The Wolverine: Covering University of Michigan Football and Sports
Issue link: https://comanpub.uberflip.com/i/1061540
36 THE WOLVERINE JANUARY 2019 have to embrace; there's a process I have to go through." He continues to preach that lesson to the freshmen, too. Rookies Brandon Johns and David DeJulius haven't seen the floor much this year, but they're getting closer to contributing. Patience is tough, but that's all part of the team mentality, too. To stress that, Beilein played a clip of Alabama football coach Nick Saban singing the praises of backup quar- terback Jalen Hurts leading his team to victory over Georgia in the SEC title game after replacing starter Tua Tagovailoa. "What he did, how his name is for- ever a part of Alabama culture and how important it is that he's got to be ready … because most young men are not going to walk in their first year and be this immediate success," Beilein said. "Even the stars, LeBron James and Kobe Bryant, that went to the pros their first years, those weren't great years. "It's all relative to them, and we continually point out who was not on our scouting report two or three years ago that is a star now." The process isn't limited to player development, of course. There are go- ing to be highs and lows, adversity and (knock on wood) perhaps even injuries to deal with over the course of a year as well. So Beilein wasn't fazed when Northwestern took Michigan to the wire in Evanston Dec. 4. "It didn't worry me. It's part of the process … I knew we were going to have to go through games like this if we were going to be good," Beilein said. "We survived it. I don't know how. We made just enough good plays down the stretch. "We have to make sure that this game resonates with us, because there are so many things we can learn to do better. I don't think that's our thing, to be able to outscore people. We've got to out-grind people sometimes, especially in road games." DEFENSE WINS CHAMPIONSHIPS That's where the defense comes in, and it had been remarkable through the first nine games. The Wolverines struggled a bit against South Caro- lina in allowing 78 points and 51.6 percent shooting, but they still tied for fourth nationally in defensive ef- ficiency through 10 games and were third in the land for opponent points per game (55.2) as of Dec. 10. It starts with a commitment to defense, and Beilein has said many times Simpson and Matthews were the catalysts. Not only are they great at it and take a lot of pride in it, they're such effective leaders that they expect their teammates to be good at it, too. On top of that, they've got an as- sistant coach in Luke Yaklich who is committed to it. He's become the de- fensive coordinator, essentially, and Beilein called him "crazy" (in a good way) in his approach and demand for excellence on that end. Contesting as many shots as pos- sible is what they're striving for, and they've met their goals in that area in most games this season. "Everyone always speaks about his offense, but no one's ever really giv- ing his teams credit for how good they are defensively," Martin said. "I think we're all starting to see that. They're long, they're all 6-6 [except for the 5-11 Simpson], so passing the ball gets really hard. They guard you. "I was watching the Villanova tape, and Villanova was trying to drive them, and it was hard to finish. They don't get out of the way, and that's what championship teams do." The 73-46 win on the Wildcats' floor Nov. 14, in front of an incredibly raucous crowd, was U-M's first state- ment win of the year, and it was a big one. Villanova was dedicating its arena after an expensive makeover, and local reports had it as one of the toughest non-conference tickets in the school's history. The Wolverines took it to the Wild- cats from start to finish in a revenge of sorts for last year's loss in the na- tional championship game. In doing so, the Wolverines put themselves on the map as a serious contender. They did it with defense, holding Villanova to 31.8-percent shooting and forcing 21 turnovers. Junior point guard Zavier Simpson's contributions go far beyond his 6.8 points per game. PHOTO BY PER KJELDSEN