The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com
Wednesday, January 11, 2023 — 11
Sports

SportsMonday: Holier than none, Michigan needs to forget the moral high ground

It’s time to drop the superior-
ity act.
For years — decades, even — 
the University of Michigan and 
its athletic department has tried 
its best to cultivate a specific 
image that it desperately wants 
you to believe in:
“Leaders and best.”
While that phrase may have 
once been an accurate descrip-
tion, it’s now simply an aspira-
tion. It’s what the Wolverines 
want to be — it’s what they want 
you to see them as. But, right now, 
it’s not what they are.
The most recent of the cuts 
marring Michigan’s appearance 
is a number of NCAA violations, 
the majority of which are “slap on 
the wrist” type allegations. The 
most serious, though, is a 
 
Level 
I allegation that Michigan coach 
Jim Harbaugh failed to comply 
with NCAA investigations of the 
other violations. That’s no small 
matter. And it doesn’t matter if 
what he’s lying about is serious or 
not, lying to cover up violations 
is inherently punishable and 
deplorable behavior.
And Harbaugh — a 59-year-old 
man, father and long-time foot-
ball coach — knows that. Most 
of all, he knows his actions have 
repercussions beyond his own.
Harbaugh could face suspen-

sion, and Michigan could face 
other consequences, whether he 
remains the coach in Ann Arbor 
or departs for the NFL. Still, 
Harbaugh allegedly misled and 
obscured the NCAA during the 
investigation of those other viola-
tions, a reckless decision at best.
Lies, 
disruption, 
investiga-
tions, violations — it’s not a good 
look. And while they try, it’s hard 
for the Wolverines to stay up on 
their high horse after news like 
that breaks.
Especially 
when 
Michigan 
picks and chooses when to apply 
the moral code that keeps it sad-
dled. 
The Wolverines have no reason 
to violate, lie and, for lack of a bet-
ter word, cheat their way to small 
amounts of success when there’s 
better — NCAA legal — options 
that they fail to exploit. Case in 
point, Michigan foolishly acts 
above the basis of name, image 
and likeness (NIL). Sure, the 
Wolverines encourage their ath-
letes to pursue NIL, but they look 
down on programs that give up 
bags of money for uber-talented 
players and, as such, fall painfully 
behind those same programs in 
the NIL frontier.
“Our philosophy is that com-
ing to the University of Michigan 
is going to be a transformational 
experience rather than a trans-
actional experience,” Harbaugh 
said June 2 of last year, throwing 
shade at the more direct methods 

of utilizing NIL.
As evidenced above, Michigan 
does want players to make money 
and get paid, but it doesn’t want to 
be the one signing the check.
The Wolverines have shied 
away from that frontal approach, 
allowing the money to trickle in 
from other external sources. Sure, 
the Champions Circle — Michi-
gan’s NIL collective — eventu-
ally came along, but only eight 
months after initial collectives 
were formed and four months 
after rival Ohio State got its The 
Foundation collective together. 
To their own fault, the Wolver-
ines are consistently behind other 
programs when it comes to NIL.
Maybe 
paying 
18-year-olds 
isn’t the most traditional way 
to attract talent and build a pro-
gram, but neither is lying. And 
neither is making contact with 
recruits during the recruiting 
dead period in the height of the 
pandemic — one of the Level II 
allegations.
Michigan draws moral lines in 
the sand that don’t make a grain 
of sense. 
Why is writing a check to a 
recruit (something now legal) 
worse than obscuring an investi-
gation? If you’re going to be a pro-
gram that breaks the rules to win, 
why not get your hands “dirty” 
within the rules instead?
Between the misconduct and 
scandals 
within 
the 
athletic 
department — and everything 

else within the University that 
has come to light — within the 
past few years, the Wolverines 
have no claim to the moral high 
ground. The footing Michigan 
used to stand on has eroded away 
until there’s no longer anywhere 
left to place its feet.
So stop. 
Stop pretending the perch is 
still there. Keeping up that facade 

will only hold the Wolverines 
back from the opportunity to 
move forward in the new land-
scape of college athletics, while 
actions like Harbaugh’s alleged 
lies claw away at anything that’s 
actually left.
Don’t lie to the NCAA, throw 
a bag. At this point, who cares? 
It won’t make Michigan look any 
worse than it already does. And 

GRACE BEAL/Daily

it might actually help the Wol-
verines win — legally, to boot. 
The holier-than-thou approach 
only works when your program is 
actually better than all the others 
on and off the field — and right 
now, Michigan is neither.
Until it is, forget the moral 
high ground.

