The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com
Wednesday, November 16, 2022 — 11
Noah Kingsley: With eight-minute
brawl, Michigan and Notre Dame take
away from the rivalry
SOUTH BEND
— With the Wol-
verines up four
goals with eight
minutes to play,
the No. 3 Michi-
gan hockey team’s
game against No.
18 Notre Dame on
Friday
probably
should have ended
quietly.
For 52 minutes, the Wolverines
dominated the Fighting Irish, con-
trolling tempo and time of posses-
sion.
But in those last eight minutes,
that dominant play faded into the
past. Fight after fight after fight
broke out, as the game devolved
into nothing short of a brawl.
“I think they were frustrated
because we took it to them most of
the game,” Michigan coach Bran-
don Naurato said. “… I don’t blame
them for being down and being
frustrated, and doing what they
did.”
Naurato isn’t wrong; the Irish
were frustrated for obvious rea-
sons. Tensions run hot in rivalry
games. Each hit adds a little more
fuel to the fire, and soon those ten-
sions boil over. Plays where players
would have been previously con-
tent to just exchange words end
up in full-on fights — it’s part of
hockey.
But the way that Friday’s clash
devolved, it felt like more than typi-
cal in-game feuds. After eight min-
utes of constant fighting, including
13 penalties and three misconducts
in that stretch alone, it becomes
more than that. While both teams
will try to leave tonight in the past,
those eight minutes won’t brush off
as easily as other games will.
Well before that treacherous
final stretch, the heated back-and-
forth of a rivalry game was already
underway. With two minutes left in
the first period, Notre Dame defen-
seman Jake Boltmann slammed
sophomore forward Mackie Samo-
skevich into the boards, earning
himself a game misconduct and a
five-minute major for hitting from
behind. The Irish successfully
challenged another hit on the play,
sending freshman forward Adam
Fantilli to the box with a five-min-
ute major of his own for contact to
the head.
In a vacuum, those hits and the
resulting majors might not have
had a lasting impact. Similarly,
none of the individual fights of the
last eight minutes would have left
much of a mark in a vacuum.
When
sophomore
forward
Dylan Duke took a shot after the
whistle, of course Notre Dame
defenseman Ryan Helliwell would
stand up for his goalie. When
senior forward Nolan Moyle ran
into goaltender Ryan Bischel, of
course forward Trevor Janicke
would protect him. And when
something similar happened on
the other end, of course sophomore
forward Mark Estapa was there to
protect junior goaltender Erik Por-
tillo.
But therein lies the crux of the
matter: it wasn’t in a vacuum. As
one fight devolved into eight
minutes of a brawl, it grew into
something more.
Yes, fights are going to happen
in hockey, but rarely in a manner
like this.
When it does happen like this,
it’s no longer a one-game thing.
“They’re gonna come out 10
times harder (tomorrow),” soph-
omore forward Mackie Samo-
skevich said.
Saturday, the Irish won’t sim-
ply forget the frustration they
had the night before. But that
hatred between the two teams
that prevailed in the final eight
minutes will almost certainly
carry beyond tomorrow, to when
the two meet again in Ann Arbor
and potentially beyond.
There’s no love lost between
the Wolverines and Notre Dame;
there never has been. But with a
game like this, with a mess like
what culminated Friday, that
changes the composition of the
rivalry for the rest of the season.
Maybe it’s for the better;
maybe both teams come out fired
up, and it elevates the game. But
more likely, continued fighting
leads to distractions from the
game at hand.
Because for 52 minutes, Mich-
igan displayed a commanding
performance against one of its
biggest rivals. Yes, tensions ran
hot, but for the most part, those
tensions held to the time before
the whistle.
Sports
MEN’S ICE HOCKEY
SportsMonday: Go ahead and enjoy Emoni Bates
JARED GREENSPAN
Managing Sports Editor
Three years ago, my friends and
I packed ourselves into a car and
drove the 15 minute drive to Ypsi-
lanti to catch basketball’s next big
thing: Emoni Bates.
At 15, Bates graced the cover of
Sports Illustrated with the head-
line, “Magic, Michael, LeBron…
and the 15-year-old who’s next in
line.” Many considered him the
best high school prospect of the
decade. Inevitably, talk of his prow-
ess swirled in Ann Arbor, so we
wanted to see it for ourselves.
And on that blustery January
evening, Bates’s stardom was in
full bloom. He dropped 27 points,
leading Ypsilanti Lincoln to a win
and surpassing 1,000 career points
in just his 35th high school game, a
meteoric pace. He was as good as
advertised.
