The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com
Sports
Tuesday, December 10, 2019 — 7

Exhibition of potential

Four.
The number of freshmen 
on 
the 
Michigan 
women’s 
gymnastics team.
Three.
The number of freshmen 
who 
competed 
in 
the 
Wolverines’ exhibition meet 
— 
the 
Michigan 
Quad 
in 
Crisler Center against Central 
Michigan, Western Michigan 
and Eastern Michigan.
Two.
The number of Michigan 
gymnasts who competed all-
around, 
including 
freshman 
Sierra Brooks.
One.
The place Brooks finished in 
the all-around category.
In 
the 
exhibition, 
the 
Michigan 
freshmen 
class 
brought its stellar reputation 
to the floor. And the beam, and 
the bars, and the vault. Three 
of the four freshmen — Gabby 
Wilson, Nicoletta Koulos and 
Brooks — made their collegiate 
debut.
An exhibition meet is a 
unique experience, allowing 
gymnasts to showcase routines 
and test things out in a low-
stakes 
environment. 
There 
isn’t always the same level of 
pressure to perform, something 
the freshmen class capitalized 
on. 
“I just tried to do as best 
I could,” Brooks said. “I just 
tried to keep that mentality 
throughout the meet. Don’t 
try to change anything too 
drastically because people are 
watching and you’re in Crisler.”
In a team win for the 
Wolverines — with a final 
score of 195.975 — all four 
events were covered by the 
three freshmen: Koulos on 
floor, Wilson on floor, bars and 
vault and Brooks competing 
all-around. 
Koulos, 
despite 
multiple falls during her floor 
routine, scored a 9.075. She also 
did an exhibition on vault, bars 
and beam.

“Nicoletta Koulos fell on the 
floor and I’m not going to say 
that I’m not surprised,” said 
Michigan coach Bev Plocki. 
“We have pushed her a little 
bit. She’s going to be great. I 
have no doubt in my mind that 
she’s going to be great.”
Wilson’s 
performance 
on three of four events also 
trended in a positive direction. 
On vault, she tied with Brooks 
for first out of 
the 
Michigan 
competitors, 
and 
tied 
for 
second between 
the four teams 
with a score of 
9.825. On floor 
and 
bars 
she 
added 
valuable 
points 
to 
the 
Wolverines’ 
team-score. She 
also did an exhibition on beam.
Brooks was one of two 
Michigan 
gymnasts 
who 
competed all-around — the 
other was the NCAA national 
champion on the beam event, 
sophomore 
Natalie 
Wojcik. 

Brooks posted an all-around 
score of 39.425 on her way to 
being the all-around champion 
of the meet. She was also the 
bars champion with a score of 
9.925.
Overall, 
the 
freshmen 
accounted 
for 
almost 
40 
percent of Michigan’s 195.975 
points. Out of that 40, Brooks 
contributed 50.5 percent of 
those points. With the loss 
of 
two 
key 
seniors, Olivia 
Karas 
and 
Emma McLean, 
the Wolverines 
looked 
to 
replace 
their 
six lineup spots 
with 
these 
freshman. The 
freshmen’s 
positive 
early 
performances 
shows 
steps 
in 
the 
right 
direction in filling those spots.
“I think we did really good, 
like, for our first time in 
Crisler,” Brooks said. “It was 
awesome that everybody was 
able to contribute.”

Talented underclassmen lead way in exhibition quad meet win on Saturday, showing what could come this season

An exhibition match is usually 
one to give the seniors and 
captains a solid pre-season tune-
up. It’s an opportunity to give 
the freshman a walkthrough 
at Crisler Center for what’s to 
come. But they aren’t supposed 
to be the ones carrying the team. 
The freshmen are supposed to 
perform like freshman and the 
seniors are supposed to perform 
like seniors. 
But not for the Michigan 
women’s gymnastics team. 
In an exhibition quad meet 
on Saturday, the underclassmen, 
especially 
freshman 
Sierra 
Brooks, 
propelled 
the 
Wolverines to the win. 
Michigan competed against 
Central 
Michigan, 
Western 
Michigan and Eastern Michigan. 
The Wolverines scored 195.975 
points and Central Michigan 
finished second with a score of 
194.500. 
“It’s always an exciting time 
of the year, but it’s also a difficult 
time of year,” said Michigan 

