AN EVENING WITH SAFA AL AHMAD

NOVEMBER 19, 2019 | 7:30 P.M. | RACKHAM AUDITORIUM

FREE | NO REGISTRATION | WALLENBERG.UMICH.EDU

The Michigan basketball team 
knew its early-season matchup 
against Creighton would be telling.
In the wake of a program-
altering offseason that saw a head 
coaching change and the departure 
of three players that accounted for 
over half of the Wolverines’ offense 
last season, questions arose. On 
Tuesday night, Michigan (2-0) 
continued its search for answers 
in a 79-69 win against the Bluejays 
(1-1).
Those answers, as it turns out, 
are still a work in progress.
When first-year coach Juwan 
Howard was hired, it wasn’t a 
secret that the Wolverines were 
going to try their hand at an NBA 
brand of offense. As for what that 
means, exactly, Michigan has 
shown an emphasis on pushing the 
ball and generating 3-pointers thus 
far.
Against Creighton, not even 
Howard’s team’s overwhelming 
height 
advantage 
changed 
that approach. Thirteen of the 
Wolverines’ first 18 shots came 
from beyond the arc, a streak that 
culminated in senior point guard 
Zavier Simpson — a sub-30-percent 
career 3-point shooter — dropping 
his defender and draining a 
stepback triple.
In the early stages of the first 
half, Michigan looked like a well-
oiled machine. But when the well 
went dry, frustration mounted. 
The Bluejays pounced on the 
Wolverines’ miscues, closing the 
half on an 18-7 run en route to 
a 41-38 advantage at the break. 
For Michigan, poor rebounding 
and sloppy turnovers erased an 
otherwise positive opening few 
minutes.
By the end of the first half, the 
Wolverines had been outscored 
in the paint, 24-10, against a team 
with only one healthy player taller 
than 6-foot-8. Even with three 
rotational big men taller than that, 
Michigan’s first free throws came 
over 18 minutes into the game, as it 
seldom attacked the rim.
From the look of the halftime 
box score, you’d think Creighton 
had the upper-hand in height given 

its 23-10 rebounding advantage. 
Though 10 of those boards came on 
the offensive glass, Michigan only 
surrendered six second-chance 
points.
“We have to crack back and not 
allow those (opposing) bigs to run 
in freely to get offensive rebounds,” 
Howard said, “because I’m asking 
(Teske) to go after shots and alter 
shots and not allow guys just to 
walk down the lane and score 
layups. Now, the players have to do 
a better job covering up for him by 
blocking guys out on rebounds and 
not allowing guys to fly in and get 
extra possessions.”
With prized freshman wing 
Franz Wagner on the shelf due to 
a wrist fracture, the Wolverines 
didn’t know who would create 
offense on their own. A week after 
junior guard Eli Brooks posted 
a career-high 24 in the season-
opener and senior center Jon Teske 
chipped in 17, it was junior forward 
Isaiah Livers who answered the 
call against the Bluejays. He scored 
a career-high 22 points on 8-of-12 
shooting, while Simpson and Teske 
each added 17 of their own.
“(Livers) made some big shots 
for us,” Howard said. “He’s a super 
confident player. For his height, he 
does a really good job of getting 
elevation on his jump shot. … I 
think he’s done a fantastic job of 

embracing (his role) because with 
the confidence and as well as how 
we’re going to lean on him from an 
offensive end and defensive end.”
Coming out of halftime, the 
Wolverines took control of the 
game’s pace. Simpson finished 
a pair of transition layups that 
helped Michigan open the stanza 
on an 8-2 run, while the Wolverines 
only attempted seven second-half 
threes after shooting 16 in the first.
Backed by an effort to get the ball 
to the interior, Michigan ultimately 
built its 8-2 spurt into a crucial 
26-14 run and, most importantly, a 
lead it wouldn’t relinquish.
By the time the final buzzer 
sounded, 
the 
double-digit 
halftime deficit felt like a mere 
afterthought. And with Livers, 
Simpson and Teske combining 
for 56 of the Wolverines’ 79 points 
against a Big East defense, so did 
the offensive load of last year’s 
early departures.
Tuesday 
night 
was 
far 
from 
a 
season-defining 
win, 
and Michigan’s most pressing 
questions will remain unanswered 
for another month or so. But 
after narrowly avoiding a crisis 
against Appalachian State, the 
Wolverines’ performance against 
a 
respectable 
Bluejays 
team 
sure could be a springboard to 
immediate success.

