4B — January 28, 2019 SportsMonday The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com As Michigan delights, Assembly Hall’s student section dismays BLOOMINGTON — Look up any list of the toughest road environments in college basketball and Indiana’s Assembly Hall will inevitably be slotted at the very top. Alternatively, you could just ask Michigan coach John Beilein. Just six days ago, when the Wolverines fell at Wisconsin, Beilein made sure to remind reporters that, “People don’t lose here because it’s the Kohl Center,” instead praising the Badgers’ on-court product. But this, he explained, was different. “They have a tremendous home court atmosphere in Bloomington,” Beilein said on Thursday. “… You’re on the road, in an environment, and you’re not comfortable. Then, all of a sudden, you look like a shell of who you can be. And it just happens.” Beilein’s prediction could hardly have come further from fruition, as Michigan stormed out to a 17-0 lead, reducing the Hoosier faithful to a stunned silence. “I love that,” said freshman forward Ignas Brazdeikis after the game. “One of my favorite parts of basketball is shutting the crowd down. I love going on the road.” Anticipating that boisterous home crowd that Beilein referenced, I perched myself in the middle of Indiana’s student section, planning to write about the challenge the Wolverines would have to overcome. Before the game even tipped off, I realized that angle might not hold up. As the students struggled to fill the upper reaches of their allotted section, I turned to Justin, the kid next to me, and expressed my surprise at the attendance. “Yeah dude we suck,” Justin said, explaining that he didn’t think the Hoosiers had a chance of toppling fifth-ranked Michigan. Within minutes, it became clear that he wasn’t alone. When junior center Jon Teske followed Brazdeikis’ game- opening three with a rejection at the rim on Indiana’s first possession, it drew a cacophony of frustration. “Classic IU start, we’ll be down 7-0 before we score,” predicted Caleb, an out-of-state sophomore who grew up a Duke fan. Turns out his estimate sold the Wolverines 10 points short. 7-0 came and passed on a wing three from sophomore Jordan Poole, before Brazdeikis made it with 10 by driving past Hoosier guard Zach McRoberts, a common target of fan criticism. “Fuck this motherfucker,” sounded a voice behind me, who spent the rest of the evening proclaiming that McRoberts “should not be on this team.” After a turnover on Indiana’s next possession, that voice — belonging to Connor, a freshman from Chicago — offered up his only bit of optimism for the night, even if it came doused in a heavy dose of sarcasm. “We’re really good guys, I swear we’re really good,” he said, as Michigan took possession. Seconds later, junior guard Zavier Simpson snuck behind the Hoosier defense to score an uncontested layup and make it 12-0. Connor’s next words? “WHAT THE FUCK WAS THAT?!” The dismay returned after the under-16 media timeout — highlighted by Connor exclaiming, “Wow we have a good team at this school. Who knew?” when the jumbotron introduced the Hoosiers’ national champion cheer team — when Indiana forward Juwan Morgan bounced a pass off the courtside advertising boards. As the Wolverines got the ball back, another voice behind me pled for Michigan to “Just hit a fucking dagger. End our misery right now.” Redshirt junior forward Charles Matthews promptly obliged, draining a wing three to put the Wolverines up 15-0. The misery, though, did not end there. “Just give me one bucket please,” Connor begged two possessions later, after the deficit had ballooned to 17. His pleas were predictably met by the Hoosiers’ fourth turnover in five possessions. “It’s just an inept offense,” said Indiana coach Archie Miller after the game, providing a cleaner version of the students’ dismay. “Inept. I mean, you can’t get down 20-2 against Michigan.” Though a pair of free throws got the Hoosiers on the scoreboard at the 12:57 mark, the frustration persisted. The jumbotron — seemingly dedicated to distracting Indiana fans from their misery — provided a look at the school’s new $17 million dollar wrestling arena, as the students rained scattered boos toward the announcement. “Can we please put our money toward a new basketball team?” Connor pleaded. “Thank you!” As an and-one from Brazdeikis expanded Michigan’s lead yet again, the student section’s despair turned macro. “Can’t wait to lose our tournament bid,” shouted someone a few rows back. “To the NIT?” Caleb responded — a