The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com
SportsMonday
February 17, 2020 — 3B

Simpson stars as ‘M’ beats Indiana 

Zavier Simpson took the ball 
up the court to kick things off 
against Indiana on Sunday.
But, 
fairly 
uncharacteristically, Simpson 
attempted to find his man on 
the right side only to see the 
ball land squarely in the hands 
of a Hoosier. Rather than 
follow up Indiana’s opening 
bucket with a couple points of 
his own, Simpson was staring 
down a turnover and a less-
than-ideal start.
But that would be one of his 
only mistakes all afternoon.
Over the next 40 minutes, 
Simpson turned in one of his 
strongest performances of the 
season on the way to 12 points 
and 11 assists. All Sunday 
afternoon, 
the 
Wolverines’ 
offense fired on all cylinders 
and showed its ceiling on 
nearly every possession — and 
it almost all involved No. 3 en 
route to a 89-65 win.
One look at the stat sheet will 
quickly reveal the benefactors 
of 
Simpson’s 
efforts 
distributing 
the 
ball. 
His 
presence as the floor general 
lends itself to a balanced box 
score with as many as five 
players scoring double digits — 
as was the case on Sunday.
Perhaps the most obvious 
benefactor 
of 
Simpson’s 

elevated play was freshman 
forward Franz Wagner, who 
notched a team-high 16 for 
Michigan, 
many 
of 
which 
came directly from Simpson’s 
fingertips. 
But 
Simpson 
has 
played 
plenty of games with Wagner 
this season, so what made this 
go-around so different?
“I think a lot of stuff 
has to do with our off-ball 
movement,” 
Wagner 
said. 
“Because if two guys off the 
ball are just standing around, it 
makes it easy for one guy to be 
lower and one guy just staying 
at the top and just hooking 
everything up, so when he 
has the opportunity to get 
downhill, be aggressive, people 
are gonna collapse. 
“He’s a good player, and 
that’s when he’s at his best, 
making decisions with the ball, 
finding open guys and we can 
score from there.”
As the game progressed, it 
became increasingly obvious 
just how easily Simpson was 
able to score on the Indiana 
defense. Two points off the 
pick-and-roll 
became 
the 
expectation 
rather 
than 
a 
shock at how well the offense 
was clicking.
Simpson’s role in Michigan 
coach Juwan Howard’s offense, 
though, may at first glance 
seem a bit baffling.
The 
first-year 
coach 

has 
made 
his 
philosophy 
abundantly clear: If you’re 
open, let it fly. And any offense 
for the Wolverines that relies 
on Simpson to let it fly is surely 
in for some rough games.
But 
in 
Howard’s 
words, 
Simpson makes teams die by 
a thousand cuts rather than 
by volume shooting from the 
perimeter. So when his game is 
on, he allows others to take the 
oh-so coveted open shot.
“He 
made 
some 
great 
decisions with the basketball,” 
Howard said. “He did a really 
good job of controlling the 
tempo of the game. One thing 
that was critical with him was 
his decision making and that 
he was hunting for singles. 
He wasn’t trying to make the 
home-run play. Finding guys 
who were open, being patient 
with the basketball, reading 
what the defense gives him.”
Earlier in the season, it 
wasn’t always the case that 
Simpson’s 
prolific 
passing 
ability 
led 
to 
knock-down 
jumpers from the likes of 
Wagner, sophomore forward 
Brandon Johns Jr. and others. 
Rather, Michigan often found 
itself in stretches — or entire 
games 
— 
of 
debilitatingly 
stagnant shooting. Wide-open 
looks haunted the Wolverines 
as they attempted to get back a 
semblance of the fun they were 
having when they cruised to an 
early-season tournament win 
in The Bahamas.
Simpson only collects 11 
assists Sunday if his teammates 
hit the shots the team’s leader 
creates. Wagner and Johns, for 
instance, have taken immense 
strides in being able to execute 
when it matters.
Simpson 
only 
had 
one 
noticeable 
mistake. 
One 
turnover. So when Michigan 
is pointing fingers over its 
stagnant offense or lack of 
emotion, you know Simpson 
is most likely doing his part — 
and it’s going to be damn-near 
perfect.

