2B — January 27, 2020
SportsMonday
The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com

M

aybe some who pulled
up to the Lincoln
High School parking
lot that night knew what they
were getting into, but I sure did
not.
I was there — like most — to
see Emoni Bates. Bates is the
top prospect
in the 2022
recruiting
class, accord-
ing to, well,
everyone.
Most recruit-
ing analysts,
including
ESPN’s Paul
Biancardi,
tab Bates as
the best prep
player in the nation, regardless
of class. As a freshman, Bates
averaged over 28 points and 10
rebounds and led Lincoln to
the State Title. His face subse-
quently plastered Sports Illus-
trated with the headline “Magic,
Michael, LeBron, … Emoni?”
He was 15 at the time.
In August, an ESPN article
compiling the opinions of over
a dozen prep basketball experts
ranked Bates, now 15, tied for
the third best prospect since
LeBron — behind Kevin Durant
and Greg Oden, and tied with
Derrick Rose.
The article quotes an anony-
mous scout: “He has a chance to
be ahead of LeBron (James). I’ve
never seen a better freshman.”
I had not parked myself on
those rigid bleachers with any
intention to be an arbiter of his
legitimacy. That ship has long
sailed. I just wanted to see it.
And yet, perhaps cynically,
my default expectation was
disappointment. In this Hoop
Mixtape-ified era, when every
highlight video is edited and
flawlessly quaffed to only dis-
play the good, hype can be a
dangerous drug. There’s a rea-
son LeBron remains the only
player of this ilk to truly live up

to the hype; it’s really hard.
Then, as anyone with any
mild interest in the sport must
do, I watched him play basket-
ball. I watched him rise from
25-plus feet; I watched him
drive the lane, knifing through
four flailing help defenders; I
watched him slam alley-oops
and toss no-look passes; I
watched him handle the ball
with dizzying speed and yoyo-
like control. And let me tell you:
There’s not an ounce of hyper-
bole in these anonymous quotes
and over-filtered Overtime
videos.
His shot is aesthetically the
closest thing anyone’s ever come
to recreating that of Durant. In
warmups, he widens his stride,
loads his lanky
arms and shoots
with a silky
smooth release.
Few even bother
to touch rim.
Bates — at 6-foot-
9 — can get that
same shot with
the same motion
off over anyone.
But then the
game starts, and
the true wonders
of his game begin to come to life.
Off the tip, Bates grabs the ball,
sprints down the court with
haste, shakes his defender with
a few crossovers and takes a
long 3-pointer. It clanks rim.
Instead of sulking or relaxing
on defense, he keeps that mania-
cal energy all game. There are
no questions about his “motor”
or concerns that he “drifts” or
other euphemisms to express
disinterest. He is here. And he
wants to snatch your soul.
He first hits one 3-pointer.
Then another. Then he rises for
an alley-oop dunk and unleash-
es a scream upon landing. Every
trip down the court is a mini-
event. Will he dribble straight
into a pull-up? Will he try to
make his defender fall? Will he

put his head down and get to
the rim?
Then, as he dances around
the arc, controlling his defend-
er’s ankles like a puppeteer,
Bates steps back and drains
another three. I can’t help but
stand up. It was like a church-
goer compelled from his seat,
not by free will, but by the
spiritual force of some divine
entity. He had 19 points after the
first quarter. Nobody seemed
surprised. Everyone (opposing
players and fans aside) was rol-
licking in joy.
It was purely human, instinc-
tive shock. A 16-year-old simply
should not be that good at bas-
ketball. He goes on to score 40
points of his team’s 67. You get
the feeling he
could’ve scored
all 67 if he
wanted.
Rumors, as
they do, are
flying about
Bates’ future.
Some have
entertained the
possibility that
he reclassifies
to the 2021 class
to presumably
play at Michigan State for a year.
The thinking, simply, is that
it’s unimaginable this kid will
want to play four years of high
school basketball. It’s easy to see
why. It’s also an open secret that
when they negotiate a new Col-
lective Bargaining Agreement,
the NBA will end the “one-and-
done” rule, perhaps in time for
Bates to turn professional right
away.
The future may be uncertain.
But the present is undeniable.
If you, like me, are late to the
party: The next great basketball
player just happens to live in
Ypsilanti. Go see him play.

