Michigan Basketball: 3 things we learned from Penn State loss
Michigan’s offense struggles on the road again
One reason to worry about Michigan heading into Tuesday’s game was the way the Wolverines had struggled to score on the road throughout Big Ten play.
Coming into the game against Penn State, UM was averaging just over 61 points a game on the road and just over 70 for the season. While those numbers certainly aren’t bad, it’s not what the Wolverines are used to and against a tough defense, the offense couldn’t get going until it was too late.
Things are not going as planned for Michigan in Happy Valley. 👀
— Big Ten Network (@BigTenNetwork) February 13, 2019
First @PennStateMBB hits a buzzer-beater to go up 40-27 at the break, then John Beilein gets tossed with two quick technical fouls: pic.twitter.com/Kjj88kbqSV
Penn State pressed for much of the game and even though they didn’t pressure the ball much, the Nittany Lions succeeded in forcing Michigan to start its offense late in the shot clock. Instead of attacking, the Wolverines passed the ball around the perimeter and settled for a lot of contested shots with the shot clock running down.
Beilein will certainly have a chance to adjust to that, but something needs to change and if this team is going to go anywhere over the final month of the season, the offense needs to find some kind of consistency.