2B — January 8, 2020
SportsWednesday
The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com

Shooting troubles plague Michigan

EAST LANSING — Brick 
by brick, Michigan laid the 
foundation of its own downfall. 
Whether it was beyond the 
arc, from the elbow or along 
the baseline, the Wolverines 
struggled to knock down shots 
for three-quarters of Sunday’s 
18-point, 87-69 drubbing at the 
hands of No. 14 Michigan State. 
A fairly even contest through 
the first ten minutes gradually 
eroded into Michigan being 
forced to play catch-up.
Without 
leading 
scorer, 
junior forward Isaiah Livers, 
the Wolverines had nowhere 
to turn offensively when the 
Spartans’ All-American point 
guard Cassius Winston caught 
fire. 
While 
Winston, 
who 
finished with 32 points on 
11-of-19 shooting, orchestrated 
his team’s offense to perfection, 
Michigan’s offense sputtered. 
Senior point guard Zavier 
Simpson and senior center Jon 
Teske did their best to keep 
the Wolverines in the game, 
but 
poor 
3-point 
shooting 
from Simpson — 1-for-6 — and 
foul trouble for Teske meant 
that Michigan’s attack was too 
inconsistent. 
“Give Teske credit, he went 
to work on us early in there,” 
said Michigan State coach Tom 

Izzo. “I didn’t like the way we 
covered him at times. But, we 
made some adjustments and 
got a little better in the second 
half.”
With Teske on the bench, the 
Wolverines lacked an offensive 
focal point and resorted to 
hoisting up some ill-advised 
shots. This was especially true 
from 
3-point 
range, 
where 
Michigan went 5-of-23 over the 
course of the game. 
In 
Livers’ 
absence, 
sophomore forward Brandon 
Johns Jr. stepped in at the ‘4.’ 
Johns Jr. may be of the same 
athletic ilk as Livers, but less 
polished offensively. Despite 
scoring 12 points in 30 minutes, 
Johns Jr. shot 25 percent from 
three. 
The rest of the Wolverines’ 
rotation didn’t fare any better. 
Junior guard Eli Brooks, who 
upped his offensive production 
significantly from last season, 
was limited to five shots — 
missing all four of his 3-point 
attempts. 
The 
Spartans 
chased 
Michigan’s shooters off their 
spots, something that they 
emphasized going in. 
“We wanted to take away 
their threes,” Izzo said. “We 
didn’t give up the wide-open 
threes.
“We did a pretty good job on 
Brooks and (sophomore guard) 

David DeJulius, and I think 
that was one of the differences. 
(Freshman 
forward 
Franz) 
Wagner hit one, too, but we did 
a decent job on what we had to 
do to win the game.” 
Without 
Livers 
and 
his 
shooting 
threat, 
Michigan 
coach 
Juwan 
Howard 
was 
forced to play more of his 
bigs. As a result, the paint 
looked more congested and 
opportunities to attack the 
basket were harder to come by. 
“Isaiah 
would’ve 
helped 
(with 
the 
spacing),” 
Teske 
said. “But that’s no excuse. 
We always say, ‘Next man up.’ 
Brandon played well tonight 
and we trust him to do that.”
The 
Wolverines’ 
poor 
shooting 
on 
the 
road 
has 
become an alarming trend and 
one that reared its ugly head 
again in East Lansing. 36.2 
percent from the field isn’t a 
recipe for success in Big Ten 
play — especially when Winston 
and Michigan State’s offense 
hums like it did on Sunday.
The answer to improving 
these 
woes 
according 
to 
Michigan: keep working. 
“There 
were 
some 
shots 
that didn’t fall,” Howard said. 
“Unfortunately for us, it’s been 
our norm going on the road that 
our threes don’t fall for us. We 
just gotta keep forging ahead 
and mentally stay with it.”

J

uwan Howard hasn’t shied 
away from calling Zavier 
Simpson his quarterback.
In his first season as the 
Michigan 
men’s bas-
ketball 
coach, How-
ard inherit-
ed a proven 
senior point 
guard. 
Simpson, 
one of the 
nation’s 
craftiest 
passers and 
elite perimeter defenders, has 
been the Wolverines’ backbone 
since he became the team’s 
starting point guard halfway 
through his sophomore season.
Even after a coaching change 
forced him into a new system, 
Simpson has remained produc-
tive. Simpson leads the Big Ten 
in assists with 8.9 per game, 
and if you ask anyone around 
the program about his work 
ethic, they’ll tell you that above 
all, he wants to win. That pair-
ing of production and attitude 
makes it easy to see why How-
ard likens him to Tom Brady.
But over the last month, 
Michigan has seen a different 
version of the Zavier Simpson 
that piloted the team’s 7-0 start 
this season. Through the first 
month of the schedule, oppos-
ing defenses gave Simpson 
the opportunity to play to his 
strengths. And as one of the 
country’s best pick-and-roll 
ball handlers, he put together a 
highlight film of assists.
Whether it was throwing 
alley-oops to senior center Jon 
Teske or creating improbable 
angles to find shooters along 
the perimeter, Simpson’s abil-
ity to create offense out of the 
pick-and-roll fueled a high-
octane offense.
Until it didn’t.
In the Wolverines’ loss to 
Louisville on Dec. 3, Cardinals’ 
coach Chris Mack cracked the 
code. Louisville hedged hard 
on screens, making it difficult 
for Simpson to invent the same 
passing angles that made Mich-
igan’s offense so successful in 
wins over then-No. 6 North 