thought that would have seemed insane just six games ago, when Indiana went to Ann Arbor ranked 21st in the country. It hasn’t won since. So, when an Aljami Durham airball prompted the kid in front of me to order an Uber before the halftime buzzer had even sounded, it was hard to blame him. A few plays later, the girl to my right made her way to the exit and never returned. At halftime, a steady exodus followed. And unless they really wanted to be present for a resounding chorus of “Fuck you” and “Fuck this,” they didn’t miss much. THEO MACKIE Daily Sports Writer ALEC COHEN/Daily The Indiana student section reached an extreme level of frustration as the Hoosiers fell down 17-0 to Michigan on Friday, starting what became an embarrassing 69-46 loss to the Wolverines. Wolverines lead from tipoff to buzzer in 69-46 win over Hoosiers BLOOMINGTON — Two Indiana defenders converged around Zavier Simpson as he dribbled inside the arc. Suddenly and inexplicably, they were gone. The junior point guard took another dribble and tossed in an easy layup. Hoosier coach Archie Miller stormed onto the court, unable to call a timeout fast enough. A once-raucous crowd stood shell-shocked. Michigan had taken a 12-0 lead within the game’s first four minutes. It would somehow get worse for the Hoosiers. Indiana’s first points came at the 12:57 mark, already down by 17. It needed almost three more minutes to get its first field goal. While the Hoosiers self- destructed, the fifth-ranked Wolverines (19-1 overall, 8-1 Big Ten) continued to play basketball. They cruised to a 69-46 win that, thanks to an opening sequence that sent Assembly Hall into a fugue, rarely seemed even that close. “We were just so mentally prepared for this game,” said freshman forward Ignas Brazdeikis. “We watched a lot of film on them, we knew exactly what we had to do defensively and offensively. None of us were shying away from shots. … We were really confident in ourselves and we were ready to go.” For a moment, the Hoosiers had hope. After being booed off the floor at halftime — the result of a 33-18 deficit and a 5-for-25 shooting display — Indiana (12-8, 3-6) came out of the break energized. A 3-pointer by Rob Phinisee three minutes into the second half cut the deficit to single-digits and restored life to the arena. Just as quickly, however, Michigan snuffed it out. Brazdeikis, who led all scorers with 20, threw a stiff-arm by calmly nailing a catch-and-shoot trey on the next possession to push the lead back above double-digits. It would stay there for the rest of the night. The Wolverines continued to create distance. Redshirt junior forward Charles Matthews, who finished with a double-double, scored seven points in 70 seconds to make the score 48-32, while the Hoosiers suffered through multiple droughts of over three minutes without scoring. “They might score two and then we make a three, and then we get a rebound, we make a three,” said Michigan coach John Beilein. “All of a sudden I look and we’re back to 16 or 18. That’s really hard to come back from.” These two teams met on Jan. 6 in Ann Arbor. In that game, the Wolverines also stormed to a 17-point lead within 10 minutes and won, 74-63. This was different. The first meeting was a nationally televised battle of two teams with sights on a Big Ten title and a deep run in March. That was a Michigan explosion after a lethargic month of December. That was the Wolverines hitting big shots, jumping passing lanes and throwing down dunks in transition. Friday night, by contrast, saw Indiana come in on a five-game losing streak that began with the loss three weeks ago. This was a struggling squad desperately needing a resume-booster and injection of energy. This was the Hoosiers not getting it at all, appearing sluggish and half-awake instead. This was a nightmare performance at the worst possible time, a plunge further into a month-long abyss. The performance of star guard Romeo Langford, an almost- Messianic figure in Bloomington, was representative of the entire night. The freshman committed three early fouls and never found his rhythm, totally stifled by Matthews. He scored just nine points on 3-of-12 shooting. “They came in here and did what they wanted, when they wanted, how they wanted,” Miller said. “Our team in general right now is soft. We’re also, for whatever reason, scared. You could just tell by the way that we played. Fight isn’t there right now and the confidence isn’t there on either end of the floor.” Even Assembly Hall wasn’t ready. A clock malfunction just