On
Dec.
23,
third-ranked
Villanova dominated Big East
foe, Marquette, to move to 8-1 on
the season. Four days later, the
Wildcats announced that coach Jay
Wright and another staff member
had tested positive for COVID-19.
Despite pausing practice and
all basketball activities in the
wake of the news, issues persisted
within the program over the
next two weeks. Villanova was
forced to postpone four games —
without makeup dates set. Every
time it seemed like the Wildcats
could come back, another positive
case sent them back to square
one. Villanova finally returned
to action on Jan. 19, narrowly
escaping against Seton Hall,
76-74 — 27 days after beating
the Golden Eagles. Whatever
momentum the Wildcats had
built at the start of the season had
seemingly dissipated.
“We got lucky against Seton
Hall,” Wright said. “... We
weren’t in rhythm.”
Faced with a lengthy layoff
of its own, the No. 7 Michigan
men’s basketball team hopes to
avoid a similar dropoff when —
and if — it resumes play. Despite
not having any positive tests
of their own, the Wolverines
are currently in the midst
of a 14-day shut down after
the novel B.1.1.7 strain was
detected
within
Michigan’s
athletic department.
Regardless of whether the
Wolverines’ stoppage is slightly
misplaced, the interruption is
just another example of how
the pandemic has disrupted
college
basketball’s
regular
season.
“I get our report every
morning on our drug tests,”
Wright
told
reporters
on
Wednesday.
“(Director
of
Program
Administration
Arleshia
Davidson)
usually
texts me ‘All negative’ with all
smiley faces and I send back
prayer signs.
“But
if
she
calls
me,
I’m telling you my heart’s
pounding.”
Colorado coach Tad Boyle
summed it up well earlier this
year: “You live day by day,
sometimes hour by hour.”
Villanova
and
the
Wolverines have not been the
only ranked programs with
multi-week interruptions. In
early December, the Buffaloes
paused basketball operations
after starting the season 2-0.
Clemson, which was 9-1 and
ranked in the top-25 at the
time, had to postpone games
against
North
Carolina
and
Syracuse due to cases within the
Tigers’ program.
“It’s frustrating a little bit,
certainly,”
Clemson
coach
Brad Brownell said at the time.
“More
disappointing.
…
We
were coming off a great win,
and we were just excited to go
to Chapel Hill and play North
Carolina. Our kids were really
disappointed on Friday when we
took them off the court and said,
‘Hey, we can’t go.’
“Guys are playing well and
they want to play. When you
have rhythm and you’re in a good
space, that’s when you want to
keep playing. If things aren’t
going well, maybe a pause can
be good for you. So, this will be
a test for us.”
The Tigers lost their first
three games upon returning
to the court by a combined 72
points.
So far, the way teams have
responded to prolonged breaks
has proven to be a mixed bag.
From the very start though,
many
coaches,
like
Wright
and Michigan coach Juwan
Howard, have emphasized the
importance of player safety.
Now more than ever, how
players fare off the court takes
precedence over how they fare
on it. That’s just the reality
of playing basketball during a
pandemic.
“For us, this year, titles and
things like that aren’t really
going to carry much weight,”
Wright said. “We want these
guys to stay mentally healthy,
physically
healthy
and
get
through as many games as they
can. … Everybody’s just trying to
do their best.”
Barring another stoppage, the
Wolverines can return to the
court on Feb. 7. In the meantime,
Howard will hope his red-hot
team can come out unscathed
and undeterred on the other end.
At the very least, he can look
around the country and realize
he’s not alone.
“So much of it comes down
to what the doctors let them do
during quarantine and where
your team is,” Wright said. “...
Usually it’s all about the team,
but this year it’s about each guy
individually and where they are.
“I’m sure Juwan knows his
guys and is going to do a great
job.”
The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com
Sports
Wednesday, February 3, 2021 — 19
The Michigan baseball team
still faces several unknowns,
like when its season will start
and how many games it will
play, but its coaching staff is
now locked in.
Two coaching jobs became
open when former pitching coach
Chris Fetter took a pitching coach
position with the Detroit Tigers
and former volunteer assistant
Ako Thomas took a coaching
job with the Red Sox Double-A
affiliate. Michigan coach Erik
Bakich officially filled them last
Friday, when the team announced
that Steve Merriman, who was
the pitching coach at Michigan in
2002 and 2012, will take over as
pitching coach and Brandon Inge
as volunteer assistant. Both have
decades of baseball experience as
well as expertise in the use and
application of technology and
data in coaching.
As part of a diligent search
process that included a month
and a half of research, Bakich
called Merriman for his advice
on who would be a good
fit to succeed Fetter. Given
Merriman’s
position,
Bakich
assumed a return to Ann Arbor
was unlikely.
