4B — January 22, 2019
SportsTuesday
The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com

‘M’ offense flails in loss at Wisconsin

MADISON — Thirty minutes 
after Michigan’s first loss of 
the season, John Beilein was 
asked about the Kohl Center. He 
started to give a stock answer, 
complimenting the crowd, the 
venue and so on. Then he stopped 
himself.
“People don’t lose here because 
it’s the Kohl Center,” Beilein said. 
“They lose here because of the 
style of play that Wisconsin plays. 
They don’t beat themselves, and 
they’re just tough to play. There’s 
so many good places in the Big 
Ten and this isn’t one we say, ‘Oh, 
we don’t wanna go to the Kohl 
Center.’ We say, ‘We don’t want to 
play Wisconsin, cause they’re so 
good.’ ”
This year, it’s unclear just how 
good the Badgers are. They sit at 
12-6 after boosting their resume 
by handing the Wolverines their 
first loss of the season on Saturday, 
64-54. They are likely on track to 
make the NCAA Tournament but 
still sit a tier below the Big Ten’s 
best.
What is clear is this: Wisconsin 
forced Michigan to play on its 
terms Saturday.
Each team had 64 possessions. 
They were slow, monotonous 
and ended in frustration more 
often than not. That’s Wisconsin 
basketball.
The Wolverines didn’t make 
a 3-pointer until late in the first 
half. By the time the game was 
over, they had made just 5-of-18. 
When they tried to get inside, they 
were met by a wall in the form of 
Nate Reuvers. When they tried to 
run the floor, they turned it over. 
When they tried to play in the 
half-court, they turned it over still, 
finishing with 16.
And Michigan, a team whose 
calling card has been that five 
different 
people 
can 
be 
its 
offensive lodestar, had no offense 
at all.
Redshirt junior forward Charles 
Matthews, the Wolverines’ most 
comfortable midrange shooter, 
scored all of five points when the 
Badgers spent the game daring 
Michigan 
to 
take 
midrange 
shots. Sophomore guard Jordan 

Poole, who managed to carry the 
offense in the first half, found 
himself in foul trouble and scored 
just three points in the second 
after Wisconsin switched up its 
coverage. 
Freshman 
forward 
Ignas Brazdeikis, a day after being 
asked about top-ranked Duke 
and declaring, “We feel like we’re 
definitely better than them,” was 
held scoreless.
The locker room, boisterous 
and loud with the fight song after 
each win, fell quiet when Beilein 
walked in.
“I didn’t realize it, we always 
sing the fight song after every 
win,” Beilein said. “It’s the first 
time the guys have never sang the 
fight song.”
A loss after 17 straight wins is 
as inevitable as it is painful. Any 
loss is a learning experience, but 
this one was a harsh reminder 
that Michigan still has bumps to 
smooth over — its offense being 
exhibit A.
“Tomorrow’s film session will 
dig in for our guys,” Beilein said. 
“It wasn’t exactly easy when 
you’re trying to get your guys to 
run because you’re mad at them 
after they just beat Northwestern 

by 20 points. … We have a lot of 
weaknesses. And we gotta shore 
them up.”
Other than junior center Jon 
Teske, who finished with 15 
points on 5-of-10 shooting and 
turned it over just once, it’s hard 
to pinpoint anyone who played 
particularly well on the offensive 
end throughout. Those games do 
happen, and for the Wolverines, 
they have been few and far 
between. That won’t change today 
though.
“We try to make it our 
team against their team,” said 
Wisconsin coach Greg Gard. “Our 
team defense has to be better than 
their team offense.”
Just before that, he had been 
asked what the Badgers’ defensive 
priorities were going into the 
game.
“Don’t let Michigan score,” he 
said.
“Don’t let (Zavier) Simpson 
score. Don’t let Teske score. Don’t 
let Brazdeikis score. Don’t let 
Poole score. Don’t let (Isaiah) 
Livers score. Don’t let Matthews 
score. Don’t let (Austin) Davis 
score. Don’t let (Eli) Brooks score.”
They didn’t.

