8 — Tuesday, January 14, 2020
Sports
The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com

Assessing the state of Michigan’s frontcourt

After 
the 
Michigan 
men’s 
basketball team lost to Minnesota 
on Sunday, Juwan Howard fielded 
the same questions that surfaced 
after Thursday’s double-overtime 
win over Purdue.
On each occasion, the questions 
were rooted in the consistent 
success opposing Big Ten post 
players have sustained against the 
Wolverines’ interior defense. This 
time, though, the press conference 
took on a much different tone.
Reclining 
at 
the 
Crisler 
Center podium after Michigan’s 
victory over the Boilermakers, 
Howard was repeatedly asked 
about Purdue forward Trevion 
Williams’ 36 points and 20 
rebounds. He attributed it to his 
stubbornness, even flashing a grin 
at one point. 
But 
after 
Gophers’ 
center 
Daniel Oturu’s 30 points propelled 
Minnesota past the Wolverines 
on Sunday, there was no writing 
it off. And there was certainly no 
grinning.
For Michigan’s frontcourt, this 
isn’t a new problem. If anything, 
it’s becoming run of the mill. 
Oturu became the third Big 

Ten center to set a new career-
high scoring total against the 
Wolverines this season, joining 
Williams and Iowa’s Luka Garza.
At the core of Michigan’s 
problem is Howard’s refusal to 
double-team 
opposing 
centers 
in the low post — a strategy that 
leaves senior center Jon Teske 
with no help defense. 
“The coaching (is) stubborn, 
not bringing a double-team,” 
Howard said on Thursday. “I 
know Jon is like, ‘Well, can I get 
some help, too?’ … But at the end 
of the day, (Williams’) 36 points, 
those were on me — they weren’t 
on Jon Teske. He scored those on 
me.”
Entering this season, it seemed 
as though Michigan’s frontcourt 
had the potential to be its strong 
suit. Given Howard’s reputation 
for developing big men, it seemed 
safe to predict Teske would build 
off a productive junior season and 
sophomores Colin Castleton and 
Brandon Johns Jr. would take the 
next step.
As a unit, that hasn’t happened 
on the defensive end. Opposing 
Big Ten post players — Williams, 
Oturu, Garza, Michigan State’s 
Xavier 
Tillman 
and 
Illinois’ 
Kofi Cockburn — are averaging 

a staggering 29.8 points on 55 
percent shooting against the 
Wolverines.
Yet 
from 
an 
individual 
standpoint, Teske and Johns 
have taken a step forward under 
Howard’s tutelage. Teske’s 14.3 
points and 7.9 rebounds per 
game both lead the team, while 
his expanded post repertoire has 
allowed him to become a reliable 
source of offense. In Johns’ 
moments of clear confidence, 
he’s shown flashes of high-level 
play 
against 
the 
Hawkeyes, 
Spartans 
and 
Oregon. 
And 
despite Howard’s best efforts, 
Johns’ biggest pitfall remains his 
fluctuating confidence.
With 
Castleton 
averaging 
just 2.0 points on 21 percent 
shooting over the last six games, 
an opportunity has presented 
itself for senior center Austin 
Davis — who began the season 
as an afterthought — to crack 
the rotation. In the same span, 
Davis is averaging 5.8 points 
on a 65-percent clip. But Davis’ 
drawback remains his shaky 
defense, which underscores the 
team’s overall problem guarding 
the interior.
The power forward position, 
too, has been uncertain since 

