14 — Wednesday, February 24, 2021
Sports
The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com
Michigan’s depth proves its value over course of season
Michigan’s Adaptive Sports and Fitness Program: An opportunity
to be a part of history
Michigan searches for consistency as
postseason looms
There is a reason collegiate and
professional basketball leagues give
out a sixth player of the year award
at the end of every season: Depth
matters.
And the Michigan women’s
basketball team has proven it has no
shortage of depth. Rotation players
have combined to score 16% of the
team’s overall points this season.
In moments when the starting five
have required rest or missed games
because of COVID-19 protocols,
the bench has stepped up for the
Wolverines. Michigan’s 13-2 record
is in large parts a product of its depth.
Sophomore guard Maddie Nolan
is arguably the team’s best player off
the bench, even earning her way into
the starting lineup four times, first
being thrust into the lineup when
Michigan coach Kim Barnes Arico
put her in while junior wing Leigha
Brown was absent with COVID-19
complications. One of the team’s best
3-point shooters, Nolan frequently
reignites the Wolverines’ offensive
momentum. In Michigan’s win
over Wisconsin, where she scored
a career-high 21 points, Nolan was
a consistent outside threat that the
team leaned on. In the early moments
of the game, graduate student guard
Akienreh Johnson got tangled up
with some defenders and managed
to find Nolan on the outside. Nolan
fired a shot from behind the arc and
got the team, which had bungled the
last few possessions, back on track.
“She’s big, a strong guard, she
defends exceptionally well, she
rebounds well,” Michigan coach Kim
Barnes Arico said. “She can shoot
the ball and that really (gives) us an
option from the outside.”
Junior guard Danielle Rauch
is another player that has played
considerable time for the Wolverines,
averaging 15.2 minutes per game and
starting twice when Brown was out.
Rauch’s impact can’t be quantified by
a mere box score.
Rauch has only scored 21 points
in the 200 minutes she’s played
for Michigan, but her role isn’t
necessarily to come off the bench
and score basket after basket. Usually
subbing in for junior guard Amy Dilk,
Rauch becomes a de facto manager
of the offense, spreading the ball
around to players for open shots.
Rauch has 19 assists on the season,
the fifth-most on the team even
besting some of the starters who’ve
gotten much more time on the court.
“I’d give Danielle Rauch a lot of
credit. She’s really grown into her
role outside and on the court,” Dilk
said when asked about leadership
within the team. “All of us, with
everything going on, have really had
to step up and have a leadership role.”
Junior forward Emily Kiser
missed the first five games of the
season due to an ankle injury, but
she’s emerged as a consistently
solid defender since her return.
Specifically, Kiser has demonstrated
her ability to play strong defense in
the post with senior forward Hailey
Brown and junior forward Naz
Hillmon.
Sophomore guard Michelle Sidor
is another rotation player that hasn’t
seen a lot of playing time but has
been efficient with the minutes she
gets. Appearing in 10 games off of the
bench, Sidor is most effective from
behind the arc, shooting 34.8% from
deep so far this season. She knocked
down three triples against Oakland
and tied her career-high 16 points
against Butler, a performance fueled
by 4-for-8 shooting behind the arc.
The four-player freshman class
has also shown flashes of talent for
the Wolverines, revealing a bright
future where Michigan has roster
depth in the long term.
Depth matters, and Michigan is
lucky to have such consistent players
to back up its starters.
In an unorthodox season, you
never know when a player will have
to take up the mantle of the team’s
mantra: “Next man up.”
Come March, it might make all
the difference.
When Chris Kelley arrived in New York for
a wheelchair tennis tournament, continuing
his athletic career at Michigan was already on
his radar.
As the 2019 United States Tennis
Association champion with a No. 2 ranking in
the Men’s A division, Kelley was highly sought
after and Dr. Feranmi Okanlami, the Director
of Michigan’s Adaptive Sports and Fitness
program, had made it clear that he wanted
Kelley as a Wolverine.
About to return home, Kelley crossed
paths with “the tipping point” — Okanlami
was coincidentally at the same New York
airport as him at the same time.
“It felt like I was supposed to be here (at
Michigan),” Kelley said.
While Okanlami may not be able to
stumble upon every prospective athlete
across the nation, Michigan must find a way
to separate itself from colleges like Alabama,
which has a multi-million dollar facility
dedicated to adaptive sports, or Illinois and its
rich adaptive sports history.