Wolverines blasted by Rutgers, 62-41

Down by eight with under 
10 seconds remaining in the 
second quarter of Sunday’s 
game, senior guard Akienreh 
Johnson drove down the right 
side of the key, looking to cut 
into Rutgers’ lead. 
After 
an 
abysmal 
first 
offensive half, a bucket would 
send the Wolverines to the 
locker room at the Rutgers 
Athletic Center down by just 
six, with an opportunity to 
regroup and come out more 
motivated in the third quarter. 
But in came Mael Gilles. 
The Scarlet Knights’ forward 
swiped the ball away and found 
guard 
Arella 
Guirantes 
in 
transition, who drew a foul on 
Johnson and made one of two 
free throws. Though the play 
didn’t end Michigan’s chances 
of a comeback, it was indicative 
of the shorthanded Wolverines’ 
offensive struggles throughout 
Sunday’s game. 
Rutgers dominated, 62-41, 
thanks to its stifling defense 
and 
Michigan’s 
sloppy, 
turnover-prone 
offense 
— 
especially in the first half. 
“That was the difference 
obviously early on when they 
got the lead in the first half,” 
Michigan coach Kim Barnes 
Arico 
said. 
“(It 
was) 
our 
turnovers, and our turnovers 
were leading to easy buckets, 
and I felt like they only really 
scored on our turnovers early. 
… They had 12 points off of 
them at half.”
In 
recent 
games, 
the 
Wolverines had been fairly 
successful on offense, thanks 
to a versatile high-low attack 
between sophomore forward 
Naz Hillmon and the team’s 
outside shooters. It featured 
a pretty simple formula: Feed 
Hillmon in the paint, draw 
double-teams and kick it out 
to the open player. Often, 
Hillmon was so effective that 
she could score against the 

double-team anyway. 
That just wasn’t working on 
Sunday. With Hillmon limited 
after 
suffering 
an 
upper-
body injury Thursday against 
Northwestern, the Wolverines’ 
offense stagnated. She was 
held to just five points — her 
lowest total all season — and 
Michigan in turn scored its 
lowest total since March 2013, 
when it tallied just 40 points 
in the final game of Barnes 
Arico’s first season.
“I 
think, 
as 
much 
as 
(Hillmon) was out there at 
times — and she did try her 
hardest and did her best — you 
know she’s not herself,” Barnes 
Arico said. “You can tell she’s 
in pain, and you can tell she 
tried to go out there and do 
everything she could to help 
us be successful today, but she 
didn’t have that same smile on 
her face, and the same energy 
that she does on a regular 
basis.”
After a slow first half, the 
Scarlet Knights’ offense found 
its rhythm in the second half. 
Guirantes 
— 
their 
leading 
scorer — led this attack, hitting 
jumpers from everywhere en 
route to a 15-point second half. 
She finished the game with 24 
points. 
Meanwhile, 
without 
Hillmon’s normally dominant 
production, 
the 
Wolverines 

struggled 
to 
get 
anything 
from inside. Attempts to drive 
to the basket often ended in 
forced passes and turnovers, 
and the few inside shots they 
did get up were either blocked 
or rimmed out. Rutgers tallied 
nine blocks on the game, and 
Michigan went a poor 10-for-
26 on layups. 
“The RAC — and I’ve played 
here a lot … it’s an incredibly 
difficult place to play,” Barnes 
Arico said. “And Rutgers at 
home is very different than 
Rutgers on the road, and I 
think the physicality kind of 
took us out of what we wanted 
to do early.
“ ... I’m not really making 
excuses, we obviously know 
that we have got to get better, 
but this has been a little bit of 
a stretch for us in terms of, you 
know, the games we’ve been 
playing in this short period 
of time, with the turnaround, 
with the injuries added to 
that.”
Sunday’s 
loss 
was 
the 
toughest 
part 
of 
a 
brutal 
stretch 
on 
the 
Wolverines 
schedule — their third game in 
just seven days. With their best 
player not at 100 percent and 
just nine healthy players on the 
roster, a loss shouldn’t come as 
too much of a surprise. 
But the way it happened 
doesn’t bode well.

