The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com
Sports
Thursday January 10, 2019 — 5A
It was New Year’s Eve and
Reece Hughes was playing
video games with his friends.
The sophomore was prepared
for a night of some relaxed fun
coming off of what had been a
particularly grueling winter
break of training.
Then around 9:30, Hughes’
phone buzzed and displayed
an
incoming
call
from
Michigan coach Sean Bormet.
Bormet informed his young
wrestler that he would be
traveling with the team on
their west coast trip to cap off
the break and that he would be
wrestling — although he’d be
doing it two weight classes up.
Hughes, typically wrestling at
the 165-pound weight class,
would be filling in for an
injured Jelani Embree, one of
Hughes’ closest friends.
When it came time for
his match on Jan. 3, Hughes
stepped onto the mat with
a game plan and nothing to
lose and shocked everybody
in attendance with a third
period pin, highlighting a 33-8
victory for the Wolverines
(4-0 overall, 1-0 Big Ten) over
Oregon State (1-3).
All the more remarkable,
Hughes
faced
a
nearly
identical situation just a year
earlier. When Michigan faced
off against the Beavers in the
Joe Wells Classic last season,
Hughes stepped up a weight
class and filled in for the
then-injured
Logan
Massa
to secure another surprise
victory.
Hughes
showed
everybody what it means to
be a team player, embracing
any opportunity to wrestle for
the Wolverines, even if that
means his record might take
a hit.
In the end, despite the
weight
difference,
it
was
Hughes’
preparation
and
training that led to the victory.
“Reece’s
been
training
incredibly hard the last six
to eight weeks,” Bormet said.
“He’s always trained hard,
but there’s been a noticeable
amount of increased intensity
in his training, and I’m seeing
it daily.
“He’s a gamer. He competes
hard, he sets a hard pace, he’s
good in all three positions,
and everybody’s excited to see
him get his hand raised.”
Hughes knew he would have
to approach things differently
if he were to tack some points
on the board for his team. In
response, Hughes schemed
with Bormet to keep the pace
and movement high and tire
out his opponent heading into
the third period.
The plan worked like a
charm. Hughes began the
third in the down position,
struggled to get to the edge
of the mat with his opponent,
Myles Terry, still draped over
his back, then waited for
Terry to make a mistake. After
rolling around a bit on the
edge of the mat, Hughes made
his move, catching Terry’s leg
and using his hips to thrust
the wrestler onto his back for
the bout-sealing fall.
“This
was
one
of
the
matches where I didn’t have
anything to lose, and that’s
why I feel like I wrestled a
better match at the end of the
day,” Hughes said. “I went out
there with, ‘Just go out there
and give it your all.’ That’s
what a few of the coaches
came up to me and mentioned
before the match. As long as
you go out there and give it
your all, we’re gonna be happy
with your performance.”
Another
highlight
for
the Wolverines came from
freshman Mason Parris, who
pulled off an enormous upset
against the top-ranked Amar
Dhesi in a near-dominant 11-4
decision.
After
finding
success
wrestling unattached to start
out the season, Parris and the
Michigan coaching staff were
faced with a tough decision
—
redshirt
their
prized
freshman or let him compete.
When match time rolled
around,
Bormet
and
Co.
decided to unleash the beast,
setting Parris free onto the
collegiate
wrestling
scene.
Parris responded in kind,
handily beating D-I’s No. 1
heavyweight.
“When
you
have
a
conversation
with
Mason,
you could just see in his eyes
he wants to compete and
he’s up for the challenge,”
Bormet said. “He’s excited
about competing, he loves to
compete. That’s why these
guys want to go wrestle in
college, and that was a great
opportunity for him tonight,
and he was excited about it.”
Added Parris: “It was a
great feeling. It definitely
boosted my confidence a lot
just to compete with Michigan
across my chest and compete
for the team with my friends
and stuff, so it was a really
good experience for me.”
With a key freshman set
to take on the gauntlet of Big
Ten wrestling and a deep
bench ready to wrestle up
for the sake of the team, the
Wolverines are poised for a
dramatic season.
Slow to progress, Michigan’s offense looks for something that’s not there
Recall the first game of the
season, a shock that came to
many when the then-No. 4
Michigan hockey team fell to
unranked Vermont.
