The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com
Sports
Thursday, January 17, 2019 — 7

Michigan faces test against Iowa

When 
the 
Michigan 
women’s 
basketball 
team 
enters 
Carver-Hawkeye 
Arena Thursday night, it 
will face one of the biggest 
challenges of Big Ten play, 
both literally and figuratively.
While 
the 
Wolverines’ 
(11-6 overall, 2-3 Big Ten) 
game against No. 23 Iowa 
(12-4, 3-2) could have major 
implications for their NCAA 
tournament fate, Michigan 
will face a big challenge 
on the court in the form of 
Megan Gustafson. The junior 
is 
currently 
the 
nation’s 
leading 
scorer, 
averaging 
26.4 
points 
per 
contest 
while also hauling in 12.9 
rebounds. 
Senior 
Hallie 
Thome, who is averaging 12.4 
points per game along with 
5.4 rebounds, will have her 
hands full with Gustafson, 
her likely assignment.
Even though the Hawkeyes 
— who average 80.6 points 
per game — have the edge 

in the scoring department, 
the 
Wolverines 
hold 
the 
upper hand on the offensive 
glass, which could be key to 
spurring an upset against a 
team that features a big as its 
focal point.
The Wolverines grabbed 18 
offensive rebounds in a loss 
at No. 9 Maryland last week, 
but were unable to seal an 
upset after turnovers turned 
a one-point fourth quarter 
deficit into a fourteen-point 
defeat.
“We typically turn the 
ball over way too much but 
I think we’ve gotten better 
at that throughout Big Ten 
play,” 
coach 
Kim 
Barnes 
Arico said. “A lot of the Big 
Ten teams … like to play an 
up-tempo paced game. It lets 
them get out and run and 
score easy buckets. So I think 
it’s twofold, we need to do a 
better job executing off the 
glass rebounds and then just 
not turning it over.”
While Thome will garner 
the most attention given her 
matchup 
with 
Gustafson, 

freshman guard Amy Dilk 
and freshman forward Naz 
Hillmon will be instrumental. 
Playing big minutes in their 
first collegiate season, the 
two have impressed at times, 
though their success has not 
been without bumps in the 
road.
“It 
really 
doesn’t 
slow 
down and become that easy 
until your junior season,” 
Barnes Arico said. “So we’re 
expecting a lot from a lot of 
young kids and I think they’re 
continuing to improve and 
continuing to buy into the 
process every day.”
Thursday’s game against 
the Hawkeyes provides a 
major 
challenge 
for 
the 
Wolverines, but that will 
be 
nothing 
new 
in 
one 
of 
the 
nation’s 
toughest 
conferences.
“The Big Ten is stronger 
than it’s ever been before,” 
Barnes 
Arico 
said. 
“Our 
league from top to bottom is 
just tremendous this year.”
On 
Thursday, 
Michigan 
will experience that in full.

A

fter 

Hayden 
Lavigne 
saved 30 of 
32 shots at 
then-No. 6 
Notre Dame 
on Jan. 5, 
one couldn’t 
help but think back.
At this point last season, the 
junior was locked in a battle 
for the starting goaltender job 
with Jack LaFontaine when 
Michigan coach Mel Pearson 
named Lavigne the full-time 
starter. And by this time, 
you’ve probably heard about 
how Lavigne and the Wolver-
ines caught fire in January 
and rode that momentum all 
the way to the Frozen Four.
This season, Michigan has 
looked like a Frozen Four-
caliber team at times, with 
dangerous skaters, versatile 
defensemen and two capable 
goaltenders in Lavigne and 
freshman goaltender Strauss 
Mann, who have started 12 
and 11 games, respectively. 
At then-No. 4 Ohio State and 
the Fighting Irish, the Wol-
verines — who entered the 
stretch ranked 28th in Pair-
wise — went into hostile road 
environments with everything 
on the line.
To its credit, Michigan went 
out and did Michigan things 
on those days, beating the 
Fighting Irish on a national 
stage and splitting with the 
Buckeyes, in no small part 
thanks to Lavigne’s play in 
those three starts.
Teams like Ohio State and 
Penn State can turn every 
matchup into a high-scoring 
track meet. Notre Dame wants 
to grind it out and let Hobey 
Baker award-winner Cale 
Morris and a stout blue line 
control the game.
But Michigan, despite its 
8-9-6 record, has remark-
ably proven that it can win 

