2B — April 1, 2019
SportsMonday
The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com

F

or the 103rd time in a 
row, the Michigan men’s 
basketball team’s season 
ended.
Such is 
the futility of 
sports. But, 
hey, you never 
know. Maybe 
the 104th sea-
son will never 
end.
In the 
meantime, 
now begins 
the weird 
space in time after a sports sea-
son ends in which people don’t 
really know what to do with 
themselves.
That’s why I’m here. I’ve spent 
the last few days brainstorming 
things you can look forward to in 
the next few weeks and months 
that will get you through this 
trying time.
(Note: Liverpool is going to 
win the Premier League, which 
I will spend the next month 
agonizing over, but I realize that 
isn’t applicable to everybody, so I 
left it out.)
Here’s what I came up with!
The Final Four
Basketball isn’t over, despite 
Michigan fans’ current feeling of 
emptiness.
And, even better, Wolverine 
fans likely have a rooting interest 
now that Michi-
gan State beat 
Duke.
Even if that 
isn’t the case for 
everybody, there 
should be some 
elite games, and 
even if you don’t 
like basketball, 
you can at least 
drink beer and 
watch with 
friends or whatever you like to 
do. Yippee!
Baseball season is starting
Like it or not, there is not a 
single sport on Earth that takes 

up as much time as baseball.
Even for all its faults, every 
baseball game takes at least three 
hours, and you can waste the 
next six months watching that 
stuff.
Sure, the Detroit Tigers are 
seemingly in tank mode, but 
other teams are good. Join a 
fantasy league! Buy in! At the 
very least, you can bide your time 
until football season by research-
ing Avisail Garcia and Kole Cal-
houn’s respective slash lines and 
deciding who warrants a start.
The Michigan football team 
has a new offensive coordina-
tor
Despite your feeling of emp-
tiness that accompanies the 
Wolverines’ exit from the NCAA 
Tournament, there may be some 
great silver lining down the road.
Michigan hired Josh Gattis to 
lead its offense this season, and 
if his #SpeedInSpace promises 
are to be believed, the Wolver-
ines could have an exciting, new 
offensive look this season.
Maybe that spells the end 
of Michigan’s drought against 
Ohio State and the long-awaited 
return to national prominence. 
Maybe it doesn’t.
Either way, this time before 
the football season is at least 
good for some hope. So look at 
those recruiting boards! Map 
out how badly the Wolverines 
will have to beat 
Middle Tennes-
see State for you 
to feel good about 
things!
Game of 
Thrones is 
returning
(This section 
has a spoiler 
warning, but if 
you aren’t caught 
up by now then 
what are you even doing?)
Alright, we’ll get away from 
sports for a bit and move to 
something that everyone alive 
enjoys.

Game of Thrones returns on 
April 14!
Who will sit atop the Iron 
Throne? Will 
Cersei meet the 
fate we’re all 
hoping for? Will 
Arya check all the 
names off her list? 
Will there be vio-
lence and death?
The answer is 
that I don’t know 
(except for the last 
question, to which 
the answer is most 
definitely yes). But the point is 
that the questions don’t matter. 
You’re going to watch it, and 
you’re going to love it no matter 
what they throw out there.

I’m going to graduate
I don’t want to jinx it, I guess, 
but I’m currently on track to 
graduate this 
semester.
I realize this 
has absolutely 
nothing to do 
with any of you 
readers, but I 
figure there are 
two ways of 
looking at this:
1) You don’t 
care about me at 
all, and you’re 
actually quite annoyed that I 
wrote this and that you’ve read 
this far. In this case, the posi-
tive is that I will be gone when I 
graduate, and you won’t feel obli-

gated to read my articles with the 
hope that I’ll give some sort of 
insight about Michigan sports.
2) You are my mother — the 
only person I can definitely say is 
both reading this and cares deep-
ly for my well-being. In this case, 
the positive is that you won’t 
have to pay my college tuition for 
much longer.
In either scenario, my Venmo 
is at the bottom of the article. I 
will consider quitting The Daily 
harder for every dollar I earn.
Miscellaneous
There’s probably going to be 
some good music released this 
summer. That should be cool.
You might meet the love of 
your life in the near future. Per-
haps you’ve already done that, 

and you think you’re better than 
me.
If that — along with the other 
reasons — isn’t good enough for 
you, at least the Earth might 
cease to exist as we know it.
The cause could be anything. 
Climate change, the reversal of 
the magnetic poles, nuclear war-
fare. It’s a scary world out there.
So when you think about it, 
the Wolverines’ loss in the Tour-
nament doesn’t really matter 
that much. There’s always a light 
— or a great eternal darkness — 
at the end of the tunnel.