Wolverines struggle down stretch

MADISON — For the better 
part of three months, the Michigan 
men’s basketball team has strolled 
to wins with minimal barriers 
along the way. With the exception 
of a 62-60 win over Northwestern 
six weeks ago, each of its 17 
victories had come by at least eight 
points.
So when the Kohl Center crowd 
rose to its feet as Wolverines coach 
John Beilein signaled for a timeout 
with four minutes to play and his 
team trailing by six, Michigan had 
no answers.
“We just needed to capitalize,” 
said sophomore guard Jordan 
Poole. “But we also haven’t been 
in a situation like this too many 
times.”
Instead of capitalizing, the 
Wolverines came out of the timeout 
and allowed the same type of 
basket they had all night — a hook 
shot by Wisconsin forward Ethan 
Happ, his 21st and 22nd points of 
the afternoon that sent the Badgers 
on their way to a 64-54 win.
On the ensuing possession, 
junior point guard Zavier Simpson 

uncharacteristically 
drove 
into 
traffic and saw his layup attempt 
stuffed at the rim. But when junior 
center Jon Teske hit a 3-pointer to 
cut the deficit to three a minute 
later, Michigan had its opportunity 
to regain control of the game.
After a free throw from Happ, 
Teske — perhaps buoyed by his 
previous make, but perhaps rattled 
by the unfamiliar situation — let 
loose again from deep. Only this 
time, there was a man in his face 
and the shot barely scraped the 
front of the rim. A D’Mitrik Trice 
miss afforded Michigan another 
opportunity to trim the deficit 
but shot selection again stifled the 
Wolverines on their next trip down 
the floor.
Poole took a dribble handoff 
beyond the arc with 20 seconds 
on the shot clock as two defenders 
closed in on him. Rather than 
assessing his options as he had 
done in a familiar 11-point first half, 
he dribbled into traffic and hoisted 
a three that never had a chance of 
finding bottom.
“I think it was only the 
Northwestern game was the game 
that we went down to the wire like 
this,” Poole said. “You know, which 

shots you can take, which shots you 
can’t, clock management. It’s just 
little things like that that you won’t 
be able to see in the game if you win 
by eight, nine, 10.”
Added Beilein: “Those are not 
good plays down the stretch. If we’d 
already gone through that once, it 
might have helped us today.”
Even after the Badgers extended 
their lead to six on the next 
possession, Michigan wasn’t quite 
dead yet. Sophomore forward 
Isaiah Livers hit a three on the next 
possession to bring the Wolverines 
within three, but it remained 
uncharted territory.
So, faced with a situation that 
he hasn’t been in for nine months, 
Beilein 
called 
for 
freshman 
forward 
Ignas 
Brazdeikis 
to 
intentionally foul Happ — a 49 
percent free throw shooter — off 
the ball.
The only problem? The rule 
book.
A flagrant 1 personal foul is 
a personal foul that is deemed 
excessive in nature… Examples 
include but are not limited to: … 
Fouling a player who is clearly away 
from the ball who is not directly 
involved with the play.
The Wolverines had not had to 
overcome a late deficit all season, 
and it showed. The basketball 
execution was there — Brazdeikis 
did exactly as he was told, Livers’ 
three was a beautiful step-back 
jumper and Simpson forced a pair 
of steals down the stretch. The 
decision making — on and off the 
court — was not.
“One of the big things is we 
haven’t had the opportunity to 
grow from losses,” Beilein said. 
“And we needed that growth today, 
because we weren’t as good as we’d 
like to be.”
On the other sideline, Wisconsin 
had already lost a trio of Big Ten 
games by a combined 15 points. 
Down the stretch, their motto was 
“unfazed.”
“It’s strictly about mentality,” 
said Badgers coach Greg Gard. 
“And the mentality to fight through 
adversity. You’re gonna have some 
days when things don’t go well, 
how do you respond?”
The problem for Michigan? The 
last time it had one of those days 
was in April.

