The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com 
Wednesday, February 8, 2023 — 11 

T.J. Hughes’ smart play fuels 
Michigan against Wisconsin

CHARLIE PAPPALARDO
Daily Sports Writer

In T.J. Hughes’ press conference 
following the Michigan hockey 
team’s 7-4 victory over Wisconsin, 
the freshman forward was in the 
middle of talking when Michigan 
coach Brandon Naurato walked out 
of his office and interrupted him.
“Four 
points,” 
Naurato 
exclaimed, chuckling. “I found out 
after the game. That was great.”
And 
while 
Naurato 
being 
unaware of Hughes’ team-leading 
total until looking at a stat sheet 
may seem like an oversight on 
his part, it fit perfectly with the 
type of game that Hughes played. 
Because despite totaling a goal and 
three assists, Hughes’ play wasn’t 
particularly flashy or exception-
ally dynamic. But what it was, the 
entire night, was incredibly effec-
tive.
On his very first shift, centering 
sophomore forwards Dylan Duke 
and Mackie Samoskevich, Hughes 
made a textbook play. He received a 
pass from Samoskevich, and imme-
diately swung it to Duke on the far 
side for a tic-tac-toe, tap-in goal. 
That play set the tone for his night. 
He didn’t demand the puck or turn 
heads with solo plays, but he made 
simple and effective plays, over and 
over again. 

“He’s not maybe the fastest guy, 
but he’s just so smart out there 
and makes plays all the time,” 
senior forward Eric Ciccolini said. 
“Always making the right deci-
sions, taking shots, making passes. 
… That’s why he had four points 
tonight.”
Ciccolini’s words ring true. 
Because Hughes’ play against 
Wisconsin can best be described 
as smart. Every Wolverine player 
could have physically made the 
passes and taken the shots that 
defined Hughes’ night, but far 
fewer would’ve had the vision to 
get the puck where it needed to go. 
And perpetually when Hughes was 
on the ice, the puck went where it 
needed to go. 
His second assist came on a 
power play when Hughes collected 
a pass, pressed forward and fired a 
slapshot from the circles. The shot 
was saved, but the rebound wasn’t. 
Minutes later — again on the power 
play —Hughes crashed the net 
before Samoskevich had even shot, 
and was in perfect position for a 
rebound goal. Hughes’ last assist 
was a generic point-to-point pass 
that sophomore defenseman Ethan 
Edwards buried. It wasn’t a thrill-
ing or difficult play, but it was the 
smart play.
“He puts up points,” Naurato 
said. “He’s a goal scorer, he’s a 
threat every time he’s around the 

net, and he has grown a ton as a 
player.”
So far this season, Hughes has 
had remarkable success. Com-
ing in as an undrafted prospect, 
he has shattered expectations in 
his freshman year, scoring over 
a point per game with the fourth 
most on his team. But at the same 
time, similar to Saturday’s per-
formance, a lot of it has flown 
under the radar. Because what 
he does isn’t always eye-catching, 
but a lot of the time it results in a 
puck hitting the back of the net. 
Against 
Wisconsin, 
that’s 
exactly 
what 
happened. 
He 
crashed the net, he made smart 
passes, and he put the puck exact-
ly where it needed to be for those 
around him to be effective. As a 
result, he doubled the point totals 
of anyone else on his team, and 
set a new career high for points 
in a game.
But in Naurato’s view, Hughes’ 
growth can’t stagnate — for his 
own sake. 
“The evolution of him to be like 
an NHL prospect — he’ll always 
get points, he’ll get a lot at Michi-
gan — will be what he does away 
from the puck and his compete 
level,” Naurato said. “It’s not that 
he’s not good away from the puck, 
it’s just that they’re learning you 
have to defend for the first time.”
Hughes has found a playstyle 
that works for him, but he now 
has to translate it to his defensive 
game. For the past few weeks, 
and especially against Wiscon-
sin it translated well. And when 
it translates, the Wolverines are 
better because of it. 
For that reason, when Naurato 
was asked if he had any advice for 
Hughes, he answered simply.
“Ehh, just keep doing what 
he’s doing,” Naurato said.
And if Hughes keeps doing 
what he’s doing, that bodes well 
for both him and Michigan.

