The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com
Sports
Friday, February 1, 2019 — 7
The
polar
vortex
already
canceled classes for Wednesday
and
Thursday.
Now,
it’s
postponed tonight’s Michigan
women’s basketball game against
Iowa. The game will now be
played on Friday at noon.
The game is set to be an
exciting one, with the nation’s
leading
scorer
Megan Gustafson
coming to town.
The
matchup
between
Gustafson
and
Wolverine center
Hallie
Thome
was one that fans
were
excited
to see, but that
bout will now be
rescheduled
for
Friday in the wake of Ann Arbor
receiving some of the coldest
weather it has ever seen.
The bout represents a chance
for the Wolverines (12-9 overall,
3-6 Big Ten) to get back on track,
coming in having lost four of
their last five games. Michigan
maintains a home record of 8-1,
though, and in No. 13 Iowa, it had
a chance to seize a signature win.
That, for now, will be put on
hold.
Michigan spokesperson Kurt
Svodoba said Thursday morning
that the postponement has made
for a “crazy morning” so far,
and stated that the teams have
not yet set a date to potentially
reschedule the game. A few
hours later, the team announced
the rescheduled time. Svodoba
did, however, announce a deal
that could excite some fans who
will be unable to attend the game.
“Not only can (the ticket) be
used
for
the
rescheduled
game, but it can
also
be
used
as
a
general
admission ticket for any home
game (this season),” he said.
Tickets for the original game
can also be used Friday, though
the game will no longer air on
Big Ten Network. According to a
press release sent by Iowa, details
are still being hashed out on a live
stream and radio coverage.
TEDDY GUTKIN
Daily Sports Writer
(The ticket) can
be used for the
rescheduled
game.
Michigan
vs. Iowa
Matchup:
Michigan 12-9
overall, 3-6
Big Ten; Iowa
16-4, 7-2
When: Friday
Noon, E.T.
Where: Crisler
Center
TV: Not
televised
Due to cold weather, ‘M’
to play game on Friday
MILES MACKLIN/Daily
The Michigan women’s basketball team play Iowa on Friday at noon.
The underappreciated art of avoiding fouls
Over the last 15 months,
as Michigan’s defensive star
has ascended — taking the
Wolverines from a team on
the tournament bubble to the
Final Four to a 20-1 record
to start this season — nearly
every reason why has been
dissected and digested.
Assistant
coach
Luke
Yaklich instilled a culture.
Junior point guard Zavier
Simpson and redshirt junior
forward
Charles
Matthews
enforced it. The virus took
hold, then spread — and now,
Michigan’s
83.8
adjusted
defensive efficiency is on pace
to be the best in the KenPom
era.
But there is one element
of
this
renaissance
that,
really, isn’t a renaissance at
all. More accurately, call it a
continuation.
The
Wolverines
don’t
foul. They rank second in
the country in defensive free
throw rate, and since 2012,
they’ve been worse than 25th
just twice. That’s no recent
development, but something
preached within the program
for quite a while.
“That’s stuff we’d work on
all the time, is not reaching,
not using an armbar,” said
Spike Albrecht, a Michigan
guard from 2013-17. “Things
like that.”
In practices, the Wolverines
can use slide drills or verbal
reinforcement
to
stress
avoiding fouls. In a game
though, playing good defense
while doing so is a sort of art.
“Especially on the ball, just
picking up stupid fouls — they
call like an armbar, instead
your hands are up and you’re
sliding and using your chest,”
Albrecht
said.
“Cause
you
wanna be physical but you
don’t wanna foul.
“Essentially you’re fouling
with your chest instead of your
arms, because lots of times,
if a ref sees an arm in there,
they’re more inclined to call it
versus, ‘Hey, his hands are up.’
But you’re still making contact
with the dude. Sometimes
you can kind of get away with
fooling the refs a little bit.”
This iteration of Michigan
doesn’t just defend physically
without
fouling.
It
has
perfected the art, and you
don’t need to look too far to
see it.
This is how
Simpson turns
opposing point
guards
—
or,
in
Tuesday’s
case,
Ohio
State
center
Kaleb
Wesson
— into overly
frustrated
playthings. It’s
how Matthews
has turned himself into a
potential
NBA
commodity
despite
shooting
just
32.3
percent from 3-point range. It’s
how junior center Jon Teske
has gone from merely tall to a
dominant rim protector.
Anyone
who
has
asked
Michigan coach John Beilein
about Teske in the last year
has been treated to a range of
hand motions, demonstrating
his want for Teske to use
verticality in the paint. After a
65-49 win over Ohio State on
Tuesday, Beilein had nothing
but praise.
“He was trying to slap at the
ball when the guy was coming
up,” Beilein said. “He’d run
his arms through him and use
verticality, all the time. Now
he’s learned to
do it — wait,
wait, be more
selective
with
shots you can
block.”
Teske may be
the most overt
example.
He’s
far
from
the
only one.
Avoiding
bad fouls is a
part of Michigan’s defensive
culture, as much as anything
else. One of the keys behind a
great defense, it turns out, is
overwhelmingly simple.