Revival

EAST LANSING — Prior to 
Friday evening’s game, one might 
have thought goals would be 
hard to come by for the Michigan 
hockey team. 
In 
the 
Wolverines’ 
mid-
November series against Michigan 
State, they got swept, going 
scoreless in the second game. 
And leading into Friday’s puck 
drop, Spartans’ goaltender John 
Lethemon boasted a .942 save 
percentage — the best in the nation.
But all that didn’t matter. 
Michigan’s 
offense 
thrived, 
helping the team run away with a 
5-1 victory against Michigan State 
(14-14-1 overall, 10-8-1 Big Ten).
“I’m not surprised,” Michigan 
coach Mel Pearson said about 
scoring five on Lethemon. “I’m not 
surprised. We have guys who can 
put the puck in the net. We talked 
about, it’s been well-documented, 
our lack of scoring in the first 
half, but we weren’t healthy. Now 
we’re getting healthy. Some things 
are going in. We’re getting some 
confidence. We got a number of 
guys who can score, so I’m not 
surprised.”
This game meant a lot to 
Pearson. So much so that he 
brought his team up to East 
Lansing the night before. He 
wanted to make clear how much 
this game mattered and wanted 
his players in the best environment 
to excel.
“It’s always nice when you don’t 
have to travel on a game day,” 
senior forward Jake Slaker said. 
“We got to do all our pregame 
stuff here and could just focus. No 
distractions, and I think it worked 
out for us tonight.”
A few minutes into the first 
period, 
the 
Wolverines 
(14-
12-3, 9-8-2-1) started to spend 
considerable time in their own 
defensive zone. Some breakout 
struggles were apparent, as they 
had numerous turnovers.
But after a lengthy defensive 
stretch, Michigan caught a break. 
The team went on its first power 
play less than six minutes into 
the game, after forward Patrick 
Khodorenko 
got 
called 
for 

slashing. The Wolverines took that 
change of momentum and made 
the most of it.
Senior forward Will Lockwood 
got 
a 
pass 
from 
freshman 
defenseman Cam York by the left 
circle. He passed it to sophomore 
defenseman Nick Blankenburg 
in the high slot, who then sent it 
to the right circle where Slaker 
buried a one-timer 33 seconds into 
the power play.
“They haven’t given up a power 
play goal since I don’t know when,” 
Pearson said. “So we got off to a 
real good start.”
A 
couple 
minutes 
later, 
Michigan doubled its lead on the 
back of senior defenseman Luke 
Martin. York skated the puck 
behind Michigan State’s goal 
and soon connected with senior 
forward Nick Pastujov on the right 
side. Pastujov then swung the 
puck to the left circle, and Martin 
rocked a one-timer past Lethemon 
to make it 2-0. It was Martin’s first 
goal since his sophomore season 
and just the third of his career.
“It was nice to get the monkey 
off the back,” Martin said. “It was 
a great pass from Nick and a great 
play from Cam. It’s just nice to keep 
the momentum going and continue 
to keep our foot on the gas.”
The Wolverines received two 
more power plays in the opening 
frame, due to tripping and slashing 
calls. Unlike the opening power 
play, though, the Spartans killed 
both.
Michigan 
returned 
from 
intermission and matched its first 
period offensive production. 
It started 10 seconds after play 
resumed. Sophomore goaltender 
Strauss Mann settled the puck 
behind his net, then passed it along 
the boards to Martin. Martin then 
sent a long pass diagonally across 
center ice, and senior forward 
Jacob Hayhurst collected it just 
before his zone entry. Hayhurst 
then cut toward the net from the 
left side, brought the puck to his 
backhand and snuck it through 
Lethemon’s legs, giving Michigan 
a 3-0 lead and muting Munn Ice 
Arena.
And then with under eight 
to go in the second period, the 
Wolverines widened their lead to 

four goals. Junior forward Dakota 
Raabe got the puck near Michigan 
State’s goal and sent it to freshman 
defenseman Keaton Pehrson at the 
right side of the blue line. Pehrson 
slid the puck to his left. Sophomore 
defenseman Jack Summers took 
one touch to settle it, then rifled 
the puck into the bottom right 
corner.
Early in the final period, 
Michigan went on its first penalty 
kill of the night with York headed 
to the box for tripping. Finally 
getting the man advantage instead 
of giving it, the Spartans made the 
most of it. Nearing the end of the 
two minutes, defenseman Dennis 
Cesana passed to the crease from 
the right circle and forward Sam 
Saliba tapped it in to put the 
Spartans on the scoreboard.
With eight minutes left in 
the game, junior forward Luke 
Morgan fought for the puck at the 
left side of the crease and quickly 
passed it across to Slaker. Slaker 
capitalized, further fueling the 
momentous win and continuing 
the Wolverines’ streak in which 
they’ve now won 23 of the last 27 
conference points.
“We’ve got an energy with us 
right now,” Martin said. “Wouldn’t 
want to be the next team on our 
run.”

