The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com Sports Friday, March 1, 2019 — 7 Wolverines focused on regular season finale against Wisconsin Prior to this season, senior guard Nicole Munger and senior center Hallie Thome pondered expectations for what was to come. “Nicole said at the end of the summer, ‘Coach, I think we have an opportunity to be Big Ten champs next year,’ ” said Michigan coach Kim Barnes Arico. “And her and Hallie debated that and wavered that and went back and forth on that and they came to common ground that that’s gonna be our message for our team this season, and that’s gonna be our goal for our team this season. And they’ve kind of stuck with that.” The Big Ten Tournament tips off in less than a week, but for now, the Michigan women’s basketball team (10-7 Big Ten, 19-10 overall) is putting those aspirations on standby. The final regular-season matchup — Sunday afternoon against Wisconsin (4-13, 13-16) — garners more attention. “My focus is on Wisconsin,” Barnes Arico said. “We have a Big Ten tournament? When’s that?” Though she was clearly joking, there’s truth underlying Barnes Arico’s comment. The two teams will meet for their second time this season. The Wolverines won the first outing, 76-70, in Madison at the start of the month. They’ll look to replicate that result at Crisler this weekend. Michigan started out slowly in that game, but solid performances by freshman forward Naz Hillmon and freshman guard Amy Dilk helped the team prevail. Hillmon led the team with 20 points and eight rebounds, shooting 8-of- 9 from the field. Dilk helped generate much of that scoring, finishing with eight assists. The roommates could potentially lead the team again. Hillmon has been top-notch recently. Since the previous meeting, she has averaged 16.3 points a night. In the past two games against Michigan State and Rutgers, she dropped 27 and 21 points, respectively. “Naz has just been tremendous,” Barnes Arico said on Inside Michigan Basketball Radio Show. “And every now and again, she’ll have a freshman- like moment, but it doesn’t really last for too long. She’s just been a special player.” Dilk suffered a right knee injury against Nebraska — immediately after facing the Badgers. She sat out the next three games before playing 16 minutes against the Scarlet Knights. And she tallied 29 minutes last Sunday against the Spartans. “I think she’s getting close to 100 percent and we’re gonna need her down this tail stretch here,” Barnes Arico said. The Wolverines are coming off a loss at Michigan State that snapped their seven- game win streak. Turnovers and fouls contributed to their downfall. Michigan lost the ball 25 times and gave the Spartans 27 free throw attempts — of which they made 23. With no midweek contest this week, the Wolverines have had time to fine-tune. “We haven’t had a bye week all season,” Barnes Arico said on Tuesday. “So it’s great for us to work on things that Michigan needs to get better at and some of the things that we haven’t been successful at in the next couple days.” Forwards Marsha Howard and Imani Lewis are Wisconsin’s top scorers, both averaging double digits. That said, the Badgers have struggled throughout the season with just two road wins. They’ve lost four of six since last playing Michigan and sit at second-to- last in the conference standings. The Wolverines appear to be the clear favorite and should soon be able to take on their bigger desires. “It’s just another opportunity for our team to go out there and show what we’ve been working on and how great we can be,” Munger said. “ … One more game and then we can focus on (the Big Ten Tournament).” ROHAN KUMAR Daily Sports Writer Freshmen to play key role Per man, as Mel Pearson likes to think, Wisconsin is the most talented team in the Big Ten. The Michigan hockey coach points to the Badgers’ speed and skating ability when explaining why they’re so dangerous. But with their talent, it begs the question as to why they are sitting one point from the bottom of the conference. “They’re very young,” Pearson said. “And they’re starting to mature. They’ve been in most games. They’ve had a couple recently that have gotten away from them, but they’re a scary team.” One notable characteristic Wisconsin shares with the Wolverines is youth. The Badgers roster nine freshmen and seven sophomores, many of whom are major contributors to the team. Michigan, similarly, has 10 freshmen and six sophomores. In the previous series in November, it was Wisconsin’s freshmen who made the difference, scoring all three of its goals in the series. Despite the impact, their inexperience showed as well, committing late-game penalties that jeopardized the result of the match. This weekend, Pearson expects an entirely different team — for both sides. “I think we’ve grown a lot,” Pearson said. “I think we matured a lot since then, and the freshmen have grown a lot as you can see by Nolan Moyle’s play, Garrett Van Wyhe, and Nick Blankenburg and Jack Summers, and you go down the list, those guys have really taken steps. “And I think Wisconsin too, some of their freshmen are no longer freshmen. They’re playing like upperclassmen.” The growth in Michigan’s freshmen has been evident. Even as of last weekend, Moyle broke out for three goals against Ohio State, scoring back-to- back goals to win Friday’s game for the Wolverines. Van Wyhe connected with Moyle for both of those goals, highlighting the chemistry the two built on throughout the season. Blankenburg broke open the scoring for Michigan on Saturday, and Summers stepped up to the plate after Luke Martin went down. The upcoming weekend will be the final regular season series for both teams. Having come off a nail-biting series split against the Buckeyes, Michigan failed to secure home ice for the Big Ten Tournament. Instead, the Wolverines will need three points out of the series against the Badgers to get home ice. “Well, I thought (last) weekend was intense when we played Ohio State,” Pearson said. “And I think it’s going to go up another level because of the implications. I mean, they still have a chance for home ice and we’re battling for that. So everyone’s still, there’s still something on the line for everybody.” The Wolverines haven’t seen too