both ways. At their best, with 
Quinn Hughes, Will Lock-
wood and Josh Norris, there’s 
no denying that the Wolver-
ines can keep up with any 
offense in the country. Mean-
while, senior defenseman 
Joseph Cecconi, freshman 
defenseman Nick Blankenburg 
and freshman forward Garrett 
Van Wyhe are the ones forcing 
turnovers, winning faceoffs 
and defensively out-grinding 
teams to make Lavigne and 
Mann’s job easier.
As the first three months 
of the season have shown, 
though, Michigan is also that 

rare team that can lose in 
many ways. The Wolverines 
can point to their 4-2 loss to 
Merrimack and blame it on 
Norris and Hughes being gone 
for World Juniors, but they 
convincingly beat a Notre 
Dame team 40 places higher 
than the Warriors just days 
before without the duo.
If Michigan, without its two 
best players, can completely 
stifle a team that went all the 
way to the NCAA Champion-
ship and beat Ohio State on 
the road when healthy, what’s 
the explanation for a three-
goal third-period meltdown to 
the Warriors?
The one commonality 
through those good and bad 
games? The revolving ques-
tion of who is — or isn’t — in 

goal.
“If you could bottle the 
effort in the victories, you’d 
be a billionaire,” Pearson said 
after the Wolverines’ 3-2 vic-
tory over Ohio State on Friday. 
“You’d sell it to every team 
just so they make sure your 
team comes out the same way 
and as hard every night ... I 
think we got a good wake-up 
call (last) Tuesday that you 
can’t take anybody lightly. 
Regardless of the record, the 
ranking, whatever it is, any 
team can beat you, especially 
if you don’t play up to your 
potential.”

The way for Michigan 
to solve all those questions 
involves it jumping off a deci-
sional cliff, and as it seems to 
be doing, start Lavigne for the 
long-haul again.
For every strong stretch 
that Lavigne and Mann have 
had this season, shuffling 
them around makes it that 
much harder for them to build 
on it.
It’s time to choose one of 
them, and squandering Lavi-
gne’s recent heroics against 
such tough foes could be a 
season-defining mistake.

Ratnavale can be reached 

at rian@umich.edu or on 

Twitter @RianRatnavale.

C

hris 
Col-
lins 
stepped 
up to the 
podium last 
Sunday, 
faced with 
the unenvi-
able task of 
putting into 
words a 
summation 
of his team’s 80-60 loss to 
No. 2 Michigan.
“Seventeen teams have 
tried,” the Northwestern 
men’s basketball coach said. 
“And 17 have failed.”
That’s 17 postgame press 
conferences for the oppos-

ing coach, trying to grapple 
with what had just hap-
pened and finding some pos-
itive takeaway 
to tell report-
ers.
“You’re 
down 22 at 
half,” Collins 
said. “I was 
proud of our 
guys to not roll 
over. We came 
out in the sec-
ond half, we 
fought, made a 
couple runs, think we got it 
to 14 or so. … Hopefully that 
can be something good. Our 
young guys got a lot of expe-
rience.”

