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