coach Bev Plocki. “This falls at 
really not the best time of year … 
but it just happens to be when it 
is. We still have a month. I guess 
the good news is we still have a 
month.”
Competing 
in 
her 
first 
collegiate meet, Brooks was 
the all-around champion with 
a near-perfect score of 39.425. 
One of only two Michigan 
gymnasts to compete in all 
four events, Brooks highlighted 
her performance with her bar 
routine, posting a score of 9.925. 
“It’s really exciting,” Brooks 
said. “I came in, I didn’t try to 
like have an overall (day), I just 
tried to do as best I could. I just 
tried to keep that mentality 
throughout the meet, and just 
do the routines that I’ve been 
doing inside the gym.”
Sophomore Natalie Wojcik 
placed 
fourth 
all-around. 
She had an impressive floor 
routine, scoring a 9.900. Wojcik 
upgraded the difficulty of her 
routine midway through last 
season, adding a full-on. She 
wasn’t able to perfect it last 
year and it has since been an 
emphasis in practice. 
As 
the 
reigning 
national 
champion in the beam event, 
Wojcik performed strongly in 
her beam routine — her favorite 
event — scoring a 9.875. This 
was not near her best from last 
season, but she is working on 
shaking off the early season 
rust. 
Because 
this 
was 
an 
exhibition meet, all teams were 
allowed to compete with six 
gymnasts in addition to two 
exhibition players. Unlike a 
regular-season meet, regardless 
of the two exhibition scores the 
first six gymnasts in the lineup 
were scored. Plocki capitalized 
on this opportunity and entered 
eight gymnasts in each event. 
“We tried to treat it for the 
most part like a regular meet,” 
Plocki said. “This is a great 
dry run for our athletes, for 
our event staff, for everybody. 
In a regular meet, we would 
probably only put our lineup in 

one exhibition.”
Regardless of the win, like 
any beginning of the season, the 
meet was not flawless. 
“As a team, we have been 
working a lot on landings and 
just cleaning up any little small 
thing we can,” Wojcik said. 
The 
Wolverines 
started 
strong in their first rotation 
on vault. But the pressure of 
competing in Crisler Center for 
the first time this season, and for 
the freshman first time in their 
careers, slowly set in during the 
beam and floor events.
“It’s 
just 
being 
able 
to 
compete beam in a pressure 
situation without giving in to 
some of the negative thoughts 
that go through your head and 
being nervous,” Plocki said. 
“Those routines we will make 
over and over and over again in 
the gym.”
The biggest mistakes came 
during these last two events. 
Four gymnasts fell off the 
beam during their routines, all 
managing to get back on and 
finish their routine. During the 
floor event, freshman Nicoletta 
Koulos fell during her last pass 
through. Plocki attributed this 
to Koulos’ ongoing recovery 
from several knee injuries. 
“(We will) be able to get 
everything ready to go into 
that first real meet and be able 
to clean up some of those little 
mistakes we had today,” Plocki 
said.
Coming out of this meet, 
Plocki is confident that, if her 
team stays healthy, it will have 
considerable depth and be able 
to rotate gymnasts in their 
lineup to keep them fresh and 
healthy and improve as the 
season progresses. One might 
look at Michigan’s season last 
year and see minimal if any 
room for improvement. 
But not for the Michigan 
women’s gymnastics team. 
“There’s 
always 
room 
to 
improve,” Plocki said. “If you 
are 
not 
trying 
to 
improve 
you’re falling behind because 
everybody else is improving.”