Marcovitch can be reached

at maxmarco@umich.edu or on

Twitter @Max_Marcovitch.

The Emoni experience

MEN’S BASKETBALL
Three good things: Honoring Chip

Three good things.
It’s the motto Chip Hills used
while he was living through
pancreatic cancer. It’s the motto
he wrote so much about in his
letter to the Michigan women’s
gymnastics team. It’s the motto
the team has come to live by.
Chip Hills was the dad of
former Michigan gymnast Cailee
Hills. In 2015, the Wolverines
began the Flip for Chip meet. A
way to honor Chip and his love for
Michigan gymnastics, but also to
remind people that sometimes it’s
about more than just gymnastics.
“I think it’s just awesome to
come out here and just know that
our gymnastics can reach so many
different people,” freshman Sierra
Brooks said. “And there’s always
bigger things going on in people’s
lives than what it seems like.”
Three good things was Chip’s
motto not only through his cancer
treatment, but also throughout
life. It was customary for the
Hillsfamily to sit down at dinner
and each say three good things
that happened in their day. And
the motto extended far beyond the
Hill’s family dinner table.
“Honestly, it’s just something
that we say in the gym all the
time, and it can apply to so many
different circumstances,” Brooks
said. “It just tells us to put our
struggles in perspective and get

through the hard things even
when it doesn’t seem like it. “
While there were mutliple
positives
resulting
from
the
Wolverines’ Friday night meet
against
Rutgers,
197.300
to
192.950, the Daily breaks down
three that stood out.
Sophomore Natalie Wojcik’s
beam routine
The crowd in Crisler Center
erupted as Natalie Wojcik flipped
off the beam, sticking the landing
of her dismount. She posted a
score of 9.950, the highest of the
night. Wojcik was the NCAA
Champion on beam last year, and
despite a bit of a slower start this
year, she broke through the wall
on Friday.
“She really came out tonight
and showed what she’s capable of
doing,” Michigan coach Bev Plocki
said. “Hopefully, this will give her
more confidence to continue to
perform at this level.”
Freshman Sierra Brooks’ all-
around performance
Despite her young age, Brooks
has continued to dominate each
event, at every meet. Last week,
she was named the Big Ten
Freshman of the Week. On Friday
night, she continued to put that
stellar reputation to the test. She
competed all-around — which
is a feat in itself for a freshman.
Staying consistent through all four
events, she posted scores all above
9.800, with a 9.900 on beam.
“Overall I’m pretty happy with

my performance,” Brooks said.
“It just comes down to fixing the
small things, working on things
for the future, but cohesively I’m
just pretty happy with how I did.”
Team competition
As the Wolverines continue
the high-level competition they’re
known for, it could be hard to
improve, but Michigan showed
it was possible on Friday night
by increasing their team score by
six-tenths of a point from their
recent meet against Illinois. Such
improvement is due to their focus
to detail.
“I think this meet went really
well,” said Wojcik. “We’ve been
working on improving things
week to week and I think we’re
starting to really get there.”
On Thursday, the day before
the meet, the Wolverines’ entire
focus was on detail. In a floor drill
they call shoot-out, the focus was
on making eye contact with the
audience during a floor routine.
For Michigan its about more
than the skills, its about the
performance, the show and the
crowd. This fine attention to
detail continues to add to the
Wolverines’ point total. And part
of focusing on the audience means
remembering people like Chip.
In an opening video, the
Wolverines
highlighted
the
importance of Friday’s meet.
“This time we compete to honor
someone. ... This time we flip for
Chip.”

