8 — Friday, March 1, 2019 Sports The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com Senior Night laugher Wolverines dominate wire-to-wire, beat Nebraska, 82-53 Position review: Special teams With the Michigan football team’s 2018 regular season in the books, The Daily looks back at the performance of each unit this year and peers ahead to the future in 2019. In this edition: special teams. Michigan’s special teams unit came into the year a largely raw bunch that had seen its ups and downs the year before. But from the time sophomore defensive back Ambry Thomas returned a kickoff 99 yards for a touchdown in the season opener against Notre Dame, it also flashed its unique potential. The group’s contribution went mostly unseen, but it was quietly one of the Wolverines’ biggest strengths. Whether through clutch kicking, long punts or electric returns, the special teams helped keep Michigan in some games and turned others into blowouts. Junior punter Will Hart was a revelation. After spending last season backing up then- freshman Brad Robbins, Hart stepped into the spotlight after Robbins missed the entire season with an injury. He punted for an average of 49.98 yards with a long of 65, while totaling 19 punts of at least 50 yards. That earned him the Big Ten Punter of the Year award and a first-team All-Big Ten nod. While the other positions were more unsettled, many contributors stepped up, especially on the return unit. Sophomore safety Brad Hawkins and freshman wide receiver Ronnie Bell both contributed, and Bell ripped off a 53-yard kick return in the Peach Bowl that showcased his future potential as a return man. HIGH POINT: Michigan’s offense had stalled — again. Jake Moody came to bail it out — again. It was late in the fourth quarter and Indiana — a team that had no business sticking with the Wolverines this long — had just scored a touchdown to cut Michigan’s lead to eight. With the game down to one score, the Wolverines needed a safety net, and when they faced fourth down again, Moody got the call. His 29-yard attempt sailed straight through. The kick was his sixth field goal on the day. Not only was it a program record, it was Moody’s first game placekicking. Previously, Moody had stuck to kickoff duties, but with Michigan’s normal kicker, redshirt sophomore Quinn Nordin, out with an illness, it was Moody’s turn to step up. The Wolverines won the game, 31-20, largely thanks to Moody’s contributions. Moody’s breakout game also provided some much- needed stability to the kicking corps. Nordin has a strong leg, but was prone to misses from easy distances. Due to his performance against the Hoosiers, Moody started the remaining two games of the season and hit four of his five attempts, including a 48-yarder against Florida in the Peach Bowl. LOW POINT: At halftime against Wisconsin, there was frustration. Michigan had thoroughly outplayed the Badgers to that point, but led by just six. Against a team like Wisconsin, it seemed like the Wolverines’ trouble finishing drives could come back to bite them. The slim lead was partially thanks to one of Nordin’s bad days. After missing a field goal in the first quarter, he missed another just before halftime, squandered a pair of promising drives. Nordin’s misses ultimately didn’t come back to bite Michigan as it pulled away in the second half to win, 38-13, but they showed the potential dangers that could come with an inconsistent kicker — part of the reason Moody eventually took over the starting role. Against the Hoosiers, the kicking unit bailed out its offense when not much was working. Against the Badgers, the offense was there to bail out its kickers at their low point. THE FUTURE: The Wolverines’ special teams in 2018 were largely populated by fresh faces. Of the main contributors, only Hart was an upperclassman, and he still has one more year of eligibility. That bodes well for the future, as more development from its young players will bolster an already strong unit. That’s particularly true of the returners. Sophomore receiver Donovan Peoples-Jones at punt return and the committee of Thomas, Hawkins and Bell at kick return certainly flashed potential. Peoples-Jones scored an electric touchdown against Nebraska, employing his signature spin move to take a punt to the house. Facing an 18-point deficit late in the second quarter against Notre Dame, Thomas scored a kick- return touchdown to give Michigan hope of a comeback. But with it, its inexperience showed as well. Against Ohio State, Thomas caught a kick that was about to sail over his head and out of bounds, significantly hurting the Wolverines’ field position in a critical moment. Both he and Peoples-Jones occasionally made mental mistakes that spurred questions over whether their roles would be better filled by someone else. The extra year of experience will help combat those slip- ups, and Michigan coach Jim Harbaugh’s willingness to try others at punt and kick return will give other speedy young players, like