Michigan Basketball: 3 takeaways from Wolverines win over Montana

Michigan basketball knocked off Montana Thursday in Wichita to advance to the second round at the NCAA Tournament, here are three takeaways.

The Michigan basketball team has had a pretty good record in tournament play the past two seasons and Thursday night, UM added another win. The Wolverines beat Montana and are now just a game away from going to the Sweet 16 for the second straight season.

Yet, if Michigan basketball is going to advance to the second weekend of the NCAA Tournament, will be need to play much better than it did against the Griz. The Wolverines won the game 61-47 and played incredible defense. However, the offense was out of sync and it can’t be against Houston.

Over the years, Michigan has generally won with offense, but that hasn’t necessarily been the case this season. This might be the best defensive team John Beilein has ever had and it showed in the win over Montana.

But what else can we learn from Michigan’s 14-point win? And what does Michigan need to do better to keep its 10-game winning steak alive? Getting the first win in the books, is always the most difficult thing to do. Especially because Montana was actually a pretty good basketball team.

The Grizzlies, who won the Big Sky regular season and tournament titles, were not a normal 14 seed. They were a strong defensive club and had some big-time players in the backcourt.

It was a test that Michigan passed, even if it wasn’t with flying colors. So here are three key takeaways from the win over Montana, with an eye on Houston.