On Tuesday, intentional or 
not, each half of basketball 
represented a different plan of 
attack — and with it, different 
identities 
of 
the 
Michigan 
men’s basketball team.
During a hard-fought 79-69 
win against Creighton (1-1 
overall), the Wolverines (2-0) 
used 
nearly 
every 
weapon 
they had in their arsenal, but 
switched its strategy as the 
game carried on.
In the first half, the 3-point 
shot was the saving grace for 
the offense.
To kick things off against 
the Bluejays, Michigan let 
it fly early and often. The 
Wolverines went 7-for-16 from 
deep throughout the half and 
were not shy about announcing 
their plan of attack. Leading 
this offensive barrage from 
3-point 
land 
was 
junior 
forward Isaiah Livers who hit 
four from downtown, three in 
the first half alone and finished 
the night with a career-high 22 
points.
Whether it was in transition 
or a product of senior guard 
Zavier Simpson driving to 
the hoop and finding an open 

man in the corner, the 3-point 
shot 
was 
instrumental 
to 
Michigan’s offense in the first 
half — closing out the first 20 
minutes down, 38-41.
The first half was also 
characterized 
by 
clean 
basketball. 
The 
Wolverines 
fouled just three times and 
turned the ball over on four 
occasions — a trend that would 
largely carry the whole game 
with Michigan committing just 
seven fouls and 11 turnovers 
all game. This play represents 
a 
marked 
departure 
from 
its season opener where the 
Wolverines handed the ball to 
their opponents 17 times.
In the second half, play from 
the big men dominated.
The hot hands would cool 
down in the final 20 minutes in 
favor of Michigan’s clear size 
advantage. In the second half, 
the Wolverines attempted as 
many threes as they made in 
the first.
With the change in attack 
brought 
more 
deliberate 
possessions. The guards fed 
senior center Jon Teske in the 
post who led the team with 
12 points and finished the 
night with 17. Further shaping 
this 
tact, 
Simpson 
found 
success near the basket due to 
relentless drives to the hoop 
and an unmatched ability to 
finish.
Now, there is just one simple 
question to answer: Was this 
strategy intentional?
The 
answer, 
almost 
certainly, is no.
It is hard to question the 
idea that Michigan wanted to 
control the post early against 
the Bluejays — a team who only 
had one player over 6-foot-8. 
While 
Michigan 
coach 
Juwan 
Howard 
may 
feed 
lines about how the team is 
always looking for the best 
shot and that the open man is 
going to dictate that offensive 
possession, 
in 
the 
context 
of this game, it’s not always 
applicable. Take this one, for 
example.
“We always try to get the 
best shot possible whether 

it’s the first or second half,” 
Howard said. “Overall, we 
want to make sure that we 
establish a balanced basketball 
game so that we can compete.”
The Wolverines were able 
to find that balance — and 
their ideal shot selection — 
in the second half due to the 
re-establishment of its big 
men, the change of fortune for 
50/50 balls and an increased 
defensive intensity. 
In 
the 
game, 
Creighton 
outscored Michigan on second 
chance points, 13-4, with most 
of these looks coming in the 
first 20 minutes. At the break, 
the emphasis from Howard 
pointed to transition defense 
and two tenants of play down 
low — offensive rebounding 
and defense around the basket.
“We got backdoored a lot,” 
Livers said. “I got backdoored 
once, (junior guard Eli Brooks) 
got once, (sophomore guard 
David DeJulius) once, and 
it’s just small plays like that 
for an easy two is gonna be 
troublesome because I feel like 
we’re gonna be like, ‘Damn, we 
just got a stop, we forgot about 
the backdoor.’ It was just the 
little things we gotta clean up.” 
Perhaps in a different game 
against a different team, these 
lapses on the defensive end 
cost Michigan the game. 
In this instance, though, the 
Wolverines were lucky that 
shots were falling from deep 
or else they would have been 
staring down a much larger 
deficit. 
But when it comes down 
to figuring out what changed 
at the half-way point in the 
contest, Livers claims that it all 
comes down to remembering 
what this team is all about.
“We kinda just treated it 
like it was practice,” Livers 
said. “Our scout team did a 
tremendous job all week of 
running their offense, and I 
guess we were overthinking it 
in the first half. Just things you 
do in basketball, and you come 
together and get that speech 
from coach Howard, things are 
gonna come out clicking.”

