The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com
Sports
Wednesday, November 13, 2019 — 7A

EAST 
LANSING 
— 
Cody White has only one 
message for Michigan State’s 
underclassmen this week.
“Going into this week, we 
know we have a mission to do 
and that’s to win the football 
game,” 
the 
wide 
receiver 
said Tuesday. “At any means 
possible, 
win 
the 
football 
game, so I feel like that’s what 
we’re gonna drive through 
every day in practice until the 
game day.” 
It’s safe to say the Spartans 
haven’t completed the mission 
they began the year with. At 
just four wins heading into 
the 112th meeting between 
Michigan and Michigan State, 
the Spartans are hoping for 
Saturday’s game to provide 
a spark to a season that’s 
vacillating between generally 
disappointing 
and 
outright 
dismal.
In 
the 
media 
room 
at 
Spartan Stadium on Tuesday, 
the Spartans made it clear that 
while this week is a chance 
to regroup from blowing a 
25-point lead to Illinois last 
Saturday, the bigger emphasis 
is on the chance to beat the 
team 60 miles down the road.
In the midst of what is 
shaping up to be, at best, a 
mediocre season for Michigan 
State, a win in the rivalry game 
and everything that comes with 
it would soften the blow for 
the players. Defensive tackle 
Raequan Williams referenced 
the emotion that comes with 
facing off in a hotly-contested 
matchup, and Williams and 
White both mentioned the 
extra edge that comes with 
this game.
“(Michigan State coach Mark 
Dantonio) always tries to tell 
us to keep the lion in the cage,” 
White 
said. 
“Everything’s 
going to be calmed down until 

game time, and then the lion’s 
going to just unleash itself.”
Added Williams: “This is 
the biggest game of the year. 
It’s the next one up and we 
didn’t have the season that we 
wanted, so this game will be a 
lot for us emotionally. You will 
see a lot of emotion for this 
game.”
For 
linebacker 
Antjuan 
Simmons, who went to high 
school across the street from 
Michigan Stadium at Pioneer, 
his first introduction to the 
intensity of preparation in 
rivalry week came in practice 
before his first game of the 
rivalry as a freshman in 2017.
“I think it was my first play,” 
Simmons said. “I got hit by an 
upperclassman — like whacked 
— and he’s like, ‘Yeah, it’s 
Michigan week!’ and I’m like, 
‘Alright, it’s Michigan week.’ … 
And then when I got out there 
in the game, it didn’t matter. 
Every player, it was nasty. It 
was a nasty game.”
But while the players went 
on about the extra emotion 
and the level of intensity that 
comes with Michigan week, 
Dantonio had little to say 
beyond the typical platitudes 
of rivalry week.

“Right now, for me, my main 
consideration is our football 
team and getting them down 
and 
football-game 
ready,” 
Dantonio said. “We’ve come 
and competed. We’ll compete. 
We’ll 
play 
hard. 
We 
just 
can’t make mistakes to beat 
ourselves.”
Taken 
out 
of 
context, 
Dantonio 
could 
be 
talking 
about 
any 
game 
on 
the 
Spartans’ schedule this year. 
He made a handful of more 
specific comments about the 
Wolverines, but the overall 
tone was one of a coach who 
mostly just wants to talk about 
the game, not everything else 
that goes along with it.
It was clear Dantonio didn’t 
feel the need to make a splashy 
statement that dominates the 
headlines 
leading 
into 
the 
game.
This 
iteration 
of 
the 
matchup brings a game with 
different stakes for each side, 
but the bottom line of what 
each team is truly playing for is 
the rivalry.
“This 
game 
means 
everything,” 
Williams 
said. 
“It depends on if you own 
Michigan or you don’t, so you 
gotta go out and win this one.”

