The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com
Sports
Wednesday, April 3, 2019 — 7A
Michigan’s leading goal scorer Will
Lockwood returning for senior year
Michigan’s
leading
goal
scorer from the 2018-19 season
will return for his senior year,
a team spokesperson confirmed
on Tuesday morning.
Junior
forward
Will
Lockwood was in discussion
with the Vancouver Canucks
to forego his senior year and
join the professional ranks,
but he elected to return to the
Wolverines for a final year.
The
Canucks
drafted
Lockwood in the third round
of the 2016 entry draft with the
64th overall pick.
In his first two years at
Michigan, Lockwood battled
shoulder
injuries
that
left
him
unable
to
reach
his
full
potential.
A
dislocated
shoulder his freshman season
caused him trouble for most
of the second half of that
year. In his sophomore year,
Lockwood suffered a season-
ending shoulder injury while
competing
for
the
United
States at the World Junior
Championships in January of
2018.
But in his third season,
Lockwood
worked
his
way
back to full health and was a
valuable offensive threat for
the Wolverines. He played in all
36 games and tallied 31 points,
good for second on the team
and just two points behind
Quinn Hughes, who signed with
Vancouver on March 10.
Lockwood’s 16 goals — five
more than junior forwards Nick
Pastujov and Jake Slaker, who
tied for second in goal scoring —
led the team. Six of those tallies
came on the power play, which
made Lockwood the team’s
leader in man-advantage goals.
His
goal-scoring
acumen
also left him ranked second on
the team in plus-minus with a
plus-eight rating, just behind
freshman
defenseman
Nick
Blankenburg at plus-11.
After the Wolverines’ season
ended in the first round of the
Big Ten Tournament, attention
turned to Michigan’s group of
underclassmen NHL draft picks
and their imminent decisions.
Hughes chose to depart after
his sophomore season for the
NHL, but Lockwood returning
gives the Wolverines one of
their top offensive threats back
for next season.
If junior defenseman Luke
Martin and sophomore forward
Josh Norris also choose to
return, Michigan could be in
position to return to its form
from the 2017-18 season —
when the Wolverines made the
Frozen Four.
BAILEY JOHNSON
Daily Sports Writer
ALEXANDRIA POMPEI/Daily
Junior forward Will Lockwood led the Wolverines in 2018-19 with 16 goals, and will return for his senior season.
Deja Church to leave U-M program
In a stunning turn of events,
sophomore guard Deja Church
announced via Twitter that
she will not be returning to the
Michigan women’s basketball
team for next
season.
“Thank you to
The University
Of
Michigan!”
Church said on
a tweet shared
on her official
account.
“I
appreciate
all
your support and
for accepting me
with open arms!
However I will not be returning
to UM next season. Forever will
love UM, but I know God has
something else special planned
for me! Go blue forever”
Church was the Wolverines’
starting shooting guard this
season after spending much of
her freshman campaign serving
as the team’s backup point
guard to Katelynn Flaherty.
Playing off the ball allowed
her to attack the rim more
frequently and emphasize her
skill as a driver.
The position
switch
helped
Church average
career bests of
8.9 points and
4.0
rebounds
per
game,
in
addition
to
routinely
dominating
on
the
defensive
end,
averaging
just over one steal per game.
Most
recently,
Church
displayed
her
value
to
a
relatively
young
Wolverines
squad
in
the
NCAA
Tournament, when she posted
12 points, 7 rebounds, and 7
assists in a 84-54 first-round
win over Kansas State. Even
as the seconds dwindled down
to zero in the final moments
of Michigan’s season-ending
defeat to Louisville, the future
for next season’s campaign
appeared bright, and Church
was expected to be among the
team’s key pieces.
Now, the Wolverines will
march into 2019 without one
of its starters and biggest
personalities both on and off
the court. While the loss will
be a tough one, senior guard
Akienreh Johnson will likely
be more than ready to step into
Church’s shoes as the team’s
starting shooting guard after an
impressive run to close out the
season’s second half.
When asked for comment,
a U-M spokesperson directed
The
Daily
to
Church’s
aforementioned tweet.
TEDDY GUTKIN
Daily Sports Writer
I know God
has something
special planned
for me!
WOMEN’S BASKETBALL
Putting things in perspective
W
hat will we remember
about the 2018-19
Michigan men’s bas-
ketball team?
Like, really
remember?
I only ask
because ....
in terms of
memories,
Wolverines
fans have had
it pretty darn
good lately.
You’re
going to be
telling your
grandchildren about 2013 and
Trey Burke toppling mighty
Kansas. Your heart’s probably
still racing from that wild 2017
run triggered by near-disaster.
You’re never going to forget
where you were last year when
Jordan Poole ran laps around
the arena in Wichita, Kan.
But when you look back on
Michigan’s 2018-19 season,
which ended with a 63-44 loss
to Texas Tech in the Sweet
Sixteen last week, there likely
won’t be a specific game,
moment or player that sticks
under your eyelids above any
other.
Maybe it’s Charles Matthews
roaring as he hung on the rim at
Villanova. Maybe it’s the Wol-
verines running North Carolina
and Purdue out of the gym.
That all happened by Decem-
ber. And sure, Michigan started
out a program-record 17-0, but
you can learn that in a book.