junior Isaiah Livers sustained a 
groin injury on Dec. 21 and was 
ruled out indefinitely. This has 
caused Howard to tinker with 
a small-ball lineup featuring 
freshman wing Franz Wagner at 
the ‘4.’
With Livers on the shelf, 
Michigan has badly missed a 
vital piece of its offense. His 
conference-best 50-percent clip 
from beyond the arc preserves the 
necessary spacing for a formidable 
pick-and-roll. With Livers on 
the floor, defenses can’t afford to 
help off the perimeter when the 
ball-handler turns the corner, 
which is a major reason why the 
Wolverines are so successful out 
of the pick-and-roll.
Michigan has shot below 40 
percent from beyond the arc in all 
four games since Livers’ injury. 
When Howard was asked about 
Livers’ return date on Sunday, 
he dodged the question. For now, 
replacing him with Wagner — 
who can defend multiple positions 
and score at each level — attempts 
to combat that problem without 
overhauling the team’s offensive 
identity.
“That group is very dynamic,” 
Howard said. “They have five skill 
guys. Franz is a very skillful guy 
that can put the ball on the floor 
and shoot with good length.”
Against 
Purdue, 
Howard 
turned to that lineup for the final 
nine minutes of regulation and the 
entirety of both overtime periods. 
Three days later, it was on the 
floor for crunch time minutes in 
Minneapolis.
While Wagner (34.5 percent) 
poses more of a 3-point shooting 
threat than Johns (27.3 percent), 
neither open driving lanes by 
occupying off-ball defenders as 
well as Livers. As a result, off-ball 
defenders can leave them to help 
stop the pick-and-roll.
Perhaps Livers’ return will 
alleviate some of the spacing 
issues 
facing 
Michigan’s 
frontcourt. Until then, it remains 
uncertain whether Howard will 
be grinning at the podium going 
forward.

‘M’ unable to lock in

Lock-in.
It’s the motto the Michigan 
women’s gymnastics team (1-0) 
adopted at the start of its season. 
Featured as a hashtag in each 
tweet from the team’s Twitter, 
and evident in every interview, 
the motto has come to define what 
the Wolverines strive to achieve 
each meet. However, in its season 
opener against Texas Woman’s 
University (0-1) and Washington 
(0-1), Michigan couldn’t convert 
its words into actions despite 
winning 195.650 to 195.350 to 
189.850, respectively.
The Wolverines looked locked-
in at the get-go. They started 
strong on the vault, posting a 
49.325 score. In her collegiate 
debut, freshman Gabby Wilson 
stuck the landing, earning a 
9.900 score — the highest on the 
night. Freshman Sierra Brooks 
and 
sophomore 
Maddie Mariani 
both contributed 
scores of 9.875.
“We came up 
with 
this 
new 
motto 
called 
lock-in,” Wilson 
said. “And I really 
tried to embody 
it.”
The 
next 
rotation featured 
Michigan on bars. Senior Maggie 
O’Hara tied her career-best with 
a score of 9.825 — after a season-
ending Achilles injury last season. 
Wilson won the bars event with a 
score of 9.875, while sophomore 
Natalie Wojick contributed a 
9.825. The Wolverines were 
cruising.
Then they fell apart.
Brooks fell off the bars during 
her transition from high to low 
bar, resulting in a 9.100. And with 
the move to beam, Michigan 
disregarded their new motto 
completely.
Wojick, 
the 
2019 
NCAA 
beam champion, fell early in her 

routine. Overall, the team scored 
just 48.100 points, nearly one full 
point lower than its scores on 
all the other events. The lack of 
execution on staying locked-in to 
routines caused the Wolverines to 
fall behind in the meet standings.
Going into the final rotation 
Michigan was losing to the 
Huskies by four-tenths of a point. 
Undeterred by the deficit, the 
Wolverines attacked the floor 
with newly-found focus — but 
continued to fall short. Wilson 
stepped out of bounds during 
a pass, and other errors were 
contributed by her teammates. 
The only gymnast to rise up from 
the adversity was Wojick, who 
rebounded from her error-ridden 
beam routine to post a score of 
9.900, winning the event.
In the face of numerous 
mistakes, 
the 
Wolverines 
managed to steal a win by 
just three-tenths of a point. 
Despite the win, Michigan was 
unhappy with its 
performance.
“Quite 
honestly, 
I 
was 
very 
disappointed,” 
Michigan coach 
Bev 
Plocki 
said. 
“Very 
disappointed 
with beam and 
not very excited 
about 
floor 
either.”
In the rest of their season, the 
Wolverines will look to capitalize 
on their larget contributors — 
the underclassmen. With four 
new freshmen, Michigan isn’t 
panicking.
“I have to remind myself that 
there’s pressure,” Plocki said. 
“The freshmen are still learning 
how to handle that. So I’m not 
concerned for the season, I think 
we’re going to turn around the 
mistakes we made, and I think 
that we’re on track to have a great 
season.”
Michigan is ready to lock back 
in.

