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