For its most important series yet this season, the Michigan hockey team will be without five of its key players against Minnesota next week. Monday afternoon, USA Hockey released its preliminary roster for the 2021 IIHF World Junior Championship. It includes three Wolverine freshman forwards — Matty Beniers, Thomas Bordeleau, and Brendan Brisson — as well as sophomore forward Johnny Beecher and sophomore defenseman Cam York. All five will be unavailable for Michigan’s Dec. 8 and 9 home series against Minnesota, which will be missing three of its own players. The tournament will take place from Dec. 25 through Jan. 5 in Edmonton. Though teams were initially told that players would not have to report until Dec. 13 — a factor that played into the Wolverines’ and Gophers’ decision to compete on the preceding Tuesday and Wednesday, according to Michigan coach Mel Pearson — USA Hockey recently mandated that players enter its bubble in Plymouth on Dec. 6 to comply with IIHF rules. The decision coincided with a pair of positive tests at Team Canada’s selection camp in Red Deer, Alberta. Without its key players, who have combined for 21 points in six games this season, Michigan will need more production from elsewhere on the team. Much of that production should come from players already in the lineup — players like freshman forward Kent Johnson, who leads the team with eight points. Johnson might have to step up even more, but there’s plenty of room for others in the lineup to make their mark as well. Sophomore forward Eric Ciccolini has shown flashes in four appearances, scoring two goals and earning a plus-minus of +3. The series against the Gophers will be an opportunity for him to prove he deserves more time on the ice. “There’s some guys in the lineup that you’re just expecting to do more,” Pearson said. “Eric Ciccolini has been in and out. He’s proven he’s ready to have a really good sophomore season. We expect more out of him on a daily basis.” But with five players missing, the Wolverines will need to dig deeper into the roster and rely on players who haven’t yet seen much of the ice. In Michigan’s loss to Notre Dame on Saturday, sophomore defenseman Jay Keranen appeared in his second game this season after not playing his freshman year. There’s a good chance he’ll fill in for York in the Minnesota series. Things will be even thinner at forward, where the Wolverines will lose four players to World Juniors. And with just 16 forwards on the roster, Michigan will have to rely on every player at that position. As of now, only two — freshmen Josh Groll and Philippe Lapointe — have yet to see ice time this year. Groll tallied 42 points in 41 games with the USHL Lincoln Stars last season, while Lapointe notched 55 points in 36 games with the BCHL Trail Smoke Eaters. “(Groll) has looked really good in practice,” Pearson said. “He had a bit of a setback (a couple of weeks ago), that’s why he hasn’t played at this point … but he’s ready. Phil Lapointe’s an outstanding player. He’s gonna be a really good player for us here. We’ll look for him to come in the lineup.” In any situation, depth is a necessity for a hockey team to be successful. It’s normal to lose a few players to injury throughout the season. Teams can plan around that. Less predictable is losing five players at the same time. The Wolverines have a deep roster; such a deep hit in a series against the No. 5 team in the country will put that depth to the test. The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com Sports Wednesday, December 2, 2020 — 15 Turnovers plague Michigan in narrow win over Oakland With just over seven minutes remaining in the first half, the Michigan men’s basketball team held an eight-point lead over winless Oakland. Just two- and-a-half minutes later, the Wolverines’ advantage had been cut to just two points, leading to arguments on Michigan’s sideline and enthusiastic cheers from the Golden Grizzlies’ bench. During that span, senior guard Chaundee Brown missed a 3-pointer — one of nine missed threes from the Wake Forest transfer on the day — and the Wolverines committed three turnovers on consecutive possessions. What had been billed as an easy, early-season win for Michigan was quickly turning into anything but. Oakland led by two going into halftime, in large part due to the Wolverines’ 15 first-half turnovers — five more than they had in the entire Bowling Green game. “Oakland (was) active defensively, being active with their hands, playing in passing lanes and getting deflections,” Michigan coach Juwan Howard said afterwards. “I’m not gonna just sit here and say, ‘Hey, we didn’t do well because of’ — We made mistakes on our own. “There were plays where we were catching it in the two blocks or in the paint and putting it down on the floor. That’s