What was anticipated to be
a relatively easy game ended
in a loss that showed holes in
both the Wolverines defense
and offense.
“I
thought
we
weren’t
ready to play tonight, we
weren’t really ready to play,”
said
Michigan
coach
Mel
Pearson after the loss to the
Catamounts. “We came in
today with the mindset that it
was going to be easy and that
we were going to come out and
score 10 goals on them.
“Anytime
you have that
mindset,
we
got
behind
early and dug
ourselves
a
hole. We clawed
back a little bit.
We did a lot
of really good
things, we just
couldn’t score.
Some
nights
they don’t go in, so you can’t
give up four goals anywhere, at
home, on the road, anywhere,
and expect to win. You can
check the stats, you gotta keep
it to about two goals or under
to have a chance. You give up
four, you’re asking for trouble.”
Now think back to Tuesday’s
4-2 loss to visiting Merrimack.
The Wolverines (7-8-6 overall,
3-4-4 Big Ten) fell into an
early deficit in a game they
figured to win and struggled
to score goals while allowing
four on the defensive end.
The Vermont game was the
first of the season. Merrimack
was
the
23rd.
The
same
problems that occurred then,
as Pearson noted Tuesday, are
still occurring now. Only back
then, it took the goaltender
48 saves to stop the Michigan
offense, whereas Tuesday, it
took 36.
So as the season progresses,
a
supposed
non-issue
is
becoming more apparent as a
critical weakness for the team
— scoring.
Pearson
always
believed
the offense would grow as
the team grew. After all,
at the start of the season,
new linemates were getting
acquainted with one another,
and younger players were
learning the system. Pearson’s
expectation has always been
the same.
“The goal scoring will come,
the goal scoring will come,”
Pearson said after Michigan’s
exhibition game Oct. 7. “If
you’re forced to have to score
five,
it
gets
difficult. If you
give
up
four
goals,
it
gets
tough to score
five.”
And
yet,
against
Merrimack, the
team
allowed
four goals. And
as predicted, it’s
tough to score
five, especially when a team
is clawing back from behind.
Against the 52nd-ranked team
according to Pairwise, the
Wolverines could only muster
two goals, ones that required
full effort just to get a good
look.
The two came from junior
forwards
Jake
Slaker
and
Adam Winborg. Slaker, who
managed to get a step on his
defender, hit a well-placed
shot over the goaltender’s
shoulder.
Winborg
fought
for positioning for his goal,
redirecting a slapshot from the
blue line.
But these plays were never
the issue. It’s the unsuccessful
ones
—
despite
all
the
opportunities created — that
raise questions. How can the
Wolverines, second in the
nation for shots on goal and
third in the nation for total
shots, struggle to score so
much?
Moments in the Merrimack
game offer explanations as to
why.
The first three minutes of
the game were well played
by the offense. Seven shots
on goal, plenty of dangerous
scoring opportunities were
present. However, the team
grew
stagnant
following
its early barrage of shots,
and more so after Michigan
conceded a goal.
Even after it gained a power
play off of a hooking penalty,
the offense struggled to get
anything going. The first 40
seconds were spent attempting
to enter the offensive zone,
and quick clears by Merrimack
made it more problematic for
the Wolverines to get their
power play going.
After
the
team
finally
pushed the puck into the zone,
junior forward Will Lockwood
received
the
puck at the blue
line. Faced with
pressure
from
defenders,
he
instinctively
swung the puck
out across the
line to where
another player
was
supposed
to be to keep the
offensive
push
alive. Only no one was there,
and instead, the Warriors stole
the puck during Michigan’s
man advantage.
The power play ended with
no shots on goal.
“We’re looking for a little
bit too much offense playing
— when you’re playing Notre
Dame you know it’s Notre
Dame and you know they’re
a tough team,” Slaker said,
alluding to the 4-2 outdoor win
over the Irish last Saturday.
“Coming in, we
just didn’t play
good
enough
early.
That
caught us, we
went down, and
we
ended
up
chasing the rest
of the game.”
The problem
early was that
Michigan
was
looking
for
something that wasn’t there.
Passes that went aimlessly into
the other team’s possession,
rebounds that went untouched
on
the
goalie’s
stick-side
and plays that would have
benefitted from an extra pass
were all issues exploited by
the other team’s defense.