Sports

ICE HOCKEY

SportsMonday: Don’t get your hopes up

NICHOLAS STOLL
Daily Sports Writer

Do you feel that?
That little glimmer of hope 
you have in your chest. Those 
images of tournament dreams 
and 
March 
Madness 
magic 
dancing in front of your eyes. Is 
the Michigan men’s basketball 
team making you feel something 
again?
Don’t.
For your own sake, I’m beg-
ging you not to believe in this 
Michigan team. The Wolverines 
might be fun to watch — and feel 
free to continue to enjoy watch-
ing them — but expecting some 
last leg sprint-to-the-finish that 
ends with a berth in the NCAA 
Tournament will only set you up 
to get hurt.
Even after rattling off two 
straight wins against North-
western and Ohio State, the 
numbers are objectively not in 
Michigan’s favor. As it stands, 
the Wolverines have a mea-
sly two Quad 1 wins — the holy 
grails when it comes to mak-
ing the tournament — against 
Maryland and at Northwestern.

Looking across the rest of 
Michigan’s 
schedule, 
it 
has 
four opportunities for near-
guaranteed Quad 1 games (vs 
Indiana, at Rutgers, at Illinois, 
at Indiana), and one that could 
potentially be a Quad 1 game 
(at Wisconsin). Then, of course, 
the Big Ten Tournament, which 
for the sake of argument let’s 
assume every game is Quad 1 
(top 50 in the NET at a neutral 
site). 
It seems like ample opportu-
nities await. But opportunities 
are just that — opportunities. 
The Wolverines need to actually 
capitalize on those chances to 
add Quad 1 wins to their resume. 
So far, they haven’t shown the 
capacity to do so.
Think of all the squandered 
“almosts”: Virginia, Kentucky, 
North Carolina, Iowa, Purdue — 
all possible Quad 1 wins. What 
has Michigan done recently that 
makes you think it will be dif-
ferent?
Was it the win over a skidding 
Buckeyes squad that’s lost nine 
out of their past 10 games? Or 
a win over a 57th-in-the-NET 
Wildcats group? Or was it the 
blowout, downright embarrass-

ing loss to Penn State? There’s 
just not enough substance there 
to show the Wolverines are any 
different than before.
Now, here’s where the num-
bers get worse. Suppose Michi-
gan has changed, and it can 

string a few wins together, and 
even beat some of the teams it 
needs to beat. The number of 
Quad 1 notches it’s going to need 
on its belt to make the NCAA 
Tournament will still be, in all 
likelihood, out of reach.

There’s no specific number, 
per se, but it’s safe to say the 
Wolverines will need at least 
five to punch their ticket to the 
Big Dance — at least.
That’s less a result of the Wol-
verines’ lack of Quad 1 wins, and 
more the result of their great-
est blemish — an abysmal Quad 
4 loss to No. 319 NET-ranked 
Central Michigan. While Quad 
1 wins are holy grails, Quad 4 
losses are eternal damnations. 
They float over teams like giant 
neon signs that say “Not a tour-
nament team” in blaring red 
light.
While the teams carrying 
Quad 4 losses might not be 
inherently bad, it takes a lot to 
overcome those dings on the 
resume.
Last year, for example, Rut-
gers punched their ticket by 
the skin of their teeth. Mak-
ing the play-in, the Scarlet 
Knights willed themselves to 
seven Quad 1 wins to overcome 
their season low-points. In a 
less extreme case, North Caro-
lina needed five Quad 1 wins, 
and went undefeated in Quad 2 
and 3, to make the tournament 
in spite of its Quad 4 loss. The 
SARAH BOEKE/Daily

Wolverines, too, were on bubble 
watch and needed five Quad 1 
wins to book their trip to the 
tournament, even without a 
Quad 4 loss.
So theoretically, Michigan 
could reach that threshold of 
five coveted Quad 1 wins if it 
went on a tear to end the sea-
son. The Wolverines could even 
chain enough wins in a row in 
the Big Ten Tournament to take 
home the trophy and be an auto-
bid team. But currently, Michi-
gan is given a 16.7% chance to 
make the NCAA Tournament by 
TeamRankings.
Mathematically, the Wolver-
ines aren’t eliminated. But let’s 
take a step back and be realistic:
Michigan hasn’t shown you 
anything that proves it will do 
what it takes to make it. There’s 
no signature win yet. There’s no 
consistency. And there’s no effi-
ciency metrics that show Mich-
igan is actually a good team 
behind a bad record.
There’s no real reason to have 
optimism.
So do yourself a favor and 
don’t get your hopes up. Because 
you’re just setting yourself up to 
get hurt.