We left that night enchanted
by the prospects of Bates reviv-
ing one of our dormant NBA fran-
chises — the Knicks, the Pistons
or the Thunder. Yes, he was only a
sophomore in high school. But with
Bates, everything and anything
seemed possible, no matter how far
down the road.
But after Bates endured end-
less on-court struggles during his
time at Memphis, recently I began
to wonder if that sensation still
existed. So on Friday, I traveled to
Detroit to cover Michigan’s contest
with Eastern Michigan. That way, I
could watch Bates from a courtside
vantage point again. I assumed that
the talent remained, but I wanted
to see if Bates would be as captivat-
ing as he was three years ago, even
though the mythos surrounding
him has largely dissipated.
Turns out, that pure brilliance is
very much still present.
“They had a game plan, and he
had 30,” Eastern Michigan coach
Stan Heath said, smirking.
Friday’s game evolved into
theater, with Bates the main act.
He reveled in the swelling crowd
inside Little Caesars Arena, which
swayed for every one of his deathly
crossovers and silky shots.
Bates
christened
the
game
with a contested 2-pointer, an apt
beginning for the brilliance that
followed. He elevated for a nasty
one-legged fade away after put-
ting redshirt freshman wing Isaiah
Barnes on skates. Moments later,
he soared through the lane for a
vicious putback dunk over fresh-
man center Tarris Reed, hurling
expletives toward Reed and draw-
ing a technical foul. Late in the first
half, he canned a step-back 3-point-
er before motioning to the crowd,
shouting at courtside fans and glar-
ing at the Wolverines on the floor.
Bates was in his element.
Regardless of the neutral site atmo-
sphere, Bates had won over the
crowd.
Bates didn’t slow down in the
second half, either. He rocked
the rim with a thunderous base-
line dunk, shimmying on junior
forward Terrance Williams II
after the play. He hit Barnes with
another ankle-snatching crossover,
knocking down a mid-range jump
shot.
Between the electric crowd and
the back-and-forth battle, it felt
more like an NCAA Tournament
contest than an early November
tuneup. This was college basketball
at its finest, largely thanks to Bates.
Bates — an enigmatic, electrify-
ing former consensus top prospect
— went blow-for-blow with Hunter
Dickinson, Michigan’s All-Ameri-
can junior center. The arena clung
to every one of his shots, gasping in
anticipation when the ball left his
hands and exploding once the ball
snapped nylon. Bates screamed;
they screamed back.
It was a poignant reminder of
what Bates brings to the sport, and
also what we’ve missed over the
past few years amid Bates’s trou-
bling decline.
Bates’s winding route to East-
ern Michigan is well-documented;
his fall from stardom exhausted.
He committed to Memphis as the
crown jewel to Penny Hardaway’s
ballyhooed recruiting class, reclas-
sifying to arrive a year prematurely.
But Bates’s presumed-generational
talent didn’t translate and, in Feb-
ruary, he took an extended absence
from the team due to a back injury.
Without Bates, Memphis found its
groove, and that was telling
So that’s how Bates wound up
here, at Eastern Michigan, his
hometown school but also a peren-
nial bottom dweller in the MAC.
He entered the transfer portal this
offseason, though few high-major
programs
expressed
legitimate
interest. The trajectory is discon-
certing. In September, his on-court
woes took a back seat in favor of
more pressing matters — he was
arrested and charged with two
felony gun charges.
The traffic stop was an indict-
ment on how far Bates has fallen.
And yet, perhaps there is still a path
for Bates to grow. After Friday’s
game, Eastern Michigan guard
Noah Farrakhan praised Bates’s
character, saying that the locker
room looks up to him.
For one night, at least, it felt like
everyone had been tossed into a
time machine, back to those blissful
days when Bates looked you in the
face as Sports Illustrated’s 15-year-
old cover athlete. This was vintage
Bates, if vintage can even be used in
reference to a 18-year-old kid.
Scouts from six NBA teams
attended Friday’s game, a con-
stant reminder that whatever
Bates does in the present — and
whatever he has always done —
is tied to speculation about his
future. People have always want-
ed to know where he’d wind up,
where he’d play next, how good
he’ll be down the road. No one
ever slowed down, paused and
took a moment to appreciate what
we were watching in the present.
Bates didn’t play in Eastern
Michigan’s season opener due to
disciplinary
reasons.