Wolverines want more scoring from 
defensemen in second half of season

Mel Pearson has spent the last 
couple of weeks emphasizing 
Michigan’s need to get more 
offensive 
output 
from 
its 
defensemen. In Saturday night’s 
win over then-No. 14 Notre 
Dame, Pearson saw what he’d 
been pushing come to fruition.
Sophomore defenseman Nick 
Blankenburg scored the game-
tying goal in the second period, 
and fellow sophomore blueliner 
Jack Summers followed with the 
game winner just a few minutes 
later. Blankenburg also notched 
an assist on senior forward Jake 
Slaker’s empty-net goal, and 
freshman defenseman Cam York 
made the pass to Blankenburg 
for his goal. 
It was just what Pearson was 
hoping to see.
“We got some goals from 
our defensemen,” Pearson said 
Saturday night. “We’ve been 
talking about that the last couple 
weeks. We need to get more 
offense from our defensemen, 
just the way teams play.”
On 
Monday, 
Pearson 
elaborated 
on 
why 
getting 
offensive production from the 
blueline is so key with the way 
teams play these days.
“You can almost draw a line 
from the back of the boards 
through the dots up to the top of 
the circles and everybody packs 
it in and gives you the perimeter,” 
Pearson said. “Most teams are 
going to give you the outside. 
It’s not like basketball where 
you have to defend a 3-point 
shot or anything like that, so 
everybody just packs it in. And 
then you’ve got to try to get it 
through them and the goalie, so 
your defensemen are gonna have 
the puck a lot and they’re gonna 
have to make plays.”
With 
Summers’ 
and 
Blankenburg’s goals on Saturday, 
the work the defensive corps 
has been doing in practice this 
season began to show up.
Nearly every day in practice, 
the Wolverines run drills that 
require defensemen to have the 

puck on their stick and make 
a play to get it to the net. On 
Monday, the first drill of the day 
involved two forwards at the net 
front, working on tipping in shots 
from defensemen at the blueline. 
It was far from the only drill 
where Michigan’s defensemen 
were put in position to score.
“In 
practice, 
when 
the 
(defensemen) are joining the 
rush, just trying to score and 
bury your chances,” York said. 
“A lot of times, you’re out there 
defending 
for 
a 
while 
and 
it’s hard to join the rush just 
because you’re tired or you’re 
out of breath or whatever, but 
just trying to get an extra leg 
and help out the forwards in the 
offensive zone as much as we can 
is big for us and will help us score 
goals.”
Summers’ 
game-winner 
exemplified what York means 
about the defensemen helping 
the forwards in the offensive 
zone.
As 
senior 
forward 
Will 
Lockwood 
worked 
through 
the top of the offensive zone 
with the puck, Summers moved 
toward the front of the net. It 
put him in position to receive a 
pass through the zone and send a 
backhand shot into the net’s top 
corner — a play typically made by 
a forward, but with Lockwood 
up by the blueline, Summers 
crashed down to take that spot.
“(Summers’) goal, especially, 
I think that’s big,” Blankenburg 
said. “Kinda jumping down when 

that forward comes up. I feel like 
that’s kinda what we envision 
when we want (defensemen) to 
jump up in the play, especially 
when we had possession in the 
(offensive) zone.”
The 
Wolverines 
have 
particularly 
put 
focus 
on 
defensemen jumping up in the 
play to create odd-man rushes 
and add pressure in the offensive 
zone.
Through the first half of the 
season, blueliners like senior 
Griffin Luce — who has 12 points 
in 117 career games — could 
often be seen joining the rush, 
even when it was unlikely they’d 
be scoring themselves. Simply 
having the extra person up in 
the play increases the chances 
of getting an outnumbered rush 
or the defending team leaving a 
forward wide open for a scoring 
chance.
“Having a fourth guy in the 
rush, creating a four-on-two or 
whatever, you have a lot better 
chance of scoring and creating 
opportunities,” York said. “I 
think going into the second half, 
we need to do a lot more of it and 
it’ll help us out a lot.”
Defensemen accounted for 
two of Michigan’s six goals 
in its sweep over the Fighting 
Irish — just its second sweep of 
the season. As the Wolverines 
look to string wins together 
and turn their season around in 
the second half, Pearson will be 
looking to his defensive corps to 
help make it happen.