Test passed

Michigan runs away from Creighton late, tops Bluejays 79-69 behind career night from Livers, moving to 2-0

DANIEL DASH
Daily Sports Writer

JACOB KOPNICK
Daily Sports Writer

For in-state players, MSU rivalry 
game is friend against friend

In this state, Michigan and 
Michigan 
State 
football 
are 
religions. Their annual matchup 
is like a holy war. And local 
players were baptized in it early, 
sometimes from birth.
Nearly every football fan in 
the state bleeds either green and 
white or maize and blue. Many 
high school players imagine 
themselves in Ann Arbor or 
East Lansing, making plays that 
will eventually appear on the 
ever-expanding highlight reel of 
rivalry moments.
And then, when it’s time to 
head off to college, the rivalry 
inevitably 
becomes 
more 
personal. Some players become 
Wolverines. 
Others 
become 
Spartans.
Once a year, those players see 
each other again — the eyes of an 
entire state on them.
“This is a great game for 
me cause I’m from the state of 
Michigan,” said junior defensive 
back 
Ambry 
Thomas, 
who 
attended Martin Luther King 
High in Detroit, the same school 
as Michigan State linebacker 
Tyriq Thompson. “I know a lot of 
their players.”
Senior 
guard 
Michael 
Onwenu 
attended 
Detroit’s 
Cass Technical, the same high 
school 
as 
fellow 
Michigan 
players Donovan Peoples-Jones 
and Jaylen Kelly-Powell. Two 
Spartans went there as well, and 
Onwenu knows others on the 
roster from camps or high school 
rivalries.
For Onwenu, it’s easy to 
separate his friendships off the 
field with his enemies on the 
field. As soon as anyone puts on a 
Michigan State uniform, they’re 
just another foe to vanquish. But 
games against familiar faces add 
another layer to the matchup.

“If it’s people you know 
personally, it kinda goes for 
you,” Onwenu said. “Because you 
might know their tells or know 
their tendencies even better.”
Peoples-Jones, 
also 
an 
alumnus of Cass Tech, was close 
with Spartan defensive back 
Kalon Gervin in high school but 
said Tuesday the two haven’t 
spoken 
ahead 
of 
Saturday’s 
matchup. Sophomore defensive 
end Aidan Hutchinson — who 
attended Divine Child High 
School in Dearborn, Mich. — has 
the opposite approach.
Hutchinson, one of the loudest 
and brashest players on the 
team, doesn’t shy away from 
the chippier aspects of “Hate 
Week,” and that includes lots 
of trash talk. Michigan State 
backup quarterback Theo Day 
also attended Divine Child and is 
one of Hutchinson’s best friends. 
And while Hutchinson listened 
to Day air his frustrations about 
the Spartans’ collapse against 
Illinois, he also made it known 
that come Saturday, he’d show no 
mercy.
“I don’t know if I can tell 
you what he said, but some 
words were said between us,” 

Hutchinson 
said. 
“He 
was 
talking a little bit about the game, 
but yeah, I’m just pumped to play 
him.”
When 
you 
consider 
the 
connections that lie in every 
corner 
of 
this 
rivalry, 
it’s 
no 
surprise 
that 
Michigan-
Michigan State is known as one 
of the ugliest matchups in college 
football. As much as both teams 
sometimes downplay it — with 
Onwenu referring to the Spartans 
as “another team on the schedule 
we’ve gotta beat” — those born 
and bred on either side know this 
is much more than that.
For players throughout the 
state who grew up devout in this 
rivalry, whose lives are ingrained 
in this rivalry, this is their holy 
grail.
“Owning the state of Michigan 
is always a big thing for the two 
programs who battle for it every 
single year,” said senior guard 
Ben Bredeson. “There’s the Paul 
Bunyan Trophy involved as well. 
There’s a lot of pride that goes 
into it as well for the fanbases. 
It’s a cool rivalry just because 
you have the in-state factor of it 
and you get bragging rights for 
the year.”

ARIA GERSON
Daily Sports Editor

ALEXIS RANKIN/Daily
Junior forward Isaiah Livers scored a career-high 22 points in Michigan’s 79-69 win over Creighton on Tuesday night.

ALEXIS RANKIN/Daily
Junior Ambry Thomas played high school with multiple MSU players.

8A — Wednesday, November 13, 2019
Sports
The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com

