In the wake of the Michigan
Department of Health and Human
Services’ directive to shut down
all Michigan athletic department
activities late Saturday night due
to detection of the B.1.1.7 COVID-
19 strain, Christian Hubaker began
reaching out to fellow student-
athletes. Hubaker, a senior on the
track and field and cross-country
teams, felt especially aggrieved
by the decision, as it prevents the
Wolverines from competing in
this week’s Big Ten Cross Country
Championships. In turn, that will
leave Michigan athletes ineligible
for NCAA Championships.
The
source
of
Hubaker’s
frustration, though, was a sense
that the MDHHS directive was
poorly aimed.
“It’s foolish to think that the
variant isn’t gonna be around in
two weeks and it’s probably gonna
be a bigger deal,” Hubaker told
The Daily. “Because we’re the only
sector of the community that’s
being shut down right now. And
we’re, in my opinion, the safest
and have the strictest guidelines
of anyone else in the community.
“So if we had it, the community
definitely has it. And we’re
worried, a lot of us are worried …
and we’ve heard this two-week
period thrown around a lot before
and we’re worried that this isn’t
gonna be a two-week thing.”
As soon as Hubaker began
reaching out to athletes from other
programs, he realized he wasn’t
alone. Hubaker said he and Joe
Pace, a sixth-year utility player
on the baseball team, were the
leaders in crafting the statement
and petition that were eventually
posted to social media Monday
afternoon. The letter, though,
was signed off by a “coalition of
student-athletes,” which Hubaker
said
includes
athletes
from
nearly every program on campus,
including the men’s basketball and
football programs.
“We’ve been trying to have
it be a big, collaborative effort
because we really want to have a
unified voice out there between
all athletes,” Hubaker said. As of
late Monday afternoon, that goal
had succeeded, with the petition
receiving over 2,880 signatures in
just six hours. Pace said that over
100 athletes were in a GroupMe to
help collaborate on the petition.
Additionally, Pace said that
athletic director Warde Manuel
and the rest of the administration
“support us voicing our opinion
and standing up for what we
believe in.”
The athletes in charge of
creating the petition stopped
short of involving coaches, who
Hubaker acknowledged are in
a “tricky spot” as the bridge
between athletes and the athletic
department.
Hockey
coach
Mel Pearson said on Monday
that his “initial reaction (to the
shutdown) was a little bit of
shock, a little bit of surprise, a
little bit of disappointment, a
little bit of anger. Our players
have done a great job. We’ve been
negative since early July.”
That’s a sense shared by teams
who have been affected by the
shutdown.
“We heard about the new
strain and they gave us all the
information,” Pace told The
Daily. “And the initial thought
process is, OK, (most teams)
on the campus have no COVID
cases, how does this make any
sense?”
As of Saturday night, there
were no positive tests on the
men’s
basketball,
women’s
basketball
or
hockey
teams.
Hubaker, meanwhile, said that
the
cross-country
program
has had one positive case since
returning to campus in the fall.
The case occurred approximately
two weeks ago and was not the
B.1.1.7 strain. The athlete who
tested positive was quarantined
and no other members of the
team tested positive.
Also as of Saturday night,
there were five known cases and
15 presumed positive cases of
the B.1.1.7. strain in the athletic
department.
Michigan
chief
medical
executive
Joneigh
Khaldun said in a Monday press
conference that there were 13
known cases of the variant in
Washtenaw County.
Because cases of the B.1.1.7
variant have been limited to a
handful of programs, athletes and
coaches alike have struggled to
come to grips with the shutdown
being enacted throughout the
athletic department.
“The
consistency
of
the
mandate to have a quarantine
when we’ve all been testing
daily and the team was testing
negative, people feel like it hasn’t
been a consistent application
when it’s only Michigan athletics
that’s chosen to kind of be in this
position,” volleyball coach Mark
Rosen told The Daily. Currently,
he said, his program does not
have any cases of COVID-19. “So
I think there’s frustration and
disappointment in our coaches
right now.”
Paul Juda, a sophomore on the
men’s gymnastics team, shares
Rosen’s frustration. Juda was
among a group of Wolverines’
gymnasts in Lincoln for a
meet with Nebraska that was
scheduled for Sunday when he
found out about the shutdown.
Due to the requirement that
athletes
enter
a
two-week
quarantine as soon as possible,
he and his teammates had to
abandon plans to return to
Michigan on commercial flights,
instead taking an 11-hour bus
ride back to campus.
“Not something our team
was very happy about knowing
our team is completely COVID
free so that wasn’t fun at all,”
Juda told The Daily, adding that
neither the men’s nor women’s
gymnastics teams have had any
positive COVID-19 tests of any
variant in the past two weeks.
“Given the fact that it is not
only up to 50% more contagious,
and the fact that it’s already here
… I don’t see (the shutdown) not
being extended past two weeks,”
Juda said.
