Illinois Recap

I was lucky enough to join the Maize Rage for Sunday’s game against Illinois, and it was quite an experience.  I just remember back when I had student tickets and couldn’t get friends to come with me for the free games, and now you have to show up early and wait in line if you want to be in the lower level at all.  Michigan started the game looking like a team that just had a week off.  Look back to the Purdue game and the Wolverines started the same way.  Once the halftime buzzer rang, the Michigan coaching staff made all the needed halftime adjustments and the maize and blue cruised to a 13 point win. 

The first thing that I took away from the game is that the young players looked fresh again.  Glenn Robinson III had a spring in his jump again and actually attacked the basket off the dribble a few times.  He is still hesitant on taking jump shots, especially after air balling his first attempt.  It will be important for him to continue to stretch the floor from the power forward position.  Spike Albrecht impressed in his limited time on the floor, but I was the most impressed with Caris LeVert’s intensity on the defensive end of the floor.  He was assigned to Brandon Paul during his playing time and his length really limited Paul’s impact.  Caris was able to get into passing lanes, deflect balls, create turnovers that led to easy baskets, and he also knocked down open shots.  This was his best overall game of the season, but if Michigan can begin to expect this output from the bench they will be very tough to beat.  While Jordan Morgan was clearly not 100% yet he is looking closer to himself.  He showed why he is by far the best ball screen defender on the team, as he understands when to hedge and when to rotate.  Michigan outscored Illinois by 28 points in Morgan’s 17 minutes, but more importantly when number 52 came off the bench in both halves he was key to stopping an Illini run. 

The defensive performance was still struggling in the first 12 minutes of the game, but then the Wolverines looked as good as they have in 3 weeks. Like I mentioned earlier, Jordan Morgan had a big hand in the defensive turnaround but I was even more impressed with the defensive rotations.  In the final 28 minutes of the game Illinois really struggled to get any dribble penetration, which has been the biggest struggle for Michigan lately.  Illinois collected 6 offensive rebounds in the first 12 minutes, but once the rotating improved to cut off any penetration, the Illini were held to two offensive rebounds for the rest of the game (none in the last 20 minutes). By keeping ball handlers out of the paint it allows Michigan’s post players to stay with their man, which ultimately leads to a clean box out and defensive rebound. I will be interesting to see how the defensive performance improves against Penn State, since they shredded Michigan for 71 points just a few days ago.  Most of their damage was done by dribble penetration.

Offensively, Michigan executed extremely well in transition which was started by long rebounds or turnovers.  Trey Burke and GRIII ran the break flawlessly.  Keeping the Wolverines out of transition is the key to slowing down their efficient offense, but how many teams in the entire country can really do that?  The bad news is that 3 of them are in this conference (Michigan State, Ohio State, and Wisconsin).  The Michigan offense struggled at times in the half court sets, and had to settle for too many long jump shots.  The post presence is still not an effective part of the offense yet, which will need to improve a little before the NCAA tournament.  I am not saying that Morgan, McGary, Horford, and Biefeldt have to combine for 25 points and 20 rebounds a game, but they should be getting to double digits in both between them.  Luckily for Michigan they have Trey Burke running the offense, and Illinois could not keep him out of the lane.  At times it looked like Burke was toying with the defense, which led to 26 points, 8 assists, and just one turnover.  Just another day at the office for my pick for Player of the Year.

Looking ahead Michigan travels to Happy Valley to take on the winless Nittany Lions.  Penn State kept the game closer than expected last week in Ann Arbor, so the Wolverines should not be overlooking their opponent.  I will be looking to see how much the defense has improved since their last meeting because Penn State guards should not be getting into the lane at will, nor should Penn State post players accumulate uncontested layups. I also want to see the half-court offense improve, which will happen if Tim Hardaway Jr can find his shot again and the post players can get some points in the pick and roll game.