Posted at 6:00am — 1/11/2011
GBMWolverine: Michigan Basketball — Michigan vs. Kansas — Hangs Tough
Athletes count and Kansas pulled out a win against Michigan on Sunday’s nationally televised game mainly on the strength of better and bigger athletes. But the win turned from a gimmee to a nervous effort that required more time and effort than undefeated Kansas imagined after the first 10 minutes of the game.
Michigan came out and could not get a decent shot against a big and aggressive man-to-man defense of Kansas. Coaches scream ‘pressure on the ball” constantly in basketball practices, and Kansas put so much pressure on Michigan’s shooters, especially early on with the perimeter guys, that one wondered if the Wolverines would dent double digits in the first half.
Clark Kellogg then mentioned that Coach Beilein was making an obvious move to run so that Michigan could at least have a decent shot at the hoop. A big lead started to dwindle and the Wolverines found themselves back in the game.
The decision to run was clearly a nice move by Coach B, but the somewhat unheralded reason Michigan climbed back into the game was the great defense that held Kansas to far fewer points than anyone expected.
The man-to-man again was pretty solid with the exceptions of open threes, many of which did not go in, and inside mismatches; Morgan and Novak against everyone in Jayhawk blue. Then Beilein threw in enough 1-3-1 to make the game a slow death match.
The game was exciting and demonstrated that if the opposition goes cold, like Kansas did Sunday, UM can hang in and compete with high level teams at home, unlike the Purdue outing. Less exciting was the three-point shooting Michigan once again displayed. This strategy is a deficit if at least 35% do not go down. Most teams want 38-40%.
Some observations follow. First, the team played very hard and moral victories are bitter at best. But this had to reinforce to the players that progress is being made and keep working the system. Second, the teamwork remains very good, still at times it does look like a certain couple of guys are firing away to get their share of the cake. This may be out of necessity since the other members of the offense are not working hard to get shots. Third, Hardaway’s game is becoming more versatile and several teams across the country probably said, “why didn’t we recruit him?” Fourth, Jordan Morgan should sue for non-support. At times in the game he had mismatches and no effort at all was made to get the ball over the top. Granted, Jordan gets some rimwreckers when his man leaves for Morris or he makes a nice backdoor cut for a layup. But there still remains a stubbornness for this program to work the pivot. Fifth, Coach Beilein again is showing Darius Morris that he needs to stop with the downside and perk up to play. He still continues to lose easy opportunities with one-handed passes that trade a sure two for a chance at for the opponents to score two (or three). Sixth, this team really needs to do something about the soft, weak hands that cost several possessions a game. And yes there are plenty of things that can be done to help such a situation.
Next up is a deeper Ohio State team with more athletes and better shooters than Kansas. The fear is that the Kansas game may have taken too much out of the young Wolverines, who for most of the last few years have faired poorly on the backside of two tough games. The game is at home, so at least there is something going UM’s way. The guys will have to play maybe even better to stay in the game against a team that could win it all this season.
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Written by GBMWolverine Staff
Go Blue — Wear Maize!