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.

