Simpson Scored 32 but Stayed Late to Work on Game After Loss to Badgers
2/28/2020 9:00:00 AM | Men's Basketball, Features
By Steve Kornacki
ANN ARBOR, Mich. -- Zavier Simpson had never been this unstoppable.
The University of Michigan's senior point guard scored a career-high 32 points -- eight more than he'd scored in any of his 142 previous games -- making 14 of 22 shots from the field, including his lone three-point attempt.
However, he was 3-for-7 at the free throw line in Thursday night's (Feb. 27) 81-74 loss to Wisconsin, and so, more than one hour after the final buzzer sounded, there was Simpson shooting free throws on one of the practice courts in the William Davidson Player Development Center.
Simpson would dribble twice with his right hand, go up with the shot, and wait for the ball for another shot. The student manager who went along with him to rebound didn't do much of that. He usually grabbed the ball after it fell from the net, passing it back for the next attempt.
It reminded me of a coincidence connected to the grandest moment in Wolverine basketball history -- Rumeal Robinson's game-winning free throws in the 1989 national championship victory over Seton Hall. So, I waited in the near-empty locker room to share a 31-year-old story with Simpson.
Simpson kept shooting, and I kept waiting. Then it occurred to me that I had perhaps a better way to relay that tale. I had this column to write:
Robinson was the weakest free throw shooter in that championship team's six-man rotation at 65.6 percent. However, he had taken to shooting 100 from the line following each practice after costing his team a win at Wisconsin in January.
Then, three months later, Robinson went to the free throw line at the Kingdome in Seattle with the national championship riding on his two shots.
Steve Fisher, the head coach of that team, told me last year: "I had a moment of very calmness about myself because I sensed that in Rumeal. I reflected back to playing at Wisconsin earlier in the season when he went to the line in a similar situation and missed both free throws, and we lost. He said, 'I'm not going to let that happen to me again,' and I rebounded a lot of post-practice free throw shooting for Rumeal.
"He prepared himself for a moment that none of us thought would happen the way it did, and then he embraced it. You could almost feel it as you looked at his body language coming to the bench for the timeout before he shot them. Everybody says they want that moment, but when it's there, how many of them are going to have the calmness to deliver?"
Swish.
Swish.
Final score: Michigan 80, Seton Hall 79.
There's no way of knowing where this season will end for the No. 19-ranked Wolverines (18-10, 9-8 Big Ten). Might Simpson get a chance to win the Big Ten Tournament or an NCAA Tournament game by doing what Robinson did?
Storybook endings are always long-shots.
But know this: Simpson, the hardest worker on this team, is going to do everything possible to provide a happy ending somewhere down the line. Head coach Juwan Howard has joked about having to send him home some nights when he just refuses to stop working.
Michigan associate head coach Phil Martelli shared a story about Robinson after the game.
"Zavier played like a senior who is watching the last sand going through an hourglass," said Martelli. "I told him on Wednesday that Tuesday was his best practice of the year. He asked me why I thought that, and I said, 'On every possession, you were dialed in.'
"And so he willed us to be in this game tonight. I wasn't surprised by what he did."
Simpson drove the lane as if he was operating on one speed and everyone else was one gear slower. He hit teammates rolling off picks, on the fast break and out of the corner of his eye to finish with six assists. He added five rebounds for good measure.
But mostly, he scored.
Simpson hit hook shots, fired down a one-hand dunk that might have been his first in a college game, drained a trey and scored on a pure power move.
However, he usually simply blew by the Badgers as if they weren't there, scoring from the right and the left with layups and finger-rolls, contorting his body as he launched the ball.
"Their defense was extended to take away our three-point shooting," said Martelli, "and he was able to get by people."
Michigan forward Isaiah Livers said, "They took away our shooters, and they wouldn't let me get open to look for threes or an open look anywhere. Everything was a hard shot. So, we've got to watch film and figure it out. I think guys will take that in a positive way."
Livers (nine points) and Wolverine big guard Franz Wagner (17 points) both were 1-for-2 from behind the arc.
Simpson, known by the nickname "X" because his first name was spelled "Xavier" when he began at Michigan, topped both of them combined in the scoring column.
"Nobody in the Big Ten can guard 'X' when he's going downhill," said Livers. "So, 'X' just took advantage of them staying out on our shooters and just drove 'em."
Wagner added, "Zavier kept us in the game the whole game. He did a great job. Scoring is not his biggest thing. It's the way he gets everybody ready for the game and the way he leads us. That's the most important thing.
"He's a great player."
Simpson is known for sharp, deft passes. He entered the game second in the nation with 8.0 assists per game and second in Michigan career rankings with 638.
However, he more than doubled his 12.3 scoring average in this one. He would've tripled that had he made all seven free throws -- which is expecting a lot from someone with a .610 free throw percentage.
Simpson missed a one-and-one free throw with 1:16 remaining and made one of two from the line with 26 seconds left, making the score 77-74 for the Badgers.
Michigan never did lead in the game, but it trimmed a 14-point Wisconsin lead to three points twice in the final three minutes.
All the dazzling things that he'd done didn't matter much to Simpson, who was shooting free throws rather than attending a postgame press conference.
Dribble.
Dribble.
Swish.
Over and over again, with the student manager staying late along with the point guard, he shot free throws. It will always be a mental snapshot for me, a reminder of why Simpson has been such a unique player.
Simpson is 38 rebounds away from becoming the first Wolverine to register 1,000 points, 500 rebounds and 500 assists.
Think about the historic significance of that. In the 103 years they've been rolling out basketballs, first at Waterman Gymnasium, then at Yost Fieldhouse and now at Crisler, nobody has hit those three big, round career numbers.
Gary Grant, who played at 6-foot-3 with a much greater wingspan to Simpson's 6-feet, fell 45 rebounds short. Rumeal Robinson was 147 rebounds shy of it, while Derrick Walton Jr., Simpson's mentor as a freshman, came within one assist of becoming the first.
Simpson and center Jon Teske also recently set the storied program's record for most wins and are at 107 and counting. They didn't get No. 108 Thursday despite the scoring outburst from Simpson. And it might have been a different story had big guard Eli Brooks, a defensive blanket, been able to play in the game after breaking his nose in the previous win at Purdue.
But there are three regular-season games remaining, a conference and a national tournament ahead. And the lure of a storybook ending is what will drive Simpson and this team that he drives.