In light of that concern, the
primary goal for the coalition
of student-athletes is now for
the two-week mandate to be
revisited.
“We think that on a team-by-
team basis, if there are teams
that have had no contact with the
variant strand, if there are teams
that have all healthy people
right now, then they should
be allowed to resume athletic
activity immediately,” Hubaker
said. “If that doesn’t happen,
we’re mostly looking to get more
transparency from the health
department to athletes. Because
as these things continue to be
ruled out, these requirements of
us, and as they have been all year,
we haven’t had a good line of
communication with the health
department.”
Ethan Sears and Lane Kizziah
contributed to the reporting of this
story.
The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com
Sports
Wednesday, January 27, 2021 — 19
Michigan defense needs
improvement after first loss
Defense wins championships.
It’s an old adage that the
Michigan women’s basketball
team (10-1 overall, 5-1 Big Ten)
struggled to adhere to in its loss
to Ohio State on Thursday. It was
a game that exposed one of the
Wolverines’ biggest weaknesses
— defense.
This season, Michigan has
prided itself on holding teams
to low scoring, a product of
controlling defense. Typically
switching from man to zone
looks effortless, and scrappy
defenders like fifth-year senior
guard Akienreh Johnson and
sophomore guard Maddie Nolan
make opposing teams’ offense
look sloppy.
But in the Wolverines’ closest
win against Nebraska, winning
by only two points, and their
first loss of the season against
the Buckeyes, defense was the
difference.
As the number one team
in the Big Ten conference in
both offensive and defensive
rebounds,
Michigan
doesn’t
allow
many
second-chance
points. But against Ohio State,
it allowed 14. For reference,
in
their
first
match-up
with Wisconsin (where the
Wolverines beat the Badgers
by 43 points) they allowed only
three second-chance points,
dominating the boards by a
large margin.
Most
of
these
second-
chance points occurred early
in the first half, but kept the
Buckeyes in the game as they
grew a lead they wouldn’t
relinquish. Even in a game
where junior forward Naz
Hillmon
scored
a
school-
record 50 points, Michigan
couldn’t
overcome
their
defensive struggles to win.
“Our defense, I mean first-
half defense, was not our best,”
said Hillmon after the Ohio
State game on Jan. 21. “So there’s
definitely something that we
want to work on. We really try
to pride ourselves on being great
on the defensive in transitioning
into offense, and in the first half,
we didn’t really do that.”
Fast-break points are another
area the Wolverines need to
contain. These points happen in
transition defense, something
Michigan
struggles
with
at
times.
Against
Ohio
State,
the Wolverines allowed nine
fast-break points, and against
Nebraska, they allowed four.
While nine and four may seem
like small numbers, in two games
where the score was within four
points, those nine points made all
the difference.
“They are also a team that …
scores well in transition and I
thought that’s how they got their
run early on was on transition
and off of our turnovers,” said
Michigan coach Kim Barnes
Arico after the Ohio State game.
“We’ve got to get better at the
transition (defense), especially
against them.”
The continued loss of junior
wing Leigha Brown due to
COVID-19 protocol has also
posed its challenges on the
defensive
end.
Brown’s
an
aggressive defender that adds
another layer of depth to the
defensive end. Her lanky frame
closes passing lanes and helps
Hillmon down low with double
teams and rebounding.
As conference play becomes
increasingly
competitive,
the
Wolverines can’t just rely on their
offensive production but will
need a cohesive defense to propel
them to victory.
ABBIE TELGENHOF
Daily Sports Writer
How Michigan’s student-athlete coalition formed in the wake of
athletic department shutdown
‘How does this make any sense?’
THEO MACKIE
Daily Sports Writer
MADELINE HINKLEY/Daily
After a weekend of uncertainty, a group of athletes took to social media on Monday to express their frustration over
the athletic department’s pause.
JULIA SCHACHINGER/Daily
Against Ohio State, Michigan gave up the most points it had all season.
If shutdown derails the season, let’s take a moment to appreciate it
It’s around 10 a.m. on Sunday,
and Katelynn Flaherty is call-
ing. We’d set this up on Saturday
afternoon, before the news of a
department-wide shutdown for
Michigan athletics hit. I wanted to
ask Flaherty, the
leading all-time
scorer for Michi-
gan
basket-
ball (men’s and
women’s), about
this year’s team,
which
looks
like it might do
something spe-
cial.
My
plan
was to talk to her, to get on the
postgame Zoom call after Mich-
igan-Purdue in the afternoon
and to write a column about the
arc of the program’s growth.
Then news got in the way.
The women’s basketball team —
along with every other Michigan
athletic program — is in quaran-
tine until Feb. 7. This quarantine
means no games and no practices,
so it is unlikely that they can return
to play immediately after it ends.
Right now, there are six games
left on the Wolverines’ schedule,
with the status of eight postponed
games unclear. Exactly if or how
those games get made up, or what
it means for the Big Ten standings
if they can’t be played, is unclear (a
Big Ten spokesman didn’t return a
text asking how standings would be
decided if games can’t be made up).