“I don’t wanna say, ‘Hey,
we don’t foul.’ We try not to
have bad fouls,” Beilein said
Thursday. “And if you look at a
game, there’s three or four bad
fouls every single game, that if
you can avoid those, that could
be the difference between a
one-and-one, a guy in foul
trouble, right, or a double-
bonus. So we try to avoid that.
“It’s
just
every
day
in
practice, we’re very physical
with how we practice, but
bad fouls are pointed out
every minute. And sometimes,
people want to start every
practice, ‘How are we gonna
practice? Hard. How are we
gonna practice? Smart.’ And
smart is, don’t put them to
the foul line. We can’t defend
the foul line. We can’t defend
a foul shot. So the one way to
avoid that to happen is, don’t
put them there carelessly.”
In this sense, Beilein has
been the perfect complement
to Yaklich. Asked on Tuesday
who’s behind the emphasis,
sophomore
guard
Jordan
Poole struggled to come up
with an answer.
“Coach B hates fouls,” he
said, “and coach Yak loves
defense, so —”
Then Isaiah Livers stepped
in to finish the sentence.
“It works perfectly.”
In need of more than a series split, Wolverines to face Golden Gophers
It’s
crunch
time
for
the
Michigan hockey team.
Coming off another series split,
it must begin to make up ground
in the Big Ten standings. Save
dropping both games to Michigan
State before the holiday break,
the Wolverines have split every
conference series.
Nine
games
remain
for
Michigan in the regular season,
all against conference opponents.
Heading into this weekend’s series
at Minnesota, the Wolverines are
only one point ahead of the three-
way tie for last place in the Big
Ten. Eight points separate them
from first-place Ohio State. At
26th in the Pairwise rankings, at
least 10 spots separate them from
a potential at-large bid.
If Michigan hopes to make an
NCAA Tournament appearance,
it will need to begin coming out of
weekends with more than three
points.
The Wolverines can start by
sweeping the Gophers, who are in
third place — three points ahead
of Michigan — in the Big Ten
standings. By picking up their
first sweep, the Wolverines will
leave the company of Penn State
as the only Big Ten teams without
one.
“We have (felt a sense of
urgency)
for
a
little
bit
now,
I
think,”
said
Michigan
coach
Mel Pearson. “So
that’s why coming
off
the
(series
split) — it was
disappointing you
know — at Ohio
State when you
have the lead in
the third period.
And then played pretty well but
made some bad mistakes in New
York — because you can’t get
those points back. And as you look
at the standings, everything’s so
tight. One game and you go from
third place to last place, seventh
place. So, it’s a huge shift there
so yeah, we understand that, and
we have to make sure we dial it up
even another notch here and the
last nine games that we have.
“I wouldn’t call (the rest of the
games) must-win but the points
are very critical. I mean, you don’t
want to be at the end of the year
after the regular season and say,
‘Well, if we would’ve won this
game here then we would’ve been
on home ice.’ You don’t want that,
so that’s how we’re approaching
this, it’s a process.”
But as far as the rankings go,
Pearson sounds unconcerned.
“You do A, B, C,
D and you’ll have
a
good
chance
instead of looking
at the standings,”
Pearson
said.
“We don’t talk
too much to the
players about the
standings or that.
It’s
just
trying
to do everything
we can for that
next game and give them the
information they need to go out
and execute and have a great
game.”
Barring a late-season run,
Michigan will most likely need
to win the Big Ten Tournament
to make a postseason appearance.
If the Wolverines can manage
to stay in the top half of the
table, they are assured home-ice
advantage in the first round, best-
of-three series of the tournament
— and with every series split that
passes, it is looking like the sole
route to the NCAA Tournament.
Prior to the team’s flight to
Minnesota, Pearson was asked
whether he feels comfortable
relying
on
the
conference
tournament to earn a bid.
“At this point I think we might
have to be,” Pearson said. “The
way the Big Ten Tournament is
set up — I don’t
want to say it’s
any easier than
any other league,
but you have a
better chance. If
you can get past
the first round,
then you’re just
in a single game
format. It doesn’t
matter where you
play or who you
play, you have to try and find a
way to beat them once to move on,
and that’s what it is. … And I think
it’s more of a toss-up who is going
to win that game because there is
so much balance in the Big Ten.
“First round is a little tougher
because if you’re
going to be on
the
road,
you
have to go in and
win two out of
the three games
and that’s a little
more
difficult
to
do
on
the
road.
Winning
one game, hey,
anybody
would
take that chance.”
It’s a chance Pearson is willing
to take. And it’s a chance he will
have no choice but to take —
unless the team strings together
back-to-back wins.
ETHAN SEARS
Managing Sports Editor
JORGE CAZARES
Daily Sports Writer
EVAN AARON/Daily
Michigan coach John Beilein has always emphasized playing physically while avoiding fouls on defense.
Sometimes you
can get away
with fooling the
refs.
KATELYN MULCAHY/Daily
The Michigan hockey team must stop splitting series if it is to make a miraculous run to the NCAA Tournament
You do A, B,
C, D and you’ll
have a good
chance.
I wouldn’t call
(the rest of the
games) must-
win.