Michigan blows past Michigan State, 5-1, to earn 23 of 27 possible points since the New Year

EAST 
LANSING 
— 
Jake 
Slaker had just stopped in the 
left faceoff circle when he 
turned and saw a pass coming 
from Nick Blankenburg at the 
blueline.
That place in the circle has 
become the senior forward’s 
office on the power play lately, 
and this time, the pass found 
just the right spot. Slaker’s 
one-timer sent the puck off his 
stick and into the net before 
goaltender John Lethemon had 
a chance at stopping it.
For the second time in three 
games, 
Slaker 
opened 
the 
scoring on a power-play goal 
from the left circle. Friday, the 
goal came just six minutes into 
the game.
“We’ve 
been 
working 
on 
power play a lot lately,” Slaker 
said. “We’ve been up and down 
this whole season, so it was 
really huge to get a quick goal 
and then that just kinda kept the 
momentum going for the rest of 
the game.”
It was Slaker’s third goal in 
three games — and he added a 
fourth before the night was over.
Michigan held a 4-1 lead just 

over halfway through the third 
period, and Michigan State was 
largely carrying the momentum 
of the game. But then redshirt 
junior forward Luke Morgan 
found the puck in the slot in 
front of Lethemon, and Slaker 
saw an opportunity.
He slid down to the far post 
and yelled for the puck. Morgan 
slid it across, and Slaker’s quick 
wrister just beat a sprawling 
Lethemon.
“(Freshman 
forward 
Nick 
Granowicz) and Morgs were 
working so hard,” Slaker said. 
“I saw Morgs kinda get the 
puck and I was screaming at 
him as loud as I could (on the) 
backdoor. He threw the puck to 
me and luckily, it just went in for 
me.”
The goal extended Slaker’s 
streak of multi-point games 
to three and gave him his 
third two-goal game of the 
season. Since the Great Lakes 
Invitational in late December, 
Slaker has nine goals in 11 games 
— though he didn’t score until 
Nov. 23 and tallied just three 
goals in the first half of the 
season. After suffering an upper 
body injury against Western 
Michigan on Oct. 25 — the fifth 
game of the season — Slaker 

missed the next three games.
It took him some time to get 
his feet back under him, and the 
injury continued to nag at him 
for another few weeks once he 
came back. A two-week break 
at Christmas helped solidify the 
healing, and once the second 
half of the season started, Slaker 
took off.
“I think going into the break, 
maybe a few games before that, 
I started feeling that I was 
starting to get into the stride of 
the season,” Slaker said. “I think 
going into Christmas break, 
getting some rest and coming 
back fresh was really important 
for me.” 
Added Michigan coach Mel 
Pearson: “He’s healthy. The 
first half of the year, he was 
not healthy, and when you 
have these nagging injuries, he 
missed a number of games. But 
he knows how to score. He’s 
a gamer, like a number of our 
guys. But he’s a senior, too, and 
he wants to have his best year 
and he’s doing a heck of a job.”
Slaker’s current best season 
with the Wolverines came in his 
sophomore year, when he scored 
27 points in 40 games. This year, 
he’s got 23 through 26 games 
and has at least one point in 12 
of Michigan’s last 15 games.
As 
the 
Wolverines 
push 
into the last few games of the 
regular season, contributions 
from seniors like Slaker have 
been key in getting Michigan 
back in the win column after 
a rough first half. Pearson has 
spent most of the year talking 
about how the Wolverines need 
their seniors to contribute, and 
Slaker’s success has clearly been 
crucial in Michigan’s recent 
run.
His two goals in Friday’s 5-1 
win are just the most recent 
demonstration.
“I’m 
just 
playing 
with 
confidence right now, trying to 
do the little things,” Slaker said. 
“Just play well defensively, do 
all the little things, play physical 
and I’ll get my chances. Lately, 
they’ve been coming to me, and 
I’m just trying to take advantage 
of it.”

ALEXANDRIA POMPEI/Daily
Senior forward Jake Slaker scored two goals in Michigan’s 5-1 win over Michigan State on Friday night.

BAILEY JOHNSON
Daily Sports Editor

ROHAN KUMAR
Daily Sports Writer

BRENDAN ROOSE
Daily Sports Writer

JACOB KOPNICK
Daily Sports Editor

ALLISON ENGKVIST/Daily
Zavier Simpson had 12 points and 11 assists in Michigan’s win over Indiana.

MILES MACKLIN/Daily
Sophomore forward Naz Hillmon scored just five points in Michigan’s loss.