EAST LANSING — Nearly 13 
minutes into a press conference 
three days after one of the most 
disastrous losses of his tenure 
as Michigan State’s coach and 
four days before a game that 
could put an exclamation mark 
on a season from hell, Mark 
Dantonio 
was 
asked 
about 
Larry Caper.
On the 10-year anniversary 
of Caper’s overtime run against 
Michigan, it was fitting. The 
picture of Caper bouncing off 
defenders and into the end 
zone, the 1-3 Spartans knocking 
off the undefeated Wolverines, 
beating them in consecutive 
years for the first time since 
1967, still sets a tone for this 
rivalry. It’s cast as a turning 
point, and with good reason — 
including that streak, Michigan 
has beaten Michigan State all of 
three times since 2008.
Dantonio spent a minute 
recalling details of the game, 
the Spartans blowing a 14-point 
lead, then recapturing it on with 
Caper’s run. Then Dantonio 
said this: “I think it’s good to 
have a little bit of history, but 
you gotta focus on the moment.”
That takes us to the next 
question. One about Dantonio’s 
future. One that brought the 
room 
rushing 
towards 
the 
present, 
where 
Dantonio’s 
Spartans are 4-5 just one year 
after they were 7-6 and three 
years after they were 3-9. 
Where they blew a 25-point 
first-half 
lead 
at 
home 
to 
Illinois last week, and where 
Dantonio’s hands moved to his 
pockets and his lips pursed as 
a reporter probed at whether 
he will still be in East Lansing 
next year.
He told a story about meeting 
with Michigan State’s freshmen 
on Monday. One of them asked 
how he handled the criticism 
that comes with his position.

“Hey, when you’re the head 
of the program, you’re the head 
of something big. And things 
don’t go as well, that person’s 
gonna be criticized,” Dantonio 
recalled saying. “And that’s part 
of it. 
“But what people need to 
understand out there is, I had 
as much information as I can 
to do the job that I’m doing and 
I’m gonna try to do it with your 
players in mind. We’re gonna 
work hard, we’re gonna always 
stay 
positive, 
we’re 
gonna 
rise above it. And that’s the 
only thing that I can do. I can 
continue to rise above it or I can 
take another direction and start 
to go below that. And I’m not 
gonna go that direction.”
This 
matters 
because 
Dantonio is about to lead his 
team into the biggest game of its 
season. And, perhaps more than 
any other point in his 13-year 
tenure 
as 
Michigan 
State’s 
coach, the Spartans’ season is 
tied into the result.
It would be hyperbolic and 
uninformed to say Dantonio’s 
job 
rides 
on 
Saturday’s 
outcome. But with his program 
stumbling 
on 
and 
off 
the 
field, with another headache 
on Tuesday when Dantonio 
said 
quarterback 
Brian 
Lewerke didn’t go through any 
concussion 
protocol 
before 
coming back into Saturday’s 
game after taking a hit to the 
head and with a $4.3 million 
retention bonus in Dantonio’s 
contract set to trigger in mid-
January, it’s not unfair to 
say a win over Michigan — a 
reminder of what Dantonio 
brought to Michigan State — 
would go a long way.
The 
Wolverines 
have 
a 
considerable talent advantage 
over the Spartans. The game is 
in Ann Arbor. Michigan opened 
as a 12-point favorite, and it 
feels like there is as much built-
in expectation that it should 
win this game as ever.

None of that stopped the 
usual platitudes from being 
uttered about the Michigan-
Michigan 
State 
rivalry 
on 
Tuesday underneath Spartan 
Stadium. They sounded just the 
same as in Schembechler Hall 
on Monday.
But, standing in contrast to a 
Michigan program that wants 
to at least cloak this week under 
the veil of normalcy, there was 
little masking how much this 
game means.
“I 
think 
everyone 
(puts 
more into this game),” Lewerke 
said. “Top to bottom. Coaches, 
players, 
the 
training 
staff, 
everyone. They’re trying to be 
something a little bit better and 
play a little bit better.”
“I knew that if we were gonna 
be successful here, ultimately, 
that we were gonna have to win 
down the road (in Ann Arbor) 
some, and here at home, and 
we were gonna have to measure 
up in every time we played that 
football game,” Dantonio said. 
“And so that’s what we put into 
effect. That we were gonna 
measure up in this football 
game.”
The need to measure up 
against Michigan has as much 
to do with Michigan State’s 
ethos, one that existed long 
before Dantonio and will exist 
long after, as it does with the 
program’s current situation. On 
Tuesday, the notion that this 
year’s game should be treated 
with more urgency because of 
the Spartans’ lackluster record 
was thrown out.
“This is one that, again, we 
need to measure up on and 
then we gotta let this one go,” 
Dantonio said. “And I’ve always 
tried to say, OK, what do we do 
after Michigan?”
Without an upset of the same 
variety Dantonio has pulled 
off before, though, he may not 
be the only one person around 
Michigan State asking that 
question after Saturday.

