8A — Friday, February 22, 2019
Sports
The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com

MINNEAPOLIS — Williams 
Arena is as much airplane 
hangar as basketball arena. The 
home of the Minnesota men’s 
basketball team is capable of 
producing noise belying its 
cavernous 
interior, 
and 
its 
raised court and double-decker 
stands harken back to the 
vintage days of the sport.
Opened in 1928, Williams 
is college basketball’s sixth-
oldest arena and one of its 
most unique. When stacked 
up to modern venues and their 
amenities, it doesn’t seem all 
that sexy, but it’s steeped in 
history and proudly displays 
all of its 91 years. It is what it’s 
always been.
On Thursday night, Michigan 
went to Minneapolis and beat 
the 
host 
Golden 
Gophers, 
69-60, moving to 13-3 in Big 
Ten play and 24-3 overall. The 
Wolverines, 
too, 
were 
who 
they’ve always been.
Specifically, 
that 
means 
an offense that occasionally 
struggles to score, but a defense 
that usually turns one half of 
the court into a 2,350-square-
foot torture chamber. It’s not 
always aesthetically appealing 
basketball, 
but 
it’s 
gotten 
Michigan to No. 7 in the nation. 
The Wolverines are perfectly 
content with that.
“I think that they understand 
that 
(defense) 
is 
the 
one 
consistent thing we can have 
every day,” said Michigan coach 
John Beilein.
That 
doesn’t 
mean 
the 
Wolverines 
won’t 
lunge 
at 
the chance for an offensive 
explosion, 
however 
— 
and 
at early on, against the Big 
Ten’s 
second-least 
efficient 
defense, it looked like the fuse 
was lit. Michigan nailed three 
3-pointers in the game’s first 
eight minutes, shooting to a 17-6 
lead during which every starter 
got on the scoreboard.

It got ugly fast.
Minnesota big men Jordan 
Murphy 
and 
Daniel 
Oturu 
were two of the main reasons. 
Murphy, a 6-foot-8 bowling 
ball, gobbled up five offensive 
rebounds and 10 total in the 
first half. Oturu had 10 of his 
own, as well as 10 points for 
a double-double by halftime. 
Meanwhile, 
the 
Golden 
Gophers (7-9, 17-10) held the 
Wolverines to just 11 points 
from 11:57 until intermission. 
Eight of Minnesota’s 18 first-
half points came from second-
chance opportunities, as it went 
to the locker room down just 
10 despite shooting a putrid 22 
percent from the floor.
“Eventually our shots were 
gonna fall, so we gotta keep 
shooting,” said junior center 
Jon Teske. “We have all the 
trust in the world with all our 
teammates 
to 
knock 
down 
shots, and coaches give us trust 
to go shoot the ball.”
Michigan 
opened 
the 
floodgates 
after 
the 
break. 
Freshman 
forward 
Ignas 
Brazdeikis scored seven points 
in fewer than two minutes, and 
Teske swished a three to quickly 
push the lead to 18, necessitating 
a timeout by Golden Gopher 
coach Richard Pitino.
The Wolverines were unable 
to pull away, however. After 
a 
3-pointer 
by 
sophomore 
forward Isaiah Livers made the 
score 50-29, they hit just three 
shots over seven minutes. An 
Oturu dunk off of a steal put 
Minnesota within 11 points 
with 4:47 to play, bringing the 
venerable arena to its feet.
But Teske answered Oturu 
with two straight 3-pointers, 
firing an imaginary bow-and-
arrow as he backpedaled down 
the court. The arrows proved to 
be fatal.
“We feel like everything’s 
going right and we’re playing 
really 
good 
defense,” 
said 
sophomore guard Jordan Poole. 
“We don’t really worry about 

the shots because we know how 
good we are of a shooting team.”
The second half was much 
closer to the breakout Michigan 
craved, as it hit eight 3-pointers 
on 57 percent shooting with 
Poole (21 points) and Teske (17) 
led the way.
“We made shots. It’s that 
simple,” Beilein said. “This is 
something that I would love 
to figure it out — why Jordan 
Poole can have the same shots 
and they don’t go in, Teske, 
they don’t go in … We just gotta 
continue to try to get good shots, 
and obviously, the better the 
shot, the more chance it’s gonna 
go in. I think that was pretty 
good today, our shot selection.”
Still, there was plenty of 
ugliness. Poole missed three 
free throws in the final minute, 
failing to completely slam the 
door shut. Instead, after the 
Golden Gophers turned the ball 
over, the Wolverines dribbled 
out the clock.
It wasn’t head-turning by any 
stretch, but Michigan did what 
it’s always done, and ended 
up getting the job done for its 
biggest conference road win.

