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