A

s practice wound down 
late Tuesday afternoon 
at Yost Ice Arena, Michi-
gan coach 
Mel Pearson 
gathered his 
players for 
the typical 
end-of-day 
huddle.
That 
huddle lasted 
longer than 
normal, 
though, as 
Pearson got 
his players more involved. He 
asked the group to discuss things 
they liked about the team, and 
comments ranged from work 
ethic and commitment to perse-
verance and defensive success.
It was a moment to pause and 
look within — a chance to reflect 
on the past and mentally prepare 
for what is to come.
An exchange of this sort fits 
the script of this Michigan hockey 
team (3-5-2 overall, 0-3-1-0 Big 
Ten). The Wolverines have strug-
gled to score consistently over the 
past two weekends, slipping into 
second to last in the conference 
standings.
Despite the tribulations, Pear-
son wants his squad to think 
about the positives. The common 
theme around the team is that bad 
breaks have been holding it back.
“Pucks are going to start fall-
ing in for us,” said senior forward 
Jake Slaker about the power play. 
“And I think that’s going to trans-
late to five-on-five, too. I think we 
are right there where things are 
going to start going our way.”
But that raises the following 
question: Is it realistic to expect a 
couple good bounces of the puck 
to fix the woes? To that, I’d argue 
yes. But the margin for error is 
slim, and the team must figure 
out how to play through obstacles 
beyond bounces.
First, it’s key to dissect Michi-
gan’s losses to see what exactly 
can be attributed to bad luck. The 
Wolverines’ tough stretch spans 
back to the 4-1 road loss against 
then-No. 18 Western Michigan. 
From then on, Michigan got 
swept by then-No. 13 Ohio State 
on the road, before tallying just 

one point in the recent home 
series against Minnesota.
Against the Broncos and Buck-
eyes, bad bounces were not the 
key issue. The Wolverines dug 
themselves into an early deficit 
in Kalamazoo and couldn’t climb 
back. And against Ohio State, the 
main issues were lackluster puck 
possession on offense, foolish 
penalties and a poor forecheck.
In the recent series, though, it’s 
fair to blame bad breaks. On Fri-
day, Michigan generated chances 
and outshot the Golden Gophers 
34-27 but didn’t get the breaks it 
needed to capitalize. 
That was true Saturday, too, 
only that the bad bounces extend-
ed to the defensive side as the 
Wolverines’ first two conceded 
goals involved a fair amount of 
poor luck. And that view is shared 
by outsiders, too. For instance, 
Michigan State coach Danton 
Cole — whose 
team is the 
Wolverines’ 
next opponent 
— mentioned 
Michigan’s 
struggles have 
to do with ‘puck 
luck.’
The underly-
ing trend is that 
despite the lack 
of scoring, the 
offense has made strides since the 
loss against Western Michigan. 
All the while, defense and goal-
tending have remained steady. 
If the offense continues to make 
strides and the defense remains 
stingy, then it’s logical that bet-
ter bounces could help this team 
unleash its potential.
Pearson is no stranger to 
early season struggles. In his 
first season at the helm, Michi-
gan fell two games under .500 
in January after getting swept 
by Notre Dame. Regardless, in 
those two contests he recog-
nized the potential of his team 
and knew it wasn’t too late. That 
group went on to make the Fro-
zen Four.
“And that’s similar to now,” 
Pearson said. “We’re doing some 
really good things. We played 
hard against Minnesota when 
the games on the line, we just 

couldn’t quite get that next goal, 
that next break, to make a dif-
ference.”
Better bounces likely will 
come for the Wolverines; in such 
a long season, there will always 
be some spurts of good luck.
Those might not come right 
away, though, and in the mean-
time Pearson doesn’t want 
to force things on the attack. 
He sees offense as a balance 
between urgency and poise, 
but understands that balance 
doesn’t come easy.
Given that there will be bad 
breaks during every season, 
Pearson is quick to say he would 
rather have them early on, as 
has been the case. There’s value 
in learning early how to play 
when things don’t go your way 
as this can pay dividends in the 
games that really matter.
“These tight games, these 
close games, 
aren’t a bad 
thing,” Pearson 
said. “You wanna 
win your share 
of them, but we 
will. Usually (in 
sports) it evens 
out at some point. 
We just have to 
make sure we 
stay with it. 
“We know 
where we wanna get to, it’s how 
we wanna get there. Right now 
we’re just making a little detour. 
It’s not the fastest way to where 
we wanna get to, but we’re on 
a detour, so we just got to man-
age the detour and find our way 
there.”
For Michigan to reach its des-
tination, it must follow through 
on the good bounces immedi-
ately when they come, because 
the team cannot afford to dig 
more of a hole. 
But the Wolverines must also 
learn to weather the storm when 
things go south. Luck doesn’t 
last forever, and the best teams 
know how to win even when 
bounces don’t go their way.
And if Michigan can figure 
this out, when the team gathers 
to culminate future practices the 
shared sentiments will be more 
profound.