Persak can be reached 

at mdpers@umich.edu, on 

Twitter @MikeDPersak or on 

SportsMonday Column: What to look forward to now

MIKE 
PERSAK

Michigan breezes past UC Irvine

Matthew Whitaker landed 
firmly on his feet and didn’t 
move an inch. The senior let 
out a yell and pumped his fist 
before moving to celebrate 
his stuck dismount from the 
still rings with his teammates 
on the No. 3 Michigan men’s 
gymnastics team.
Two rotations later, Whitaker 
once again completed a routine 
— this time on the parallel 
bars — with his feet glued to 
the floor. This time, when his 
teammates swarmed him to 
celebrate 
his 
performance, 
there was an extra level of 
emotion.
It was the final regular-
season routine of Whitaker’s 
career with the Wolverines.
His 
career-
high 
score 
of 
14.150 
on 
the 
parallel bars won 
the event and was 
one of his two 
podium finishes 
in 
Michigan’s 
Senior 
Day 
meet 
against 
No. 18 UIC. The 
Wolverines won, 
406.200-367.750.
“(Whitaker) 
really 
came 
through today,” said Michigan 
coach Kurt Golder. “I’m very, 
very happy for him. He has 
trouble sometimes. He lets 
the nerves get to him — or the 
nerves get to him. I don’t think 
he does it voluntarily. But yeah, 
I’m very happy that he handled 
the situation today.”
Coming into Saturday’s meet 
against the Flames, Golder 
intended to give all eight of the 
Wolverines’ graduating seniors 
a chance to compete one last 
time. Some of them, including 
Whitaker, 
do 
so 
relatively 
sparingly, 
but 
against 
the 
Flames, Golder knew he had the 
ability to be flexible with his 
lineup.
UIC’s high score this season 
is 370.300 — more than 40 
points below Michigan’s best 
mark of 413.900.
“They’re not the strongest 

team we meet,” Golder said. 
“We like to use that so that if we 
want to experiment with a new 
routine, we can. We’re not going 
against Oklahoma or Illinois or 
one of the powers. And then 
that way we can also get our 
seniors in, too. Your senior class 
isn’t 
always 
your strongest 
lineup, 
so 
it 
serves 
that 
purpose 
as 
well.”
In 
the 
Wolverines’ 
win, 
seven 
of 
the 
eight 
seniors 
competed 
and 
six 
of 
them 
earned spots on the podium. In 
total, Michigan earned the top 
three placings on all six events 
and UIC’s lone podium finish 
came in the all-around.
But despite the large margin 
of 
victory, 
the 
Wolverines found 
difficulty in at 
least one or two 
routines on every 
event. 
Golder prefers 
his team to have 
major 
mistakes, 
such as a fall, at 
most two times 
in a single meet. 
Saturday, though, 
Michigan 
had 
five 
major 
mistakes.
Senior Emyre Cole missed 
the Wolverines’ three previous 
meets as a result of a violation 
of team rules, and his time away 
from competition was evident in 

his up-and-down performance. 
He fell dismounting from the 
still rings and again attempting 
a release move on high bar.
But Cole also turned in a 
score of 14.650 on vault and won 
the event, in addition to placing 
second on floor and in the all-
around.
“Pretty 
good, 
but 
not 
perfect,” Golder said of Cole’s 
performance. “Maybe not in 
quite good enough shape yet. 
He got ready as best he could 
when you’re not competing, but 
competing and doing it in the 
gym are different things.”
Just as Cole was imperfect, 
so was Michigan. The Big Ten 
Championships 
loom 
next 
week, and the Wolverines will 
look to win the meet for the first 
time since 2014 when they won 
both the Big Ten and NCAA 
Championships. After making 
mistakes 
on 
more 
routines 
than usual against UIC, the 
pressure is on 
for 
Michigan 
to improve.
But 
Golder 
prefers it that 
way.
“I 
would 
rather that we 
don’t have the 
perfect 
meet, 
but 
kinda 
close, 
and 
I 
think 
that’s 
what we were,” Golder said. “I 
think it’s better that way than 
to have the perfect meet today 
and go into Big Tens thinking 
you’re all that. Better to have a 
little pressure on, a little more 
concern.”

