The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com
SportsMonday
February 3, 2020 — 2B
‘M’ tops
Rutgers
NEW YORK — In the seven seasons
leading up to Saturday, Madison Square
Garden has become a home away from
home for the Michigan men’s basketball
team.
The last time the Wolverines walked
off the floor, it was with the 2018 Big Ten
Tournament title in hand. Prior to that,
they scored wins over Marquette and
Southern Methodist at the 2K Classic in
2016. Overall, Michigan entered Saturday
riding a nine-game winning streak in New
York since 2012.
And against No. 25 Rutgers (16-6 overall,
7-4 Big Ten) on Saturday, the Wolverines
extended the streak to double-digits
with a 69-63 win. There wasn’t a trophy
on the line this time, but the magnitude
of securing a ranked win in an uber-
competitive Big Ten could shake out to be
an important inflection point.
After a rocky start that saw the Scarlet
Knights score 12 of the game’s first 19
points, Michigan (13-8, 4-6) found its
footing on defense. The Wolverines
tightened their interior presence, forcing
Rutgers into a five-minute scoring drought
as it missed 13 of its next 15 shots.
On the opposite end of the floor,
sophomore forward Brandon Johns Jr. —
who entered the game shooting 29 percent
from beyond the arc — made three of his
first four 3-point attempts. Freshman wing
Franz Wagner and junior guard Eli Brooks
also buried threes, propelling Michigan to
a 20-5 run.
The most vicious punch, though, came
midway through the run. As senior point
guard Zavier Simpson peeled off a double
screen at the top of the key, he whipped a
bounce pass between the Scarlet Knights’
double-team.
He threaded the needle as well as
possible, as he’s done so many times
before. The ball found the waiting hands
of senior center Jon Teske, who used his
six-inch height advantage to throw down a
thunderous one-handed flush over Rutgers
guard Caleb McConnell.
A few minutes later, Johns tipped in a
missed free throw at the halftime buzzer,
giving Michigan a three-point lead going
into the break.
It also gave Johns his 14th and 15th
points of the opening half, capping off
his best half of college basketball to date.
Behind his 15 points on 5-of-8 shooting,
the Wolverines were able to weather the
10 offensive rebounds and seven second-
chance points they allowed.
That rebounding gap, however, kept the
halftime lead from ballooning.
“(Rutgers) is an excellent offensive
rebounding team,” Michigan coach Juwan
Howard said. … “They’re going to attack
the glass because they’re long, they’re
athletic and they’re quick. They also have
two bigs — particularly (Myles) Johnson —
who’s super long, and he goes to the glass to
clean up everything.”
When Michigan needed a second-half
spark, it once again turned to Johns, who
answered the call with a two-handed dunk
and a corner three to extend the lead to
eight.
Howard has been clear in his desire
to breathe confidence into Johns since
the summer. With junior forward Isaiah
Livers injured once again, his role now
becomes even more pivotal.
The trajectory of Johns’ steady season-
long climb reached yet another climax on
Saturday, when he led all scorers with 20
points.
“This is something that’s happened all
season long,” Howard said. “Game by game
— this is not just for today. Brandon’s been
playing great for us all year. … But points
is not what shows up — winning, that’s
effort. It’s attention to detail. Being there
defensively, being able to guard above the
4, being a rim protector at the basket.”
Johns’ teammates took the reins from
there, as Wagner and Teske each scored a
pair of baskets as Michigan built a 14-point
edge. Simpson found himself at the center
of the run, racking up 10 assists in his first
game back from suspension.
Missing a game for the first time in his
career put Simpson in an odd predicament.
As the face of the program, he’s usually the
one supporting his teammates, but this
week, the roles were reversed.
“It’s pretty much that (the team) had my
back (with) positive feedback,” Simpson
said. “Stuff that not just teammates, that
a brotherhood does. At the same time,
that’s what makes us. I feel like we’re a
brotherhood.”
The Wolverines forced misses down
the stretch, but struggled to keep Rutgers
off the offensive glass. The Scarlet Knights
outscored Michigan by 19 in second-
chance points, but it wasn’t enough to
mount a comeback.
It was enough, however, to put the
Wolverines in a spot similar to where they
found themselves against Illinois and
Oregon — two narrow losses from earlier
this season. This time, Michigan held on.
And, with it, Howard was finally able to
let out a sigh.