Carolina and now-No. 1 Gon-
zaga at the Battle 4 Atlantis.
“It starts with Zavier,” Mack 
said after the game. “The deep-
er he gets in the lane, the more 
it puts your off-ball defenders 
in a bind. How much do I help 
in? In the Bahamas, he’d just 
get in the lane and spray it out, 
and (junior forward Isaiah) 
Livers and (junior guard Eli) 
Brooks, they couldn’t miss. 
And so all we talked about was 
keeping him out of the lane, 
and then hard closeouts.”
When the Cardinals didn’t 
hedge hard, they played Simp-
son for the drive. They sagged 
off. They dared Howard’s Tom 
Brady to shoot.
And surely enough, as Mack 
predicted, the Wolverines are 
at their worst when their quar-
terback becomes their shooter.
In Michigan’s 10 wins, Simp-
son averages 7.6 attempts from 
the field at an efficient 59-per-
cent clip, which would be the 
third-best overall mark in the 
conference. But in the Wolver-
ines’ four losses, he averages 
13.5 shots. Increased volume, 
though, has brought the oppo-
site of increased effectiveness, 
as Simpson shoots just 31 per-
cent from the field in losses.
Simpson’s assist numbers, 
too, trend in opposite direc-
tions based on gameflow. He 
dishes out an average of 9.4 
assists in wins, but just 7.5 in 
losses.
Together, Simpson’s shoot-
ing and assist splits often tell 
the story of Michigan’s fate. 
When the Wolverines have fall-
en behind, Simpson has grown 

more aggressive. In an effort to 
will his team back into games, 
he drives to the rim at a higher 
rate and takes more contested 
shots. 
The most recent example 
came on Sunday in East Lan-
sing, where Simpson struggled 
to a 6-for-18 shooting perfor-
mance, including a 1-of-6 mark 
from deep. And it’s no coinci-
dence that Michigan was star-
ing at an 18-point loss by the 
end of the afternoon.
With Livers and his 13.6 
points per game now sidelined 
indefinitely, the Wolverines are 
at a crossroads. Simpson will 
always be at the offense’s helm, 
but the team’s best output 
comes when he’s orchestrat-
ing the scoring, not creating 
it. While he may be the team’s 
third-leading scorer, making 
up for Livers’ lost production 
needs to fall on Brooks, fresh-
man wing Franz Wagner and 
sophomore guard David DeJu-
lius.
If Michigan is to contend 
for a Big Ten title, Simpson 
has to play his brand of bas-
ketball. And with three of the 
team’s next four games coming 
against teams either nation-
ally-ranked or receiving poll 
votes, there will be times when 
he’s tempted to stray from 
exactly that.
But for the Wolverines’ 
offense to weather Livers’ 
absence, their quarterback has 
to facilitate it — not produce it.

Dash can be reached at 

dashdan@umich.edu or on 

Twitter @DanielDash_

E

AST LANSING — Maybe 
the most surprising part 
of Sunday afternoon was 
how inevita-
ble it all felt.
As Cas-
sius Winston 
walked off 
the Breslin 
Center floor 
for the last 
time with 16 
seconds left 
in the game, 
a final hail-
storm of noise 
coming down, Zavier Simpson’s 
hands were on his hips. Every-
one’s hands were on their hips. 
At least those wearing maize.
They looked at each other. 
They glanced at the floor. They 
had no answers, and never real-
ly came close to finding any.
Really, as soon as Michigan 
showed up in East Lansing 
with Isaiah Livers donning 
sweats during warmups, it felt 
like it would take something 
unforeseen to win the game. 
Even when the game stayed 
within arm’s reach, Michigan 
State’s lead hovering at 10 or 11 
throughout the second half, it 
felt like a mountain. 
All of Michigan’s warts 
were magnified without Livers 
— a 50-percent shooter from 
3-point range, a capable ball-
handler, a versatile defender. 
Its lack of depth and its lack of 
experience chief among them. 
“We had them scrambling, 
couldn’t really set up,” Winston 
said. “We were making plays 
like that.”
Of all the elements that 
have come to define Michigan-
Michigan State, a sense of pre-
determination hasn’t been one 
in a long time. But the Spartans 
walked off the floor with an 
87-69 win that never came into 
doubt, not from the moment it 
became clear that Livers would 
miss the game with a groin 
injury.
The Spartans collapsed the 