Wolverines adjust to spring racing

BELLEVILLE — While the 
No. 9 Michigan rowing team 
had success this fall at regattas 
like Head of the Charles, in 
this weekend’s season opener 
against Yale and Harvard, the 
Wolverines faced a new beast 
entirely: the spring race. 
In the fall, the rowers race 
between four and six kilometers, 
while spring races are almost 
always two kilometers. This 
change affects practically every 
aspect of the race from the very 
first stroke. 
The officials called the start 
in Saturday’s 1V8 race against 
Yale, and both boats were off. 
Sophomore coxswain Charlotte 
Powers called out the starting 
sequence, followed by the high 
strokes — an element unique 
to spring racing that Michigan 
began practicing earlier this 
week.
While 
Powers 
felt 
good 
about her boat’s start, Yale still 
managed to inch out ahead 
within the first 30 seconds. 
“We did a great job executing 
(the start) today but I think we 
need to continue working on 
staying internal,” said senior 
Kathryn Grotto. “Not focusing 
on what other boats are doing 
and just rowing our own race.”

Yale maintained its marginal 
lead as the boats passed the 1000 
meter mark, but the Wolverines 
weren’t giving up. 
“Our game plan going in was 
to stay really composed through 
the first 1500 (meters),” Grotto 
said. “And then, once we get to 
500 left, we’re just going to see 
where we’re at on the other boat 
and just do whatever we have to 
do.”
With 500 meters to go, Powers 
decided it was time for her boat 
to make a move. 
A smile broke over her face 
as she reflected on those last 
500 meters, in which Michigan 
attempted a sprint for the first 
time this year. This risk paid 
off as it walked back on Yale, 
crossing the finish line first by 
less than a second. 
“We were down the whole 
race and we, as a boat, at the 
last 500 decided we were going 
to try to stop them from moving 
up anymore,” Powers said. “We 
just inched into them. We have 
the tiniest, best stroke ever, 
(freshman) Jess Schoonbee, and 
I just kept telling her to take the 
rate up every couple of strokes 
and she responded every time 
and, so we came in through the 
line at a 42 (strokes per minute).” 
Not only are the rowers 
adjusting 
to 
the 
inherent 
differences of spring racing — 

like the start and the sprint — but 
also to a new lineup. While many 
of the 1V8 raced together at the 
Head of the Charles in the fall, 
Michigan coach Mark Rothstein 
made a couple of changes, 
including putting Schoonbee in 
the stroke seat. 
Although Schoonbee is the 
only freshman in the 1V8, as 
stroke seat, she is responsible for 
setting the pace for the rest of the 
boat. While in the fall, rowers 
typically race between 26 and 30 
strokes per minute, during spring 
racing, the rate is ratcheted up to 
anywhere from 32 to 38 strokes 
per minute — even higher during 
the sprint. This increase puts 
pressure on the eight seat to find 
the perfect balance between 
speed and control as they move 
up the slide. 
This weekend, Schoonbee did 
just that.
“(Schoonbee) did great — very 
composed,” Rothstein said. “I 
thought the whole boat rowed 
a really composed race. We got 
down, but there was no panic.”
Rothstein believes it was that 
calm and composure that carried 
Michigan from the start, through 
the thousand, into the last 500 
meters — ultimately past the 
finish line first. 
If this race is any indication, 
the Wolverines won’t have any 
trouble with the adjustment.

BAILEY JOHNSON
Daily Sports Writer

LANE KIZZIAH
Daily Sports Writer

KATELYN MULCAHY/Daily
The Michigan rowing team competed successfully in its first spring race beating Yale and Harvard this weekend.

MADELINE HINKLEY/Daily
Matthew Whitaker completed the last regular-season routine of his career.

If we want to 
experiment 
with a new 
routine, we can.

I would rather 
that we don’t 
have that 
perfect meet.

NATALIE STEPHENS/Daily
The Michigan basketball season may be over, but Mike Persak has several reasons why that doesn’t mean your enjoyment has to end with its season.

Liverpool is 
going to win 
the Premier 
League ...

I’m currently 
on track to 
graduate this 
semester.

