The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com
Sports
Wednesday, March 27, 2019 — 7A

In win, Michigan turns Gators’ water off, advances to Sweet Sixteen

DES MOINES, Iowa — Two 
years 
ago, 
when 
Michigan 
upset No. 2 seed Louisville to 
reach the Sweet Sixteen, John 
Beilein, Super Soaker in hand, 
crept into the locker room 
and sprayed water all over his 
jubilant players.
Luke 
Yaklich, 
then 
an 
assistant 
at 
Illinois 
State, 
wasn’t around to experience it. 
But on Saturday, the Wolverines 
advanced to the Sweet Sixteen 
with a 64-49 win over Florida, 
and afterwards, Yaklich’s light-
brown close crop was matted 
down with water, the product 
of a celebratory bottle-pouring.
Yaklich was perfectly fine 

with it — sophomore forward 
Isaiah Livers said he ran “right 
for the water.” But if he had 
been upset and in search of for a 
culprit, Charles Matthews was 
to blame.
“He literally said this: Going 
into the Sweet Sixteen, you’ll 
know that feeling when you 
pour water on the head coach,” 
Livers said. “He said, ‘Think 
about pouring water on the 
coaches when they come in here 
after we win.’ ”
The redshirt junior’s speech 
came at halftime as Michigan 
led, 32-28 — a lead that felt like 
it should have been larger. The 
Gators were kept in the contest 
by a 6-for-12 shooting display 
from outside, uncharacteristic 
of 
a 
33.4 
percent 
3-point 

shooting team. This was even 
more the case seeing as many 
of Florida’s threes were tough, 
closely-guarded attempts.
Eight minutes into the first 
half, 
Jalen 
Hudson heaved 
a 
three 
from 
several 
feet 
behind the arc. 
Jordan 
Poole 
did 
everything 
asked 
of 
him 
— 
he 
moved 
his feet, timed 
his 
jump 
and 
contested 
the 
shot well — but 
the sophomore guard was still 
left shaking his head as the ball 
smacked off the backboard and 
into the net.

“We’ll live with them hitting 
tough shots,” Poole said. “Not 
a lot of teams are able to be 
in a situation where they can 
make tough shots throughout 
the entire night, 
and if they do, 
tip your hats to 
them.”
But 
the 
Wolverines 
weren’t 
about 
to take off their 
caps just yet.
First 
came 
the 
strategic 
adjustment. 
Point 
guard 
Andrew Nembhard ran the 
Gators’ offense to perfection in 
the first half, dishing out five 
assists as Michigan couldn’t 

stop him from getting downhill 
out of ball-screen situations. 
The Wolverines took these away 
by going under screens to alter 
Nembhard’s vision and prevent 
his penetration.
“The 
guys 
understood the 
pattern and the 
flow 
of 
their 
offense 
and 
that’s 
where 
the 
basketball 
intelligence 
of 
our players takes 
over,” 
Yaklich 
said. 
“They 
understand 
what hurt us. They can tweak it, 
move all over the floor to take 
that away, and it ends up being 
good for us.”
At the same time, Michigan’s 
leaders — Matthews and Zavier 
Simpson — were there to make 
sure their teammates kept their 
composure, continued playing 
strong defense and trusted 
that the logical result of good 
defense would follow.
“They’re 
really 
good 
shooters, so they’re gonna make 
some of those,” Yaklich said. 
“But over the course of the 
game, you just gotta stay true to 
who you are and not make any 
lazy decisions at halftime that 
just take you out of who you are 
defensively.”
Added sophomore guard C.J. 
Baird: “The one thing is our 
leadership and that’s the one 
thing that keeps us composed. 
Even if (Hudson’s) shot goes 
in, Jordan was like, ah come 
on, I can’t believe that went in. 
The leaders are like, ‘OK, you 
played good defense, look at the 
positives there.’ Everybody’s 
like, ‘OK, we can still do this, 
even though that shot went in, 
we’re still on it all the time.’ ”
And when the Wolverines 
left the locker room, Matthews 
made sure they were, indeed, 
on it.
“First time in the huddle, 
he came and said, ‘No more 