I

t’s just frustrating.
Frustrating watching 
a Michigan women’s bas-
ketball team that’s showed its 
potential over and over again.
Frustrating, knowing that 
even when 
just three 
of its play-
ers are 
on their 
A-game, 
the team 
can com-
pete with 
anyone.
Frustrat-
ing, know-
ing that 
rarely happens.
Sophomore guard Amy Dilk 
can cut apart defenses on her 
way to the basket. Sophomore 
forward Naz Hillmon can be 
unstoppable down low. Junior 
forward Hailey Brown defies 
her position, raining down 
threes. Senior forward Kayla 
Robbins takes two steps, and 
suddenly she has a wide open 
layup. Senior guard Akienreh 
Johnson locks down opposing 
defenses.
After the Wolverines beat 
Michigan State on Jan. 5, 
Michigan coach Kim Barnes 
Arico referred to multiple 
plays when everything was 
clicking and where secondary 
scoring targets came up huge, 
namely from the 3-point line.
“Sometimes we miss those, 
and when we miss them it’s 
a different type of game,” 
Barnes Arico said. “But 
tonight 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, and tonight we 
did both of those things.”
The problem is, when it’s 
against good opponents, 
more often it’s “most of the 
time” instead of “sometimes.” 
Brown and Johnson go cold 
from three. Dilk and Robbins 
get stonewalled in the lane. 
Hillmon is suffocated at the 
post. There’s no bench help, 
no spark.
In Sunday’s 77-49 loss to 
No. 17 Maryland all the dirty 

secrets of Michigan bubbled 
up at once on the court. Turn-
overs, turnovers, turnovers. 
No 3-pointers, no momentum 
swingers, no penetration. 
Barnes Arico said they were 
pressing, forcing the extra 
pass. Johnson pointed to the 
Terps’ athleticism, how the 
Wolverines are still getting 
used to competing against 
high-level opponents — a 
hangover from a weak non-
conference schedule.
They couldn’t springboard 
off their defense, one of 
the best in the conference, 
because they lost the ball at 
halfcourt more often than 
they made a shot.
“So much of it is mental as 
much as it is physical at this 
point,” Barnes Arico said. 
“But Naz Hillmon, Kayla Rob-
bins, Amy Dilk are better than 
turning the basketball over 
that many times.”
And they are. In the second 
half of the game against the 
Spartans, Michigan shot 77.7 
percent from the field. Dilk 
and Hillmon plowed through 
anything Michigan State 
threw at them, and in the 
fourth quarter the Wolverines 
didn’t turn the ball over.
After that high, though, 
Michigan faced another rival 
in Ohio State. On the road, in a 
barely inhabited arena. Just as 
it seemed the team was click-
ing — its wheels oiled, rolling, 
coming for you — the Wolver-
ines laid an egg.

As quickly as Brown’s con-
fidence had reappeared, it 
disappeared. When driving 
to the basket, Robbins and 
Dilk were repelled and only 
Hillmon could find success 
under the basket — until Ohio 
State decided to defend the 
only thing working for Michi-
gan. The bench, showcasing a 
spark, perhaps, in the Michi-
gan State game, returned to 
being seat-heaters.
A dud’s a dud, though there 
were bigger fish to fry — a 
rematch with ranked Mary-
land. A chance to even the 
score, show this team can beat 
one of the best in the country. 
That game wasn’t a dud, it was 
an implosion.
The puzzle, nearly com-
plete, fell apart.
Maybe now that the Wol-
verines came so close to real-
izing their potential, they’ll 
only take a couple days rest 
or a win over a struggling 
Wisconsin to get their mojo 
back. A couple of games where 
they’re in control, where they 
can get their confidence back.
After all, last season Michi-
gan went through a January 
where it lost five of six games 
before ending the season win-
ning eight of nine.
This year, there are 13 
games left to put the puzzle 
back together.

Kent Schwartz can be reached at 

kentsch@umich.edu or, preferably, 

on Twitter @nottherealkent.

WOMEN’S GYMNASTICS

ABBIE TELGENHOF
Daily Sports Writer

I have to 
remind myself 
that there’s 
pressure.

ALEC COHEN/Daily
Sophomore forward Colin Castleton is averaging just 2.0 points on 21-percent shooting over his last six games.

DANIEL DASH
Daily Sports Writer

When will it come together?

KENT
SCHWARTZ

ALEC COHEN/Daily
Kim Barnes Arico’s team has shown potential but must play up to it.

ALEXIS RANKIN/Daily
Sophomore defenseman Nick Blankenburg tied Saturday’s game at Notre Dame.

BAILEY JOHNSON
Daily Sports Editor

