8A — Wednesday, February 27, 2019
Sports
The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com

Wolverines set to wave goodbye to senior class

On Sunday, the Michigan 
women’s basketball team will 
take on Wisconsin in its final 
game of the regular season, and 
Ann Arbor will say goodbye to 
one of the best senior classes in 
program history. 
While the four seniors have 
taken different paths to reach 
the climax of their respective 
collegiate careers, they will all 
be celebrated together. There’s 
graduate student guard Taylor 
Rooks, who in her one season 
at Michigan has become just as 
much a part of the team as anyone 
else. There’s senior forward 
Samantha Trammel, who coach 
Kim Barnes Arico views as one 
of the program’s leaders. And 
then there are the team captains, 
senior guard Nicole Munger and 
center Hallie Thome.
Munger — who is just 31 
points away from 1,000 career 
points — has started every game 
the last two seasons and has 
become the heart and soul of the 
Wolverines. Thome — 43 points 
shy of becoming the second 
most prolific scorer in program 
history — has started every game 
since she stepped on campus 
four years ago and has grown 
into the vocal leader of the team. 
The two, who are roommates 
and co-captains, have developed 
a close relationship during their 
time at Michigan.
“We see new things with each 
other and learn new things about 
each other, which is really special 
because some people plateau,” 
Munger said. “But we just really 
play off of each other, both in the 
locker room and on the court. 
She might be more vocal but 
I may be (more) reserved but 
lead by example. We just really 
complement each other both on 
the court and off the court.”
When Munger and Thome 

walk off the Crisler Center floor 
for the final time, the Wolverines 
will 
lose 
two 
of 
the 
players 
who 
helped 
establish 
the 
team’s 
attitude 
and identity this 
year. 
Even 
after 
starting 3-6 in the 
Big Ten season, 
and after Munger 
and Thome’s final 
season 
looked 
like it might be headed toward 
disappointment, 
the 
captains 
and the rest of the Wolverines 
never doubted their ability to 
recover.
Since then, Michigan has 
won seven of eight games and 
currently sits in fourth place in 
the Big Ten standings, largely 
on the backs of its two senior 
captains.
“I think they complement each 
other extremely, extremely well,” 
Barnes Arico said. “They’re very 
different, but they both want the 
same things and they have the 
same goals and they have the 
same dreams and aspirations. 
But they both go about it in a 
very different approach. And I 
think when you have leaders you 
need that.
“You don’t need people that 
are all the same. You need to 
be able to attack the group in 
different ways and I think that 
both Nicole and Hallie have 
that balance with each other as 
roommates and as teammates.”
But as Barnes Arico reminisces 
with Munger and Thome about 
their careers, the trio has not 
allowed 
themselves 
to 
get 
distracted from the fact that they 
have a basketball game to play — 
and an important one at that. 
Senior Day comes with the 
Wolverines in a fight for an 
NCAA Tournament berth and 
when every win matters. And 

even though Munger knows 
her career is dwindling, she’s 
not 
willing 
to 
get 
caught 
up 
in all the talk, 
and 
wants 
to, 
as usual, leave 
everything 
she 
has on the court. 
“I think people 
are realizing that 
kind of the end 
is near in a way, 
so 
just 
giving 
it all we have,” 
Munger said. “No one’s feeling 
a hundred percent at this point 
in the season on our team, or on 
any team in America, so it’s just 
a grind. It’s February, March and 
you just gotta have fun with it.”

Still, though, Senior Day is 
bound to be an emotional time. 
To 
send 
off 
players — who 
are 
sometimes 
even considered 
family 
— 
that 
have 
played 
with the same 
program 
and 
been 
with 
the 
same people for 
four years is a 
tough ask. 
And 
even 
though 
Barnes 
Arico has seen her fair share 
of seniors graduate and players 
come and go, that doesn’t make 
the end of an era any easier.
“It’s 
hard 
and 
sometimes 

I forget because it’s kind of 
what we do. And my children 
actually remind 
me because my 
own 
children 
are 
usually 
crying snots and 
tears 
because 
they 
have 
to 
say goodbye to 
them,” 
Barnes 
Arico said of past 
senior 
classes. 
“They have been 
such a large part, 
our senior class 
has been such a large part of 
my life, my children’s life, our 
Michigan life for four years. And 
to not see them every day leaves 
a little bit of a hole.” 

Now, as the season comes to 
an end, it’s time for the next step 
in the lives of each of Michigan’s 
four graduating players.
Where they may go and what 
they may do is yet to be seen. But, 
no matter what, Barnes Arico 
knows they are all prepared to 
move on.
“As I tell their parents when 
we recruit them here, they’re at 
a point in their lives where it’s 
time for them to fly and time for 
them to spread their wings and 
go off,” Barnes Arico said. “And 
as parents, you trust us as their 
coaches when you send them to 
Michigan and now it’s time for 
us to trust that they are ready 
as grown children to go and 
conquer the world.” 