The expectations for the
Wolverines entering Sunday’s
game against Rutgers weren’t
all that high.
The
Michigan
women’s
basketball team (13-6 overall,
4-4 Big Ten) had lost three
of its last four contests, and
Sunday was its first full game
without senior forward Kayla
Robbins, who tore her ACL a
week prior. Even more, it was
going up against a Rutgers team
(15-4, 5-3) that sat just outside
the top 25.
Yet the Wolverines seemed
unfazed
—
even
without
Robbins. They hit tough shots.
They forced turnovers. And
they dealt the Scarlet Knights
their fourth loss, burying them,
71-57.
“We know and understand
that
nobody
is
gonna
be
Kayla Robbins. Nobody in the
country can be Kayla Robbins,”
sophomore
forward
Naz
Hillmon said. “We’re not gonna
try to be. But somebody needs
to take on the little things
she did. One person can get a
couple more rebounds, get a
couple more points, get a couple
more steals.”
From
the
start,
the
Wolverines’ offense did just
that,
captained
by
senior
guard Akienreh Johnson. She
notched seven points and two
rebounds in the first quarter
alone, leading Michigan to a
20-13 lead entering the second
quarter. Johnson finished the
first half with 15 points and
three rebounds.
On the other end, Rutgers’
offense
was
a
disaster.
A
backcourt violation just three
seconds after the opening tip
set the tone for the Scarlet
Knights, who turned the ball
over an astounding 15 times in
the first half alone.
On top of Rutgers’ sloppy
play, a good chunk of its
turnovers came thanks to a
new-look 2-3 zone from the
Wolverines defense. Featuring

a three-big lineup — with
Hillmon, junior forward Hailey
Brown and freshman center
Izabel Varejão all down low
— the zone caught the Scarlet
Knights by surprise and forced
them into errors.
“We wanted to get the ball
out of their ball handlers’ hands,
something that
a lot of teams
do
to
us,”
Hillmon
said.
“We wanted to
make them as
uncomfortable
as possible and
make
other
people
make
decisions.
Their two ball
handlers create
a lot for themselves as well
as others. We were really just
trying to make somebody else
take the shots and handle the
ball the way that teams try to
pressure us into doing.”
Visibly frustrated, Rutgers’
defense
committed
a large
number of fouls and opened the
door for more Wolverines to step
up. Sophomore guard Amy Dilk
did just that, sinking all five of
her first-half free throws. She
remained consistent on offense
throughout the game, dishing
the ball to her teammates for a
respectable five assists.
As the game wore on, the
Scarlet Knights buried their
own
comeback
hopes
with
repeated errors. Though they
cleaned up the turnovers —
they committed just two in the
second half — they couldn’t
make any of the shots needed
to make a comeback, shooting a
poor 36.1 percent in the second
half. They were even worse on
free throws, going an abysmal
5-for-13 from the line in the
second half.
Meanwhile,
Michigan’s
offense
continued
to
roll.
Spurred by her electric first
half, Johnson added another
nine points on a perfect 4-of-
4 shooting in the second half.
She finished with 11 rebounds
and a career-high 24 points —

the first double-double of her
career. Hillmon also notched a
double-double, finishing with
20 points and 12 rebounds.
“I think (Johnson) played
her heart out,” Michigan coach
Kim Barnes Arico said. “I
thought she had energy to the
ball, I thought she had a motor
to the ball, she
was everywhere.
I didn’t realize
how
much
she
scored
offensively
but I knew she
rebounded
the
heck out of the
ball. She’s kind of
letting the game
come to her, she’s
not pressing, and
she’s really playing with a lot of
confidence right now.”
The Wolverines entered this
game with a lot of question
marks. They had already been
struggling
against
quality
teams before Robbins’ injury.
The
season
isn’t
over,
and questions still remain.
But
Michigan
showed
on
Sunday that, despite its recent
struggles, it can still compete
with the Big Ten’s best teams
— even without Kayla Robbins.