At the time, Merriman — “a
leading voice in modern training
methodologies and data-enhanced
coaching,” according to mlb.com’s
Thomas Harding — was the minor
league pitching co-coordinator
of the Colorado Rockies, and
Bakich thought he was on the
“fast track” to a coaching position
at the mothership. He already
had
experience
coaching
at
the major league level: in early
2020, Merriman helped create
and operate a pitching lab at
the
Rockies’
spring
training
facility, where he used Rapsodo
technologies to analyze Rockies’
starters.
“So when he said that he
would have interest, I was so
excited, because he was one
of those no-brainer type of
candidates,” Bakich said.
Merriman was among the
three final candidates, each of
whom met with players in Zoom
meetings.
“He had a little bit of a
unique approach,” Bakich said.
“Instead of putting together
some type of PowerPoint with
a bunch of information, he
just took a few minutes in the
beginning of the call with each
guy to get to know them and
ask them questions. A really
personal touch, and they really
appreciated that.
“Starting about 12 minutes
in, I got the first text that this
is our guy. And by the end of
the Zoom call, all of them were
just thrilled at the opportunity
to potentially work with coach
Merriman.”
In addition to his skills
in
cutting-edge
coaching
techniques, Merriman has other
qualities that Bakich wants in
his pitching coach. Merriman
is renowned for his skills as a
communicator, for example.
“If I have questions, he can
relay the information in a way I
understand it,” Rockies’ starter
Jon Gray said in an interview
with mlb.com.
Merriman will play a vital
in-game role, too, creating game
plans and calling pitches. Bakich
said
Merriman’s
experience
as a pitching coach and scout
will help him attack opposing
hitters’ weaknesses and develop
his pitchers’ strengths.
***
To stay at the game’s highest
level for 13 years, Brandon Inge
had to do “all the little things,”
Bakich said.
He was a super-utility player,
a Swiss Army knife who played
every position besides pitcher
(although he threw gas as a
closer in college). He was equally
versatile on offense, hitting for
average (0.287 in 2004), power
(27 homers in 2006 and 2009)
and stealing bases (nine in
2007).
Bakich got to know Inge
when the two worked together
to
chair
the
ChadTough
Foundation Gala last May.
“I was super impressed in
these
planning
committees
for the event of what a good
dude he is,” Bakich said. “He’s
so generous with his time in
serving the community that he’s
a part of.”
The financial security from a
long and lucrative career made
Inge an even more attractive
candidate for the largely unpaid
position, especially given that
the COVID-19 pandemic would
make finding a second job for
a
volunteer
assistant
more
difficult. But Bakich said that
even without a pandemic, Inge
would be his first choice for the
opening.
“Maybe the best thing about
him is that he’s one of those
old school throwback, tough,
competitive, gritty types of
guys, a ‘put your nose in the dirt
and get it done’ kind of guy,”
Bakich (who’s considered to be
one of those types as well) said.
“You can tell if you were one of
his teammates, you’d love being
on his team. And if you weren’t,
you probably didn’t like playing
against him.”
Inge may be an old-school guy,
but he’s embraced new-school
coaching methods. Like the rest
of the Michigan coaching staff,
he holds a certification from the
Titleist Performance Institute.
He’s especially knowledgeable
about the physiology of hitting.
He’ll mainly work with the
catchers but will also assist
assistant
head
coach
Nick
Schnabel in coaching the hitters.
“He can throw BP all day
long,” Bakich said. “And the
information he has regarding
hitting is extremely valuable,
being a guy who’s reinvented
his swing and has a lot of
great ideas on what type of
approaches to certain pitchers
will help.”
Both coaches have made large
contributions in their first few
weeks on the job.
“(Merriman)
is
seeing
efficient movement patterns in
guys, and some limitations that
they may have physically, and
creating corrections to make
their delivery or certain pitches
just a little bit better,” Bakich
said.
And
Inge
noticed
some
pitchers
accidentally
tipping
their pitches during a scrimmage
before the athletic department’s
two-week shutdown.
“I’m just glad both those guys
are on our team,” Bakich said.
ALEC COHEN/Daily
Michigan will struggle with its conditioning at the upcoming Big Ten meet because of the lack of training time.
JACK WHITTEN
Daily Sports Writer
ALLISON ENGKVIST/Daily
Michigan coach Juwan Howard isn’t alone facing an extended break.
‘M’ hires Inge and Merriman
to fill assistant spots
ALEC COHEN/Daily
Michigan coach Erik Bakich hired Brandon Inge and Steve Merriman to join the team as assistants.