“That’s
the
difference,
pucks all around the net, and
we can’t convert,” Pearson
said. “It’s more of the same for
us.
“If you have it even around
the net — and we missed the
net a lot — they blocked a lot
of shots, but we missed the
net a lot. Over the net, wide on
greater scoring opportunities.
We’re not a gifted team as far
as scoring goes. We have to
really work for our goals.”
The realization of the team’s
inability to score goals is the
first step to fixing both sides
of the puck. The offense can’t
score five goals on any given
day, and as Pearson hinted, a
defense can’t expect that and
give up four goals.
“It’s hard to play from
behind, and we keep finding
ourselves in that situation,”
Slaker said. “It’s costing us
games, and it’s starting to get
frustrating.”
TIEN LE
Daily Sports Writer
JACOB KOPNICK
Daily Sports Writer
ALEXIS RANKIN/Daily
Junior forward Will Lockwood and the Michigan hockey team struggled to convert chances in front of the net as the offense stalled in a 4-2 loss to Merrimack.
ALLISON ENGKVIST/Daily
Michigan wrestling coach Sean Bormet helped lead the win over OSU.
“I thought we
weren’t ready to
play tonight.”
“It’s costing us
games, and it’s
starting to get
frustrating.”
Classifieds
Call: #734-418-4115
Email: dailydisplay@gmail.com
By David Poole
©2019 Tribune Content Agency, LLC
01/10/19
Los Angeles Times Daily Crossword Puzzle
Edited by Rich Norris and Joyce Nichols Lewis
01/10/19
ANSWER TO PREVIOUS PUZZLE:
Release Date: Thursday, January 10, 2019
ACROSS
1 Online shopping
units
7 8 Series
automaker
10 Comics possum
14 Eagerly accept
15 Dinner table boors
17 Pinch pennies
18 Strictly religious
19 __ out a living
20 “My bad”
22 “Kidding!”
23 Toklas’ life partner
24 Cupid cohort
28 “The Hunger
Games” president
Coriolanus __
30 Flaps
32 “A Little
Nightmare
Music” composer
P.D.Q. __
33 Hot under the
collar
36 Canadian coin
38 Lowbrow stuff
40 58-Across type
meaning “black
dragon”
41 Disney’s Montana
42 Lamb’s lament
43 See 27-Down
44 Whole lot
46 Hamburger’s
home
50 Hallowed
52 Starters
55 Durham sch.
56 ’70s-’90s
Pontiacs
58 See 40-Across
59 Common
campaign
promise, and
what four black
squares in this
puzzle create
62 Tailor’s measure
64 Person-to-person
65 Rather thick
66 See 38-Down
67 Frowny-faced
68 Chicken
DOWN
1 Mary-Kate, Ashley
and Elizabeth
2 S’pose
3 “Do I __ eat a
peach?”: Eliot
4 Prefix with graph
or gram
5 “Groundhog Day”
director Harold
6 Mid-Mar. honoree
7 Trite saying
8 Sheep prized for
its wool
9 Power unit
10 Kiosk with a
camera
11 Ref. work whose
2018 Word of the
Year is “toxic”
12 Miracle-__
13 Mac platform
16 In vogue
21 First word in
titles by Arthur
Miller and Agatha
Christie
25 Flutist Herbie
26 Vaper’s need,
informally
27 With 43-Across,
feeling often
fought
29 British courtroom
fixture
31 Blackthorn plum
34 Bloemfontein’s
land: Abbr.
35 Rhine whines
37 Ipanema
greeting
38 With 66-Across,
German
philosopher
buried in
London’s
Highgate
Cemetery
39 “Bus Stop”
dramatist
40 Not as current
41 Busy airport
42 Hand-dyed with
wax
45 Place to put on
a suit
47 Filmmaker
with a unique
style
48 Anxiety
49 Disgraced
51 Go sour
53 “Hasta
mañana”
54 “The Beat with
Ari Melber”
network
57 Avant-garde
sorts
59 Hiddleston
who plays
Loki in
Marvel films
60 Santa __
61 Boomer’s kid
63 RR stop
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Hughes steps up, Parris upsets in dominant ‘M’ win over Oregon State