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.