Bell, a chance to emerge. Meanwhile, Peoples-Jones’ spin move and Thomas’ blazing speed give the group large upside despite inconsistency. Should Nordin and Moody both remain with the team, Nordin’s range could complement Moody’s consistency. Moody’s only missed field goal on the year was from 52 yards — a distance Nordin has shown he can hit. Moody will likely handle regular kicking duties in the future, but Nordin could come in to try long attempts and give the Wolverines a higher ceiling. Meanwhile, after cementing his status as one of the top punters in the nation, Hart has one year left to build on his success. Big Ten games have a reputation for being defensive battles where field position is key. Against Michigan State — a game in which offense was hard to come by — Hart punted eight times for an average of 45.8 yards, including a 65-yarder. Michigan will likely have more such games in the future, and Hart has shown that he can put his team in a good position to win by making opposing offenses work that much harder. Overall, the special teams had unsung success for the Wolverines this season, and the unit’s youth and emergence of new stars bode well for another year of helping Michigan win behind the scenes. ARIA GERSON Daily Sports Writer From Will Hart to Jake Moody to Donovan Peoples-Jones and more, Michigan brings back much of its special teams EVAN AARON/Daily Freshman kicker Jake Moody made four of his five kicks against Florida in the Peach Bowl after taking the kicker’s job from Quinn Nordin during the season. Somehow, Isaiah Livers caught the pass, legs in the air, teetering on the edge of the court. His pink shoes barely landed in bounds as he lobbed the ball to Jordan Poole. The possession started with junior center Jon Teske rebounding his missed layup, then getting down on the floor, fighting for a loose ball and shoveling it to junior guard Zavier Simpson. It ended with Poole catching the ball at halfcourt and finding Teske, wide open on the perimeter for three — his second triple in the first five minutes. It was that kind of night for the Michigan men’s basketball team (25-4 overall, 14-4 Big Ten), who got off to a quick start and never relented, winning 82-53 over Nebraska (15-14, 5-13) in the final home game of the season. “We jumped on them right away,” Teske said. “I wasn’t expecting to win by 30 (but) we played well, got on them early, which helps. Offensively, defensively, we really got on them tonight.” Shots were falling no matter who was on the court. With redshirt junior wing Charles Matthews out with an ankle injury, others — including sophomore forward Isaiah Livers, freshman guard David DeJulius and freshman forward Colin Castleton — were forced to contribute, and that they did. Matthews’ absence proved to be no problem. Livers, who got the start in his place, started off the game by rattling in a contested trey. He finished with 12 points and 10 rebounds for his first career double- double. “Charles, he does a lot of great things,” Livers said. “I tried to replace him as best as I could, trying to grab 50-50 balls, just knock open shots and go dunk on other people’s heads. … But without Charles, nothing’s really gonna change. The ball’s still gonna move, shots are still gonna go in. We’re still gonna be Michigan.” Seconds after subbing in, meanwhile, Castleton — whose last points were in December — slipped in a layup. When he scored his final points on a jumper with 1:24 left in the second half, cementing his 11-point breakout game, he exited to a standing ovation. After Nebraska cut the lead to 17 by forcing a three-and-a-half minute field goal drought, Teske responded by sinking another 3-pointer. Two possessions later, Simpson grabbed a rebound and tossed a half-court pass to Poole. Poole threw down a thunderous one-handed dunk, skidding across the floor before calmly sinking the and-one. But Teske was the real star of the show. He was a matchup nightmare for Nebraska, driving to the basket at will and drawing fouls when he couldn’t hit a shot for a career-high 22 points. After he completed the double- double with his 10th rebound, Teske hit a layup on the ensuing possession for the cherry on top, then subbed out for the final time, giving the freshmen and walk-ons a go at it. “Jon did not take a three in practice the last two days,” said Michigan coach John Beilein. “ … All of a sudden he just grabs it and shoots it in and does it again, so I think that set the stage. It seems this is part of the mental edge, it seems on Senior Nights, this happens all the time. There’s just this, all of a sudden, we’re playing, and maybe we’re playing more relaxed as well.” After the game was over and Senior Night festivities done, the Wolverines stood in the Maize Rage section, singing the fight song in front of their home crowd for the final time this season. They were nothing but smiles. Ignas Brazdeikis hit the floor and 12,707 hearts stopped. The freshman forward lay on his back, clutching his left