floor against Zavier Simpson, 
daring the Wolverines to shoot. 
They shot an abysmal 5-of-23 
from 3-point range. When they 
missed, Michigan State beat 
them down the floor, as Michi-
gan struggled to match — or 
keep — up. 
By the end of the first half, 
the Spartans had 44 points — 
the most Michigan has allowed 
in a first half since a Nov. 29, 
2017 loss at North Carolina, 
before Simpson was the start-
ing point guard and before the 
Wolverines went two straight 
years with a top-five defense in 
adjusted efficiency.
Right now, the Wolverines 
are 29th in adjusted defensive 
efficiency. They’re 24th in 
adjusted offensive efficiency, 
and in three true road games 

— all losses — they’re shoot-
ing 18.3 percent from three. 
They’re startlingly dependent 
on the three players left who 
played over 50 percent of min-
utes on last year’s team: Simp-
son, Livers and Jon Teske.
Without Livers, Michigan 
needed Brandon Johns Jr. to 
step into his role, confidently 
take 3-pointers and defend any-
one put in front of him.
“He’s disappointed,” Michi-
gan coach Juwan Howard said 
of Johns, after a performance 
in which solid top-line numbers 
belied a 1-of-4 performance 
from three. “He’ll probably tell 
you right now that he played 
badly.”
Without Livers, Michigan 
needed Franz Wagner to hit 
shots from outside and space 

the floor. Desperately.
“Wagner hit one,” Michigan 
State coach Tom Izzo said, 
after his team held Wagner 
to just three attempts from 
3-point range, a low-impact 
performance. “But we did a 
decent job and (what) we had to 
do to win the game.”
Without Livers, Michigan 
needed Eli Brooks and David 
DeJulius to take some of the 
load off Simpson.
“We did a pretty good job on 
Brooks and David DeJulius,” 
Izzo said, after his team held 
them to a combined 4-of-14 
from the field. “And I think 
that was the difference.”
Howard was predictably 
noncommittal when asked 
about Livers’ status for Thurs-
day’s game against Purdue, say-

ing only that Michigan would 
“take a look at it.” It’s hard 
to pick apart what on Sunday 
happened because of Livers’ 
absence and what happened 
because of problems that might 
have existed either way. 
The right answer might be 
somewhere in the middle.
These problems were there 
when Michigan lost at Louis-
ville, came up short in overtime 
against Oregon and couldn’t 
get going at Illinois. On Sunday, 
without Livers, they multiplied 
in severity, and his return 
might cover up those issues 
against some teams. But that 
would only serve to belie the 
point.
Simpson, Livers and Teske 
are the only three players on 
Michigan’s team who have 

played a big role in a road win 
of the kind Sunday’s would 
have been. They’re the only 
three who battled through a 
run to the national champion-
ship game in 2018. (Brooks was 
on that team, but essentially 
out of the rotation by that point 
in the year). 
Experience like that breeds 
confidence — something the 
rest of the Wolverines seem to 
lack, both during the game and 
afterwards, when they talked 
about second-guessing open 
shots and communicating more 
on defense. Those two areas 
don’t tend to be concerns on 
experienced, confident teams.
“You’ve just got to believe 
you can make it,” assistant 
coach Saddi Washington said 
of the shooting woes. “It’s defi-
nitely not a lack of ability. But 
you’ve got to step up and shoot 
the ball with confidence.”
“You’ve got to sprint back, 
but you also have to run with 
vision,” Howard said of the 
problems in transition. “Guys 
have got to be talking so that 
we’re getting matched up and 
not allowing easy layups or 
open 3s in transition.” 
This is the fine line between 
a top-20 team and a top-five 
team. There’s ample time for 
Michigan to grow past what it 
is right now — ample oppor-
tunities for Wagner, Johns, 
Brooks and DeJulius to grow 
into the players Michigan 
needs them to be. Two years 
ago, Simpson, Charles Mat-
thews and Jordan Poole did 
just that. That team wasn’t 
ranked until January, and, in 
the interest of fairness, nobody 
expected the Wolverines to be 
a top-20 team before the sea-
son — they raised that bar with 
their play in November.
Now, it’s on them to raise it 
again.

Sears can be reached at 

searseth@umich.edu or on 

Twitter @ethan_sears.

Without Livers, problems become easy to see

ETHAN
SEARS

CONNOR BRENNAN
Daily Sports Writer

The Zavier Simpson ‘M’ needs

DANIEL
DASH

ALEC COHEN/Daily
Zavier Simpson’s play has a strong bearing on Michigan’s success.

ALEC COHEN/Daily
Sophomore guard David DeJulius struggled shooting the ball on Sunday, with a 3-of-9 mark from the field.

ALEC COHEN/Daily
The Michigan basketball team was unable to stay close against Michigan State on Sunday with Isaiah Livers (not pictured) missing the game with a groin injury.

