Penn State Recap

Michigan opened their revenge tour in the Big Ten Tournament with last place Penn State.  While the game started all too familiarly with a 14-3 run for the Nittany Lions, and the Wolverines being outrebounded 11-2.  The final 36 minutes saw Michigan outscore their opponent by 28 points and had a 13 rebound advantage.  It wasn’t the best performance that the Wolverines have played, but it was the first double digit win since February 24^th.

The defense still struggled, especially in the first half, with stopping dribble penetration which resulted in numerous layups.  Penn State followed their path to success from the first two meetings with DJ Newbill getting into the lane and making plays.  The Nittany Lions scored more than 1 point per possession for the 3^rd time against Michigan this season, and all 3 of their offensive outbursts ranked in their top 4 for the entire season.  It seems pretty clear that we have seen what this Wolverine squad is defensively, and it is a definite weakness.  However, I am still optimistic that this team can regain some of their defensive rebounding prowess from the non-conference season.  If the Wolverines can clean up their glass at least 70% of the time, Michigan will be heading to Atlanta this season.  It was impressive to see the switch be flipped yesterday after Mitch McGary was inserted into the lineup.  Jordan Morgan seems to be lacking confidence on both ends of the floor, which has really affected his defensive rebounding.  But the mountain of a freshman, Vanilla Thunder, sparked the Michigan comeback with a double-double in the first half alone.  It will be interesting to see how much intensity the Wolverines play with today against Wisconsin.  The Badgers are a very physical challenge that rebounds the ball extremely well, but if Michigan can control the defensive glass they should be able to pull away in the end.

There is little to complain about when an offense scores 83 points in just 62 possessions.  There is a direct correlation to big man contributions to offensive efficiency.  When the Michigan center rotation scores more than 20 points with 13 rebounds combined, the offense has scored more than 1.13 points per possession.  It is pretty difficult to lose when scoring that many points.  Yesterday, McGary, Horford, and Morgan combined for 25 points and 18 rebounds.  Burke was back to his usual antics by scoring 21 points.  He only finished with 3 assists, but had many missed opportunities with Morgan missing 4 layups off of Burke passes.  Stauskas continued his impressive 3 game stretch by scoring 15 points on just 7 shots, he attacked the rim extremely well again and drew 3 fouls for 5 free throws.  Hardaway continued his cold shooting from behind the arc (1-7), but he did find success when creating his shot going to the hoop.  Wisconsin has a tendency to lull teams into taking contested jump shots, so it will be important for the Wolverines to continue to be aggressive on offense and getting the ball into the paint as much as possible. 

Wisconsin is next up on the payback weekend of 2013.  If Michigan can survive and advance today they most likely have secured an opening weekend trip to the Palace of Auburn Hills as a 2 or high 3 seed.  But also almost as importantly, will get another chance to take down Indiana tomorrow.  I know getting rest is a higher priority for some teams during the conference tournament weekend, but I think for this young Wolverine team picking up as many wins against top B1G teams will be invaluable for the NCAA tournament.  This squad needs to realize it can beat the best and not just be left with the what-ifs from last weekend.