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