When senior forward Kayla
Robbins went down with a season-
ending ACL injury last week, it was
clear who the Michigan women’s
basketball team needed to step up
— Akienreh Johnson.
The senior guard came into
the season expected to be what
Robbins
was
—
the
scoring
compliment to sophomore forward
Naz Hillmon, the player that
opened up the inside for Hillmon
and, when Hillmon had an off
night, the leader that carried the
Wolverines to a victory.
In Sunday’s 71-57 victory over
Rutgers, Johnson was all of those
things for Michigan and more.
She scored a career-high 24 points
with 11 rebounds, her first ever
double-double. No matter what the
Scarlet Knights tried, she breezed
through their defense.
“You don’t have to run a play for
her, but she’s going to go get the
offensive rebound or she’s going
to make the right read, the right
cut, the right slash to get the ball,”
Hillmon said. “Like (Johnson) said,
the ball finds energy, and I think
(Johnson) does a really good job of
that and I think coach (Kim Barnes
Arico) knows that. That’s why she

puts her on the opposite side, so she
can slash, she can cut.”
Even after a couple of missed
layups under the rim to start the
game, Johnson nailed the team’s
first field goal after slipping
through the defense and catching
an inbound pass, immediately
going up for the shot.
It was the start of a big night for
Johnson, giving her the confidence
and energy to continue to make
those slashes and cuts Robbins
normally would.
“I just get the ball and like I
said with my steals, defensive
rebounds, offensive rebounds and
once I get those, I start feeling my
shots,” Johnson said. “We didn’t
really change anything for me,
but I think my teammates started
to look for me more that I started
scoring more.”
Atop the 3-point arc late in
the first quarter, Johnson stared
down a defense that left her alone.
She made a motion towards the
basket as if to shoot, and, when the
defense didn’t move, she accepted
their dare.
“In practice, I’ve been working
a lot on my outside threat and
slashing in the midpoint and
working on my threes,” Johnson
said. “So when I caught the ball,
nobody came to me, and I gave

them a second, nobody came to
me again. I was like well, any
basketball player in the world
will shoot this shot, and if I miss
it (Hillmon) and (junior forward
Hailey Brown) are down there to
get the rebounds, so I just shot it
and it went in.”
That 3-pointer set the stage for
a very different look in the third
quarter, when Rutgers’ defense
was suffocating, and it seemed
like maybe, just maybe, the game
wasn’t over. Barely getting the
ball out of the corner, three quick
passes traveled the entire front
court in a fraction of a second,
where Johnson waited. The result,
a quick 3-pointer, showed the
Scarlet Knights the game was, in
fact, over.
And,
in
the
first
quarter,
Johnson turned the tables in a
completely different way.
The game was still tight and
neither team had hit its stride
offensively, and Johnson sparked
a huge momentum boost for the
Wolverines. After junior forward
Hailey Brown hit a three to take
their first lead of the game, Rutgers
came down looking for an answer.
Johnson, though, had other
ideas. Intercepting a pass and
running down the court on a fast
break, side-by-side with sophomore
guard Amy Dilk, Johnson fed Dilk
in behind the defense, who fought
through contact for the layup and
an and-one.
Déjà vu struck Rutgers ten
minutes later when Johnson did
the exact same thing — only this
time, she took the layup and the
and-one herself.
Her defense fed her offense,
again.
“I think a couple years ago,
when she first came back (from
injury), she was able to defend,
and then she came back and she
was moving without the ball so
exceptionally well,” Barnes Arico
said. “Then she was rebounding.
Then she was scoring.
“Now as a senior, I think she has
put all of those things together, and
has been really healthy and playing
with a lot of confidence, and her
mental part of the game has been
at the highest level it’s ever been.”

The Scarlet W

Michigan blows by Rutgers, 71-57, in first game since Kayla Robbins’ ACL tear

BRENDAN ROOSE
Daily Sports Writer

ALEXANDRIA POMPEI/Daily
The Michigan women’s gymnastics team honored Chip Hills during its meet on Friday night against Rutgers.

ABBIE TELGENHOF
Daily Sports Writer

KENT SCHWARTZ
Daily Sports Writer

EMMA MATI/Daily
Senior guard Akienreh Johnson scored a career-high 24 points on Sunday as Michigan picked up a win over Rutgers.

I think
(Johnson)
played her
heart out.

MAX

MARCOVITCH

He has a
chance to
be ahead of
LeBron.