The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com
Sports
Thursday, January 9, 2020 — 7
Haarms could pose problems for ‘M’
There are few big men in the
Big Ten — and possibly even the
country — that can match the
physically-imposing
frame
of
Michigan’s 7-foot-1, 265-lb, senior
center Jon Teske.
On more than one occasion so far
this season, Teske has looked and
played like a man amongst boys.
While dominant performances
against Appalachian State and
UMass Lowell are to be expected,
Teske also posted stellar statlines
against the likes of Creighton,
Gonzaga and Louisville. In short,
Teske’s unique size has troubled
some of the nation’s best teams
— mainly because they lack an
equivalent big man.
Thursday night though, when
9-6 Purdue travels to Crisler
Center, Teske will square off
with one of the conference’s few
exceptions: 7-foot-3, 250-lb Matt
Haarms.
“This is nothing new with
Purdue,” said Michigan coach
Juwan Howard. “They’ve always
had a guy that’s pretty similar in
height. They’ve always had a guy
who’s been an inside presence.”
While it is true that Haarms
is just the latest Boilermaker big
man to develop during head coach
Matt Painter’s tenure, his skill
set differs from past bruisers like
JaJuan Johnson, A.J. Hammons,
Caleb Swanigan and Isaac Haas.
Haarms, who’s averaging 11.5
points on 57.4-percent shooting,
is a versatile offensive player —
something Howard is aware of.
“They use him both on the
perimeter and in the low block,”
Howard said. “I’ve seen him
where he’s posting up a lot, I’ve
seen actions where he’s ducked
in on a high-low pass, I’ve seen a
few pick-and-pop shots, I’ve seen
when teams sag off on him and
he’s able to make them pay from
the outside. He’s a very skilled
player for his size.”
Much like Teske has been for
opposing teams this year, Haarms
could be a matchup nightmare for
the Wolverines. While Teske is
strong enough to contest Haarms
in the paint, asking him to defend
Haarms’ jumper and three-point
shot is a tall task.
In moments where Teske’s on
the bench, senior forward Austin
Davis or sophomore forward
Colin Castleton will likely draw
the responsibility of guarding
Haarms. Davis is a strong and
industrious presence in the paint,
but gives up five inches to Haarms
and, like Teske, will struggle to
guard Haarms’ perimeter shot.
Castleton, on the other hand, is
athletic enough to contest Haarms
away from the basket but has yet to
show the strength needed to keep
opposing post players off the glass.
Anyway
you
slice
it,
the
Michigan defense will have its
hands full with the Dutch big man.
“We just have to be ready to take
away some of those duck-ins and
high-low passes and stuff like that,
but it’s hard to do,” Howard said.
“They’re very creative with their
offense and the misdirections and
surprising you with a few duck-ins
here and there.”
Haarms’ shot-blocking ability
on the other end is also important
to note as he averages 2.3 blocks
per game.
While Haarms will undoubtedly
be one of the tallest and most
skilled bigs the Wolverines face in
the Big Ten, this current Purdue
squad has been wildly inconsistent
offensively.
The
Boilermakers
hung 69 points on Virginia’s
tenacious defense and 83 against
Minnesota just a week ago, while
also scoring just 55, 56 and 37
points in losses to Marquette,
Nebraska and Illinois respectively.
Meanwhile, Michigan has scored
at least 70 points in all but three
games this season.
Haarms might manage to
get his but if the Wolverines
neutralize the rest of Purdue’s
offense, even without leading
scorer Isaiah Livers, who is still
day-to-day with a groin injury,
Michigan should get back on
track with a win.
After rough start, Jacob Hayhurst
looking to make the most of chances
A moment stuck with Jacob
Hayhurst from the day the
Michigan hockey team lost to
Michigan Tech in the Great Lakes
Invitational finals.
The moment he missed ate
the graduate transfer up in the
proceeding days. Even five days
after, he still found himself worked
up at the thought of it.
He had dreamed of the opposite
outcome, of burying the puck
into the back of the net to give
Michigan a chance to win the
tournament, a chance to lift the
first-place trophy and a chance to
start the second half of the season
with two much-needed wins.
Instead, in the final minute of
play, Hayhurst hit the post twice,
ultimately unable to convert his
chances. He couldn’t score the
game-tying goal, and when the
Wolverine captains lifted the
runner-up trophy, there were no
smiling faces.
Everyone
was
upset,
but
Hayhurst most of all.
“I was pretty upset about it,
because it would have been a
fantastic victory for a team,”
Hayhurst said. “And ultimately,
the opportunity was on my stick at
that moment. And I didn’t do what
needed to be done.”
He hadn’t just wasted two
golden opportunities in crunch
time. All throughout the game, he
was given chances, put in spots
others on the team would have
loved.
“He had one in the first period,
wide open in the slot all by
himself, stone cold, 20 feet out,”
said Michigan coach Mel Pearson.