Poor 3-point shooting Michigan’s 
downfall in loss to Michigan State

EAST LANSING — Sopho-
more guard Kobe Bufkin toed the 
3-point line, waiting for his shot. 
Midway through the second half, 
down by 10 points, the Michigan 
men’s basketball team needed to 
gain momentum, and fast. 
As a post-entry pass to junior 
center Hunter Dickinson found 
its way into the lane, Bufkin’s 
defender dropped down into help, 
and that left Bufkin wide open on 
the baseline. Dickinson kicked 
the ball out. Bufkin let it fly. 
But instead of cutting the lead, 
as the ball glanced off the rim and 
into a Michigan State defender’s 
waiting hands, it allowed the 
Spartans an easy transition buck-
et on the other end.
A textbook play with poor 
results — the epitome of the Wol-
verines’ 3-point shooting capa-
bilities against Michigan State. 
In a game that could’ve bolstered 
Michigan’s transformation after 
a crushing loss to Central Michi-
gan, Saturday night’s 59-53 loss 
was instead another reminder 
of the Wolverines’ inadequacies 
from behind the 3-point line.
“(Three-point shooting was) 
tough because we had so many 
good looks,” Dickinson said. “So 
I think it was just a matter of the 
ball not going in. It’s not a great 
answer, but we got a lot of great 
looks, a lot of open shots. And 
sometimes the ball just doesn’t 
fall your way.”
The ball certainly didn’t fall 
Michigan’s way, with its shooters 
going just 3-for-20 from behind 
the arc. Shooting a measly 15% 

from three — the worst percent-
age so far this season — many of 
the Wolverines premiere 3-point 
shooters were rendered silent on 
Saturday night. 
Graduate guard Joey Baker — 
picked up via the transfer portal 
specifically for his 3-point shoot-
ing capabilities — went 0-for-3 
from the 3-point line amid a zero 
point night. Freshman wing Jett 
Howard fared a little better at 
2-for-6, but his success came too 
late in the second half after the 
Wolverines had dug themselves a 
hole too deep to climb out of.
“I felt like everybody shot it 
with confidence, and was ready 
to shoot,” Bufkin said. “So I’m not 
mad at the shots. I just wish they 
had went in.”
Surprisingly, Dickinson had 
the only other made 3-pointer of 
the night, going 1-for-3 from deep. 
Dickinson is known to attempt, 
and make, a handful of 3-pointers. 
Instead, what makes his success 
surprising is the lack of prosper-
ity from the guards on the floor. It 
says quite a bit about Michigan’s 
ranged capabilities that its 7-foot-
1 center was its second-leading 
3-point shooter any given night.
And it wasn’t as if the Spar-
tans had the deep shots on lock 
down. Facilitating the offense 
through Dickinson created ample 
opportunities and open looks for 
3-pointers. Two airballs from 
freshman guard Dug McDan-
iel, on relatively open looks no 
less, 
summarized 
Michigan’s 
inability to take advantage of the 
open shots from deep. Instead of 
knocking them down, the Wol-
verines floundered.
Michigan continued to bring 
the game within reach down 

the stretch, slowly whittling 
away at Michigan State’s once 
14-point lead. The Wolverines 
brought it back within four 
points with less than four min-
utes in the second half.

But four points felt insur-
mountable against the Wol-
verines’ 
poor 
shooting 
capabilities. As deep balls con-
tinued to bounce around the 
rim and off the glass, Michigan 
allowed the Spartans to main-
tain their lead by capitalizing 
on the missed attempts and 
turning them into their own 
buckets.
The Wolverines continued 
to shoot themselves in the foot 
time and time again with miss-
es from behind the arc, unable 
to overcome the small lead the 
Spartans maintained down the 
stretch.
“I feel like that just hap-
pens in the game of basketball,” 
Bufkin said. You’re not always 
going to shoot the ball your 
greatest. The past two games 
we’ve shot it pretty well. So the 
basketball gods are eventually 
going to humble you at some 
point, and I feel like they hum-
bled us tonight.”
It might be the “basketball 
gods,” or poor offensive com-
munication, or the raucous 
crowd of the Breslin Center. But 
either way, Bufkin is correct.
The Wolverines have been 
humbled from their high caliber 
performances against other Big 
Ten teams. Now it’s back to the 
drawing board — and behind 
the 3-point line in practice — to 
remedy their worst 3-point out-
ing this season.

