Tuesday, November 26, 2019 — 7B
Sports
The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com
‘M’ men’s hoops off to Bahamas for first road trip of the season
Three weeks into this watershed
season,
the
Michigan
men’s
basketball team sits at 4-0.
The Wolverines’ performances
have varied from a late-game scare
in the opener to Appalachian State
to two blowouts against lowly
mid-majors Houston Baptist and
Elon, with a solid victory against
Creighton sandwiched in between.
If there’s been one common
denominator between all of these
games though, it’s the location.
Michigan has yet to play outside the
confines of Crisler Center.
That all changes on Wednesday,
when the Wolverines tip off against
Iowa State in the first-round of the
Battle 4 Atlantis in Nassau, Bahamas.
For Michigan — a program
very much in transition with new
coach Juwan Howard and a slew of
underclassmen playing key roles — a
trip to the Bahamas may seem like
the last thing it needs. Having home-
court advantage has likely helped
the Wolverines slip past the Bluejays,
and maybe even the Mountaineers,
unscatched.
Ask anyone around the team
though, and they’ll tell you it’s quite
the opposite. Michigan is relishing
the chance to leave Ann Arbor
behind for a few days.
“We’re gonna be on the road for the
first time away from our home crowd
so it’s gonna be a little different,”
said junior forward Isaiah Livers.
“I think it’s gonna be exciting. I’m
excited to see how Coach Howard
treats a ‘business trip,’ as he calls it.”
“It’s that simple,” Howard said.
“Bahamas
is
Bahamas.
We’re
approaching it like we’re gonna take
care of business.”
In order to accomplish that goal,
Michigan will have to knock off a
number of high-profile programs.
Iowa
State,
North
Carolina,
Gonzaga, Seton Hall and Oregon
make up a stacked field, with four of
them in the AP Top-25. Still though,
Howard and his coaching staff isn’t
expecting a drop-off.
“To a man I’m looking for our
group to be a competitive group,”
Howard said. “We know that every
opponent we’re gonna face is good,
just like the opponents we face here
at home. It’s only gonna prepare us
for the Big Ten season, which is right
around the corner.”
Not only will the Wolverines face
better competition than they have
thus far, they’ll have less than a day
to prepare for each.
In typical early-season fashion,
Michigan has had three or more days
between each of its first four games
— before Creighton and Houston
Baptist, it had an entire week.
Projecting forward though, the
Wolverines won’t have the benefit
of such gaps. From their perspective
though, they might as well acclimate
to it now.
“We
prepare
for
it,”
said
sophomore forward Colin Castleton.
“It’s just something you gotta be
used to. All the other teams do it, just
like us, so we gotta just be ready and
prepare for and practice every day.
So it’s just like, go out there and
play.”
Added Howard: “One game at
a time, we understand that we
cannot be hanging out at the beach
enjoying the fun in the sun. I truly
wish (we’d) have that moment, but
when we get there, we’ll have that
practice and start locking in for our
opponents.”
Teams like Michigan partake in
these types of tournaments in order
to test itself against high-caliber,
non-conference opponents. While,
the Wolverines might not win the
Battle 4 Atlantis, they’ll be reaping
the benefits later on.
“It’s beautiful when you go
on the road,” Howard said. “It
really helps your team form that
mental toughness as well as that
togetherness. I think that’s a perfect
opportunity for us at a perfect time
where we can bond, get to know one
another.”
ALEXIS RANKIN/Daily
Junior forward Isaiah Livers scored 24 points in Michigan’s 111-68 win over Houston Baptist on Friday, the final tune-up before the Wolverines head off to the Bahamas.
Power-play tweaks end streak without a man-advantage goal
Nick Blankenburg looked across
the ice, surveying his options as
he decided which play to make for
Michigan’s top power-play unit.
The sophomore defenseman had
senior forward Will Lockwood in
the slot, senior forward Jake Slaker
on the right half-wall, fifth-year
forward Jacob Hayhurst on the left
half-wall and freshman forward
Johnny Beecher at the net front.
He could pass to any one of those
options or choose to shoot the puck
himself — less of an attempt to score
and more of an attempt to make
the New Hampshire penalty killers
respect him as an option to shoot.