Still in the early stages, it’s no secret that
the Wolverines are playing catch up. But
Michigan has all the makings of becoming a
recruiting powerhouse in the Midwest.
“There is no program that exists in
Michigan and the surrounding area,”
Erik Robeznieks, the Project Manager of
Michigan’s Adaptive Sports and Fitness
program, said. “The closest program to us
in the collegiate space is the University of
Illinois.”
Kelley, a Michigan native, chose not to
play adaptive sports as an undergrad because
there simply wasn’t an in-state option.
Now, there is. As a result, Michigan can tap
into the in-state recruiting pool, as well as the
remainder of the Midwest athletes looking
for a program closer to home — a clear path
to bolstering a program on the rise. With that
said, it is far more than the most convenient
option.
“The academics (were) another thing that
drew me to Michigan,” Kelley said. “When
you’re looking at athletics, whether you’re
on the adaptive or able-bodied side, we all
know that eventually, we’re not going to be
playing sports. Our bodies will get to a point
where competitive play just isn’t in the cards
anymore. When I started thinking about my
future, the opportunities that the University
has for me to further my education were more
appealing to me.”
A blossoming relationship with Michigan
Medicine offers Adaptive Sports a critical
resource when it comes to sports medicine
and prioritizing the health of its student-
athletes.
“Having somebody who understands
disabilities and the needs of the wheelchair
population on a team overall is pretty
important,” Kelley said. “Johan Latorre is one
of the coaches that helps out, and he’s also a
doctor.”
But physical health is not the only factor
contributing to an athlete’s ability to perform
at the highest level. A robust support team
fortified by university resources assists
student-athletes with all aspects of life.
“The fact that there is an integrated
support team between academic support
services, program staff, the coach, their peer
student-athletes,” Robeznieks said. “We have
all those different resources and connections
within the University in place to support the
all-around student-athlete.”
Yet programs like Michigan Medicine,
MDisability and Services for Students with
Disabilities are just the tip of the iceberg. A
partnership with the Ann Arbor Center for
Independent Living has provided a space that
Adaptive Sports can call its own.
“Our
athletes
need
strength
and
conditioning,” Robeznieks said. “They need
fitness beyond their sport. We’ve painted
the walls maize and blue. We put in rubber
flooring to actually make a better tactile
environment for people in day-chairs.”
Adaptive Sports has also partnered with
the Varsity Tennis Center and the U-M
Indoor Track Building, providing frequent
access to high-level facilities. But “frequent” is
not enough. Equitable access to the resources
Michigan offers able-bodied student-athletes
is the program’s ticket to appealing to the best
adaptive student-athletes around the country.
“We’re not asking for a 10-million dollar
facility for ourselves,” Robeznieks said. “We’re
just looking for that same level of access.”
As the program continues its efforts for
equitable resources, notoriety remains an
equally important area for improvement. A
multitude of facilities are only worthwhile
if prospective student-athletes are aware of
them. Largely dependent on word of mouth as
of now, Adaptive Sports has centered its focus
on carving out its own recruiting pipeline by
linking itself to the greater adaptive sports
community.
“A great end for us was establishing
connections with the people who are now
affiliated with the Midwest Adaptive Sports
Committee,” Robzenieks said. “We are now
in with a system of people and organizations
that operate within adaptive sports at the
junior level in Illinois, Wisconsin, Indiana,
Michigan and Ohio.”
Mary Free Bed Rehabilitation Hospital,
the Turnstone Center for Children &
Adult with Disabilities and the Great
Lakes Adaptive Sports Association have
generated a recruiting pool brimming with
talented athletes looking for post-secondary
education.
On the flip side of things, universities
across the country need help from the NCAA
to make information about prospective
adaptive student-athletes more readily
available.
“In
able-bodied
tennis,
there’s
the
Universal Tennis Ranking,” Kelley said. “You
get star-rankings so you might be a one-star
recruit or a two-star recruit or a three-star
recruit. And in wheelchair tennis, we don’t
have something like that right now.”
With
the
minimal
recruiting
infrastructure in place for adaptive sports,
there needs to be a massive implementation of
tools and platforms to help coaches and scouts
evaluate the best athletes around the country.
When there are elite players like Kelley,
decorated with accolades and looking to take
their athletic career to the next level, the
entirety of the adaptive sports realm needs to
know about it.