MEN’S BASKETBALL

EMMA MATI/Daily

NICHOLAS STOLL
Daily Sports Writer

Brendan Miles’ first moment

CONNOR EAREGOOD
Managing Sports Editor

Standing in a lobby inside Yost 
Ice Arena, freshman defenseman 
Brendan Miles had just played in 
his first in-game action with the 
Michigan hockey team. After a 
7-6 exhibition game win against 
the U.S. National Team Develop-
ment Program, Miles explained 
how he got here.
When he spoke, the underdog 
charm of seemingly every depth 
player poured out of him. 
Relaxed. Honest. Nice to a 
fault. Asked about the Wolver-
ines’ performance, he praised his 
teammates. That age-old “good 
team win” phrase crossed his 
lips, personal praise as far from 
them as possible.
But it was more than a team 
win. It was everything Miles has 
been working toward since the 
day he stepped on campus. 
“Watching these games as a 
little kid and then being able to 
come out here and do it myself, it 
was unreal,” Miles said. “And (I) 
hope to be back out there.”
Behind his maize and blue 
debut is 19 weeks of watching 
from the sidelines. Every practice 
he poured his heart into, every 
team lift he grew from — all of 
it in a bid to climb a depth chart 
laden with NHL talent. All the 
while, Miles bided his time, wait-
ing in the wings for his opportu-
nity to take the ice.
But opportunity kept eluding 
him. For Michigan’s first exhi-
bition game in October, Miles 
didn’t play. Even when Michigan 
needed all hands on deck when 
it played Minnesota Nov. 17 and 
18 — illness sweeping through its 

dressing room and placing a large 
portion of the roster out of action 
— Miles found himself among 
those unavailable. When other 
freshmen defensemen like Luca 
Fantilli and Johnny Druskinis 
found their way into the lineup, 
Miles remained a fixture of the 
scratched list.
At times, he got dejected.
“I think at first it was a little 
frustrating, and then it was like, 
‘it’s just part of it,’ ” Miles said. “It 
was kind of weird because I didn’t 
really have that same adjustment 
in junior hockey. But then obvi-
ously coming here, I knew I was 
coming into a pretty high-talent-
ed team. 
“I think that was something 
that I definitely had to adjust to 
but, you know, it’s all about the 
process and just working hard 
and when you get your opportu-
nity, just make the most of it.”
So that’s what Miles did when 
opportunity finally called his 
name. Digging his skates into the 
ice for his first game action on 
Friday, Miles rose to the moment.
Skating on the third defense 
pairing for most of the game, 
Miles found himself all over the 
ice. He tracked down breakaways 
against the Americans’ top line, 
exited the zone and even took 
three shots. Despite playing in a 
barnburner with 13 goals, he fin-
ished the night with an even plus-
minus.
Of course, it took some time to 
settle in.
“I was a little nervous before 
subbing in,” Miles said. “But as 
soon as the first shift, second 
shift was over, it just felt like a 
normal hockey game and I was 
just playing the sport I love.”
But even when he was relegat-

ed to sitting in the press box, 
Miles was never far from his 
team. What fans and reporters 
see on the ice is a fraction of 
the time teams spend together. 
Relationships between team-
mates, of course, are a lot more 
complex than what goes on dur-
ing a game. 
Freshman defenseman Sea-
mus Casey was quick to bring 
that up.
“We spend all day with him, 
so to us it just feels like he’s right 
there with us in the games,” 
Casey explained. “Whereas to 
you guys (in the press box), it 
might not seem like that watch-
ing from above. But he comes 
back every day and he just 
works his butt off. He’s a great 
kid.”
And with Miles leaving the 
lineup next weekend almost 
guaranteed as the regulars 
rejoin it, he’ll have to go back to 
watching the action from above. 
But that doesn’t take away this 
moment — his first time skat-
ing in front of the Children of 
Yost, or standing on the ice dur-
ing the national anthem or even 
celebrating a win in a sweat-
soaked jersey instead of a suit.
“For certain guys, it can kind 
of seem like there’s no light at 
the end of the tunnel,” Casey 
said. “Just if you’re not playing 
or even if things aren’t going 
well and you are playing. But 
the guys who are the best and 
can get through it, they come to 
the rink and they do the same 
things every day. They work 
hard, no matter what things are 
gonna be good or bad.”
On Friday, Brendan Miles 
saw the light, and it was every-
thing he could have hoped for.

ICE HOCKEY

JULIANNE YOON/Daily

ABBIE TELGENHOF
Daily Sports Editor