many high-stakes situations in the season, but Pearson believes that the team can rise to the occasion. “It can put pressure on you, but it can also excite you,” Pearson said. “And I hope it does the latter, I hope the guys are excited about that. We’ve been pretty good on the road this year. We’ve yet to be swept on the road, we’ve found a way to win and get points, every weekend we’ve played this year, and I expect the same out of this group. I know they’ll be ready to play, they’re anxious to get back at Yost, but we just need to play Friday’s game.” Catch a wave: Baseball looks to capitalize on trip to California While the students of the University of Michigan head off to rest their weary brains during Spring Break, the No. 17 Michigan baseball team (6-0) is going to work in sunny California. “That sounds like baseball heaven to me,” said head coach Erik Bakich. “Eight games in ten days, we are fired up for that.” On this trip, the Wolverines will face four teams currently with a winning record in addition to a talented Southern California team looking to prove itself. Michigan kicks off its Spring Break on Friday with a three- game series against Cal State- Northridge (5-4), which is coming off a 4-3 loss to No. 3 UCLA — a game in which they gave up a one-run lead in the seventh inning. Looking to avenge the loss, the Matadors will be eager to take down a ranked Michigan team trying to extend its unbeaten run as long as possible. After Cal State-Northridge, the Wolverines will enjoy a day off before playing Long Beach State and University of California-Irvine on back-to- back days where the real test starts for its pitchers. Star juniors left-hander Tommy Henry and right-hander Karl Kauffmann will have to keep the heat on after just four days of rest. The Dirtbags, currently 0-7, will try to improve on a poor start to the season, but they will be coming off one day of rest from their series at Ole Miss. The Anteaters, conversely, will be coming off of five days of rest and eager to play their first ranked team of the season. What Michigan is looking forward to most comes on the final weekend of Spring Break, when it will be playing against No. 19 Oklahoma State inside of Dodgers Stadium. “I’m really excited about the Dodgertown classic and to get the opportunity to play in Dodgers Stadium,” said Bakich. “Just hearing from the guys that are on the team in 2017, it was one of those life memories that you make, getting to play in Dodgers Stadium. So I’m excited for the kids that they get to experience that and play in Dodgers Stadium.” Over the three-game stretch the Wolverines will play the Bruins and Trojans at their home fields before the finale against the Cowboys. The toughest stretch of games for Michigan in the early season, these three matchups will prove how good the undefeated Wolverines really are before they come back to play in Ann Arbor for the first time all season. Bakich, though, is not looking past the early week matchups. “Everyone that we play out on the West Coast are perennial powers, from Cal State- Northridge to Long Beach to Irvine to UCLA, USC, Oklahoma State,” Bakich said. “From that standpoint we’re going to be really tested in those eight games over the 10-day period.” KENT SCHWARTZ Daily Sports Writer CARTER FOX/Daily The Michigan baseball team will play eight games in 10 days over break, including one at Dodger Stadium. KEEMYA ESMAEL/Daily Naz Hillmon scored 20 points in the last game against Wisconsin. TIEN LE Daily Sports Writer Michigan trying to overcome struggles with mental game Michigan softball is unranked. It hasn’t defeated a ranked team, it’s yet to dominate an entire tournament and it’s lost more games than it’s won. The Wolverines have hit a total of two runs in four games against ranked opponents and scored three runs or fewer in over half of their games. Last weekend, Michigan left the LSU Invitational in Baton Rouge, LA with three losses in five games, and it wasn’t happy. The team let up seven runs in one contest against an unranked Stanford team, complicating the pitching staff’s previously perceived reliability. The Wolverines left the third week of the season as coach Carol Hutchins’ first losing team this far into a season in 35 years. After a start like that, how could they be happy? Michigan is in uncharted territory, and it’s time to own up to it. After weeks of “mental lapses,” “lack of focus” and other mental problems plaguing the Wolverines — as players have said — it’s worth looking at why the team can’t seem to click mentally. If the problem really lies in lack of focus, then why can’t Michigan get on its game? When they do, they blow by teams, play tough against ranked opponents and perform well offensively and defensively against difficult schedules. So why is mental acuity so hard for the Wolverines to find, and how will they live up to the potential we’ve seen in bits and pieces of games? Players weren’t made available this week to answer those questions. We’ve seen the chemistry in short stints. Michigan trounced South Florida and Illinois State in the USF Opening Weekend Invitational, held No. 9 Louisiana State to a close 1-2 loss last weekend and carries over much of the talent from last year in its upperclassmen. We know how the Wolverines are capable of playing, and they know it too, as players have said several times. But something isn’t clicking with the softball team, and we’ve seen it so far this season. Last weekend, sophomore left-hander Meghan Beaubien said she didn’t have the right mindset or clear head to throw well, and that she corrected that mindset for her no-hitter in the California State-Northridge game. Beaubien threw one of her best games of the season that day. But the problem lies in the fact that she, and many of her teammates, can’t emulate those performances every game. We all know that Michigan softball hasn’t had the start it wants, and we all know that something is wrong, so now it’s up to the Wolverines to let us know why. LILY FRIEDMAN Daily Spors Writer ALEC COHEN/Daily The Michigan softball team continues to point to “mental issues” to explain a sluggish 6-8 start to the season. ALEXANDRIA POMPEI/Daily Michigan coach Mel Pearson was highly complimentary of Wisconsin’s potential.