to sum 
up 
a 
game 
in which his 
team played 
above its level 
yet still came 
up 
short, 
Northwestern 
coach 
Chris 
Collins 
offered the kind of statement you 
couldn’t have imagined anyone 
saying about Michigan a month ago.
“We still fight back,” Collins 
said. “We take the lead, get it to 
the last two minutes against what 
a lot of you feel is the best team in 
the country.”
And, after a ninth-straight 
win to start the season for the 

Wolverines, that wasn’t all that 
surprising a thing to say.
Tuesday was the worst game 
Michigan has played this season. 
It suffered scoreless stretches in 
which its best offensive answer 
was junior point guard Zavier 
Simpson chucking a 3-pointer, on 
which he was 0-for-5. It struggled 
to contain Dererk Pardon, who 
scored 20 points on 9-of-10 
shooting with five rebounds as 
a result. When junior center 
Jon Teske was off the floor, the 
Wolverines struggled to contain 
pretty much everyone. In the 
waning minutes of a close game, 
Michigan coach John Beilein 
went to sophomore Eli Brooks 
to run point — not Simpson, the 
team’s heart and soul.
And yet, when the clock read 
zeroes, the Wolverines had beaten 
the Wildcats, 62-60. In that 
sense, Tuesday’s was the most 

impressive game Michigan has 
played thus far.
This was on the road, in the Big 
Ten, with a hostile crowd, in a late, 
close game against an opponent 
who had beaten the Wolverines 
every time the two played in its 
building since 2013. It’s the type 
of game Michigan could get away 
with losing and given the way 
Michigan played, it’s the type of 
game it should have lost.
Last year, it was a game the 
Wolverines did lose. A year 
ago to the day, Michigan went 
to Columbus and coughed up 
a 20-point lead, unable to stop 
the Buckeyes’ sea of momentum 
once they got rolling. There was 
nobody it could trust in that spot 
and when adversity came, things 
fell apart.
This year?
“We didn’t get scrambled,” said 
sophomore guard Jordan Poole. 

“I feel like a team can easily get 
scrambled being in a situation 
like this for the first time, but we 
had a lot of vets out there on the 
court. Guys who had been in this 
situation last year. We didn’t get 
rattled. We were just executing.”
After Northwestern pulled into 
the lead for the first time, with 
6:32 to go in the game, Brooks 
and freshman forward Ignas 
Brazdeikis hit 3-pointers on back-
to-back possessions to take it right 
back.
After the Wildcats tied it again 
with just over two minutes to go, 
Poole cruised into the lane and 

threw down a hammer.
And after the offense failed 
to execute in the game’s final 
minute 
— 
redshirt 
junior 
Charles Matthews traveling and 
Northwestern forcing a shot clock 
violation — the Wolverines bore 
down and forced a desperation 
3-pointer from Ryan Taylor at the 
buzzer.
At 
some 
point 
amid 
the 
preceding run from the Wildcats, 
Simpson told the team to calm 
down. It wasn’t necessary.
“He didn’t have to say calm 
down,” 
Poole 
said, 
“cause 
everybody’s already calm.”

Michigan is relatively young, 
without a senior on its roster, but 
it carries the experience of last 
year’s Final Four run — in droves. 
Save for Brazdeikis, everyone on 
the floor as the game wound down 
had faced situations a whole lot 
tougher than Welsh-Ryan Arena 
on a Tuesday.
As for the freshman, who led 
the team in scoring with 23 points, 
there was no ambiguity.
“We can go all the way,” 
Brazdeikis said. “We can win the 
whole damn thing. No doubt.”
At this point, it’s hard to argue 
otherwise.

‘M’ escapes Northwestern with 62-60 win

EVANSTON — For 23 minutes, it 
looked like it was going to be easy.
Then, the No. 5 Michigan men’s 
basketball team (2-0 Big Ten, 9-0 
overall) inexplicably met its biggest 
challenge in a season that has 
included three double-digit wins 
over ranked opponents, just before 
escaping with a 62-60 win.
Northwestern — trailing 45-30 
with 16:13 to play — broke off seven 
quick points to cut the Wolverines’ 
lead to eight. Michigan, though, was 
used to that. Both North Carolina 
and Purdue made second half mini-
runs without ever really threatening 
the Wolverines.
“Every other team that has 
played this team,” said Wildcats 
coach Chris Collins, “when they 
made a push on them, like they did 
to get to 15 points, every other team 
has laid down and lost by 25 or 30.”
So when freshman forward 
Ignas Brazdeikis hit a layup to break 
Michigan’s drought, most assumed 
that the Wolverines would roll for 
the rest of the evening.
But before anyone had time 
to digest that assumption, the 
Wildcats got an and-one, followed 
by a pair of baskets off turnovers. 
Then, another and-one.
As Michigan coach John Beilein 
signaled for a timeout, the crowd at 
Welsh-Ryan Arena — or at least, the 
purple-clad half of it — rose to a fever 
pitch, temporarily transforming 

