Prepared, Ready and Confident: Simmons Key in NCAA Win

By Steve Kornacki

WICHITA, Kan. -- Jaaron Simmons came to the Wolverines this season as a graduate transfer from Ohio University. He was named All-Mid-American Conference first team and set Bobcat records for the most assists in one game (17) and one season (275) -- the latter also being a MAC record -- while also scoring 1,034 points.

He was expected to challenge sophomore Zavier Simpson and freshman Eli Brooks for the starting point guard job vacated by Derrick Walton Jr.

Simpson established himself as the undisputed starter, while Brooks also had his moments. But Simmons struggled just to get on the court. He did not play at all in six of the first 11 Big Ten games at the beginning of 2018, and yet you could not tell it by looking at Simmons.

He smiled as much as anyone and sang the school fight song as loud as anyone after the wins. He practiced as hard as anyone, and he earned tremendous respect from his teammates and coaches in doing so.

After one game, Michigan coach John Beilein made a point of seeking out Simmons and telling him how proud he was of him, how exemplary his actions were, and how his time would come.

"It was a little different for him," said Beilein, "but at the same time, he had a great attitude. Whether he was playing or Eli was playing or Zavier was playing, he had the same attitude. And I'll always appreciate that no matter how far we go this year. Our relationship has always been an appreciation for him."

While he became a regular off the bench five weeks ago, his time to shine came Thursday night (March 15) in a 61-47 win over Montana that seemed more like it was being played in a dentist's office than a basketball arena. As wins go, this one was like pulling teeth.

But without Simmons, would it have been a victory? Would the Wolverines still be among the dreamers in the NCAA Tournament?

That's certainly debatable, but that Simmons was on top of his game was not.

Simpson, who has become the driving force of Michigan's offense and defense, was called for his second foul only four minutes into this game. This was quite incredible when you consider that Simpson had been called for two or fewer fouls over the entire length of 30 of the season's 35 games.

But that was the case, and Simpson was on the bench for the final 16 minutes of the first half with the No. 3-seeded Wolverines trailing the No. 14 Grizzlies, 10-0. Everything that could go wrong had gone wrong, and now the highly-pivotal Simpson was going to have to watch.

What did Simmons do?

"I tried to come in and give us some energy," he said, "and push the pace, and make a couple plays out there."

He lit a fire under his teammates -- specifically Charles Matthews, who responded big-time with 20 points and 11 rebounds -- and scored 6 points himself on three driving layups during a stretch of just over four minutes.

"I was prepared, ready and confident to play from the opening tip." said Simmons. "I'm always ready to go if somebody turns an ankle. But to get some points on the board when we were struggling was great.

"I was trying to be aggressive and get downhill and push the tempo to make plays for myself and my teammates."

Simmons came out after playing 11 minutes of strong defense and offense, and Brooks took the final five minutes of the half while also stepping up in every way and scoring a key basket.

Michigan took a 31-28 lead into the locker room, and won by holding Montana scoreless for a stretch of 9:54 early in the second half with Simpson back in control.

Simmons Simmons meets with a reporter following Michigan's 61-47 win over Montana

When the Wolverines won the Big Ten Tournament at Madison Square Garden, Beilein sought out Simmons to tell him that it was official. Michigan had the conference's automatic NCAA bid, and his goal of playing in the "Big Dance" was about to come true.

"He wanted to play in the NCAA Tournament because he'd never played in the NCAA Tournament," said Beilein. "He really wanted to be in the NCAA Tournament, and here he is. He goes in and gets us three-for-three, and so I am just really happy that he could do that. And now he brings us a whole lot of confidence coming off the bench in the next game."

I reminded Simmons of playing in this showcase event playing a big role in his decision to pick Michigan.

"That's right," he said, all smiles. "That's right."

Was it everything he'd hoped for?

"Yeah, yeah it was," Simmons said. "It was great. We survived, we advanced, and we go onto the next day."

Michigan next plays No. 6-seeded Houston here Saturday night.

Simmons had a message for Matthews when he was coming into the game -- a game in which the Wolverines had not scored during the first four minutes.

"Charles is always ready to do what he has to do and be aggressive," said Simmons. "When we went out there, I told him, 'It's time! Time for you to be the man.' And he did well tonight."

Matthews added, "Jaaron (JUH-ron) has a lot of experience. It's good to have that coming in off the bench, and to have that composure and poise. Nothing's too big for him, and we're glad to have someone like that on our team.

"He brought such an energy boost to our team when he checked in the game. He got guys involved and got himself going. Jaaron's an incredible player, and we know about that. I'm happy he's getting an opportunity to show it."

Power forward Moritz Wagner added, "On this team, when someone goes down, someone else steps up. And the dude never has an attitude, comes in and does his job, and it could've gone differently for him. But he just comes in and gives us an energetic push and does his thing offensively, and at a time when nothing was working out, he gave us offensive push, big time."

That Simmons stuck with the challenge, didn't get discouraged, and finally adapted to playing in Michigan's intricate offense made all the difference in this game. He was ready to lead, ready to be a factor.

"This is a hard offense to learn," said Simmons. "So, just continuously coming to practice every day hungry to learn, and hungry to get on the floor really helped. We've got a lot of plays, and different plays for different games."

He'd run move of a freelance offense at Ohio.

"Exactly," said Simmons. "That's it exactly. So, it was a lot different for me. But this is what I came here for -- to get to this point in the NCAA Tournament -- and to learn from Coach B. This has been a great experience."

He credited assistant coach DeAndre Haynes "for staying with me and working with me after practices" while also offering constant encouragement.

"He told me everything was going to be all right," said Simmons.

And against the Grizzlies, when he was needed most, Simmons saw to it that everything turned out "all right" for Michigan.