“Buried it right in (the goalie’s)
chest.”
It was emblematic of his scoring
struggles all season long.
When then-sophomore forward
Josh Norris left Michigan to sign
with the Ottawa Senators, Pearson
desperately looked around for
ways to fill the gaping hole left by
Norris’s departure. High school
commits weren’t an option. Most
of them commit years in advance,
leaving few viable options left for
Pearson to probe. But Hayhurst
was available and immediately
eligible as a graduate transfer.
His skillset in particular stuck
out to Pearson and the coaching
staff, and they brought him in. But
his lackluster showing thus far
has netted a mere five points in 20
games.
“I don’t mind saying he’s had,
I think, a disappointing first half
as far as his offensive production
of play goes,” Pearson said. “We
probably expected more from
him and ... I’ve given him the
opportunity and ice time that he’s
received and the players he’s been
able to play with.
“And
I’ll
tell
you
it’s
disappointing, and I’m sure he
would say the same thing.”
High expectations were set for
Hayhurst from the start, when
the coaching staff pitched him on
the top line with senior forwards
Jake Slaker and Will Lockwood,
the returning two highest scorers
from the year before. He was given
top-line minutes, but the top-line
offense failed to click, and he was
a large reason why.
So Pearson shifted him around,
trying to find the right fit. He
was tested on all four lines, given
a variety of minutes, but he still
wasn’t able to produce.
But
being
paired
with
sophomore forwards Garret Van
Wyhe and Nolan Moyle offered
a glimpse of what Hayhurst is
capable of doing.
“I think as it came to the
Christmas break, you could see
that as a line, and as an individual,
that my game kind of just was
on an uprising,” Hayhurst said.
“It was going up. And then even
coming back from Christmas
break, I think the line I’ve been
playing with, Garrett Van Wyhe,
Nolan Moyle, and myself. I think
we’ve created a lot of chances
together, and I think it’s just a
matter of time before they start
going in for us.”
It’s the fit Pearson hoped
Hayhurst will find, and he thinks
success will follow.
“The silver lining of all of this is
there’s a lot there,” Pearson said.
“So hopefully he can get it together
and have a real strong second half
and we need him.”
Hayhurst doesn’t want to hear
the sound of the post, the clank
that sends him hoping it would
go post-to-net. He wants to turn
things around and score goals, so
that moments like the GLI won’t
haunt him anymore.
3-point shooting central to success
Sometimes, the shots just
aren’t
falling.
Many
teams
can withstand rough spells if
they’re at an easier point in
the schedule or have favorable
matchups, but the Michigan
women’s basketball team was
not that lucky.
In
their
two
December
losses against No. 8 Florida
State and No. 12 Maryland,
the Wolverines put up two of
their worst 3-point shooting
performances of the season,
going 3-for-17 and 1-for-12 from
beyond the arc, respectively.
And with matchups against
rivals Michigan State and Ohio
State — as well as a rematch
against the Terrapins — not far
away, Michigan needed to find
its shooting rhythm again.
Following the first Maryland
game, Penn State provided that
opportunity. The Nittany Lions
allow 70.1 points per game —
tied for 80th in the country
— and their opponents shoot
a combined 34.1 percent from
three, tied for 275th in the
country.
The
Wolverines
seized
the
opportunity,
shooting
8-for-19
on
3-pointers
in
an 82-48 victory over Penn
State. Perhaps most crucially,
junior forward Hailey Brown
shot 3-for-6, after shooting a
combined 1-for-11 the previous
two games.
“I think it’s more of a
confidence thing,” Brown said.
“At the end of the day I feel like
I had to get more reps up before
practice and after practice. It
was up to me. So I think I came
into (the Penn State game)
confident in the work I’ve
been doing since the Maryland
game.”
That
confidence
made
a
major difference against the
Spartans on Sunday, in a game
where Michigan needed to
score well to win. Michigan
State scored a respectable 69
points on 45.6 percent shooting,
but it was no match for the
Wolverines’ 89-point spectacle.
Yet again, Brown was right in
the middle of it, shooting 3-for-
5 from beyond the arc in the
win.
But the 3-point shooting
didn’t
end
with
Brown.
Sophomore guard Amy Dilk,
senior guard Akienreh Johnson
and sophomore forward Emily
Kiser each added a 3-pointer.
This
strong
team
shooting
performance helped Michigan
to space the floor, creating
opportunities for Dilk and
sophomore
forward
Naz
Hillmon to attack the basket.
“When
we
miss
(key
3-pointers), it’s a different kind
of game,” said Michigan coach
Kim Barnes Arico. “But (against
Michigan State) we made them,
and that’s something our team
works on every day, is making
those shots and having the
confidence to take those shots
in big games.”
Hitting threes against a poor
defensive team like Penn State
isn’t particularly impressive.