knee in pain, and all of Michigan’s worst fears seemed to be coming to fruition. On Wednesday, the Wolverines found out Charles Matthews wouldn’t be able to suit up for his own Senior Night with a right ankle injury. Now, their leading scorer was down on the ground after a collison under the basket just 13 seconds before halftime. A trainer helped him up, and Brazdeikis gingerly made his way to the bench under his own power. When he took the floor to start the second half, Crisler Center exhaled. By the time he hit his fourth 3-pointer of the game, Michigan led by 24 with seven minutes remaining, and the harrowing moment at the end of the first half was a forgotten footnote in the Wolverines’ 82-53 win over Nebraska on Thursday. “I sprinted over and I was like, ‘Please no, please no, please no,’” said sophomore forward Isaiah Livers. “He said he was alright, he probably just tweaked it a little bit. … You see his playing, he hit four threes, so he was playing very well after that.” And so was everyone else wearing a maize jersey. Michigan scored its most points since Dec. 8. It shot 56 percent from the field and 55 percent from three. It recorded 19 assists on its 30 made baskets. Brazdeikis, Livers, junior center Jon Teske and freshman forward Colin Castleton all scored in double-figures. It was the Wolverines’ most dominant performance in weeks, and it couldn’t have come at a better time. “Great bounce-back for our guys after the other day,” said Michigan coach John Beilein. “It was great that we turned it around, coaching staff turned it around.” The “other day,” of course, was the Wolverines’ 77-70 loss to Michigan State, in which it blew a six-point lead with 15 minutes remaining. With or without Matthews, Michigan needed a response in the worst way. “We had a bad taste in our mouths,” Teske said. “We wanted to come out defensively, just shut them down and offensively, knock down open shots.” The Wolverines did that from the start. Livers, who replaced Matthews in the starting lineup, nailed his first three just two minutes into the game. Teske — who didn’t attempt a three in practice the last two days, per Beilein — hit from the left wing on the next trip down the court, and Michigan was up, 8-2, and off and running. When a team loses a rivalry game in the fashion the Wolverines did Sunday, bouncing back is the obvious storyline. That kind of mental response is intangible. What isn’t, though, was Michigan’s extreme height advantage over the Cornhuskers, who play only one player taller than 6-foot-8. Teske (22 points and 10 rebounds) and Castleton (11 points in nine minutes) stand 7-foot-1 and 6-foot- 11, respectively. Nebraska didn’t have an answer, as the Wolverines had no trouble in finding their big men down low — and occasionally, on the perimeter, where Teske hit all three of his 3-pointers. “We knew if we go harder off the screen that they were gonna switch,” Livers said. “So when we see that you got a 7-footer and a 6-foot-10 guy with long arms, they know how to keep the ball above their head, that’s an easy assist and easy bucket. It was great to see that they were playing big today instead of just playing small.” That performance was quietly engineered by Michigan’s backcourt. Nothing junior Zavier Simpson or sophomore Jordan Poole did was electrifying — save for Poole’s out-of-nowhere tomahawk dunk in the second half. But in a way, that was the point. Simpson and Poole’s job was simple: find the open man — usually a big man — and keep the ball moving. With just six shot attempts, but 15 assists combined between them, they did just that. “They didn’t have to shoot the ball to make us win,” Beilein said. “The ball moved. Yesterday in practice, we could see the ball move. Didn’t stick like it has in some games. That’s how you score 80 points.” As for the mental response? “Maybe we’re playing more relaxed as well,” Beilein said. “After we got beat the other day, I think people just say, ‘OK, we learned a great lesson, let’s just go out there and take the next right shot and don’t worry about it. Don’t press to try and show anything, just make the next right play.’ ” It’s been a theme this year, according to players and coaches — Michigan plays its best basketball when it plays freely and without tension. And as the Cornhuskers were reminded, the Wolverines are quite good when they play their best basketball. “If they’re gonna play for a conference championship, you can’t lose at home,” said Nebraska coach Tim Miles. “Certainly can’t lose at home to a 10th place team. … I think that just (Michigan) making shots early deflated our guys some. But hey, this is not a league where you can feel sorry for yourself.” After Sunday’s loss, the Wolverines didn’t. Michigan bounces back after rivalry loss to the Spartans ARIA GERSON Daily Sports Writer ALEXANDRIA POMPEI/Daily Freshman center Colin Castleton scored a career-high 11 points on Thursday. JACOB SHAMES Daily Sports Editor But without Charles, nothing’s really gonna change.