MADISON — On the floor of the 
Kohl Center, there was madness. 
Players and fans and coaches 
rushed the court, a mass that 
exuded exuberance.
In the Michigan locker room, 
there was quiet.
After every other game this 
season, the No. 2 Wolverines (17-1 
overall, 6-1 Big Ten) had sung the 
fight song. On Saturday, for the first 
time, they didn’t. That’s a festivity 
reserved for wins, and Michigan 
had fallen, finally, to Wisconsin 
(12-6, 4-3), 64-54. There were 
turnovers and missed baskets 
and an all-around ugly offensive 
performance 
and 
finally, 
the 
Wolverines, undefeated no more.
“We just weren’t able to knock 
down shots,” said junior center Jon 
Teske. “The mistakes, we forced. 
… We had some dumb turnovers. 
That’s not us.”
The turning point came with 
Michigan up one six minutes into 
the second half. Teske fought for a 
board and attempted a half-court 
pass to sophomore guard Jordan 
Poole, but Poole couldn’t corral it 
and Badger forward Ethan Happ 
grabbed the ball just before it went 
out of bounds, then took it down 
the court for a layup. Suddenly, 
Wisconsin was up one and it only 
cascaded from there.
Once Wisconsin took the lead, 
Happ took over, icing the game 
almost 
single-handedly. 
Alley-
oop. Another dunk. Hook shot. 
Rebound. A couple free throws. 
The Wolverines, ultimately, had no 
answers as the Badgers slowly built 
their lead.
“We always feed off (Happ’s) 
energy,” said Wisconsin guard Brad 
Davison. “ … It’s infectious to the 
rest of the team.”
The first half was relatively 
inconspicuous for both teams. 
For long stretches, sophomore 
guard Jordan Poole was the only 
Michigan player who could find 

the basket — and during the final 
stretch of the game, he sat on the 
bench with four fouls. At one point, 
neither team scored for 2:54 before 
Poole hit a jumper that capped off 
an odd 8-0 run for the Wolverines.
Then things started getting 
ugly for Michigan. Wisconsin 
took a timeout after a charge on 
sophomore forward Isaiah Livers 
and promptly went on a 7-0 run 
spurred by Happ and forward 
Aleem Ford to put the Badgers up 
four.
At halftime, the Wolverines’ 
two-point lead seemed almost 
undeserved, given the number of 
missed shots, bad possessions and 
turnovers, not to mention a 1-for-
7 mark from 3-point range. And 
in the second half, it caught up to 
them.
“When you’re playing a really 
good team, anybody has (16) 
turnovers against a team that 
doesn’t turn it over is not gonna win 
any games,” said Michigan coach 
John Beilein. “Their defense is just 
so good in contain.”
And though Michigan had some 
good individual performances — 
junior guard Zavier Simpson, Poole 
and Teske all finished with double 
digit points — it was all ultimately 
too much. The crowd and the 
turnovers and too many trips down 
the court with nothing to show for 
it left the Wolverines gasping for 
air.
With just a minute left, freshman 
forward Ignas Brazdeikis — who 
scored zero points for the first 
time all season — was called for an 
intentional foul off the ball, sending 
Happ to the line, where he hit 1-of-
2. On the ensuing possession, Happ 
made a layup, then a defensive 
rebound that led to a dunk.
Another turnover and another 
foul 
on 
the 
Wolverines 
sent 
Davison to the charity stripe with 
four seconds left. He made both 
free throws to provide the final 
dagger.
After the game Michigan had, it 
was all too appropriate.

A

fter a mostly meaningless 
December win against 
Binghamton — a game 
in which Michigan didn’t play 
particularly 
well, but still 
blew by the 
Bearcats — 
you couldn’t 
be faulted 
for looking 
forward.
Big Ten 
play was 
about to 
resume. The 
Wolverines were undefeated 
with a program-record start 
within reach. The questions 
were inevitable.
Do you think about being unde-
feated?
Michigan men’s basketball 
coach John Beilein shot down 
any such idea instantly.
“We talked about, the goals 
this year weren’t to be undefeat-
ed,” Beilein said. “The goal was 
to win all our home games, so we 
did that. Compete for a Big Ten 
championship, that’s still in front 
of us. … So just take it a little bit 
by little as we go forward, but we 
don’t talk about going undefeat-
ed and there hasn’t been a team 
go undefeated since ’76, is that 
right? So we don’t talk about it.”

