The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com
Sports
Thursday, February 27, 2020 — 5A
Defense helping inconsistent offense
It had been nearly eight
minutes since Michigan’s last
field goal.
Early in the fourth quarter
against Michigan State on Sunday,
the Wolverines’ offense looked
completely dysfunctional. They
made just one field goal the entire
second half up to that point, and
turned the ball over 10 times in
the third quarter alone. They
drew fouls, but only made one free
throw each trip to the line.
Then, with 6:54 remaining in
the fourth quarter, sophomore
forward Naz Hillmon drove to
the hoop, hit a layup, drew a foul
and hit the resulting free throw to
finally end the drought. The three-
point play was necessary to get the
offense going again in Michigan’s
65-57 win over the Spartans.
But even more important was
what happened on the other side
of the floor during those eight
minutes.
A minor scoring drought can
quickly turn into a disaster or cost
a team the game if the defense
can’t get stops. And although
Michigan State did score 13
points during that drought, the
Wolverines’ defense made enough
key plays to still emerge ahead at
the end of it.
To be clear, Michigan isn’t a
bad offensive team. Its 71 points
per game put it at sixth in the Big
Ten — not great, but adequate
enough to win games. It just has
a tendency to go through long
scoring droughts like against
Michigan State, and that’s where
its strong defense becomes even
more crucial.
“(We focused on) going on
defense and just really trying to
get those stops,” Hillmon said.
“Really just taking pride in our
defense, making sure we had
our rotations, and just taking
away what they were doing,
because of course that run there
was something that we weren’t
looking forward to.”
Nobody
exemplified
that
defensive prowess more than
senior guard Akienreh Johnson.
Coming off a strong defensive
performance
against
Illinois
where she tallied six steals, a block
and two defensive rebounds, she
was given the unenviable task of
defending Spartan guard Taryn
McCutcheon — the team’s best
passer and second-leading scorer.
During those eight scoreless
minutes for Michigan, Johnson
locked
down
McCutcheon,
holding
her
to
just
four
points and one
assist. Like in
her
six-steal
performance
against
the
Illini,
Johnson
used
her
6-foot frame to
suffocate 5-foot-
5 McCutcheon.
“Akienreh is
just an amazing
defender,” Michigan coach Kim
Barnes Arico said. “And she was
on McCutcheon all day and just
did an incredible job.”
Beyond Johnson’s lockdown
one-on-one
defense,
the
Wolverines have gotten a boost
from their consistent ability to
rebound the ball. Their average
rebound margin of plus-7.3 is
second-best in the Big Ten and
28th in the country. This level
of rebounding limits opponents’
possessions
and
keeps
them
from
getting
second-chance
opportunities.
That showed in a big way
Sunday,
when
Michigan
outrebounded
Michigan
State
49-29
and
allowed
just
10
offensive rebounds all game. Once
again, that was a continuation
of the Wolverines’ effort against
Illinois, where Michigan won
the
rebounding
battle,
35-27.
Hillmon, of course, has been
most effective off the glass with
10 and 13 rebounds in the last
two games, but freshman center
Izabel Varejão has
also lent a hand.
In just 17 minutes
Sunday, she pulled
in 7 rebounds —
16.8
percent
of
all missed shots
while she was on
the floor.
“Hillmon was
beating
us
up
and
down
the
floor,”
Michigan
State coach Suzy
Merchant said. “We worked on
that. We know what the kid can
do. The shot goes up, you better
have two or three people around
her. She would just go and get the
rebound, even in the second half.”
Those eight minutes without
a field goal are a problem in their
own right. As Michigan enters the
Big Ten Tournament and likely
the NCAA Tournament, it will
only get harder for it to survive
if it can’t avoid massive scoring
droughts.
But if it can’t avoid them, at
least it has a defense that can help
withstand them.
RISP struggles plaguing Michigan
Across the first six innings of
Saturday’s game against Iowa
State, the Michigan softball team’s
offense
was
largely
invisible,
mustering only one run on five
hits. And yet the Wolverines were
staring down the last of the seventh
inning, attempting to mount a
furious comeback.