‘I feel like a little kid again’: Steven Holtz 
returns from life-threatening illness

CONNOR EAREGOOD
Managing Sports Editor

In another world, Steven Holtz 
might not be back here. After con-
tracting adenovirus during an 
outbreak in November, the junior 
defenseman battled for survival. 
Complications from the illness put 
him in the ICU and nearly claimed 
his life, let alone his hockey career.
But that’s not how this story goes.
Because 
on 
Friday 
night 
against Wisconsin, Holtz made 
his triumphant return to the 
Michigan hockey team. Playing 
on the third pairing in a 6-2 win, 
his performance was the capstone 
of more than 11 weeks of difficult 
recovery.
“I feel like a little kid again, play-
ing in my first game, you get the jit-
ters when they call your name for 
the starting lineup,” Holtz said. “It’s 
surreal, right. It’s hard to take it all 
in.”
Surreal because his illness left 
him debilitated. His muscle mem-
ory disappeared. He struggled to 
even speak like his usual self.
When he skated his first strides 
after the illness, Holtz joked that 
he looked like he was just learning 
to skate on double-bladed skates. 
Everything was awkward for him, 
even choosing the words to articu-
late his experience. At times, he 
didn’t know if he’d ever take the ice 
again.
That made his presence all the 
more impressive. With all his usual 
intensity flaring behind his eyes, 
Holtz delivered a solid night on the 
ice for Michigan. He blocked a pair 
of shots to the delight of his holler-
ing teammates, and he got into two 
fights to protect them — living up to 
the “Protect the Goalie” wristband 
he wore on his right hand.
“It brings a tear to our eyes just to 
see him out there and do his thing 
again, and we missed him so much,” 
freshman forward Gavin Brindley 

said. “So it just shows how tight this 
group is and it’s like a dream come 
true for us to see him out there.”
That tight group got Holtz 
through a near tragedy. Whether it 
was director of hockey operations 
Topher Scott helping him relearn 
his skating stride or teammates 
spending quality time with him, 
Holtz found plenty of support from 
his team. Soon, he worked his way 
closer to normal.
“That muscle memory, it just 
clicked at one point,” Holtz said. “I 
was fighting the puck a little bit in 
practice. I was kind of being the drill 
ruiner again. But I think over time I 
just gained a little confidence.”
And that confidence only grew as 
he got his legs under him. Soon, he 
started hitting teammates in prac-
tice — despite being in a non-con-
tact jersey. He returned to playing 
shape despite all the obstacles the 
illness dealt him.
But in order to play an actual 
game, he still needed to overcome 
NCAA eligibility rules. A mechani-
cal engineering student stuck with 
multiple incomplete courses, he had 
to battle in the classroom too.
“I think these guys have it hard 
enough just being a college stu-
dent,” Michigan coach Brandon 
Naurato said. “And being a college 
student athlete then going through 
something like that, where you just 

don’t know at the time what it may 
be. … That made us stronger.”
By Wednesday of this week, 
Holtz still didn’t know when he 
would make the leap from prac-
tice ice to that of a game. He set 
a goal to play in the upcoming 
outdoor game against Ohio State, 
but he still needed to overcome 
NCAA redtape to make that hap-
pen. Walking into the training 
room Wednesday, though, Nau-
rato delivered the words Holtz 
longed to hear. A phrase Holtz 
quoted with a slight grin:
“You’re f-ing playing.”
And he did so immediately, 
skating out with the starting 
lineup to take his first shift. Under 
the lights of Yost Ice Arena, you’d 
never know the battle Holtz 
endured. But you could see what 
it meant in the faces of his team-
mates, who watched him make 
the ultimate comeback just by 
being there.
“Everything that he’s gone 
through — we’re in it with him 
but you still don’t appreciate what 
him and his family have gone 
through,” Naurato said. “… But it’s 
awesome, man. It’s just awesome 
to have him back.”
Because just a short time ago, 
none of that was guaranteed. And 
that makes Holtz’s return against 
Wisconsin that much sweeter.

ICE HOCKEY

Liza Cushnir: Despite storied history, Michigan now controls rivalry with Michigan State

EAST 
LAN-
SING 
— 
For 
years, the pre-
miere 
women’s 
basketball team 
in the state of 
Michigan 
was 
Michigan State. 
Not anymore.
After the No. 
18 
Michigan 
women’s basket-
ball team pulled off a comeback 
win Sunday in East Lansing, the 
Wolverines have proven they are 
firmly in the driver’s seat of the 
rivalry. 
Yes, the Spartans dominate the 
history of the series. They have 
73 wins to Michigan’s 25 — nearly 
triple — and boast 18 NCAA Tour-
nament appearances to the Wol-
verines’ 10. Michigan State also 
carries five combined Big Ten 
Titles. Michigan is still looking for 
its first.
But with the Wolverines in pos-
session of six out of the last seven 