Captains Munger and Thome among the seniors to be honored during Senior Day on Sunday at Crisler Center

BENNETT BRAMSON
Daily Sports Writer

KEEMYA ESMAEL/Daily
Senior guard Nicole Munger will be one of four seniors honored at the Senior Day ceremonies on Sunday, capping off an illustrious career at Michigan.

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Can Jordan Poole find consistency?

Jordan Poole’s eyes locked 
on the loose ball headed out of 
bounds. He grabbed it in the nick 
of time, took one dribble and 
pulled the trigger.
Bang.
A possession later, with 33 
seconds remaining, Poole cruised 
around a screen, looking up to 
see the hoop 26 feet away and 
Xavier Tillman much closer. The 
Michigan State forward threw 
out his arm, but Poole had already 
made up his mind. He let fly.
Bang.
This is what Michigan and its 
fans expect from Jordan Poole — 
a clutch, cold-blooded killer with 
no conscience and no limit to his 
range.
But the Wolverines lost to the 
Spartans, 77-70, on Sunday, and 
Poole’s desperation 3-pointers 
were merely shots in the dark, 
aimed at a target that had long 
since escaped. And Poole was a 
main reason that the target got 
away in the first place.
Michigan couldn’t adapt to 
Michigan 
State’s 
unexpected, 
screen-switching 
defense 
and 
was plagued by questionable shot 
selection. When it did get good 
looks down the stretch, it missed 
them. Those problems affected 
everyone, but they didn’t obscure 
one of Poole’s worst performances 
— before the final minute, he 
had just nine points on 3-for-
10 shooting with two assists, a 
rebound and four fouls.
Poole 
has 
never 
been 
a 
defensive keystone, but the lapses 
he suffered against the Spartans 
were uncharacteristic even for 
him. He struggled against Matt 
McQuaid on the perimeter, often 
leaping far past him with overly 
aggressive closeouts and giving 
one of the Big Ten’s best shooters 
wide-open looks.
Three 
minutes 
after 
the 
Wolverines took their largest 
lead of the game at 51-45, Poole 
flew recklessly into McQuaid as 
he was shooting and sent him to 
the line. Poole was benched and 
McQuaid knocked down all three 
free throws. Just over a minute 
later, the Spartans took the lead 

for good.
Michigan coach John Beilein 
has 
bemoaned 
his 
team’s 
tendency to spot up for 3-pointers 
far outside the arc instead of 
stepping into a more makeable 
distance. Poole is one of the most 
frequent offenders — while his 
range is usually an advantage, it 
also can turn into a crutch, as he 
will often force long shots when 
all else fails.
But no matter how good 
the look, Poole simply couldn’t 
find his stroke — before his late 
outburst, he missed all six of his 
treys.
“I would love to figure out why 
Jordan Poole can have the same 
shots and they don’t go in,” Beilein 
said on Feb. 21. “ … We just gotta 
continue to try to get good shots 
and obviously the better the shot, 
the more chance it’s gonna go in.”
While Michigan State’s screen-
switching, intended to create 
one-on-one scenarios, deserves 
its share of credit, one-on-one 
situations are not impossible 
to solve. As evidenced by Poole 
falling back on long 3-pointers, 
the Wolverines didn’t have the 
answer on Sunday.
“Our shot selection is better 
than what it was earlier in the 
year, but we gotta take good shots 
all the time,” Beilein said Sunday. 
“… We have certain habits that 
are not good for some one-on-one 
situations.”
A player can be effective 
without 
being 
consistent, 
consistent without being effective, 
both or neither. Poole tends to 
alternate between the first and 

the latter. This is borne out by, 
among other things, his 3-point 
percentages: 40.6 in November, 
58.3 in December, 26.2 in January 
and 32.0 so far this month.
It’s also on display from a game-
to-game basis. At Minnesota on 
Thursday, Poole nailed five threes 
and scored 22 points, his most 
of any Big Ten game, appearing 
to shake out of the doldrums of 
conference play.
“We know how good we are 
of a shooting team,” he said then. 
“Eventually they’re gonna fall like 
they did in the second half. We’re 
not really too worried, we go out 
there and just keep hooping.”
And therein lies the dilemma 
faced by Michigan. Poole has all 
the tools to be a go-to scorer for 
one of the nation’s elite teams. The 
Wolverines don’t have another 
player willing to take — and often 
hit — the same shots Poole puts 
up. On the flip side, though, his 
playing style and role as a tough-
shot maker inherently limit his 
consistency.
When those shots are finding 
the net, it’s an easy trade-off for 
Michigan. When they’re not, 
games like Sundays are often the 
result.
But 
what’s 
the 
difference 
between the Jordan Poole who 
torched Williams Arena and 
the Jordan Poole who has shot 
just 32 percent from downtown 
in conference play? The Jordan 
Poole of the first 39 minutes 
Sunday vs. the Jordan Poole of the 
final minute?
Right now, the Wolverines 
don’t know.

JACOB SHAMES
Daily Sports Editor

I think people 
are realizing 
that kind of the 
end is near...

Our senior class 
has been such a 
large part of
my life.

KATELYN MULCAHY/Daily
Jordan Poole is shooting 32 percent from 3-point range in February.