The thing about a winning 
streak, though, is that it’s impos-
sible to avoid talking about 
it, especially when it meets 
its demise. On Saturday, the 
fifth-ranked Wolverines fell to 
Wisconsin, and the questions 
switched from handling the 
pressure of a streak to how they 
would move on.
There was another significant 
thing Beilein said at that press 
conference after Binghamton. 
The question was again about 
being undefeated. But the 
answer was about learning.
“It’s really hard to keep that 
going,” Beilein said. “We’d prob-
ably prefer it the other way. … 
That certainly was sometimes 
where they needed to get their 
memory jogged about how we 
got to that point was incredible 
defense, incredible attention to 
detail, et cetera.”
Beilein said he’d prefer an 
early-season loss or two because 
it’s harder to remind the team 
of that when it hasn’t faced 
adversity. In that sense, Satur-
day — where the defense failed 
to contain the Badgers’ Ethan 
Happ and Michigan gave away 
16 turnovers — was one hell of a 
memory jog. Going forward, that 
could help the Wolverines.
Friday afternoon, freshman 

forward Ignas Brazdeikis was 
brash and confident, letting 
the world know that he wasn’t 
scared of any team. The next 
day, he scored zero points and 
was instructed to intentionally 
foul Happ off the ball, leading 
to a flagrant foul that completed 
Michigan’s unraveling.
Brazdeikis hadn’t had a day 
like that before. He’d scored 
double-digit points in all but two 
games and never put up a goose 
egg. He’d never experienced the 
eerie silence of a post-loss locker 
room, a stark contrast to the 
loud, confident atmosphere after 
a win.
For everyone else, too, it 
had been a while since they’d 
made mistakes like that, been 
outplayed like that or lost like 
that. Other than a 62-60 scare 
in Evanston in early December, 
there hadn’t been any semblance 
of trouble all season. Now that 
they’ve hit some struggles, the 
Wolverines are better equipped 
to correct them.
“We don’t usually make those 
mistakes,” said junior center Jon 
Teske after the game. “But for 
some reason we did, and we’ll 
learn from this and we’ll grow 
from this.”
That, above all, is what Beilein 
was talking about after the 

blowout against the Bearcats. 
There’s a reason the last team 
to go undefeated was over 40 
years ago. Every team, no matter 
how good, is going to have one 
of those games. All of Beilein’s 
goals are still attainable. Michi-
gan is still perfect at home. The 
Big Ten title is still within reach.
Last weekend, the Wolverines 
were simultaneously reminded 
about what made them great 
before and what mistakes to cor-
rect in the future. The schedule 
will only get tougher as the sea-
son goes on, with road contests 
against Indiana and Iowa and 
home games against Minnesota 
and Ohio State in the next two 
weeks. So as tough as it is to see 
any streak end, perhaps the loss 
came at just the right time.
“You’re a victim of your own 
success in the sense that any 
losses will magnify, and that’s 
really not the truth,” Beilein 
said. “The truth is the schedule 
is much different in the first 18 
than it is in the last 13. … So, it’s 
when you try to explain that to 
your team, without taking away 
confidence and without scaring 
them for the future. You try to 
make sure they know who our 
team really is, what we’re capa-
ble of, things like that. A loss is a 
loss, learn from it and move on.”
Inevitably, the questions 
about the streak will die down 
now that it’s over. No longer will 
every win be potential history, 
and no longer will any loss be the 
end of something. Instead, Mich-
igan can focus on the strengths 
that led to the streak in the first 
place and the weaknesses that 
ended it. It is only with both of 
those together that the Wolver-
ines can become the best version 
of themselves.
And that’s just the way Beilein 
wants it.

Gerson can be reached at 

amgerson@umich.edu and 

on Twitter @aria_gerson.

Streak snapped

THEO MACKIE
Daily Sports Writer

ARIA GERSON
Daily Sports Writer

ETHAN SEARS
Managing Sports Editor

Michigan takes first loss at Wisconsin, 64-54, ending 17-game winning streak to start season, now must learn from it

KATELYN MULCAHY/Daily
Redshirt junior Charles Matthews scored just five points as Michigan suffered its first loss of the season at Wisconsin.

ARIA
GERSON

KATELYN MULCAHY/Daily
Freshman forward Ignas Brazdeikis went scoreless on 0-for-5 shooting at Wisconsin on Saturday as Michigan’s offense struggled to find points in a 64-54 loss.

