The Michigan basketball team just won its first 2 conference games for the first time in 5 years. They are currently 12-2 and ranked number 13 in the nation. The team's last game was against a Minnesota team who lost its best player to a torn ACL.
A win is a win, but that win was ugly. It is good to know that our own basketball team is finally good enough to overcome a terrible offensive game against a conference opponent and still get the victory. We shot just 38.5% from the field (30% from 3), our best scorer was 2-14 from the field for 7 points, and we had double digit turnovers again. But Trey Burke stepped up again, scoring a career high 23 points and kept the offense rolling when nobody else could score. We had 12 offensive rebounds in a B1G game and scored more than 1 point per possession.
Novak and Smot never got going offensively all day, and were constantly the victim of a double screen setting up a wide open 3 point shot for Minnesota. According to Beilein, Minnesota never showed this play before Sunday against us, and you could tell because we were not ready to defend it. Morgan had 12 rebounds (6 offensive), but complimented that with 5 turnovers. 3 of them after he secured an offensive rebound.
The bench came through again and played solid minutes. This time it came from Stu who surprisingly had one of his best games of the year. His performance doesnt get him off my crap list, but a few more like it will go a long way. Vogrich didnt score, but picked up a few rebounds, a steal, and drew a charge.
Michigan should have beat Minnesota at home by 10+ points, but right now I will take the win. Any conference win is important come selection time. This was the kind of game that could push Michigan over that 9-9 conference hurdle.
Next up: a trip to Assembly Hall where IU is coming off a great win over Ohio, and they have beat Kentucky earlier this season. Should be a good one!
No comments:
Post a Comment