Michigan’s length key to defense

The players on the Michigan 
women’s 
basketball 
team 
shuffled off the court Sunday 
bearing 
smiles 
from 
their 
second blowout win of the 
weekend. Though the victories 
came against weak opponents 
— neither Western Michigan 
nor Bradley made the NCAA 
tournament 
last 
season 
— 
the 
Wolverines’ 
lockdown 
defensive performances earned 
them the right to celebrate, as 
they held both opponents under 
60 points.
For Michigan to achieve its 
goals of competing for a Big 
Ten championship and passing 
the second round of the NCAA 
Tournament, it will have to 
sustain this level of defense 
against 
tougher 
opponents. 
And the key to that lies in the 
Wolverines’ length. 
All five of Michigan’s starters 
this season measure in at 6-feet 
or taller, a rarity in women’s 
basketball. This kind of length 
means that players can more 
easily block shots and move 
into passing lanes to disrupt 
plays and intercept passes. 
“(Coach Kim Barnes Arico 
stresses) using the ability of our 

length,” said sophomore guard 
Amy Dilk. “Our starting lineup, 
we all have tremendous length, 
so just really focusing on 
keeping our hands up, sliding 
our feet and not fouling.”
Senior 
Akienreh 
Johnson 
seems poised to make more 
disruptive plays on defense this 
year. The 6-foot shooting guard 
recorded 27 steals coming off 
the bench last season. If she 
can continue to move quickly 
on defense, clog lanes and force 
opposing teams into mistakes, 
she can expect to pick up a 
few more steals from her new 
starting spot. 
“Our length is ridiculous this 
year for our starting lineup,” 
Johnson said. “It’s actually 
really crazy how many steals 
and deflections we get without 
even 
knowing 
that 
we’re 
getting them.”
A defense that can continue 
to pick up steals would help the 
Wolverines to improve off of a 
lackluster 2018-19 campaign, 
during which they allowed 63.6 
points per game — 148th in the 
country. 
Freshman 
center 
Izabel 
Varejão 
exemplifies 
how 
length can have an impact on 
the game, even with limited 
minutes. Standing at 6-foot-

4, she recorded four blocks in 
just 13 minutes against Bradley. 
While her height allows her to 
shut down opposing players in 
the post, she also has enough 
quickness and athleticism to 
defend guards on switches. 
At the same time, Michigan’s 
guards will need to lean on 
their length and quickness on 
switches as they face bigger 
and more athletic teams this 
season. If the Wolverines can 
rely on players like Johnson 
or Dilk to play sound defense 
against taller forwards, it will 
take pressure off of their own 
bigs allow them to comfortably 
make switches when defending 
the pick-and-roll. 
“We want to be able to … 
switch 
one 
through 
five,” 
Johnson said. “A lot of teams 
aren’t able to do that because 
their guards are little and they 
can’t guard a post, or their 
posts don’t have quick enough 
feet to guard guards, so I 
think that’s one thing that our 
team really has, is the ability 
to guard one through five on 
defense.”
The talent is there. This 
team is fully capable of playing 
defense at a high level, if they 
can play smart and use its 
length.

KATELYN MULCAHY/Daily
The Michigan State football team comes into the game 4-5 this season.

Will the Spartans?
Over in East Lansing, hope dwindling, MSU confronts a crossroads in its identity, and what this game might mean

BAILEY JOHNSON
Daily Sports Writer

ETHAN SEARS
Managing Sports Editor

BRENDAN ROOSE
Daily Sports Writer

Are good bounces enough?

ROHAN 
KUMAR

Right now 
we’re just 
making a little 
detour.

ALEC COHEN/Daily
Senior guard Akinereh Johnson recorded 27 steals off the bench last season, spearheading a talented defense.