ABBIE TELGENHOF
Daily Sports Writer

LILY ISRAEL
Daily Sports Writer

Wagner gains confidence with 
performance against Hawkeyes

 The game’s result was no longer 
in doubt. 
With a 14-point buffer and 
just over a minute remaining, the 
Michigan men’s basketball team 
was assured its first Big Ten win of 
the season over Iowa.
Off a long defensive rebound, 
though, even with no need to 
push the ball in transition, two 
Wolverines saw an opportunity 
anyway.
After sending an outlet pass to 
sophomore guard David DeJulius, 
freshman wing Franz Wagner 
hightailed down the floor. The 
Hawkeyes were retreating a little 
too casually for their own good, 
and Wagner was about to take full 
advantage. Almost telepathically, 
DeJulius read the situation and 
hoisted a pinpoint alley-oop from 
30 feet out.
Wagner finished it off with a 
two-handed flush. 
The 
crowd 
inside 
Crisler 
Center erupted, the Michigan 
bench jumped to its feet in 
excitement and Wagner strolled 
away smiling ear-to-ear. The fact 
that the sequence increased the 
Wolverines’ lead to 16 points was 
trivial. What the slam meant in the 
grand scheme of things was much 
more meaningful.
The 103-91 win over Iowa 
pushed Michigan to 8-1 on the 
season. For Wagner, though, Friday 
night was just his fifth college 
game. The heralded freshman, 
who 
played 
professionally 
in 
Germany last season, was forced to 
sit out the first month of the season 
after fracturing his wrist. 
When he returned to action, 
he was thrown right into the fire, 
starting all three games of the 
Battle 4 Atlantis — against Iowa 
State, No. 17 North Carolina and 
No. 6 Gonzaga — and playing 
30 minutes against top-ranked 
Louisville. 
Despite showing positive flashes 

in all four games, Wagner also 
looked a step slow. Offensively, he 
shot 28.5 percent from behind the 
arc and 36 percent overall. It was 
even more glaring on the defensive 
end, where Wagner had some 
missed assignments, and at times, 
let his guard down. 
This was especially true against 
the Cardinals. Wagner was given 
the tall task of guarding their 
leading scorer, Jordan Nwora, and 
struggled to contain him. 
“I think against Louisville, off 
the ball, I played good defense,” 
Wagner 
said 
last 
Thursday. 
“Maybe I could’ve communicated 
a little more. On the ball, I can 
definitely do a better job. He’s a 
really good player though and you 
have to give him credit.”
Against Iowa, Wagner seemed 
to turn a corner on both ends. 
He looked aggressive on offense, 
scoring 18 and getting to the foul 
line 10 times. Defensively, he held 
the Hawkeyes’ second leading 
scorer, Joe Wieskamp, to just seven 
points on 2-of-6 shooting. 
“Franz 
gave 
us 
great 
production,” said Michigan coach 
Juwan Howard. “It was great that 
he played with a lot of confidence 
— not saying he didn’t play with a 
lot of confidence before. But, when 
you see the ball go through the 
basket a few times, it gives you a 
gratifying feeling.”
While it was Wagner’s best 
performance of the season, it 
wasn’t necessarily unexpected. 

Despite a somewhat slow start and 
the occasional miscue, Wagner has 
gradually gained confidence with 
each and every game. The latest 
showing against the Hawkeyes 
was merely a glimpse of what his 
teammates and coaches had raved 
about over the summer.
“Every game I feel better out 
there,” Wagner said. “It takes a 
little time, but I felt good out there 
today.”
Added Howard: “Like I tell 
Franz, you just gotta stick to the 
process. Because it’s tough for a guy 
to only have one practice and come 
in and play three games in a row. It 
wears on you, and then when see 
that your shot is flat or you shoot 
an air ball or you miss a layup or 
you travel, you can get down on 
yourself. That’s something we 
don’t want him to do because he’s 
a big part of our team.” 
Howard never wavered from 
his decision to start Wagner as 
soon as he was ready. He gives a 
solid Michigan roster even more 
of a scoring threat going forward 
and valuable minutes at a sorely-
needed spot.
In the closing minutes of the 
game, knowing what the moment 
had meant to him, Howard gave 
Wagner a high-five and some 
encouragement near the sideline. 
“He just asked me if that felt 
good,” Wagner said. “It was after 
that dunk and I said, ‘Yeah.’
“... It felt good hanging on the 
rim again.”