That torrid start was cer-
tainly impressive. In terms of
banners, championships or
indelible moments, though, it
ultimately meant little.
It might sound like I’m
about to imply that a lack of
memorable moments makes a
season disappointing. That’s
hardly the case, and I’ll get to
that later. But it can serve as
something of a proxy for how
we view the Wolverines’ most
recent campaign, and it’s espe-
cially key in understanding the
ending.
On Jan. 13, when Michigan
rolled Northwestern behind a
barrage of Zavier Simpson and
Jon Teske 3-pointers, it looked
almost invincible. That was
its 17th win, and at the time,
everything was seemingly in
play — promised, even. John
Beilein’s teams don’t start out
like this team did. There were
blemishes like always, but fix-
ing them is exactly what the
Wolverines do under Beilein.
Who could even imagine how
good they would be in March —
and maybe April?
The games, players and plays
that are a part of recent Michi-
gan lore were accompanied
by triumphs both expected or
improbable. The Wolverines
played for a national champion-
ship in 2013. They hung Big Ten
banners in 2014, 2017 and 2018.
The symbols of those successes
are easily brought to memory,
and they happened when it
mattered most.
This season had none of that.
That historic start was the
high point, and while it wasn’t
all downhill from there, Michi-
gan never made it back. Its
depth issues were never fully
resolved. The question of who
would score when the Wolver-
ines needed a bucket was never
litigated to satisfaction. In the
Sweet Sixteen, they were beat-
en by the Red Raiders and their
top-ranked defense with almost
eerie ease.
The season’s first three
months set up the potential for
a supernova. Instead, Michi-
gan, on that court in Anaheim,
Calif., more closely resembled a
candle being blown out swiftly
and simply.
Is that a disappointment?
Thirty wins? A school-record
start? A Sweet Sixteen run?
The answer to that question
depends a lot on the person
being asked. But the fact that
it’s even being asked is a bell-
wether for where the Wolver-
ines are right now. And your
answer says a lot about the
memories you’ve made over the
last few years and before then.
I’ve only lived in Michigan
since I’ve been in college, so
I’m not going to pretend to
totally understand this part.
But when Beilein was hired in
2007, Michigan hadn’t made
an NCAA Tournament in nine
years. It won 10 games his first
season. Even in 2012, Beilein’s
future with the Wolverines
wasn’t entirely certain. Now
he’s headed for the Hall of
Fame and he’ll be Michigan’s
coach until he doesn’t want
to be anymore. It’s easy to
overlook how this reality was
hardly fathomable less than a
decade ago.
This next part, though, is
much easier for me to under-
stand: 2019 was supposed to be
something of a rebuilding year.
The Wolverines lost Moritz
Wagner, Muhammad-Ali
Abdur-Rahkman and Duncan
Robinson from what already
wasn’t the most talented Michi-
gan team in history. Even with
the addition of Ignas Brazdekis,
a brash freshman from Ontario,
this was still a limited roster, as
every key player suffered from
some glaring deficiency.
But somehow — despite
Simpson and Matthews’ come-
and-go shooting, Brazdeikis’
inability to pass, Teske’s still-
developing offensive game,
Jordan Poole’s wildness, Isaiah
Livers’ passiveness — that ros-
ter came together to the point
where a third-place finish in
the Big Ten feels lacking.
The Wolverines were greater
than the sum of their parts,
but their deficiencies were still
present. And when Michigan
lost, it was easy to see why.
Everything went wrong against
Texas Tech, yes, but in ways
that weren’t hard to see coming
— only one 3-pointer in 19 tries,
for instance — even if it was to
a much greater extent than pre-
dicted. It was simply a loss to a
better team.
“How many wins, 28 wins,
right?” Beilein asked after the
Wolverines lost to Michigan
State in the Big Ten Tourna-
ment championship game on
March 14. “We lost four pretty
good players from last year,
that took us to the Final Four
and now all of a sudden, we’re
not a new team, but we’re not
an experienced team in playing
games like this.”
Beilein expressed that senti-
ment more frequently as the
season drew to a close. Through
all of Michigan’s shakiness in
Big Ten play, dwelling too much
on that could feel like nitpick-
ing. This was still a top-10 team
that few people outside of the
program saw coming.
Taken by itself, there’s no
reason to regard the 2018-19
season as a disappointment.
But with the way it began —
and the years that preceded
it — it’s easy to be left wanting
more. It’s natural to be yearn-
ing for the indelible memories
and unforgettable successes
of years past that didn’t come
this season but often felt like
they should have.
So if we don’t remember
the 2018-19 Wolverines in the
same way we remember other
great Wolverine teams of
recent years, we’ll still remem-
ber them. Not as a moment,
necessarily, but as a group of
the greatest era of Michigan
basketball history.
Even without the titles.
Even without the single
enduring image. Even without
NCAA Tournament glory.
This was a damn good
Michigan basketball team. It
deserves to be remembered
that way.
Shames can be reached at
jacosham@umich.edu or on
Twitter @Jacob_Shames.
JACOB
SHAMES
NATALIE STEPHENS/Daily
Michigan coach John Beilein led the Wolverines to a 30-7 record and a Sweet Sixteen appearance this season.