threes. No more threes. Let’s 
limit their threes,’ ” assistant 
coach DeAndre Haynes told 
The Daily. “He held it down for 
us out there.”
What resulted 
was 
a 
second 
half 
in 
which 
Michigan’s 
defense, 
as 
usual, 
looked 
elite to both the 
eyes and the stat 
sheet.
Nembhard 
had just three 
assists 
against 
two 
turnovers. 
Florida hit 3-of-14 3-pointers. 
It scored just 21 points. The 
Wolverines, meanwhile, scored 
the first 11 points of the second 
half, and after weathering an 
offensive dry spell of their own, 
dunked the Gators out of the 
NCAA Tournament.
When it was all said and done, 
Michigan had not only “shut 
their water off,” as Matthews 
demanded, but found its own 
water, using it to celebrate a 
15-point victory.
At this point, you don’t need 
any more evidence that the 
Wolverines will ride or die with 
their defense. It’s their identity, 
and they’re proud of it. And on 
Saturday, this meant rejecting 
the radical idea that opposing 
players 
will 
sometimes 
hit 
shots.
Instead, Michigan put its 
clamps down as hard as it has 
all season.
“The 
defensive 
identity 
starts with our leaders and our 
coaching and those guys, like 
taking pride in your matchup, 
taking pride in those shots,” 
Baird said. “I don’t think last 
year you would have seen 
Jordan Poole get upset about 
a shot going in over him. Now, 
with the culture we brought in 
and the coaches we brought in, 
it’s really been important to us.
“It 
really 
helps 
us 
win 
games.”

JACOB SHAMES
Daily Sports Editor

KATELYN MULCAHY/Daily
The Michigan men’s basketball team celebrated in the locker room after Saturday’s 64-49 win over Florida by splashing each other and the coaches with water.

Big innings holding Wolverines back

Three outs.
String them together however 
you can – a grounder, a strikeout, 
a pop-up; a double play, a triple 
play, a runner caught stealing.
No matter how it happens, 
lately, that’s all that has stood 
between the Michigan baseball 
team and success: three outs. 
The Wolverines have been 
allowing big innings in crucial 
matchups. Their usual lights-
out pitching has shown flaws, 
and as they face increasingly 
tough competition, those flaws 
are being exploited, causing 
significant problems for Team 
153. 
Their 
series 
against 
No. 
11 Texas Tech is the perfect 
example. In Thursday’s game, 
they gave up six runs in the fifth 
inning. On Friday, they gave up 
five runs in the sixth inning. And 
in Saturday’s contest, there was 
only one inning in which the Red 
Raiders did not score.
“They hit against us almost 
like they knew every pitch that 
was coming,” said Michigan 
coach Erik Bakich. “They took 
advantage of our mistakes. They 
did to us what we’ve done to a lot 
of the teams we’ve played and 

opened up a big margin.”
Whether it’s been defensive 
errors, Jimmy Kerr and Blake 
Nelson already have six errors 
apiece on the season; pitching 
difficulties, third starter Jeff 
Criswell has racked up a 4.41 
earned run average over 30.1 
innings; or a combination of the 
two, Michigan has not been able 
to string together those three 
outs. And their opponents are 
making them pay. 
Texas 
Tech 
swept 
the 
Wolverines in their three-game 
series. Michigan’s first loss of 
the season came in a game in 
which Cal State-Long Beach 
put runs on the board in three 
consecutive innings toward a 
final score of 8-7. And its 4-1 loss 
to Southern California came 
when they allowed the Trojans 
to put up two runs in two 
separate innings. 
“(Our errors) were just very 
costly, because they came at 
the most inopportune times,” 
Bakich said. “You can’t do that 
against any team, but especially 
a really good team. Every time, 
they will make you pay for it. 
And this weekend, they made us 
pay for it.”
At 
times 
this 
season, 
Michigan’s offense has also 
proven its ability to notch big 

innings. A three-run seventh 
inning against UCLA. An eight-
run third inning and a six-run 
sixth inning against Manhattan. 
A five-run sixth inning against 
Western Michigan.
All of those games were wins 
– 7-5 over the Bruins, 23-2 over 
the Jaspers and 12-5 over the 
Broncos. 
When 
the 
Wolverines 
can 
piece 
together 
several 
consecutive 
quality 
at-bats, 
they’ve proven difficult to stop.
“When we can put big innings 
together, and score three or more 
runs in an inning, it certainly 
helps us win the game,” Bakich 
said. “That’ll continue to be 
something that we leverage.”
Michigan is about to head into 
Big Ten play with a weekend 
series 
against 
nearby 
rival 
Michigan State. A home series 
against Minnesota – likely its 
toughest Big Ten competition 
– and an away weekend at Ohio 
State are not too far down the 
road. If the Wolverines can 
solidify their defense, and if 
their pitchers rediscover the 
dominance 
they 
showed 
in 
earlier stretches this season, 
they will look to be a serious Big 
Ten contender.
All that stands in the way are 
three outs. 