It’s worth noting as well that this
is the best-case scenario. As of Sat-
urday night, there were no COVID-
19 cases in the women’s basketball
program (or men’s basketball or
hockey, for that matter). As per-
tains to everything else regarding
the pandemic, that could change.
The University, and the Michi-
gan Department of Health and
Human Services, aren’t playing
around with the B.1.1.7. variant
of the virus. It’s thought to be up
to 50% more transmissible and,
according to Matt Hancock, the
health secretary in the United
Kingdom, 10-50% more deadly. If
this two-week shutdown doesn’t
halt the spread of the variant,
it’s unclear what happens next.
But even this best-case scenario
is a shame, for the reasons Flaherty
was calling me for in the first place.
The Michigan women’s basketball
team is 10-1, their first loss coming
this week after a record 50-point
performance from junior forward
Naz Hillmon wasn’t enough to get
past Ohio State. They look like a
team that could get to the second
weekend of the NCAA Tournament
— which would make them the best
team in the history of the program.
“I do think that when we are
100%, we can compete with any-
one,” Michigan coach Kim Barnes
Arico said after a win over Wis-
consin took them to 10-0. “I think
our team really believes that.”
“That’s what coach (Barnes)
Arico has talked about when she
was recruiting me initially and
then from the time that I was
there,” Flaherty said. “Just to
see it all happen, it’s incredible.”
To put that into context, when
Flaherty came into the program
as a freshman in 2014, Michigan
had made the NCAA Tournament
four times in program history.
The Wolverines finished eighth in
the Big Ten that year, and they’ve
steadily climbed upwards since.
In Flaherty’s junior year, they won
the WNIT after an unexpected
snub from the selection commit-
tee. “But I think after that, it kind
of was the expectation. ‘OK, make
the NCAA Tournament,’ ” she said.
The next two years, they did.
Before COVID-19 canceled last
year’s tournament, they were
expected to make it again. And
it seemed like — barring another
act of God — they’d be in a posi-
tion to do so again this year.
Problem is, no one accounted
for an act — or to use their phras-
ing, a recommendation — of
the
Michigan
Department
of
Health
and
Human
Services.
“No. Not at all,” Flaherty said
when asked whether she could
imagine being in this situation.
“Just because I’m someone that
wanted to be out there individu-
ally, working out all the time.
That’s something that I did every
single day when I was at Michigan.
“But also the team aspect. Being
able to run, just communicate, talk
about everything, it’s definitely dif-
ferent if everyone has to quarantine.
And then like you said, not being on
the floor, just staying in shape and
having that connection with your
team. That’s really what’s going so
well for Michigan right now, just
how they’re playing together out
there. I think that’s hard and it’s
just hard not doing that for two
weeks and then (coming) back and
(being) expected to go out there
and pick up where you left off.
“I don’t think that’s fair to
put that expectation on these
athletes just because it’s very,
very
different
if
you’re
not
doing anything for two weeks.”
The program declined to
make Barnes Arico and players
available for questions on Sun-
day morning, which is under-
standable given they’re still
processing the news. Suffice it
to say, though, they have every
right to be upset even if they
believe the decision to be cor-
rect. So does every other ath-
lete, coach and administrator
at the University who’s been
trying since October to pull
off games and practices safely.
This might have been the
year the Michigan women’s
basketball program took the
next step. It still could be.
But
the
questions
hanging
over it now are much bigger
than just a couple of days ago.
This team may no longer be
defined by Hillmon setting pro-
gram records, winning the Big
Ten or an NCAA Tournament
run. If that’s the case, it’ll be
hard to swallow. Getting the pro-
gram to this point hasn’t been
easy. Having it ripped away for
reasons beyond the team’s con-
trol would border on tragic.
So, to make sure someone
gives Barnes Arico and the pro-
gram
that
credit,
we’ll
give
the last word here to Flaherty.
“She wanted to build up the
program, she wanted to compete
with the UConn’s, the Kentucky’s,
whoever was at the top at that
time,” Flaherty said. “And she
wanted to pick people to come to
Michigan that believed in that
vision and wanted to be different
than going to those high-caliber
schools. To kind of be the start of
something special, make a name
for yourself. So I think that just
attests to who coach (Barnes)
Arico is, how far the program
has come, but also all of the girls
that have been recruited, every-
one there, just for a bigger mis-
sion. Everyone’s working together.
“So
I
think
that’s
really
important to note. She told me
that however many years ago
and here it is coming to frui-
tion a few short years later.”
Sears can be reached at
searseth@umich.edu or on
Twitter @ethan_sears.
ETHAN
SEARS
MADELINE HINKLEY/Daily
Prior to the athletic department’s two-week shutdown, women’s basketball coach Kim Barnes Arico’s team was
on the verge of a historic season.