MINNEAPOLIS 
— 
Last 
Tuesday, Michigan’s season met 
a flummoxing low point in its loss 
to last-place Penn State — a result 
that left many in a futile search for 
answers.
Charles 
Matthews, 
though, 
had no problems pinning an 
explanation to the loss.
“Sense of urgency, lack of focus 
right there,” the redshirt junior 
said at the time. “Simple as that.”
So after the loss, Matthews 
and junior guard Zavier Simpson, 
the team’s unquestioned leaders, 
imparted their wisdom on the rest 
of the Wolverines’ young roster.
“We just gotta be extremely 
locked in and come out to play 
every night,” said sophomore 
Jordan 
Poole, 
relaying 
their 
message. “Take the exact same 
approach. It can be hard if you go 
and play a team that doesn’t have 
that many wins in the league or 
you beat a team already earlier in 
the year.”
Thursday night, faced with 
an opponent who both all those 
boxes, the Wolverines did exactly 

that, beating Minnesota, 69-60.
In the entirety of Michigan’s 
31-game schedule, there may have 
been no easier game to overlook 
than its trip to Minneapolis. For 
months, the season has built to 
a crescendo of the Wolverines’ 
weekend 
showdown 
with 
Michigan State. The two schools 
have resided at the top of the 
conference standings all season, 
ranking 
in 
the 
nationwide 
top-10 together, bound on a 
collision course that will meet 
its destination over the next two 
weeks — in Ann Arbor on Sunday 
and then 13 days later in East 
Lansing.
So when Michigan’s offense 
came out flat against the Golden 
Gophers, hitting just 11-of-31 
shots before halftime, it would 
have been easy to concede that 
this wasn’t its day and move on 
to bigger things. Simpson and 
Matthews, though, wouldn’t let 
that happen.
“They stay on us,” Poole said. 
“They know that the game can 
change at any point in time and 
runs happen so we gotta stay 
locked in 24/7. Being able to have 
figures like that who’ve been in 

situations like this before is huge.”
Led by its two leaders — who 
finished with five of its six steals 
— the Wolverines’ defense paved 
the way for a dominating win 
that could have been anything 
but, considering the offensive 
struggles.
If Michigan’s first-half offense 
was ugly, Minnesota’s teetered on 
unwatchable. When the officials 
came back onto the court minutes 
after the halftime buzzer to rule 
that Daniel Oturu’s putback had 
beat the clock, it sent the Williams 
Arena crowd into a frenzy — out of 
reprieve as much as joy. After all, 
the points merely decided which 
pitiful point total the Golden 
Gophers would enter the break 
with, 16 or 18.
“With the guys that we have 
defensively right now, I think that 
they understand that this is the 
one consistent thing we can have 
every day,” said Michigan coach 
John Beilein.
At the heart of it?
“If 
you 
listened 
to 
our 
walkthroughs, you would hear 
Zavier and Charles talking to 
people about what’s next and what 
we can do and giving alternatives 
to things,” Beilein said. “They’re 
coaching that defense just as 
much as our coaching staff is.”
And when the Wolverines’ 
offense got back on track in the 
second half — hitting eight of its 
14 threes — they raced out to a 
20-point lead that consigned the 
early struggles to history.
That same offensive spurt, 
though, also came against Penn 
State, when Michigan scored 20 
points in the first eight minutes of 
the half to cut its deficit to five. The 
problem then was that a 16-point 
deficit proved insurmountable. 
On the back of a renewed focus, 
that wasn’t an issue this time 
around.
Or — for a simpler answer — just 
ask assistant coach Luke Yaklich, 
who strode into Poole’s postgame 
scrum, coughed and offered up 
one word before moving on:
“Defense.”

Minnesota down, Michigan State to go
Wolverines’ identity manifests as they top Golden Gophers, 69-60, in last game before facing the Spartans

JACOB SHAMES
Daily Sports Editor

Is it personal for Cassius Winston?

