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March 28, 2019 - Image 6

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6A — Thursday, March 28, 2019
Sports
The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com

With the end looming, Charles Matthews is running it back

ANAHEIM, Calif. — Given
that this could be the last
practice of Charles Matthews’
college career,
he
carries
a
remarkable air
of normalcy.
The redshirt
junior gets on
the floor and
stretches
his
legs
out,
the
foam
roller
vibrating
just
as always. He’s
sitting
next
to Zavier Simpson and Isaiah
Livers and then he’s shooting
around with them before John
Beilein starts a passing drill. The
ball moves, but it doesn’t quite
hum. Matthews darts towards
the basket with his hands up,
knowing the drill calls for the
ball to go elsewhere. His facial
expression is mostly the same
serious look he’s carried with
him for the last two seasons.
He’s done this before. Shoes
squeak. Just as always.
It is an open secret that
Matthews will go to the NBA
— most of his teammates and
coaches
have
ditched
the
formality of pretending — so
technically
speaking,
every
practice
last
week
in
Des
Moines, Iowa, could have been
his last. But this is the first
where it really, truly feels that
tomorrow,
Michigan
could
lose to a team that just might
be better. The Wolverines are
favored by all of two points,
a margin small enough that
few will write about what this
season could have been if it
ends with a Sweet Sixteen loss
to Texas Tech, the only defense
ranking ahead of the Wolverines
in KenPom.
But Charles Matthews will
wonder.
Matthews will guard Red

Raiders wing Jarrett Culver on
Thursday, a matchup on which
the game’s result could hinge.
A likely top-10 pick against
someone whose chance at an
NBA career will come down to
guarding
top-10
picks.
“He can score
on
all
three
levels,” assistant
coach
Luke
Yaklich
said
of
Culver. “And then
he
passes
the
ball. He can get
you an offensive
rebound. He can
score in the post.
He can get you off a ball-screen
with his pull-up jumper, getting
to the rim. He can beat you off
the ball-screen by passing it out
to open shooters. Then he can

beat you off the ball-screen by
getting it to the rim, to the bigs.”
In short, he does damn near
everything.
In
preparing,
Matthews
is even-keeled. “There’s not
a lot of peaks
and
valleys
with
Charles,”
Yaklich
said.
“He’s a mentally
tough
kid.”
Where
others
watch film then
rewind,
then
rewind
again,
then still don’t
get it, Matthews
sees things once
and digests.
In the run-up to a late-
November game against North
Carolina
this
season,
the
coaches were walking through

some of the Tar Heels’ concepts.
They
hadn’t
brought
up
a
certain baseline cross-screen
yet — one of the base actions
in Roy Williams’ offense. So
Matthews did.
When
North
Carolina ran it in
the game?
“Charles was
right on top of
it,” remembered
walk-on forward
C.J. Baird.
Two
seasons
ago,
Matthews
arrived in Ann
Arbor
from
a
Kentucky
program which has an ethos
that juxtaposes Michigan’s in
every conceivable way. Now, he
is one of the culture-setters for
John Beilein.

“I feel like it’s just all
experience, and he has a lot of
experience, coming from a really
top-tier (program) that he came
from, coming to another top-
tier,” Isaiah Livers, a sophomore
forward,
said. “It’s just
bringing
all
the
knowledge
you learn (into
watching film).”
Just
before,
Livers had been
asked
about
Matthews
as
a
“leader
by
example,” which
is usually code
for, “a senior who doesn’t talk
very much.” This time of year,
you hear a lot about leaders by
example, and the label has stuck
to Matthews. The difference

is, Matthews picks his spots to
talk — halftime against Florida,
in the aftermath of a disastrous
loss at Penn State — and does so
with maximal impact.
“I don’t think he was ever
one
of
those
shy
guys,”
said
assistant
coach
Saddi
Washington.
“I
think
that
he
was always very
confident
in
himself and his
abilities. And so
when you got a
kid like that who
has that kind of
confidence about himself, it’s an
easy transition for him.”
One of the core tenants of the
culture Matthews has helped
build is to settle for nothing less
than championship-level play.
After that game against North
Carolina, where the Wolverines
smacked
the
Tar
Heels

holding them 30 points below
their average and winning by
17 — he rejected a reporter’s
assumption
that
Michigan
played
good
defense.
After
hitting a buzzer-beater against
Minnesota
in
January,
he
expressed only disappointment
that the Wolverines didn’t run
the Gophers out of the gym.
After that loss at Penn State, he
was sullen and angry and letting
everybody know it.
“Charles approaches every
game the same way,” Yaklich
said. “It’s a steady, methodical
approach in how he prepares
in practice, then his pregame
routine to how he goes through
things in pregame warmups to
his coaching in media timeouts.
It’s what makes Charles really,
really good.”
So against the Red Raiders,
it’s no surprise that Matthews
takes the same approach, holds
the same expectation. It’s just
as always, even if it’s for the last
time.

