Michigan Basketball: 3 things we learned in win over Northwestern

Michigan basketball beat Northwestern Sunday night at the Crisler Center to get to 17-0. Here are three things we learned from the Wolverines win.

Over the past few seasons, Northwestern has always found a way to make things tough on Michigan basketball, especially with its stingy defense. But Sunday night in Ann Arbor, the Wolverines finally solved Chris Collins‘ defense and they did it with Zavier Simpson and Jon Teske.

When opposing coaches prepare for the Michigan offense, it’s not likely that Simpson and Teske are the focal points. Simpson is the point guard and he is a dangerous creator for others and does a splendid job of getting to the bucket — not to mention his gorgeous sky hook.

But he’s necessarily a dynamic scorer. Simpson is definitely not known as a shooter and neither is the 7-foot-2 Teske, who had hit just five 3-pointers coming into the game, yet knocked down three in the first half against Northwestern, the same half that saw him score a career-high 17 points.

While Teske went off in the first half, the second half belonged to Simpson, who canned three triples as the Wolverines ran away from the Wildcats. A step-back three late in the game was the final dagger. It also gave Simpson 24 points in the win, on 5-of-10 shooting from deep.

It was an incredible performance. Teske wasn’t far behind with 17 points and 11 boards, while Charles Matthews added 13 and Ignas Brazdeikis pitched in with 11. It was a tremendous all-around performance and now, the Wolverines are 17-0 for the first time ever.

With that in mind, here are three things we learned from Michigan’s 80-60 win over the Cats.