Michigan State sweep fuels Wolverines with tournament approaching

CHICAGO 
— 
Twenty 
minutes after Michigan looked 
on as confetti cannons burst 
and the United Center lit up in 
green and white, celebrating 
Michigan State as the Big Ten 
Tournament champions, the 
Wolverines were ushered to 
their selection show watch 
party.
Suddenly, 
the 
Michigan 
men’s 
basketball 
team 
had 
to switch gears to the NCAA 
Tournament. 
Cameras 
were 
trained on the Wolverines, 
ready to catch their reaction 
as their draw — a No. 2 seed 
playing Montana in Des Moines 
— was announced.
The announcement itself was 
anti-climactic. Michigan knew 
it would be in the tournament 
and though the Wolverines 

stood and clapped while they 
were announced, they were 
devoid of the same energy as 
teams with undetermined fates 
— and teams that hadn’t just 
been dealt a crushing loss.
Back in the locker room 
afterwards, the mixed emotions 
collided.
Some 
players 
were 
sullen, 
refusing to even 
face 
reporters. 
The ones that did 
simultaneously 
faced 
questions 
about what had 
gone 
wrong 
in 
Michigan’s third 
loss to its most 
bitter rival and 
questions looking 
ahead to March Madness.
But the answers to those two 
questions are connected.
“Here we are on Sunday and 

we’re down,” said Michigan 
coach John Beilein. “We’re on 
to the NCAA Tournament and 
now we’ll see what we can do 
there and learn from what we 
did today.”
Before blowing their second 
title opportunity in two weeks, 
the 
Wolverines 
blew 
away 
both Iowa and 
Minnesota 
in 
earlier rounds 
of the Big Ten 
Tournament. 
Neither 
of 
those 
teams 
is great — but 
both 
made 
the 
NCAA 
Tournament as 
No. 10 seeds, 
and 
Michigan 
hadn’t beaten a tournament-
caliber team so decisively since 
January.
Ask the players, and they’ll 

tell you that the fact that those 
wins came so soon after the loss 
at the Breslin Center on Mar. 9 — 
which compeleted the regular-
season sweep for the Spartans 
— wasn’t a coincidence.
“The 
loss 
at 
Michigan 
State kinda brought a lot of us 
together and kinda evaluate 
ourselves,” 
said 
sophomore 
forward 
Isaiah 
Livers 
on 
Saturday 
after 
the 
semifinal 
win. “Look in the 
mirror, are you 
doing what’s right 
for us to win? 
What’s 
going 
on? Why are we 
coming up short 
against our rivals?
“It was just, some people just 
self-reflected, some had a little 
meeting. It was just small stuff 

like that and I could see from 
starter all the way to walk-on, 
just a difference in the practices 
last week. It felt a lot more 
competitive and focused.”
The title game made clear 
that those issues aren’t totally 
resolved. But there were some 
improvements, 
tweaks 
that 
came 
out 
against 
lesser 
competition. 
And 
perhaps 
the 
road 
to 
another March 
run is taking 
those 
tweaks 
a step further 
— 
something 
the Wolverines 
have 
no 
shortage 
of 
motivation to do.
“I think every loss has been 
a rallying point for us,” Beilein 
said. “That we learn from every 

loss and we’ll learn from this 
one. … We’d like to avoid losing 
to get better, but the fact of life 
is it’s gonna happen.”
Michigan likely won’t soon 
forget the way it felt in the locker 
room. Even amid the joy of a 
high NCAA Tournament seed 
and the fun of March Madness, 
the pain of the Spartan sweep 
will still be there, fuel for a 
team that still very much has 
something to prove.
Of course, it’s a tough task 
to fix everything so quickly. 
The 
Wolverines 
play 
again 
Thursday, and there’s only so 
much prep that can go into such 
a short turnaround. Beilein 
himself couldn’t offer up any 
promises Sunday, but when 
asked if it was really possible to 
produce an uptick in efficiency 
in a mere matter of days, Beilein 
did offer a glimmer of hope.
“We have before.”