KATELYN MULCAHY/Daily
Redshirt junior Charles Matthews will face Texas Tech wing Jarrett Culver on Thursday, a matchup which could very well dictate the outcome of the game.

In short,
(Culver) does
damn near
everything.

There’s not a
lot of peaks and
valleys with
Charles.

I feel like
it’s just all
experience, and
he has a lot...

ETHAN SEARS
Managing Sports Editor

For Brazdeikis, this is not your typical freshman

ANAHEIM, Calif. — As the
cameras
swarmed
to
Ignas
Brazdeikis, he only sank further
into his element.
A slew of local TV cameras
shone in his face, there was a
reporter from Sports Illustrated
asking
him
questions
and
many more waiting for their
turn. Brazdeikis, mind you, is
a freshman, playing in his first
NCAA Tournament.
On the other side of the Honda
Center, Texas Tech’s Malik
Ondigo spent the afternoon
talking about preparing the
Red Raiders’ freshmen for their
first taste of the tournament’s
second weekend. This, after
all, is a level of intensity that
they’ve never experienced.
As that same pressure is
heaped on Brazdeikis, he’s the
same player he’s always been.
With each question, he only
leaned further back into his
chair, stretching his legs out
into the scrum of reporters and
running his fingers through his
hair.
When one reporter asked
about
Michigan’s
defensive
identity, he yawned in blatant
disregard
of
the
moment’s
importance.

As soon as his yawn ended,
the confidence returned.
“I think (assistant coach Luke
Yaklich) is definitely one of the
best,” he told the reporter before
pausing. “No, he’s definitely the
best defensive coach I’ve ever
had.”
It’s the same confidence that
endeared himself to Michigan
fans back in November, when he
responded to a sleepy, 56-37 win
over Holy Cross
by
describing
himself as the
best free throw
shooter in the
world. It’s the
same confidence
that
led
him
to respond to
two
hours
of
personal insults
at
Maryland
with a flurry of
flexes, before telling reporters,
“I love that part of the game,
that’s one of my favorite parts of
the game by far.”
And
now,
it’s
the
same
confidence
that
has
him
ready for this moment — no
mentoring necessary. Because
it isn’t manufactured. It’s who
Brazdeikis is, and who he’s
always been.
Nate Johnson, Brazdeikis’
high school coach at Orangeville

Prep, confirmed his effervescent
confidence is rooted in his
perceived version of reality. In
Brazdeikis’ mind, Johnson said,
Michigan is the best team in
the country and he is one of the
nation’s best players.
After practices in high school,
he would ask Johnson what
levels pro players had scored on
the drills that Orangeville ran.
If the number was higher than
his own scores,
Brazdeikis
would stay after
practice until he
deemed his own
performances
satisfactory.
Wednesday
afternoon
in
Anaheim,
assistant
coach
Saddi
Washington
began to give a stock answer on
the importance of not changing
who you are this time of year
and embracing the moment.
Then,
midway
through
his
answer, a light bulb went off, as
if he suddenly remembered who
he was talking about.
“But guys like Iggy and —,”
Washington said, pausing, and
failing, to rack his brain for
anyone else comparable. “All
of our guys, I think they really

thrive in these moments.”
Amidst requisite praise for
the Wolverines’ leaders, Haynes
sang the same tune.
“Iggy lives up for these
moments,”
Haynes
said.
“I
haven’t seen a kid like him that
lives for these moments. He
loves the crowd, he feeds into it,
whether it’s hate or love. He’s a
different kind of guy.”
But no matter how Brazdeikis’
approach has prepared him
for this moment, there is no
high school version of March
Madness — certainly not in
Canada. This is the reality that
hit Nik Stauskas, Michigan’s
Canadian guard from 2012-14
who Brazdeikis works out with
over the summer, when the
Wolverines made the national
championship in his freshman
season. Stauskas finished with
zero and three points in his
two Final Four games that year
after averaging 11.0 during the
regular season.
“It’s definitely gonna be a
new thing for him,” Stauskas
told The Daily earlier this
month. “March Madness is very
unique, I don’t think there’s
many things like this.”
Stauskas,
though,
knew
Brazdeikis would be ready.
“I think (what stands out is)
just how normal everything
feels for him,” Stauskas said.
“With all the success he’s
having, it doesn’t feel like this
is some kind of fluke for him.
He truly believes this is just
normal, this is what he should
be doing.”
Jordan Poole is one of the few
who knows the March spotlight
better than Stauskas. This time
last year, he was the freshman
thrust under its wrath after his
buzzer-beater sent Michigan
into the Sweet Sixteen.
But when asked whether he’s
given Brazdeikis any advice,
Poole cocked his head back and
cracked a smile.
“I ain’t given him any advice,”
Poole said.
Because Poole, better than
anybody,
knows
Brazdeikis
doesn’t need it.
“It’s just some people that’s
just built for it.”