Michigan coach John 
Beilein, of course, down-
played the accomplishment. 
Beilein isn’t 
one to dwell on 
achievements 
— even when 
those achieve-
ments include 
a 17-game 
undefeated 
start, the best 
in program 
history.
Instead, he 
complimented 
the Wildcats. The game, he 
said, was closer than the 
score indicated and the Wol-
verines remained focused on 
the day-to-day. His words 

sounded far from those of a 
coach whose team had just 
achieved history. 
“Everybody 
would like to 
have me make 
some great 
statement 
about being 
17-0,” Beilein 
said. “It’s 
just another 
game.”
But maybe, 
Beilein didn’t 
need to make 
some sort of sweeping state-
ment about his team’s per-
formance. Collins’ words 
— that he was proud of his 
team for cutting the lead to 

just 14, that the young kids 
getting playing time was a 
big positive — already spoke 
volumes.
Sure, Collins’ 
Northwestern 
team isn’t very 
good. But he’s 
not the only 
one that has 
given similar 
soundbites.
Last week, 
coach Archie 
Miller took his 
No. 21 Indiana 
squad, featuring five-star 
freshman guard Romeo 
Langford and preseason 
All-Big Ten forward Juwan 
Morgan, to Ann Arbor. The 
Hoosiers lost by 11 instead 
of 20, but the 
overall out-
come was no 
different — 
just another 
team that 
had tried and 
failed to solve 
Michigan.
The first 
words of 
Miller’s post-
game presser? 
“Michigan did a great job.”
He concluded his open-
ing statement by saying, 
“They’re really good and I 
give them credit.”
There it was again, that 
the Wolverines were simply 
really talented and hard to 
beat. Sure, he nitpicked his 
team’s flaws like all coaches 
do, but it was all couched in 
the context of how a squad 
that good will put all your 
weaknesses on display.
Back in December, it was 
Purdue’s Matt Painter who 
found himself in a similar 
situation. The Boilermak-
ers, then ranked 19th in 
the country, had lost by 19 
points. He echoed the same 
refrains.
“You gotta give them 
credit,” Painter said. 
“They’re a good team.”
Then, he rattled off 

his team’s mistakes. Bad 
defense. A slow start. The 
list went on.
“When you’re not disci-
plined, they’re gonna get 
you,” Painter said. “They’re 
gonna get you anyways.”
Michigan is that team 
now. The one you can’t 
expect to give you any-
thing. The one that provides 
opposing players a good 
“learning experience.” The 
one that leaves coaches at a 
loss for words to the point 
where the only thing left 
to do is tip their hats to the 
Wolverines for being the 
better team.
When you’re 17-0, report-
ers inevitably ask how it 
feels. Beilein doesn’t bite, 
because that 
isn’t who he 
is. Instead, he 
undersells the 
team’s suc-
cess — pointing 
out the day’s 
impressive 
performances, 
talking about 
things to 
improve, then 
moving on.
Meanwhile, for the oppos-
ing coaches, the press con-
ferences are an exercise in 
futility, a laundry list of 
what went wrong. Then, 
inevitably, an acknowledg-
ment.
Give the Wolverines cred-
it. It’s hard to beat a team 
like that.
Unlike Beilein, these 
coaches don’t need to 
stretch to justify their com-
pliments. In fact, they don’t 
really need to justify them 
at all. The way Michigan 
has been playing speaks for 
itself.
And that makes a state-
ment louder than any 
Beilein himself could.

Gerson can be reached 
at amgerson@umich.edu or 
on Twitter @aria_gerson.

When there’s nothing left to say

ARIA 
GERSON

“Seventeen 
teams have 
tried. And 17 
have failed.”

When you’re 
17-0, reporters 
inevitably ask 
how it feels.

ANNIE KLUS/Daily
In his 12th season at Michigan, coach John Beilein leads a group that has won 17 games to open the season for the first time in the program’s history.

...the press 
conferences are 
an exercise in 
futility.

Sixteen coaches have tried and failed. They’ve all offered an iteration of the same: Michigan is just that good.

TEDDY GUTKIN
Daily Sports Writer

ALEXANDRIA POMPEI/Daily
Senior center Hallie Thome will have her hands full Thursday, up against the nation’s leading scorer: Megan Gustafson.

It’s time to capitalize on Lavigne

RIAN 

RATNAVALE

ALEC COHEN/Daily
Junior goaltender Hayden Lavigne started both games at Ohio State last week.