into a standing-room-only venue.
Brazdeikis — who finished with 
a game-high 23 points — and junior 
guard Zavier Simpson hit back-to-
back baskets for the Wolverines 
to briefly placate the storm, but 
the rest of the night was far from 
comfortable for Michigan.
With 6:33 to play, Northwestern 
guard Vic Law pulled up for his 
second 3-point attempt in a row. 
Just like the previous one, it 
found nothing but nylon, putting 
the Wildcats up, 52-51 — the 
Wolverines’ first second half deficit 
since Nov. 10 against Holy Cross.
“The shots that Law was making 
and (Ryan) Taylor made, they were 
tough shots,” Beilein said. “It wasn’t 
like he was getting open, he created 
all those NBA (shots).”
Added Brazdeikis: “They were 
hitting shots when we weren’t. I felt 
like we had a bunch of open shots 
in the second half, and they weren’t 
falling. And then they started to hit 
crazy shots.”
That 
three, 
combined 
with 
Michigan’s ongoing five-minute 
scoring drought, prompted Beilein 
to make an unusual change, 
replacing Simpson with sophomore 
guard Eli Brooks.
Simpson 
was 
among 
the 
Wolverines’ most important players 
in the early going, with eight first-
half points. But Collins’ defense 
adjusted at halftime, playing off 
Simspon and forcing him to beat 
them from 3-point range. And 
when Simpson responded by going 

0-for-5 from three, Beilein called on 
Brooks.
Brooks — after a Brazdeikis 
three tied the game — rewarded his 
coach’s faith by hitting a three to 
restore Michigan’s lead.
“They were just daring (Simpson) 
to shoot,” Beilein said. “And as a 
result, we ran with Eli. We got faith 
in him. Eli’s a good defender. He’s 
an above-average defender, Zavier 
is a spectacular defender. So we’re 
giving up something, but we needed 
to get something from somebody 
and he gave it.”
From there, the teams traded 
baskets. After Brooks’ three, it 
was Brazdeikis with a free throw. 
Then junior center Jon Teske and 
sophomore guard Jordan Poole 
with a pair of easy dunks.
But with each Michigan basket 
that seemed to shift momentum 
back to the Wolverines’ sideline, 
the Wildcats conjured a response. 
Brazdeikis’ free throw was the 
only time in the last 11:30 that 
Northwestern didn’t respond with a 
basket of its own.
So, despite a late flurry of points, 
Michigan was unable to extend its 
lead beyond one possession.
When 
a 
Wildcat 
offensive 
foul granted the Wolverines the 
opportunity to do so, redshirt 
junior forward Charles Matthews 
promptly responded with a traveling 
violation. On its next possession — 
with a two-point lead and under 
a minute to play — Michigan had 
yet another opportunity to put the 
game to bed after a pair of clutch 
defensive rebounds. This time, 
it was a shot-clock violation that 
undid the Wolverines, offering 
Northwestern a final possession 
with 14.2 seconds to play.
Then, Michigan’s stifling defense 
— absent for so much of the second 
half — showed why it has been 
lauded as the nation’s best when it 
mattered most.
It forced the Wildcats into a 
desperation heave at the buzzer that 
smacked off the backboard, cladded 
the front of the rim and bounced 
harmlessly to the floor as the 
Wolverines — somehow — escaped 
with their perfect record intact.
“I knew we were gonna have to 
go through games like this if we’re 
gonna be good,” Beilein said.
“And we survived it. I don’t know 
how.”

THEO MACKIE
Daily Sports Writer

ETHAN 
SEARS

ANNIE KLUS/Daily
Junior guard Zavier Simpson scored eight first-half points on Tuesday night.

ANNIE KLUS/Daily
Ignas Brazdeikis and Jordan Poole combined for 38 points, as Michigan won it’s ninth straight game Tuesday night.

The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com
Sports
Wednesday, December 5, 2018 — 7A