In ‘M’ and Texas Tech,
top two defenses clash

ANAHEIM, Calif. — Growing
up, Isaiah Livers changed the
channel every time there was a
hard-nosed defensive battle. After
all, who wanted to watch a lot of
people not scoring?
But
now,
the
sophomore
forward knows that on Thursday,
he will likely face one of those
games when the Michigan men’s
basketball team faces Texas Tech
in the Sweet Sixteen. This will be
the top two defensive teams in the
country going at it, and Livers is as
excited as anyone to be a part of it.
“Now I want to see what the
score is gonna be,” Livers said.
“If we can hold them under their
season average and they can hold
us under our season average.”
Livers changed his mindset on
defense primarily due to assistant
coach Luke Yaklich, who urged
Livers to think about why he liked
defense. Livers replied that he
didn’t like people scoring because
that’s how you lose games. Yaklich
pressed other members of the
team in much the same way, giving
way to a culture change in the
Wolverines’ program — one that
loves defense.
In that sense, the Red Raiders
are a spitting image. Texas Tech
hired coach Chris Beard from
Little Rock in 2016, and Beard
brought with him Mark Adams,
his defensive right-hand man.
Beard and Adams created much
the same culture that Yaklich did,
transforming the Red Raiders
from a Big 12 afterthought to a
national contender with a clear
identity.
But Texas Tech’s defensive
strategy
couldn’t
be
more
different from Michigan’s. While
the Wolverines run opposing
players off the 3-point line, defend
one-on-one and rarely foul, the
Red Raiders play a “no middle”
pressure defense that forces teams
into baseline drives and tries for
turnovers. Each has shined with its
own scheme. Now, it’ll be strength
vs. strength, identity vs. identity.

“There’s a hundred ways to do
it right in basketball,” Yaklich said.
“You can pick a hundred plays
to run and it all revolves around
how much you’re paying attention
to that on a daily basis. … Coach
Beard and his staff, like us on the
defensive side of the ball, there’s
certain things that we’re gonna pay
attention to and stat and reward
and really lock into.”
At Wednesday’s practice, the
Wolverines prepared to run a
drill. Michigan coach John Beilein
yelled out, “Perfect passing! Let’s
go!”
That’s how Michigan prepares
for a stalwart defensive battle
— by focusing on its offensive
fundamentals.
Perfect
passing
goes back to the very first practice.
Go into the defender’s body. Put
your outside hand all the way
out so the passer can throw the
ball easily. It’s something that
constantly evolves, but in a game
like this, it’ll matter more than
ever. So with their limited practice
time, the Wolverines have circled
back to it.
Staying disciplined. Holding
onto the ball. Perfect passing. It’s
the same strategy Michigan used
against other pressure teams
like Illinois and Northwestern.
Texas Tech’s defense is a big step
up from those two, but then, the
Wolverines have had more time to
perfect a strategy.
“We just study them,” said
assistant coach DeAndre Haynes.
“Say, ‘Hey, we’re gonna try to score
against them, you see this? Let’s do
this.’ ”
These kinds of games are often
overlooked by the casual college
basketball fan, eschewed in favor
of a more glamorous matchup
with a symphony of shots. But for
Michigan and Texas Tech, the
two most unique teams left in the
tournament, both testaments to
a specific type of culture change,
perhaps the matchup couldn’t be
more perfect.
“We hang our hat on defense,
they hang their hat on defense,”
Haynes said. “And that’s gonna be
two dogfights out there.”

THEO MACKIE
Daily Sports Writer

ARIA GERSON
Daily Sports Writer

I haven’t seen
a kid like him
that lives for
these moments.

MEN’S BASKETBALL

KATELYN MULCAHY/Daily
Freshman forward Ignas Brazdeikis noted that his self-confidence is among his favorite parts of his game.

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