3 Things we learned about Michigan Basketball in scare against Oakland

Michigan basketball needed overtime to escape with a win over Oakland on Sunday and here’s three things we learned about the Wolverines in the win.

Early season competition can be an adventure, especially during a pandemic and we saw that with Michigan basketball Sunday, as well as other teams from around the country.

While the Wolverines were able to avoid an upset at the hands of Oakland, thanks to an 81-71 overtime win — other programs such as Virginia, Kentucky and Villanova suffered defeats.

Yet, it was striking to see Michigan basketball play so well on Wednesday, only to turn around and be so sluggish and sloppy on Sunday. The good news is that the Wolverines woke up just in time and really played well in the five-minute overtime to surge to victory.

I couldn’t help but think back to the football season though, when everyone thought Michigan was great after one game, only it didn’t turn out to be true.

That being said, I don’t think this team is a fraud at all. But with two freshman and two transfers playing key roles in the rotation, there could be some growing pains and we saw a little of that Sunday.

As far as the key things we learned, we start with the turnovers.

Maybe turnovers will be an issue after all

With Zavier Simpson playing point guard, Michigan was outstanding in terms of taking care of the basketball. Under John Beilein, Michigan routinely was among the best in the country in limiting turnovers and there were questions about how that would go without Simpson running the show?

In the first game against Bowling Green, everything ran smoothly. Mike Smith was able to play 30-plus minutes and he looked dynamic. Ball-handing didn’t seem to be an issue.

But against the zone defense of Oakland and the trapping 1-3-1, the Wolverines had some issues. Smith and Eli Brooks combined for 8 turnovers. As a team, U-M had 20.

In the first half, according to Dylan Burkhardt of UMHoops (subscription required), the Wolverines turned that ball over on 39 percent of their first-half possessions.

By the end of the game, that ratio had dropped down to 20 percent. Late in the game, Brooks did a much better job of running the show. Smith, who was in foul trouble most of the night saw limited action with just 18 minutes.

Zeb Jackson saw eight minutes off the bench and it was clear at this point, he’s not ready to play extended minutes. Hunter Dickinson and Terrance Williams both are, but Jackson will need a little more polish.

That means the point guard duties will be down to Smith and Brooks and Sunday showed that Smith will need to be on the floor. Another issue though was defense. Smith didn’t play much in OT even though he had only four fouls because Brooks was so good on defense.

It’s hard to hide Smith and against the zone, it was limiting his ability to attack. Part of these problems had to do with the zone and just not being prepared.

But a lot of it was poor passes as in physical mistakes and some were just mental errors as you saw players throwing passes you might see attempted in a JV high school game.

That was sort of stunning, but it’s also not something to worry about. That stuff is easily correctable. What isn’t is Michigan’s concerning lack quality ball-handlers.