‘M’ Softball blows past Central 
Michigan in run-rule victory

It was a long drive from 
Ann Arbor to Mount Pleasant. 
Many players had class earlier 
in the day. The atmosphere 
wasn’t energetic.
Madison 
Uden 
changed 
that.
Led by the junior third 
baseman’s two-run home run 
in the third inning, the No. 
23 Michigan softball team 
beat Central Michigan, 8-0, 
in a five-inning run-rule win. 
With Uden’s home run and 
a three-run home run from 
senior 
infielder 
Mackenzie 
Nemitz, the win carried on the 
success the Wolverines had 
at the plate Sunday against 
Nebraska.
To start the in-state contest, 
senior 
outfielder 
Natalie 
Peters hit a single past the 
third baseman into left field. 
Freshman 
outfielder 
Lexie 
Blair followed that hit with 
a single of her own, moving 
Peters to third. With two 
Michigan players on base, 
senior 
Mackenzie 
Nemitz 
stepped to the plate. She didn’t 
mirror 
her 
performance 
in 
Sunday’s 
game 
against 
Nebraska 
— 
when she scored 
a 
booming 
home run. She 
didn’t 
even 
come out of the 
play 
on 
base. 
But 
Nemitz’s 
subsequent 
groundout to the shortstop 
drove Peters home, putting the 
Wolverines on the board early.
Already up by one run, 
Uden hit a home run to right 
field that drove her and senior 
first baseman Alex Sobczak 
— who was already on base — 
home, increasing Michigan’s 
lead to three and completely 
toppling the atmosphere at the 
Chippewas’ field.
“(The home run) lit a spark 

in us,” Nemitz said. “Traveling 
to Central Michigan was kind 
of a long drive and we all were 
kind of just dead, and after 
she hit that, it was just instant 
light-up of everybody and we 
just 
continued 
to 
play 
our 
game.”
Nemitz 
especially 
did 
that. 
After 
Peters hit a fly 
ball for a double 
that plated both 
sophomore 
shortstop 
Natalia 
Rodriguez and 
senior second baseman Faith 
Canfield to increase the score 
to 5-0, Nemitz hit a home run 
past right center field that 
brought her, Peters and Blair 
back around the bases to their 
teammates 
celebrating 
the 
team’s 8-0 lead around the 
plate.
“It feels good,” Nemitz said. 
“It’s something that I have 
known I can do, so finally 
having it happen is kind of like 

a breakthrough moment and 
kind of gives myself and my 
teammates the confidence that 
we need.”
On 
the 
mound, 
that 
confidence 
also 
showed. 
Freshman right-hander Alex 
Storako, 
who 
pitched 
all 
five innings, threw for eight 
strikeouts, allowing only two 
hits and zero runs on the day. 
The game brought Storako’s 
overall ERA down to 2.00 — 
only 0.28 behind sophomore 
Meghan Beaubien, who hasn’t 
given up a run in her almost 
30 
innings 
pitching 
since 
resuming play at Alumni Field.
“In the fourth inning, I got 
out of a bases-loaded jam, so 
going back on the field for the 
fifth inning, I just knew that 
I wanted to end the game and 
with a bang,” Storako said. 
“It’s just been exciting to be 
a part of the atmosphere in 
the dugout and on the field 
when we celebrate at the plate 
and it’s just really exciting to 
see people and their at-bats 
and just really getting to this 
point.”

ABBY SNYDER
Daily Sports Writer

LILY FRIEDMAN
Daily Sports Writer

...if they do (hit 
tough shots), 
tip your hats to 
them.

First time in 
the huddle, he... 
said, ‘No more 
threes.’

KATELYN MULCAHY/Daily
Junior left-hander Tommy Henry has a 0.41 ERA this season, but allowed six unearned runs in his last start.

ALEC COHEN/Daily
Senior infielder Mackenzie Nemitz hit a three-run home run Tuesday.

It’s something 
that I have 
known I can 
do...