something you can’t do when we’re playing against a smaller group with active hands. What they did was they got deflections or got steals.” The Golden Grizzlies’ tallest starter was 6-foot-7 Daniel Oladapo. To compensate for its lack of size, Oakland came out in a 1-3-1 matchup zone, which stumped Michigan’s ball-handlers early on. The Wolverines tried to penetrate the defense — with either passes to the high post or on drives off the dribble — but the Golden Grizzlies flocked to the ball, stripping it or picking off cross- court looks. “We watched film on their zone and from watching film we didn’t see it as that aggressive,” senior wing Isaiah Livers said. “… Everybody makes adjustments and they came out and made adjustments to their zone. We weren’t ready at first and even for part of the second half.” Michigan fared slightly better holding onto the ball in the second half, only turning it over five times. Instead, it was the Wolverines’ inability to make shots on the perimeter that kept the Golden Grizzlies in the game. Either way, Oakland’s unconventional scheme was making Michigan uncomfortable offensively. Without Zavier Simpson leading the offense, point guard responsibilities fall on graduate student Mike Smith and senior guard Eli Brooks. After combining for just two turnovers in the season opener, the duo accounted for eight on Sunday night. Whether their performances were indicative of Smith and Brooks settling into a new offense and a new role respectively or it was an aberration, the Wolverines need a steady hand at that position. Thanks to a dominant display in overtime, Michigan overcame its turnover problems and narrowly avoided a catastrophic loss. Early in the season though, a win is a win. “1,000 percent just the zone, outlier,” Livers said. “We actually, all preseason, we take care of the ball. We get after each other in practice. Our scout team does a great job of getting into us as well. When we’re scrimmaging, we don’t allow easy catches, we make it tough for the guy handling the ball as well so I think it was just a good learning curve. “Everybody was watching that game and say ‘Oh, they can’t play great against a 1-3-1 matchup zone or anything like that.’ I’m glad it happened now. Chaundee made a comment, ‘Rather now than the Final Four or Sweet 16,’ so that’s what I’m happy about and we can learn from it.” CONNOR BRENNAN Daily Sports Writer With five players leaving for World Juniors, Wolverines need depth players to step up BRENDAN ROOSE Daily Sports Editor MADELINE HINKLEY/Daily Michigan coach Mel Pearson allowed five of his top players to join the US World Juniors team. ‘Disability is not inability’: Michigan’s Adaptive Sports and Fitness Program strives to assert itself Cathryn Gray isn’t used to being around people like her. She’s a 4.0 student, an internationally decorated athlete, the first female member of Michigan’s Adaptive Sports and Fitness Program — and she has Cerebral Palsy. Cerebral Palsy is a mobility disorder caused by abnormal brain development or damage to the developing brain. Often, it imparts a very distinct gait. So when Gray saw Maddy Gustafson walking through her residence hall on move-in day, she immediately knew that she had found someone like her. “I knew right away that she probably had CP (Cerebral Palsy) too,” Gray said. Trying not to be too intrusive, Gray introduced herself to Gustafson and confirmed their similarities. In the course of their conversation, Gray revealed to Gustafson that she was at Michigan on an Adaptive Track and Field scholarship. Gustafson had no idea these sorts of opportunities existed at Michigan. The absence of attention to disability paid by her hometown community had meant that for Gustafson, the expectation that she could participate in sports had evaporated. Despite her love of running, Gustafson had last been able to be as active as she’d hoped to be during her middle school years. Eagerly, Gustafson accepted Gray’s invitation to accompany her to the next adaptive Track and Field practice. Fast forward four months, Gustafson and Gray are best friends and teammates, looking forward to competing alongside one another for the first time once it’s safe. “I know from my own experience how isolating CP can be,” Gray said. “Being a woman with a disability, it can be really hard to find other people like you. I don’t think anyone would turn down the opportunity to be a part of a community. It changed my life, so I’m going to take any opportunity I can to help the program grow.” Sadly, Gustafson’s example is a common one. Most communities are woefully far from recognizing adaptive sports as a necessary facet of the sporting experience. In place of making the necessary accommodations so that individuals with disability can participate in sports alongside those