The first three batters of the
inning reached base. Down 5-1, the
next hitter would both represent
the tying run and signal the return
to the top of the batting order.
Any cautious optimism that
such a situation accrued, though,
soon gave way to disappointment.
Three consecutive baserunners
were followed by three consecutive
outs.
Ballgame.
The fateful final inning against
Iowa State was a microcosm of
Michigan’s weekend failures at the
dish. It painted an all too familiar
scene of stranding baserunners on
a weekend where the Wolverines
hit at a lowly .214 (6-for-28) clip
with runners in scoring position.
In prime scoring opportunities, the
bats were failing, making the lack
of runs no surprise. Michigan was
held to one run or less in three of its
four games.
These struggles have little to do
with ability. Across the season’s
first ten games, the Wolverines
hit .300 (30-for-100) in the same
situations — a far more respectable
figure.
Rather,
according
to
Michigan coach Carol Hutchins,
it’s an issue rooted in mental
inconsistencies.
“I think it had to do a lot with too
much being in their head, whatever
was in their head,” she said.
Added
sophomore
catcher
Hannah Carson: “We may have
been thinking about too many
things.”
Admissions like these are not
atypical of a scuffling softball team.
Individual slumps have a tendency
to spiral, snowballing into a greater
problem. Players will often place
added pressure on themselves to
perform and send themselves into
prolonged funks, estranged from
their traditional approach at the
plate.
“Hitting
is
contagious,”
Hutchins said. “When nobody hits,
when people swing at bad pitches,
it’s amazing. They catch it like they
catch the flu.”
The first step of breaking out
of a slump is diagnosing its cause.
The Wolverines are confident
they’ve done that. Figuring out
how to tackle it is a different beast,
but they believe they’ve found a
solution to that too.
“Just keeping the game simple,”
Carson said. “Not worrying about
who our competitor is and just
focusing on one pitch at a time. Just
using that will help to get the job
done.”
One-pitch softball is a mantra
that Michigan has embraced since
the offseason. Its message stresses
staying in the moment and places
an emphasis on focusing on what
the batter can control — the next
pitch.
The batter can’t control the
situation she encounters. With
the focus of one-pitch softball,
situations like batting with runners
in scoring position are meant to be
ignored.
It’s served as both a calling card
and a crutch throughout the early
portion of the season. Now, one-
pitch softball is an approach the
Wolverines are making a concerted
effort to rediscover.
“I don’t think there’s one-
pitch focus,” Hutchins said of the
weekend. “Because what’s the
difference between having runners
on base and having no runners on
base? The ball doesn’t know, the
bat doesn’t know, well who knows?
Well, the hitter knows.”
In practice this week, Hutchins
had her players partake in what she
calls a competitive hunting pitches
drill. The players took turns
batting and registered points when
they hit the ball well; the ones who
accumulated the most points would
win. It’s a drill that embraces the
basics — no situations, no outside
noise. All the batter had to do was
focus on hitting the ball.
During
bats
with
runners
in scoring position, the batter’s
attention might stray away from
the single pitch, other thoughts
clouding their head. The drill
helps the Wolverines blot out these
thoughts, better preparing them
to hit with runners in scoring
position.
This simplicity to hitting is
something Hutchins feels the team
lost track of in stretches over the
weekend. After a five-run outburst
in the opening inning against
Liberty on Sunday, for instance,
Michigan seemed to have fixed
its woes, only for nine straight
Wolverines to be retired to close
the game.
“All of a sudden, we have several
innings in a row of poor at-bats,
of out, out, out,” Hutchins said.
“Getting ourselves out.”
A repeat of last weekend’s
offensive doldrums is something
Michigan can ill-afford, especially
against the steeper competition
that awaits in the Judi Garman
Classic. It’ll soon be seen whether a
re-emphasis on the basics of hitting
pays any dividends.