games in the series, Michigan 
State’s reign over the rivalry is in 
the past.
“Michigan State has always been 
the program in the state, but why 
not Michigan?” Michigan coach 
Kim Barnes Arico said Jan. 14 after 
defeating the Spartans at Crisler. 
“The University of Michigan is 
great at everything. Why not wom-
en’s basketball, why not us?”
But still, after that game nearly a 
month ago, the Wolverines needed 
more to truly claim to be the state’s 
premiere program. They needed 
another win on the road, especially 
after being upset at Breslin Center 
last season. 
That loss — the Spartans’ sole 
win in the series since 2020 — was 
a massive upset that contributed 
to Michigan’s failure to secure 
the regular season Big Ten title. 
It was a game that delivered pain-
ful reminders of the history of the 
rivalry. Because for all of their suc-
cess, the Wolverines weren’t out 
of the woods yet. They suffered a 

shocking upset at the hands of their 
rivals, in a blast from the past.
And for the first 25 minutes of 
play on Sunday, history threatened 
to repeat itself. Michigan quickly 
found itself in a 10-0 hole and head-
ed into the locker room at halftime 
facing a seven-point deficit.
But then, it flipped the script 
on the game with its 44-27 second 
half. And in doing so — even with-
out its second-leading scorer and 
best defender in sophomore guard 
Laila Phelia — it flipped the script 
on the rivalry too.
The Wolverines could have 
crumbled without one of their best 
players, just as they crumbled with 
little depth last year. They didn’t. 
Michigan could have crumbled 
facing a halftime deficit. It didn’t. 
Instead, it pulled off the comeback 
win, its first victory of the sea-
son after trailing at halftime. And 
because of that — history aside — 
the Wolverines have proven that 
their time watching the state’s 
best basketball from the sidelines 

is over. Michigan’s the one on the 
court now.
“A coach said one time, they said 
if you’re in this long enough, win-
ning is a relief and losing feels like 
death,” Michigan State interim 
coach Dean Lockwood said. “And I 
will tell you, it does no matter what, 
but particularly in a rivalry game. 
We had tears in that locker room 
after the game, we had players that 
were so invested in this game and 
just wanted to bring this home.”
Last year, it was the Wolverines 
who were experiencing that pain, 
crying those tears.
“It’s always big, especially to 
beat Michigan State,” senior guard 
Maddie Nolan said. “… This time 
last year, competing for the Big Ten 
Title, I remember coming out after 
losing it and I was in tears.”
This year, there were no dis-
traught tears in the locker room for 
Michigan. Instead, there were cel-
ebrations. Celebrations that began 
in earnest in the fourth quarter. 
When Nolan hit a 3-pointer to 

extend the Wolverines’ lead to 11 
points early in the quarter, Michi-
gan’s bench erupted as the Spar-
tans called timeout. 
And as the upset win began to 
fully slip out of Michigan State’s 
grasp, it felt like the air was sucked 
out of Breslin, which quickly went 
from raucous to restrained. The 
corner had been turned, that hill 
finally summited.
So when fans started leaving 
minutes before the final buzzer, 
they weren’t just leaving the site of 
a deflating defeat. They were leav-
ing behind years of dominance in 
the rivalry. 
Sunday’s victory is only the Wol-
verines’ second in East Lansing 
since the 2015-16 season. But right 
now, when Michigan walks into 
Breslin, it’s expected to win. That 
never used to be the case.
“There’s always a celebratory 
feeling when you win any game,” 
fifth-year wing Leigha Brown said. 
“But like coach (Barnes Arico) said 
earlier, when you’re in this kind 

of hostile environment, I think it 
means a little bit more.”
When Barnes Arico was hired, 
Michigan State had won 11 straight 
games in the rivalry — and 20 out of 
the past 21. Since then, the Wolver-
ines have won 10 out of 22. That’s 
still a losing record, but it doesn’t 
matter. Because despite the Spar-
tans’ historic dominance in this 
series, right now, Michigan is in 
control, and it has been since 2020.
By winning in East Lansing, 
the Wolverines didn’t just sweep 
their rival. They delivered a perfor-
mance that turned the tables on a 
history nearly 100 games long. 
Because with six wins in seven 
games, Michigan isn’t the same 
program that saw multiple double-
digit losing streaks to Michigan 
State. It’s no longer the program 
that’s forced to live in the shadow 
of its in-state rival.
The Wolverines are now the 
best women’s basketball team in 
the state — and they proved it Sun-
day.

WOMEN’S BASKETBALL

MARIA DECKMANN/Daily
HANNAH TORRES/Daily

LIZA

CUSHNIR