Blankenburg
looked
first
at
Lockwood sliding into the slot, who
brought a defender with him as he
read Blankenburg’s eyes. In a split
second, Blankenburg turned slightly
to his left and fired a tape-to-tape
pass across to Hayhurst.
Hayhurst, all alone on the left
wall, quickly moved the puck inside
for Lockwood, who sent it ahead
for Beecher in front of Wildcat
goaltender Mike Robinson.
Beecher tipped the puck out of
the air to himself and poked it home
for the Wolverines’ first power-play
goal in 15 attempts across five games.
“Power play hasn’t been very
good this year at times, but tonight
I thought it was excellent,” said
Michigan coach Mel Pearson after
Friday’s game. “That was a huge
power play goal by Johnny to get us
going.”
On Monday at Yost Ice Arena,
Pearson expanded on the work that
went into Michigan’s power play
finding twine for the first time in
three weeks. The Wolverines spent
more time on the man-advantage
units in practice than usual and
made some key position changes
throughout the week, ultimately
culminating in a 2-of-6 performance
on the weekend.
Freshman
defenseman
Cam
York, who had been running the top
power-play unit from the blueline,
was moved to run things from the
left half-wall and Blankenburg took
York’s spot up top — but not his role.
York’s role as the quarterback
of the power play remains intact,
it’s just from a different position on
the ice. And the change came after
Pearson took a look at film from
last year’s team and how he used
defenseman Quinn Hughes — now a
rookie with the Vancouver Canucks,
who leads all NHL rookies and ranks
fifth overall in points on the power
play.
“That was just to switch because
we looked at some tape from last year
and where Quinn played,” Pearson
said. “We had Quinn Hughes in
some different plays — with some
different plays and in some different
positions. We decided to try to put
our people in situations they would
be comfortable in.”
York had been running things
from the blueline all year, but he
never looked fully comfortable in
the role. And though he missed his
shift when his typical unit scored
in Friday’s game, on Michigan’s
other two opportunities in the
game, he was visibly more at ease
working out of the half-wall — and
the Wolverines’ one power-play goal
Friday night came after Hayhurst
made a play from York’s spot on the
wall.
“He put Yorkie on the left side, so
(my role is to) get the puck to Yorkie
and then he’ll have speed going down
the wall so he can either shoot it (or)
give it back up to me,” Blankenburg
said. “…Yorkie’s got a lot of options
he can do. He can, like I said, go back
to me, look for Will in the middle, go
cross-ice to Slakes, go down kinda
below the net, Beech pops out.
“We had a play where that
worked, so I think he’s just one of
those guys where you want the puck
in his stick.”
While York wasn’t on the ice for
Michigan’s goal Friday night, the
principles of his role can easily be
applied to the play Hayhurst made
out of the same position.
“Ironically,
(York)
was
tired
because of a long shift the first night
so we didn’t have him out there,”
Pearson said. “We had Hayhurst in
that position, and Hayhurst actually
made the play to Will to Beecher, so
there you go.”
One weekend is almost certainly
too small of a sample size to
make sweeping claims about the
Wolverines’ power play returning to
functionality, but signs were there
for both the first and second units
that there may not be a five-game
drought again.
In
Saturday’s
game,
junior
forward Michael Pastujov found
twine
with
Michigan’s
second
power-play unit for the first goal of
the game — and his first tally of the
season.
And
Pearson
feels
confident
that the Wolverines are starting to
figure out the best positions for their
players on each unit, whether that’s
York moving down along the wall or
Pastujov continuing to work from
the right side, where he had success
last year.
“You have to be careful and try to
build your power play around what
your guys can do well. Maybe in the
past, we haven’t had guys in the right
position. I don’t know. (Maybe) we’re
trying to force some guys into some
spots. Especially with new guys, you
have no idea what they’re capable of.
You think you do, but when you get
in games, it’s different.”
CONNOR BRENNAN
Daily Sports Writer
BAILEY JOHNSON
Daily Sports Writer
ALEC COHEN/Daily
Sophomore defenseman Nick Blankenburg has a new role on the power play.