CONNOR BRENNAN
Daily Sports Editor
How coaches around the country dealt with their own COVID-19 outbreaks
A
deconditioning
cycle
like the Michigan swim and
dive teams’ will experience
during
the
University’s
14-day
freeze
on
athletics
could set the Wolverines back
significantly after weeks of
heavy training. For the seniors
who already lost an NCAA
Championship appearance last
year, that deconditioning could
jeopardize their last shot.
The suspension of athletics
means the Wolverines will be
limited to exercises they can
conduct under quarantine.
No gyms. No weight rooms.
No pools.
That shift in conditioning
poses a huge problem as both
Michigan
squads
look
to
complete their seasons. With
dual meets against Ohio State
postponed and the Big Ten
Championship
looming
on
the horizon, the pause puts
a premium on Michigan’s
remaining time.
“At
this
point,
every
training session counts, and
any more lost time will lead to
more losses in fitness and thus
more losses in performance,”
Dr. Adam Lepley, a School
of
Kinesiology
assistant
professor, told The Daily in
an email. “That is also not
to
mention
any
potential
injuries suffered due to an
accelerated
timeline
and
training
schedule,
which
could set individuals back
further.”
Lepley
explained
that
cardiovascular fitness levels
can decline in just a few
days, let alone a 14-day span.
However, the fitness level
of the athletes before the
pause could be their saving
grace from cardiovascular
deconditioning,
which
affects
everything
from
oxygen usage to the amount
of blood pumped by one
contraction.
Once the pause is over, the
No. 5 women’s swim and dive
team and the divers of the No.
9 men’s squad will have less
than 17 days to prepare before
they travel to their respective
conference
championship
locations on Feb. 24. With a
few more days to prepare, the
men’s swimmers will race to
defend a Big Ten title they
earned last season on Mar. 3.
It could prove difficult
for the teams to get back
into
optimal
shape
even
if
everything
goes
well.
This assumes that the team
will work taper time into
its
schedule
to
improve
its chances at the Big Ten
Championship, a three-horse
race
between
Michigan,
Indiana and Ohio State.
The postponed double date
with the Buckeyes’ swim and
dive teams could find itself
played out somewhere in that
17-day span, too. While there
have been no announcements
of cancellation, the Wolverines
might have trouble fitting that
into their possibly chaotic
return to practice.
If those dual meets are
canceled,
Michigan
could
miss out on a key scouting op
before everything’s on the
line.
If the Wolverines’ backs
weren’t already against the
wall with the density of their
schedule, the teams could
find
their
reconditioning
time slashed even further
should the University extend
the pause.
The Wolverines’ cycles of
heavy training before the
quarantine could lessen their
likely losses coming out of the
freeze, easing the physical
challenges and allowing the
team to recover its progress.
But
training
hurdles
aren’t the only barriers the
Wolverines will need to jump.
After months of dedicated
work, the Wolverines will
have ample time to ponder
their situation before the
championship marathon.
“Mentally, it’s way more
difficult,”
men’s
swim
alumnus Felix Auböck said.
“(A 14-day pause) has never
been done before the biggest
meet.”
The constant testing of
Michigan’s
perseverance
could prove helpful down
the
stretch
as
younger
Wolverines near their final
meets.
“(The pause) is one of the
biggest challenges they will
face in their college career,”
Auböck said. “They will come
out of it stronger.”
But for those whose college
careers end with this season,
the championship sequence
could serve as a farewell tour.
Seniors
whose
NCAA
Championship
hopes
were
dashed with the cancellation
of the NCAA meet last March
now find their final chances
threatened by the effects of
the pause, including Ross
Todd,
Gus
Borges,
Daria
Pyshnenko and Will Roberts.
Pyshnenko, a 10-time All-
American,
won
multiple
events
for
the
women’s
team already this season.
Her times, though, have not
broken the plane to enter
the
NCAA
Championship,
dictated by making the “A”
or “B” cut times to get a
spot in each race because
the
training
regimen
for
swimming was built towards
getting faster as the season
progresses.
The
Big
Ten
Championship could be her
only opportunity to qualify,
adding extra meaning to her
performance coming out of
quarantine.
On the diving side, Todd
has already met the NCAA
standards
in
the
1
and
3-meter
dives.
However,
the two-week gap could add
difficulty to repeating his Big
Ten Championship success of
last season, a meet in which
he earned Co-Diver of the
Championships honors.
Not everyone is pessimistic,
however. The break could
only add coal to the fire that
has fueled the Wolverines all
season.
“(Borges
and
Todd)
will be fine,” Auböck said.
“They are so experienced
and
world-class
athletes.
Especially Ross in diving
is a perfectionist. It should
not be a problem for them to
qualify.”
CONNOR EAREGOOD
Daily Sports Writer
Deconditioning looms over
Wolverine swimmers’ NCAA hopes