N
EW YORK — If this is what
a turning point looks like,
Michigan will take it.
Last week was ugly. It brought
an urgency that should never have
been required for two mid-winter
games. It started with a bomb that,
in the moment,
seemed as if it
could be a final
blow for Juwan
Howard’s
first season in
charge. It ended
with an escape,
a buzzer sound-
ing and a palpa-
ble exhortation
of relief.
For how last
week felt on Monday afternoon,
when news of Zavier Simpson’s
suspension came down and the
Wolverines were suddenly staring
down a must-win game at a listless
Nebraska without two of their best
players, they couldn’t have hoped
for a better outcome.
Michigan survived in Lincoln,
stringing together minutes from
walk-on C.J. Baird and sophomore
wing Adrien Nunez, getting by
when a loss would have put a seri-
ous dent in its NCAA Tournament
hopes. With Simpson back Saturday
against Rutgers, Michigan again
scraped by, behind a 20-point per-
formance from Brandon Johns Jr.,
some pick-and-roll mastery from
Simpson and by making the late free
throws it missed against Illinois.
It put the seven days prior in a new
light, because it’s easier to press on
the gas when the speed bumps are
in the rearview mirror.
Simpson’s suspension now looks
more like a speed bump than any-
thing lasting. On Saturday, Johns
looked like someone at the develop-
mental endpoint of getting tossed
into the fire. Michigan shot 9-of-19
from 3-point range and got produc-
tion from all five of its starters. If
the Wolverines are going to survive
the next month, it will look some-
thing like that.
Afterward, conversation focused
on Simpson’s return and Johns’
breakout. The bigger picture —
Michigan finally starting to get out
of a hole it spent most of January
digging — wasn’t mentioned. But its
shadow draped across everything.
“Brandon’s been playing great
for us all year,” Howard said. “A lot
of the things that he’s been doing
for his team to help us win is things
that doesn’t really show up in the
box score.
“So what happened today is, he
got off to a great start. Finished
with 20 points, but the points is
not where it shows up. It’s effort,
it’s attention to detail, being able,
defensively, to guard ‘1’ through
‘4.’ Being able to rim protect at the
basket.”
Howard has spent much of the
year insisting that Johns does more
than his statistical output. Saturday
— when Johns scored double digits
for the second consecutive game,
looked confident with the ball in his
hands and played a central role in
Michigan’s best win this year — was
the first time that felt evident to the
plain eye.
If one good thing could come out
of Isaiah Livers’ extended absence,
it would be Johns playing like this.
“I’m just so, so proud of Bran-
don,” Simpson said. “He’s a guy
who’s been through a lot since his
freshman season. Come in this sea-
son with a new coach, new offense
and a lot of different things but
he managed to keep his head up.
He’s worked hard every single day
in practice, he gives it his all, he’s
locked in. Before the game, he’s
sitting down with coach Howard,
watching film. It’s the small things
like that I feel like come into play. I
felt like his hard work is definitely
paying off.”
A few minutes afterward, Simp-
son was cordoned off by a spokes-
person in a room behind the tunnel
leading to the court, answering
questions about his suspension
for the first time. He didn’t go into
much detail but spoke with a lead-
er’s voice.
“Yes, I spoke with my team-
mates,” he said at one point. “That’s
what a captain should do, right?”
His leadership is as defining to
this Michigan team as anything
else. Reacting to the last week of
events in the right way — the way he
did Saturday, a way that makes his
teammates have his back the way he
said they did — is vital.
This iteration of the Wolverines is
not as talented as last year’s, which
spent half of the season blowing
teams out of the water. It isn’t mold-
ing an identity made for March,
like two years ago, when Simpson’s
persona melded into focus over the
course of Big Ten play. Right now,
it’s doing just enough to survive in
a stacked Big Ten, to bridge the gap
between the last year of the John
Beilein era and the first recruiting
class of the Juwan Howard era.
If Michigan gets over that gap
with an NCAA Tournament appear-
ance (or with any success in the
tournament itself), it’ll be thanks to
Simpson’s leadership, to a potential
Johns breakout and to games like
Saturday’s.
It won’t be pretty or loud — that’s
not the style of this group. It’ll scrap
and claw, and in the end, it’ll do just
enough.
If nothing else, the past week
proved that.
Sears can be reached at searseth@
umich.edu or on Twitter @ethan_sears.