Between
injuries and anxieties, there’s no
GRACE BEAL/Daily
telling how his tenure with the
Eagles will unfold, or how many
more performances on par with
Friday’s theatrics will ensue.
So take a lesson from all 15,000
people who packed the arena
Friday and don’t worry about
next month or next year. Just
enjoy Emoni Bates while you can.
Because there’s no telling what’s
left in store.
Former number one overall recruit, Emoni Bates, is back in his hometown and once again excelling.
Michigan field hockey loses
in overtime to UAlbany,
ending its season
CAROLINE CRECCA
Daily Sports Writer
The No. 4 Michigan field hockey
team was heavily favored in its first
round matchup in the NCAA Tour-
nament. But nobody could foresee
how much the Wolverines would
struggle in their first game with a
home field advantage.
Ultimately, Michigan (14-5 over-
all) was upset by UAlbany (15-4)
on Friday, losing 2-1 in a close over-
time match during the first round
of the NCAA Tournament. The loss
stemmed from the Wolverines seem-
ingly lacking in intensity and energy,
especially during the first quarter.
The majority of the game was a
tight battle between the two teams,
with
possession
and
offensive
opportunities split evenly between
them. But the first quarter was the
exception. With Michigan seem-
ingly caught off guard and unpre-
pared, the Wolverines renewed
effort against the Great Danes for the
final three quarters wasn’t enough to
overcome their slow start.
“I think we just have to come out
with more fire when we’re in these
NCAA games,” sophomore midfield-
er Abby Tamer said. “Our main thing
is just trying to play with positivity
as much as possible because when
we’re frazzled, something like the
first quarter tends to happen, where
they’re down our throats the whole
time.”
UAlbany put a lot of pressure on
the Wolverines’ defense during the
first 15 minutes of play. Their defense
was unable to clear the ball past the
fifty yard line, making for a tiresome
quarter, ending in a 0-0 stalemate.
Despite having a slow start, Mich-
igan came out with more fire in the
second quarter. Tamer found multi-
ple breakaway opportunities, which
eventually led to corners and a pen-
alty stroke for fifth-year midfielder
Katherine Peterson. The shot was
blocked, but there was an evident
shift in the team’s morale and effort.
The Wolverines finally capital-
ized on their offensive progress
with 30 seconds left in the half. On
their third offensive corner, midfield
graduate student Tina D’Anjolell was
able to get a touch on Peterson’s ini-
tial shot and tipped the ball into the
back of the net as time ran out.
The Wolverines went into half-
time with rejuvenated energy,
having scored just seconds before
the buzzer sounded. As the third
quarter commenced, it seemed as
though they would add to their lead,
as the team had four more corners
and six shots on goal.
But Michigan was unable to
capitalize on these opportunities,
and UAlbany escaped the quarter
unharmed. Their strong defense
was once again to thank for keeping
it a one score game, as was goalie
Hannah Mangan, who had 8 saves.
After a small lull in the third
quarter, the Great Danes brought
new energy to the fourth, putting
increased pressure on the Wol-
verines to keep their composure.
UAlbany had four offensive cor-
ners in a row during the last 10
minutes of play, which took a toll
on Michigan’s energy.
With fewer than three min-
utes left in the game, Michigan
junior defender Rosie Hope was
issued a yellow card, putting the
Wolverines down a player for the
remainder of the game. Soon after,
the Great Danes were awarded
another corner. This time, they
were able to convert it into a goal.
Sophomore midfielder Floor de
Ruiter tipped in the initial shot,
tying up the game.
With the score even and little
time left to play, the frustration
from Michigan’s bench was evi-
dent. They were unable to find
another
scoring
opportunity
before regulation ended, and the
game went into overtime.
As the clock wound down, it
seemed as though the sudden
death overtime period would end
without either team scoring, as
both teams struggled to find a
decent opportunity at the net.
However, in the final minute
of the period, UAlbany forward
Sophia Schoonmaker had a break-
away one-on-one with Michigan’s
fifth-year goalie, Anna Spieker.
She found an opening and sent
the ball into the cage, ending the
game — and with it, the Wolver-
ines’ season.
FIELD HOCKEY
MARIA DECKMANN/Daily
In its first NCAA Tournament game, Michigan was upset by UAlbany, ending the Wolverines’ season.
ANNA FUDER/Daily
Read more at MichiganDaily.com
Read more at MichiganDaily.com
NOAH
KINGSLEY