ALEC COHEN/Daily
Michigan coach John Beilein wants the Wolverines to learn from their Big Ten Tournament final loss to Michigan State ahead of the NCAA Tournament.

ARIA GERSON
Daily Sports Writer

We’ll see what 
we can do (at 
the NCAA 
Tournament).

Look in the 
mirror, are you 
doing what’s 
right?

Michigan draws Kansas State in 
first round of NCAA Tournament

The Wolverines are officially 
going dancing.
Nine days after the Michigan 
women’s basketball team bowed 
out of the Big Ten Tournament 
with 
a 
semifinal 
loss 
to 
Maryland, 
the 
Wolverines 
secured 
their 
second-
consecutive NCAA Tournament 
berth.
“You never want to take for 
granted the opportunity to play 
in the NCAA Tournament,” said 
Michigan coach Kim Barnes 
Arico. “It’s always a special day. 
It’s like Christmas in March. It’s 
a great honor to be selected. It’s 
great for our seniors but really 
for our younger kids to have this 
experience.”
As the No. 8 seed in the 
Albany Region, Michigan will 
face Kansas State in the Round 
of 64. The two teams will 
meet on Friday in Louisville, 
Kentucky.
The 
Wildcats’ 
season 
followed a similar trajectory 
as the Wolverines’. Not only 
do 
both 
squads 
enter 
the 
tournament with a 21-11 record 
and finished fourth in their 
respective 
conferences, 
but 

Michigan and Kansas State 
both went on late-season runs 
to 
cement 
their 
postseason 
resumés. The Wolverines won 
eight of their last nine to finish 
out the regular season, while the 
Wildcats ended on a five-game 
win streak — punctuated by a 
season sweep of powerhouse 
Texas.
“They had some great wins 
through the course of the year 
and had a really strong finish,” 
Barnes Arico said. “I don’t know 
when the committee was going 
through that if they thought, 
‘These are two teams that 
finished strong, it would be a 
great first round matchup,’ but 
they seem very similar to us.”
Receiving an at-large bid 
was not a surprising outcome 
for Michigan, but the team was 
blindsided by ESPN prematurely 
displaying the bracket three 
hours ahead of schedule.
“Right when practice ended 
we talked at the circle,” Barnes 
Arico said. “I said ‘There’s 
been a leak but there are so 
few surprises in your life, so if 
you guys can wait it will be fun 
to hold out.’ That being said, 
obviously everyone went to 
their phone, so by the time we 
got to our little party, everybody 

already knew.”
If Michigan gets past Kansas 
State, it will likely face No. 1 
seed Louisville. At 29-3 overall, 
the ACC runners-up are one 
of the tournament favorites. 
Adding the Cardinals’ home-
court advantage to the equation 
means the Wolverines would be 
playing the role of underdog in 
that matchup. The teams’ most 
recent meeting — in November 
2017 — ended with a 25-point 
win for Louisville.
Before it can think about a 
potential Sweet Sixteen run 
though, the Wolverines must 
focus on the game at hand. 
Michigan has played its best 
basketball of the season as 
of late, but with almost two 
full weeks between the Big 
Ten Tournament and Friday’s 
game, the team might struggle 
to 
continue 
their 
recent 
momentum.
Nevertheless, the Wolverines 
seem ready for the challenge.
“Our kids really have a belief 
that they can play with anyone,” 
Barnes 
Arico 
said. 
“When 
you’re going into the NCAA 
Tournament, you kinda have to 
have that belief in yourself and 
your teammates. We’re feeling 
pretty confident right now.” 

CONNOR BRENNAN
Daily Sports Writer

MILES MACKLIN/Daily
Michigan coach Kim Barnes Arico will take her team to Louisville to play Kansas State in the NCAA Tournament.

8 — Tuesday, March 19, 2019
Sports
The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com

