The basketball team showed yesterday that it belonged in the discussion to be one of the 4 best teams in the B1G. The win yesterday gave coach Beliein his first win against the Badgers, and the team left little to be questioned. It could be a season defining victory for the Wolverines.
The final score was 59-41, which is a pretty good representation of how the actual game played out. We beat up on an average B1G team at home, we did what we were supposed to do. We outhustled the best hardnosed program in the nation, we beat them at their own game, and it feels good.
Offensively, Michigan did not shoot well again, but they controlled the offensive glass. It was the first time in my memory of a Beilein coached Michigan team that they actually controlled the offensive glass. It was pretty amazing. It seemed like in the 2nd half when a shot didn’t go in, someone was there to tip it out to the perimeter to start another offensive set. Also, the most impressive thing was on these 2nd chance opportunities, Michigan usually found the open man for the best shot. Scoring only 59 points and winning doesn’t necessarily say it was an efficient offensive day, but after watching the game I could not complain about how the offense performed. Tim Hardaway Jr seemed to get out of his slump at times during the game, he knocked down a few threes (2-3) and didn’t seem to force any. He scored a game high 17 points, but the most impressive stat was he finished with 10 rebounds. Most of which he elevated above everyone to come down with a strong board. Trey Burke looked uncomfortable again at times in the first half, he forced some very tough shots, but he settled in during the 2nd half and played a very controlled, aggressive game. Novak has one of his most efficient games from inside the 3 point line. He finished with 12 points on 5-10 shooting (0-4 from 3). He has really improved this area of his game to become a very difficult scorer to defend. Many times he used the “he’s just a 3 point shooter” against the defense, going around them for an any layup. Even though Morgan didn’t score much points, he still ended with 11 rebounds (5 offensive). He got very good position around the hoop to pull down so many boards.
Defensively Wisconsin had a very hard time doing anything. They shot very poorly and didn’t look comfortable running a set offense. When they got behind by double digits, they were not athletic enough to score quickly and it led to an unusual amount of turnovers for the nation’s leader. Wisconsin ended with 12 turnovers for the game, 4 more than their season’s average. Most of the turnovers were steals from Michigan which led to quick points by the more athletic team. The one issue that Michigan had yesterday was defensive rebounding. They struggled to box out on a consistent basis, which resulted in easy offensive rebounds for the Badgers. Smot seemed out of position more than usual, giving up at least 3 that I remember, and Morgan while looking strong on the offensive glass got 2 balls poked away from him before he had full control. He needs to play stronger all the time and nobody should be able to poke a ball away from him. The defense within the 35 seconds of each possession was some of the best Beliein’s time at Michigan. During his post-game interviews, Coach B was noticeably happy and could barely stop talking about how well the defense played yesterday. Wisconsin is not a high scoring team, but their previous low on the year was 54 points in a loss. Anytime you can hold a B1G team (especially one that is a tournament team) to 41 points, the defense played extremely well.
Overall, I was very impressed with how Burke played. I was excited to see how he played against one of the B1G’s best players. To say he held his own is an understatement. Burke outplayed the preseason favorite for the conference’s best player. Burke has by far his best defensive outing, all but 1 bucket by Taylor was heavily contested. Even though he gives up some height and pounds to Taylor, Burke held his own down low and Wisconsin was not able to post up the bigger guard at all, even though it is one of their favorite plays to run. Burke also got some steals which led to transition buckets. It is exciting to think what this guard can accomplish in his time at Michigan. I know Wisconsin is not the same team of years past, and will likely finish outside of the top 5 in the B1G for the first time in what seems like a decade, but it was still a very impressive win against a ranked team. It was an important win on many levels: it gave Coach B his first win vs the pesky fighting Bo Ryan’s, it cemented us as a B1G contender (at least to push for 2nd), it cemented us as a tournament team (now we just have to keep it up to continue to improve our seeding), and it continues to put Michigan back on the map for basketball!
Go Blue!
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