Freshman Burton embracing cold weather
On
a
frigid
winter
day
earlier this month, the Wilpon
Complex came back to life
after nearly eight months of
dormancy.
Through the steadily falling
snow, the Michigan baseball
team dashed back and forth
between its locker room and the
Oosterbaan Field House where
it was holding a scrimmage.
It was northern baseball
at its finest. But in a sport
dominated by teams from the
South and West, it’s rare for a
team running inside to practice
to be nationally ranked at all,
let alone No. 1 — where the
Wolverines were ranked last
week.
Indeed, in the 40 years before
Michigan’s run last season,
teams from north of the 40th
parallel only qualified for the
College World Series 27 times
out of a potential 328. Many
recruits from baseball hotbeds
are hesitant to leave their home
regions and take the risk of
playing in the cold.
Freshman
third
baseman
Ted Burton, who hails from
Huntington
Beach,
Calif.,
wasn’t one of them.
“I wanted something new,
and I wanted to step out of that
California bubble that I have
been part of my whole life,”
Burton said. “I was looking for
a different kind of people or
even just a different experience
and different setting, so I could
see something new that not
everyone gets to see.”
Michigan coach Erik Bakich,
a California native himself, has
an interesting tendency when
talking about his players. He
often goes out of his way to note
that a player is from his home
state.
“Our California guys have
always been able to get a lot of
reps in,” he commented earlier
this month when talking about
Michigan’s
characteristically
chilly winter weather.
Bakich has been effective in
drawing non-northern players
like Burton to Ann Arbor. Eight
members of the Wolverines’
roster are from the Golden State,
more than any other except
for Michigan. He’s passionate
about breaking the mold.
“It’s
not
just
Michigan
baseball
but
cold
weather
baseball, northern baseball in
general where sometimes the
perception is your program
has been hidden under a rock
or just hasn’t been relevant,”
Bakich said. “It
can be relevant
…
Sometimes
you
just
need
something
magical
to
happen.”
Burton, for his
part, has bought
into
Bakich’s
mindset.
It’s
evident in the
way he avoids
talking
about
himself and always defers to the
team’s needs — a common trait
for this group of players.
“I just want to be someone
who will compete, play for
the team and find a way to
win,
whether
that’s
laying
down a bunt or putting a ball
in for extra-base hits,” Burton
said. “I’ll just do whatever is
necessary to put us on top in the
end.”
It was notable he specifically
pointed to notching extra-base
hits for his team, since doing
so has been a challenge for
the Wolverines this season.
In its 8-5 win over Cal Poly on
February 15 — a matchup the
team will relive this weekend
— Michigan didn’t have a single
extra-base hit.
In light of that, Burton noted
the team needs
to
be
more
aggressive with
its hitting. That
means
making
contact
with
good
pitches
with less than
two
strikes
and
remaining
effective
with
two
strikes.
At
times,
the
Wolverines’
batters have struggled by letting
those early pitches go to waste
and then having to find any way
possible to get the ball in play.
Once again, he was of the
same mind as his coach. Bakich
diagnosed the problem similarly
after last weekend’s series loss.
The two have worked quite well
together since Burton arrived in
Ann Arbor.
“He’s a great person … and
he’s taught us a lot of life lessons
along the way that I don’t think
many people can,” Burton said.
“He’s turning young boys into
men.
“On the field he knows what
he’s doing and you know damn
well he’s going to bring out the
best in you.”
Burton’s
performance
so
far indicates he intends to be
a presence at the plate. He
knocked his first collegiate
career home run in Saturday’s
14-2 win over the Huskies.
On the infield, too, he has
proven to be reliable. He’s
worked well with the defense’s
anchor, junior shortstop Jack
Blomgren, as well as sophomore
second baseman Riley Bertram
to
give
the
pitching
staff
adequate backup.
Burton will have a chance to
build on his strong start as the
Wolverines head west to his
home state for the next eight
games. He sees the trip as just
another chance to prove himself
and validate his choice to play
for Michigan.