EAST LANSING — As the 
scrum of reporters slowly started 
to dissipate, Cassius Winston sat 
in front of his locker in a white 
tank-top, 
eyes 
forward 
and 
engaged. Winston knew all too 
well that focus around this state 
will soon shift to himself and his 
counterpart in Ann Arbor, Zavier 
Simpson.
“We’re the leaders of our 
teams,” Winston said. “Both 
make our teams go.”
Inarguably, this is true. With 
shooting guard Josh Langford, 
and now center Nick Ward, gone, 
Winston’s importance has only 
been amplified for the Spartans. 
Early in Tuesday’s game against 
Rutgers, Winston drove the lane, 
tossing up a floater that Rutgers 
forward Myles Johnson blocked. 
Winston forced a smile, turned 
to run back on defense and 
smacked his hands together, the 
clap echoing through the Breslin 
Center.
As Winston struggled through 
the first half, shooting 3-for-9 
from the field, Michigan State 
struggled, taking 
a 
seven-point 
deficit into the 
locker room.
After 
re-emerging 
from the tunnel, 
the opposite held 
true. 
Winston 
owned the game 
and 
owned 
a 
building 
whose 
mind 
was 
already on the weekend. With 
the Spartans holding a one-point 
lead and the game teetering, 
Winston again drove the lane 
and again found a floater. This 
one went, and wearing a much-
wider smile, Winston again ran 
back down the floor, dapping 
up Michigan State guard Kyle 
Ahrens as he passed by.
In the second half, he scored 
19 
points, 
spearheading 
a 
comeback in what turned into a 
routine 71-60 win. He assisted 
six baskets. He played all 20 
minutes, and when he asked to 
come out, Tom Izzo refused.
That, Izzo explained, is simply 

what Michigan State needs from 
Cassius Winston right now.
“Man,” Izzo said, “I’m asking 
him to do everything except this 
press conference right now. And 
somehow, I’m gonna convince 
him that that’s a privilege, not a 
problem.”
Across the state, Simpson 
spent the last year molding 
Michigan 
to 
his 
persona, 
instilling a defense-first culture 
that took the Wolverines to the 
Final Four last year and has 
gotten them to a 23-3 record and 
the No. 7 ranking thus far this 
season.
“His 
leadership right 
now is as good 
as 
anybody 
we’ve ever had,” 
said 
Michigan 
coach 
John 
Beilein 
after 
last 
Saturday’s 
65-52 win over 
Maryland. 
During 
the 
timeouts, Beilein let the players 
talk among themselves to figure 
things out. Simpson grabbed the 
whiteboard. “He’s got that ‘it’ 
that you need to lead a team,” 
Beilein said, “and the team 
respects him.”
The story of Zavier Simpson 
and Cassius Winston has, in 
the past, focused around Zavier 
Simpson. On Sunday, when the 
Spartans and Wolverines meet, 
tied atop the Big Ten standings, 
it will be about Cassius Winston.
The backstory between the 
two has been well played out. 
Izzo and John Beilein both 
recruited 
Winston 
as 
their 

top priority at point guard in 
the class of 2016. Beilein told 
Simpson he was interested, but 
only as a backup plan, should 
Winston fall through. Winston 
chose Michigan State. Simpson 
ended up at Michigan and knows 
how to hold a grudge.
In the regular season last year, 
the Wolverines came up to East 
Lansing unranked and upset 
a top-five team, with Simpson 
holding Winston to 11 points and 
4 turnovers. Then, on Mar. 2, 
after the Spartans beat Wisconsin 
in the Big Ten Tournament and 
with Michigan yet to play its 
game against Nebraska, Winston 
told reporters he wanted a 
rematch. He got one, but to little 
difference, scored 11 points, and 
again, he struggled in a loss.
These are the two levels on 
which Winston must operate 
Sunday. He must outplay Simpson 
because otherwise, the Spartans 
have little chance of winning. He 
must outplay Simpson because 
otherwise, he will be 0-3 against 
a player whom both schools 
recruited as a contingency — and 
in a lot of ways, that record will 
come precisely because of that 
fact.
This matchup is personal, at 
least on one side. On the other?
“Yeah, definitely,” Winston 
said. “Like I said, Michigan game. 
It’s always gonna be personal.”
Personal 
with 
Simpson, 
specifically?
“Uhh — I wouldn’t think about 
specifically. It would just — it 
comes with the game. You know 
what I’m saying?”
Thing 
is, 
Zavier 
Simpson 
might not.

