Michigan Basketball: Instant impressions from win over Northwestern

Michigan basketball hit the road Wednesday night and looked strong in an impressive win over Northwestern. Here are instant impressions.

Following the return of Isaiah Livers and a huge win over Michigan State last Saturday, you could feel the Michigan basketball team was about to play some good basketball.

And Wednesday night, despite a slow start against Northwestern, the Wolverines continued that trend with an easy 79-54 road win in the Big Ten.

Suddenly, a Michigan basketball team that was 2-6 in the Big Ten conference, is 6-7 after having won four of five and with Indiana coming to Ann Arbor this Sunday, the Wolverines have a golden opportunity to get another solid win and get back to .500.

Of course, it wasn’t smooth right from the start. The Wildcats grabbed an early lead, which made things a little worrisome. However, a 27-5 run allowed Michigan basketball to assume control. U-M led 38-23 at the half and put it on cruise control over the final 20 minutes.

Here are some instant impressions from the Wolverines win:

• Jon Teske‘s poor offensive play continues and there is just no answer for it. His defense and rebounding are essential. He’s also a good passer and he does a lot of good things, but he’s in a slump offensively and it’s come at the worst possible time. Hopefully, he can get out of it before the month of March.
• Eli Brooks continued his shooting tear. People forget sometimes how well Brooks shot the ball coming out of high school and against the Wildcats, he connected four times from beyond the arc, including a big hit late as Northwestern tried to make a run, helping with finishing with a team-high 18 points.
• Michigan basketball is a much, much better team with Livers on the floor. He didn’t even hit a 3-pointer but he scored 17 points, got to the free throw line and made all of them when he did. He can create his own shot and the Wolverines can run the offense through him. That’s invaluable, as is his ability to play defense.

• Michigan feels like the team it was early in the season. Obviously, there is a long way to go, but with games looming against Indiana and Rutgers, the resume could get even stronger. U-M now should only need 3-4 wins in conference to play to wrap up a big, however, if the Wolverines can keep rolling, a much-improved seed isn’t out of the question.