As the logistics of adaptive sports continue
to be fluid at both the university and national
level, one thing remains constant: Michigan’s
program offers the opportunity to be a part of
history.
“It takes a very different kind of athlete to
come to a new program because there is a bit
of unknown rather than the tried and true
history of some of these more established
programs,” Robeznieks said. “But some of
the feedback we’ve gotten from the athletes
so far is that they feel a lot of value being part
of the University of Michigan Adaptive Sports
program because day after day we’re forging
history.
“We’re building a program from scratch
and they get to be there from day one.”
A lack of focus. No energy. Not
being mentally prepared.
These were the factors that
contributed to the Michigan hockey
team’s upset loss Friday night
against Ohio State. Fortunately for
the Wolverines, they were able to
bounce back the next day with a 6-0
throttling of the Buckeyes.
Come tournament time, though,
Michigan won’t be afforded the
luxury of a second chance.
“We’re gonna get into a situation,
a big game where it’s just a one-off,”
Michigan coach Mel Pearson said.
“You don’t get a second opportunity.
That’s your season, and how would
you like to feel after you play like that
and you’re done?”
Since the Wolverines returned
from
their
COVID-19
induced
shutdown, they’ve split both their
series. One game, they’ll look like
an unstoppable force that can score
at will. The next, they’ll be caught
completely flat-footed and unable to
make up an early deficit.
“I asked our team what’s the
difference from one night to the
next,” Pearson said. “For some its
mental preparation. You have to work
through that. You have to find a way
to persevere and work through that.”
Being plagued by inconsistent play
is an issue many teams deal with,
mainly in the early stages of a season.
It’s not something Michigan wants to
be working through now — especially
with the Big Ten Tournament
looming just over three weeks away.
It
appeared
the
Wolverines
were hitting their stride prior to the
shutdown. Following the long layoff
for winter break, Michigan won five of
its first six games and was building its
rapport as a national title contender.
As the Wolverines work back from
the pause, the team is desperately
trying to get its conditioning back to
the level it needs to be.
“(That
two-week
shutdown)
happened at the most inopportune
time,” Pearson said. “That’s our big
challenge, is how much do we need
physically. But at the same time, we’ve
got to back off so mentally so they can
recharge and refresh.”
It’s no mystery how good this
team can be. Michigan has been
ranked in the top-10 all season,
and even after their loss to an
Ohio State team with just six wins,
it stayed planted at No. 7. The
perception is that this team will
be fighting it out with the nation’s
elite come late March. And
yet, the Wolverines aren’t even
dominating their own conference.
They are currently tied for third
place in the standings, 11 points
behind Wisconsin and 15 behind
Minnesota. They’ll have to go
through both to win the Big Ten
Tournament, and they’ll have to
come into each game mentally
and physically prepared — with no
wiggle room for off days.
“Maybe these guys are just waiting
to turn it on or turn it off,” Pearson
said. “I still think we’re probably
another week, week and a half away
from being where we need to be.”
Not every game is going to be an
offensive shootout. In between, there
will be slow-paced, war-of-attrition
type battles. In single-elimination
tournaments, the Wolverines can’t
afford to quit if the game’s style of
play doesn’t align with theirs.
Michigan needs to approach these
upcoming games with a consistent
effort, and finding that consistency
starts in practice. Pearson expressed
his frustration with his players’ latest
work ethic:
“When I put them on the goal line
and they skate down to the far end
and touch the boards and come back
as fast as they can; they go pretty fast.
And then you say, ‘Okay, why don’t I
put five million dollars down at the
end of the rink and you got to go down
there and there’s another five million
when you come back.’ Are you gonna
skate faster? They usually say every
time, ‘Oh, absolutely.’ ”
“Well, why? Why can’t you do it all
the time? Why can’t you play all out all
the time?”
So can Michigan flip the switch?
That’s the five million dollar question.
JOSH TAUBMAN
Daily Sports Writer
MAX WADLEY
Daily Sports Writer
ALEX WALKON
Daily Sports Writer
MADDIE FOX/Daily
With the post-season in sight, depth could be Michigan’s secret weapon.
MILES MACKLIN/Daily
After splitting the two series, concerns over consistancy still plague ‘M.’
Courtesy of Grayson Buning
Michigan is building its Adaptive Sports programs to compete with top schools like Illinois
and Alabama for recruits and recognition