In win over ‘Cuse, Michigan shows 
lessons learned from early season

The Wolverines were in a 
familiar situation.
Midway through the fourth 
quarter of its Thursday matchup 
against 
Syracuse, 
the 
game 
seemed to be slipping away from 
Michigan — just as it had in the 
Nov. 23 loss to Notre Dame. 
Sophomore 
forward 
Naz 
Hillmon forced a turnover and 
drew a foul on a converted layup 
in transition early in the fourth 
quarter to cut the Syracuse lead 
to four, and it looked as though 
the momentum had shifted to 
the Wolverines. But Hillmon 
missed the free throw, and the 
Orange made 3-pointers on their 
next two possessions. Suddenly, 
Michigan trailed by 10 — its 
largest deficit of the game.
Just as they had against the 
Fighting Irish, the Wolverines 
got anxious, leading to turnovers 
and missed shots. In that game, 
Michigan made just one field 
goal and turned the ball over six 
times over the first 6:30 of the 
fourth quarter, during which 
Notre Dame went on a 12-3 run. 
Thursday, the Wolverines missed 
all three of their attempted 
field goals and committed two 
turnovers over the two-minute 
stretch after Syracuse extended 
the lead to 10. The Orange had 

the game firmly in hand.
Against the Fighting Irish, 
Michigan did little to adjust. It 
continued to sit back in a zone, 
and Notre Dame continued to 
break it. The Wolverines looked 
demoralized as the Fighting 
Irish continued to score with 
ease.
“We couldn’t get a defensive 
stop or consecutive defensive 
stops,” 
said 
junior 
forward 
Hailey Brown after the loss. 
“When you’re not making shots, 
even though you’re getting the 
right shots, if you’re not getting 
stops it’s hard to win that way.”
Michigan coach Kim Barnes 
Arico and the players showed 
Thursday that they had learned 
their lesson. With just under six 
minutes left in the game, the 
Wolverines unveiled a stifling 
full-court press. They had shown 
this look from time to time 
throughout their past few games 
— even for a few possessions in 
the first half against Syracuse 
— but they had never looked as 
energized in the formation as 
they had down the stretch of 
Thursday’s game.
Michigan’s press forced six 
turnovers, and the Wolverines 
finished the quarter on a 14-5 
run to force overtime. Michigan 
continued to press in overtime 
and forced five Orange turnovers, 
leading to an 84-76 win.

This defensive switch was the 
clear turning point in the game, 
but the Wolverines would not 
have been able to consistently 
press 
without 
taking 
care 
of the ball. In the loss to the 
Fighting Irish, Michigan had 
seven turnovers in the fourth 
quarter. The Wolverines were 
constantly playing in transition, 
so they couldn’t get set in a full-
court press even if they wanted 
to. Since that game, they have 
worked hard to improve their 
ball security.
“We have a bunch of practice 
guys that come in every day 
and we have been doing drill 
after drill of high pressure, high 
pressure, high pressure,” Barnes 
Arico 
said. 
“People 
double-
teaming you. Six players against 
five of us, putting us in uneven 
numbers. Four of us against 
three. Just trying to simulate 
facing 
long, 
pressure-type 
teams.” 
Against 
Syracuse, 
the 
Wolverines only turned the ball 
over twice in the 10 minutes after 
they began to press. As Michigan 
began to come back, the Orange 
switched to a full-court press of 
their own, but the Wolverines 
didn’t get flustered. Sophomore 
point guard Amy Dilk never tried 
to force the ball up the court on 
her own. She made smart, quick 
passes to avoid traps and get the 
ball past half court with relative 
ease.
“We had four (turnovers) in 
the second half against a team 
that picks up and pressures the 
way that they do,” Barnes Arico 
said. “I thought Amy Dilk was 
phenomenal. When you have to 
go against pressure 94 feet for 40 
minutes, that’s pretty tough to 
do. She handled it exceptionally 
well.”
The loss to Notre Dame was 
a clear wake-up call for the 
Wolverines, and they showed 
what they learned from it in a 
similar game against Syracuse.

MADELINE HINKLEY/Daily
Freshman Sierra Brooks placed first in the all-around competition during Saturday’s exhibition meet win for Michigan.

CONNOR BRENNAN
Daily Sports Writer

JACK KINGSLEY
Daily Sports Writer

I think we did 
really good, 
like, for our first 
time at Crisler.

ALEXANDRIA POMPEI/Daily
Freshman wing Franz Wagner scored 18 points on Friday against Iowa.

OLIVIA CELL/Daily
Michigan coach Kim Barnes Arico was glad her team cut down on turnovers.