DANIEL DASH
Daily Sports Writer
It’s effort, it’s
attention to
detail, being able
to, defensively,
to guard 1
through 4.
ALLISON ENGKVIST/Daily
The Michigan basketball team notched a Quadrant 1 win on Saturday, beating Rutgers, 69-63, at Madison Square Garden.
ALLISON ENGKVIST/Daily
Senior guard Zavier Simpson returned from a one-game suspension on Saturday against Rutgers, scoring nine points with 10 assists.
Simpson
returns
with 10
NEW YORK — Zavier Simpson was
back, doing Zavier Simpson things.
When Jon Teske set a screen for the
senior point guard on the left wing,
Rutgers big man Miles Johnson hedged
a little too hard. Simpson was one step
ahead, evading the attempted hindrance
with relative ease before delivering a
bounce pass to Teske rolling along the
baseline.
Without a Scarlet Knight in his vicinity,
the senior center rocked the rim to extend
Michigan’s lead to 12 points midway
through the second half of its 69-63 win
over No. 25 Rutgers at Madison Square
Garden.
The game marked Simpson’s return to
action following a suspension for violating
team policy. He served that suspension
Tuesday, when the Wolverines played —
and beat — Nebraska away from home. On
Friday afternoon, the program sent a press
release announcing Simpson would play
Saturday. Asked about the circumstances
surrounding the suspension and his
reinstatement, Simpson declined to give
details.
“At the end of the day, you learn from
your lessons because you gotta move
forward,” Simpson said. “It’s not about
what happens, it’s about how you react
from it. Just gotta reflect on things, move
forward and try to get out here and get a
dub, which we did.”
In his return, Simpson looked like his
usual self. Despite only scoring nine points
on 1-of-5 shooting, Simpson proved once
again to be the straw that stirs Michigan’s
drink. He finished with ten assists — the
Scarlet Knights had six assists total — four
rebounds and three steals against scrappy
defenders like Jacob Young and Montez
Mathis.
Whether it was a pinpoint pass to Teske
in the paint or a drive and dish to freshman
forward Franz Wagner on the perimeter,
Simpson got his teammates involved all
afternoon.
“I wanted to come out here, make
smart plays, play as hard as I can and play
as smart as I can,” Simpson said. “At the
end of the day, I just want to give it all to
my teammates, making sure I’m working
hard and finding them. Rutgers had a great
defense so the key was finding the open
man.”
Along with his 10 assists though,
Simpson committed six turnovers. In the
second half alone, he had five — giving the
Scarlet Knights a route back into the game.
He would ultimately redeem himself.
With Michigan harboring a narrow
advantage down the stretch and his
teammates getting sped up offensively in
the back and forth action, Simpson slowed
things down, making sure the Wolverines
got the best look possible.
Down by three, with 24 seconds
remaining, Rutgers fouled Simpson off
the inbounds play. Amidst chants and
taunts raining down on him from the
Scarlet Knights’ faithful and the pressure
of closing out the game resting squarely
on his shoulders, Simpson sank both
from the foul line to give Michigan a five-
point edge. A possession later, following
a pull-up three from Rutgers’ Geo Baker,
Simpson was hacked again. Though he
missed the back end of the one-and-one,
restoring a three-point advantage proved
crucial in holding off the Scarlet Knights.
“It was great that our guys stepped up
there and knocked down some shots we
needed to knock down,” Michigan coach
Juwan Howard said. “It was mental
stability on all levels. When teams are
making runs, staying poised, and then
keeping that mental stability we all talk
about as a group.”
Added Simpson: “When I go to the
free-throw line, I just try to stay locked
in. At the end of the day, it’s just like Kobe
(Bryant) said, ‘Next shot, next free throw,
next play’ — whatever it is. When I go to
the free-throw line I just try to think about
Kawhi Leonard. When he goes to the free-
throw line he just looks so focused and
doesn’t let anything bother him. So I just
try to have a Kawhi Leonard mentality.”
Simpson’s performance was far from
spectacular, but it got the job done and
it signified a return to normalcy for a
Michigan team desperate for consistency.
Regardless of the stage and the
circumstances, Simpson seems to always
give them that.
CONNOR BRENNAN
Daily Sports Writer
Michigan shows blueprint for turnaround
At the end of
the day, I just
want to give it
all.
ETHAN
SEARS
out of a rut