seven seconds into the game led to a six-minute delay. The shot clock on one side of the court never got going, forcing PA announcer Chuck Crabb to shout out the time at five- second intervals. “That place was charged up like I remember it was in (2013) when we came here as the number one team in the country and you couldn’t hear yourself think,” Beilein said. “And our kids went out and just executed. Says a lot about who they are and how they adjust.” Michigan adjusted to the delay with a series of punches. Brazdeikis nailed a corner three on the first possession. Simpson used a hesitation dribble to blow by for an easy bucket. Matthews hit a triple off an Indiana turnover. The Hoosiers were unable to do the same. After the Wolverines extinguished Indiana’s second-half run, it never threatened again. When the final buzzer sounded, you could hear a pin drop in the storied arena. BLOOMINGTON — Charles Matthews stood in the back of Crisler Center’s media room on Tuesday night, wearing a sly smile and a sober tone. A little earlier, the redshirt junior had won a game for Michigan, hanging in the air for what seemed like a millisecond too long as ball found net, the buzzer sounded and the Wolverines avoided disaster. You wouldn’t have known it from talking to him. Michigan had let Minnesota inch back into the game until it was the Wolverines who had their backs against the wall. That was what Matthews cared about. “Usually, we all have a saying,” he said. “We usually come out to the game looking, we be like, ‘Alright, let’s run ‘em out the gym.’ And we usually put our foot on their neck and touch it to the floor. But this game, they made some big shots.” The subtext: We let them make some big shots. Four nights later, as 17,222 fans at Assembly Hall rose to their feet, the Hoosiers having slowly cut into a Wolverines’ lead until a domineering performance again turned into a single-digit game, a defender collapsed off Ignas Brazdeikis and the ball found the freshman forward in the corner. The ensuing shot found bottom. The ensuing run — keyed by Matthews, who responded to a literal kick in the head by scoring seven straight points and continuing to make Indiana’s Romeo Langford his plaything on defense — put away an eventual 69-46 win. The Hoosiers, who came into Friday’s game the losers of five straight, then started it by embarrassing themselves and letting the Wolverines jump out to a 17-0 run, had every reason to throw all the effort they had into the second half. If that was what they did, it didn’t matter. “At the end of the day, I felt like the energy’s gonna change,” said junior guard Zavier Simpson. “Once we see Charles doing that (to Langford), it kinda rubs off to myself, rubs off to Iggy, rubs off to the rest of the floor, players on the floor. We see that. We feed off that. Just keep it going.” The thing about a 17-0 start, whether it be on the season or in an individual game: it lends itself to complacency. On Friday, Michigan refused to fall into that trap. This game could have easily gotten close. The Wolverines suffered multiple offensive lulls. The crowd stayed in it until the very end. Indiana’s chances were there. Michigan didn’t let it take them. “I don’t think anyone realizes as a coach how you envy that situation where you got off to a great start, how difficult that is to manage,” said Michigan coach John Beilein. “When you get off to that great start, what happens in the game, if you lose that game, it’s nothing. To up that much that early. Nothing. To manage and have your kids persevere through it is really good, especially when they make that little run to get to 10.” That’s a product of a culture instilled by Matthews and Simpson and Beilein — one of accountability, that doesn’t allow satisfaction to creep in after a poor performance that happens to have a W next to it. “We maintain (intensity),” Simpson said. “Look at what we control, know our scouting reports. Get the Xs and Os from coaches. Just maintain it. There’s no special or secret ingredient to what we do. We just play together, listen to the coaches and do things we can control.” Simpson was then asked whether that had been a particular focus this week. “It’s emphasized every single day,” he said. This week, two completely different games proved him right. ETHAN SEARS Managing Sports Editor ALEC COHEN/Daily Junior guard Zavier Simpson has helped the Michigan basketball set a culture that emphasizes maintaining intensity. JACOB SHAMES Daily Sports Writer Once we see Charles doing that, it kinda rubs off.