ETHAN SEARS
Managing Sports Editor

Colin Castleton proves he belongs

MINNEAPOLIS — Jordan 
Poole didn’t want to talk to the 
media.
Here was the sophomore 
guard, after having scored 
a game-high 22 points and 
five 3-pointers, refusing the 
honor usually reserved for a 
performance of that caliber. 
There was someone who he felt 
deserved it more.
“All y’all gotta ask him 
a 
question,” 
Poole 
said, 
gesturing at Colin Castleton. 
“I’m not answering nobody’s 
questions ‘til you ask him.”
Castleton 
isn’t 
Ignas 
Brazdeikis, a contender for 
Big Ten Freshman of the Year. 
He isn’t Brandon Johns or 
David DeJulius, both of whom 
have shown the physicality to 
hold their own at this level. 
The forward from Daytona 
Beach, Fla. is a string-bean-
like 6-foot-11 and 210 pounds, a 
frame that has chained him to 
the scout team all season. He 
won’t turn 19 until May.
Feb. 1 at Iowa was Castleton’s 
first meaningful appearance 
of the season. He got in for 
three minutes at the end of 
the first half, an appearance 
precipitated by extreme foul 
trouble. It was Michigan coach 
John Beilein breaking the glass 
in case of an emergency.
Castleton’s 
first 
action 
since then, which came seven 
minutes into the Wolverines’ 
69-60 win over Minnesota, was 
still prompted by extenuating 
circimstances. Johns, whose 
gotten spot duty backing up 
junior Jon Teske at center, 
caught the flu earlier this week 
and was unable to practice 
at all, per Beilein. Castleton 
“auditioned” 
for 
Johns’ 
vacated minutes with redshirt 
sophomore Austin Davis and 
won.
“I’ve been ready all year,” 
he said. “I just work hard 
every day in practice because 
you never know when your 
opportunity will come.”
This opportunity wasn’t a 
beyond-any-doubt 
statement 
that Castleton is ready for the 

big time. In his four minutes, 
he 
missed 
his 
lone 
shot, 
grabbed 
one 
rebound 
and 
committed a personal foul. But 
for a freshman trying to make 
his way in college basketball, 
events such as that are imbued 
with importance, magnified in 
their memorability.
“Just, it’s go time, basically,” 
Castleton said. “Give the effort 
and get ready to play. That’s 
really it. Just do everything I 
got taught to do.”
Castleton’s 
length 
and 
wingspan had a tangible effect 
on the Golden 
Gophers’ 
muscular 
inside 
attack. 
With 4:16 left 
in 
the 
first 
half, he moved 
his 
feet 
and 
stayed vertical 
while guarding 
Eric 
Curry, 
who 
holds 
a 
two-year 
and 
30-pound advantage on him. 
With nowhere to go, Curry 
shuffled his feet, and the 
referee blew his whistle.
There’s nothing sexy about 
a travel. Most of the time, 
the 
defender 
doesn’t 
even 
get credit for it. But this was 
different.
This wasn’t playing on the 
scout team in an empty gym — 
this was a forced turnover on 
the road in the Big Ten. The 
enthusiastic reaction Castleton 
received from his teammates 
was as much a recognition of 
the moment’s significance as 

the play’s actual impact.
“It gives you confidence 
when teammates give me high 
fives and stuff,” Castleton 
said. “It’s a little play, but in 
my eyes it’s a really big play 
because I barely get minutes. 
So when it happens, it gives 
me confidence and shows that 
they care.”
As 
Castleton 
spoke 
to 
reporters, 
moments 
after 
Beilein said that he “won’t 
hesitate” 
to 
put 
him 
in 
similar 
situations 
in 
the 
future, assistant coach Saddi 
Washington 
snuck 
behind 
him and jovially 
grabbed 
his 
shoulders. 
Teske 
then 
walked 
past 
and delivered a 
congratulatory 
slap 
to 

Castleton’s 
back. 
Poole 
stood feet away 
with his phone in his hands, 
grinning as he recorded the 
scene.
Four 
scoreless 
minutes 
couldn’t quite tell what four 
minutes in the bowels of 
Williams Arena could.
Colin Castleton still has a 
long way to go, but on Thursday 
night, he showed he was hardly 
out of place.
“He’s got a great personality, 
team loves him,” Beilein said. 
“So it was a shot for him to 
just go in there and I think he 
affected some shots. He did a 
good job.”

KATELYN MULCAHY/Daily
Cassius Winston will face off against Zavier Simpson on Sunday.

We’re the 
leaders of our 
teams. ... Make 
our teams go.

THEO MACKIE
Daily Sports Writer

JACOB SHAMES
Daily Sports Editor

KATELYN MULCAHY/Daily
Junior guard Zavier Simpson has been an internal leader for Michigan, imparting his wisdom on a young roster.

KATELYN MULCAHY/Daily
Freshman center Colin Castleton got in the rotation with Brandon Johns out.

It’s a little play, 
but in my eyes, 
it’s a really big 
play.