One individual strong game
against Michigan State doesn’t
mean much, either. But the two
consecutive solid performances
— especially coming off a cold
streak — are a good sign for the
Wolverines moving forward.
With the Jan. 12 rematch
against
Maryland
looming
after Thursday’s game against
Ohio State, Michigan will need
to stay in this offensive rhythm
if it wants to pull off the upset
at home.
If not, it’s looking at another
disappointing game against a
top opponent.
Amy Dilk’s injection of confidence
Going
into
the
season,
sophomore
guard
Amy
Dilk was hyped up. A year
older,
stronger
and
more
experienced, she would take
the reins of the offense, she
would be the floor general. A
dominant
double-double
to
start the season over Western
Michigan furthered the hype
train.
And then, she struggled.
Forcing passes where none
dare enter, doing too much.
But
throughout
Sunday’s
89-69 victory over Michigan
State, Dilk was unstoppable.
Multiple times, Dilk brought
the ball up the court, took
half a second to diagnose the
defense, then drove to the
basket for an easy layup. In
what’s becoming a common
source of offense, she did the
same against Penn State, and
No. 12 Maryland before that.
Yet all three of those games
came in the aftermath of her
best game as a Wolverine
against No. 8 Florida State on
Dec. 22. Against the highest-
ranked team Michigan has
played all year, Dilk went
deep into the game without
missing
a
shot
—
almost
single-handedly keeping the
Wolverines in it with a career-
high 26 points.
Her recent offensive potency
is the manifestation of what
her coaches and players knew
she needed to be all along.
“I think for her to take those
next steps in her development,
similar to what we talked about
with (sophomore forward) Naz
(Hillmon), is she’s gotta be a
more consistent shooter,” said
Michigan coach Kim Barnes
Arico at media day prior to the
season. “She’s gotta be willing
to take those shots and knock
down
those
shots, and she
has
worked
hard on that in
the offseason.”
Senior
forward Kayla
Robbins added
at
the
time:
“Her
scoring
ability
has
really
gone
up,
and
she
has been able to score the
basketball. And her passing,
of course. She was one of
the leaders in the Big Ten in
assists. I think that if she can
be a double threat in terms of
passing the ball and scoring
the ball, she’s going to be really
good this year.”
For a while, though, it wasn’t
obvious if Dilk would realize
her potential. She struggled
early in the year with an eight-
turnover game against Akron
and seven against Notre Dame
in the Wolverines’ first loss of
the season.
Dilk’s performances forced
Barnes Arico to take her off the
court after her first turnover
of a game, giving her time to
watch the game and dissect
it from the outside before
going back in. Even when her
turnovers were kept under
control, she struggled to score
— averaging 5.6 points per
game over a five-game streak
in December.
Still,
after
every
game,
Barnes Arico kept repeating, “I
feel like I have one of the best
point guards in the country.”
Last season, Barnes Arico
said it took Dilk a while to
settle into the rhythm of the
court. After all, starting as
a freshman in a top college
basketball
conference
isn’t
easy.
This year, it took Dilk some
time to settle down again.
“Sometimes as a point guard
you need to figure out your
team, you need to figure out
yourself,” Barnes Arico said
on Dec. 30 before beating Penn
State. “You need to figure out
who can catch what passes.
You need to figure out your
decision
making,
and
that
was a little bit
of
a
process
coming into this
season.”
Now, in her
second year, and
fully
literate
in the offense,
she’s turned into
a monster for
the Wolverines.
“She’s playing
with a lot more
confidence, I think,” Barnes
Arico said. “She can flip the
game.
Whether
that’s
her
scoring,
her
passing,
her
rebounding or her defense,
she’s the total package. I’m
happy that she’s playing with
the confidence that she is
because she’s impacting our
team.
“She can beat anybody to the
basket. She’s faced incredible
defenders in the last couple of
weeks and still has the ability
to get to the rim when she
wants to.”
Should
Dilk
remain
confident, Michigan’s offense
will be deadly, as the Spartans
found out on Sunday.
KENT SCHWARTZ
Daily Sports Writer
EMMA MATI/Daily
Sophomore point guard Amy Dilk’s play has picked up over the last month.
As a point
guard ... you
need to figure
out yourself.
CONNOR BRENNAN
Daily Sports Writer
ALEC COHEN/Daily
Senior center Jon Teske will go up against Purdue’s Matt Haarms, a 7-foot-3, 250-pound center on Thursday night.
BRENDAN ROOSE
Daily Sports Writer
OLIVIA CELL/Daily
Junior forward Hailey Brown has seen an uptick in her 3-point shooting since Michigan’s win over Penn State.
TIEN LE
Daily Sports Writer
ALEC COHEN/Daily
Graduate transfer forward Jacob Hayhurst was upset after Michigan’s GLI loss.