with able bodies, many schools instead elect to offer individuals with disability special positions like team manager, or token gestures like two minutes of playing time during the last game of the season. This lackluster effort at inclusivity is exactly what the University of Michigan’s Adaptive Sports and Fitness program aims to address. During a time in which public health measures necessarily disincentivize neighborliness, Gray’s efforts to befriend and include Gustafson embody the vision of the program according to its founder and director, Dr. Oluwaferanmi Okanlami, affectionately known around campus as “Dr. O.” “We have to create equal access to physical and emotional health and wellness for students with disabilities,” Okanlami said. “As a physician, recognizing the importance of physical fitness for everyone, let alone those with disabilities, is something that we’re trying to close the disparity gap on and make sure that marginalized, underrepresented minority groups like individuals with disabilities have access to physical fitness and therefore a more healthy life.” When individuals with physical disabilities aren’t physically active, their muscles often begin to atrophy, or degenerate. As a result, it becomes increasingly difficult to move around. Thus, as both Okanlami and Gray underscore, ready access to adaptive sports for individuals with disabilities is crucial. Importantly, however, Okanlami stresses that this access should take shape in the form of a program which both individuals with and without disabilities can participate in. “This is diversity, equity and inclusion,” Okanlami said. “If we have a way that we can create the parameters to allow everyone to participate while not limiting the opportunities for the individuals with disabilities, we’re going to do that.” Establishing and growing this program hasn’t come without obstacles, Okanlami explained. “Major hurdle number one is awareness,” Okanlami said. “We’re trying to get people to recognize that disability is not inability – that disability does not make them any less of an athlete and that it does not lessen their desire, drive, or need for physical activity in sport.” Gray echoed Okanlami’s sentiment. “I don’t see a lot of people with disabilities in the media, so sometimes having a disability like CP can be a little bit lonely.” For Okanlami, the Michigan community has a long way to go in order to catch up to other established programs around the nation. “If we want to be the leaders and the best in this arena, we could be,” Okanlami said. “But we have to acknowledge that right now, not only are we not the best, we are not leading, and we are not even in the conversation.” Okanlami laid out how schools like Alabama, which has a $10 million facility dedicated exclusively to adaptive athletics, and Illinois, a widely- recognized powerhouse in wheelchair racing, are “blowing Michigan out of the water.” He stressed that in addition to expanding programs like this one, introducing adaptive sports to younger people is even more important. As such, one of the program’s main objectives is to integrate adaptive sports into the state of Michigan’s K-12 curriculum. “We’re trying to change that misperception, that stigma,” Okanlami said, “and we’re starting that around the elementary school level so that kids don’t see disability as a negative, they just see it as another aspect of the things that make us different.” Okanlami spoke of this process of “mainstreaming” adaptive sports as a sort of Gestalt switch. Wheelchairs, traditionally seen as impediments to sports like basketball or tennis, should instead be seen as necessary equipment for playing wheelchair basketball or wheelchair tennis, just as ice- skates are seen as necessary for playing ice hockey. “This doesn’t mean you have to use a chair in your real life, but when you’re playing (wheelchair basketball), that’s how you play this sport,” Okanlami said. Currently, the Adaptive Sports and Fitness program houses wheelchair tennis, wheelchair basketball, and track and field, and is incorporating para-equestrian activities. In the future, Okanlami would like to see the program expand into other sports, such as golf and wheelchair racing. Gray, among others, seeks to expand the influence of the program in other ways. “What I really want to do is to use competing as a vehicle for positive change,” Gray said. “I want to grow the program and speak about disability issues like my mom did for me growing up. I want to do that for other people.” GRAYSON BUNING For The Daily PHOTO COURTESY OF GRAYSON BUNING The University of Michigan’s Adaptive Sports and Fitness Program strives to be an elite program for athletes with disabilities. ALEC COHEN/Daily Michigan’s turnovers nearly let a win out of its grasp against Oakland.