“I’m excited and I’ll be seeing
some old friends,” Burton said,
“but I’m ready to compete and
show
them
what
Northern
baseball is all about.”
‘M’ wins fourth-straight
Big Ten conference title
Exactly a year ago, things
were looking pretty great for
Michigan’s women’s gymnastics
team.
The Wolverines had taken the
Elevate the Stage meet by storm,
winning
a
third-consecutive
regular season Big Ten title,
earning the second best overall
bars score in program history and
then-freshman Natalie Wojcik
scoring her first ever perfect
10 with a Yurchenko 1.5 vault
performance, the first given to
Michigan on the event since 2011.
You would think, logistically,
nothing could top that weekend.
You would be wrong.
Fast forward to this year’s
Elevate
the
Stage,
where
No. 9 Michigan
was not favored
to win the meet
against No. 7
Minnesota, No.
24
Maryland,
Penn State and
Michigan State.
What
they
proceeded
to
do was nothing
short of absolutely electric.
“It
was
incredible,”
said
freshman
Nicoletta
Koulous.
“We just felt that this was going
to be a good meet for us.”
Michigan took the floor first,
with Koulos in the leadoff spot
scoring a career-high 9.850. The
Wolverines continued to execute,
with all scores in the event being
at least a 9.850. Sophomore
Natalie
Wojcik
(9.900)
and
freshman Gabby Wilson (9.925)
both started streaks of four
straight scores of 9.900 or higher.
Michigan finished the floor event
with a season-high 49.525.
The dominance continued on
vault, where three Wolverines
earned
career-high
scores.
Sophomore Abby Heiskell scored
a 9.925, Koulos landed a 9.900
and sophomore Abby Brenner
had a 9.950. Wojcik scored a
9.950, as well, leading Michigan
to another season-high with
49.600.
A huge bars rotation extended
the Wolverines’ lead and earned
them their third season-high
score this meet with a 49.400.
Senior Maggie O’Hara scored
a career-high 9.875 and Wojcik
tied a career high to close off the
rotation with a 9.950.
Michigan finished the meet on
beam. With the first three scores
in the low 9.8s, Funk stepped
up with a 9.900, and Wojcik and
Heiskell both earned career-
highs with a 9.975 and a 9.925,
respectively.
“(Michigan
coach)
Bev
(Plocki) told us to come in here
and be sisters and have each
others’ backs,” Koulos said. “And
I think that’s exactly what we
did.
“I just play my
role on the team,
and I do what I
can to help. After
my
floor
and
vault, my job was
to be the loudest
I could be for the
team.”
With an all-
around
score
of
197.950,
Michigan clinched its fourth
straight Big Ten regular season
championship, and Team 44
wrote its name in the record
books with a program-high score.
“This meet just shows we’re
definitely a team to be reckoned
with,” Koulos said.
Wojcik finished the night with
a 39.775, which is the seventh
highest
all-around
score
in
program history and her personal
career-high.
“Going into this meet, we
knew it was the biggest meet of
our season so far and we knew
we were going to need to be one
cohesive unit so we really focused
on that,” Wojcik said. “We are a
strong team no matter who is in
the lineup.
“Today is everybody’s win –
everyone who cheered for us and
everyone who helped us along
the way.”
SHIRA ZISHOLTZ
Daily Sports Writer
FILE PHOTO/Daily
The Michigan softball team hit .214 with RISP in its four games last weekend.
JARED GREENSPAN
Daily Sports Writer
BRENDAN ROOSE
Daily Sports Writer
AIDAN WOUTAS
Daily Sports Writer
MILES MACKLIN/Daily
Michigan’s defense has stepped up when its offense hits scoring droughts.
(We focused
on) ... just really
trying to get
those stops.
WOMEN’S GYMNASTICS
This meet
shows we’re
... a team to be
reckoned with.
MILES MACKLIN/Daily
The Michigan baseball team has to internally embrace the cold weather that many believe puts them at a disadvantage.
I wanted to
step out of
that California
bubble.