Michigan Basketball: 3 Things we learned in win against Ball State

Michigan basketball bounced back from a sluggish performance Sunday to defeat Ball State with ease and here are three things we learned in the win.

After probably not taking Oakland seriously enough on a Sunday night, the Michigan basketball team didn’t make the same mistake on Wednesday at home against Ball State.

The Wolverines started crisp, really at the beginning of both halves and that led Michigan to an 84-65 win in its third game of the season and the second against a MAC opponent.

Yet, even though Ball State is from the Mid-American Conference, it’s not a pushover. The Cardinals are a top 150 team and they presented a few challenges that the Wolverines held up pretty well against.

Again, this isn’t beating Duke but it wasn’t a total nobody either.

Michigan basketball put together a nice outing offensively and managed 1.15 points per possession. It wasn’t quite the 1.32 the Wolverines managed in the opener and part of that had to with only four made 3-pointers but there were still plenty of positives.

One was that Franz Wagner reached double figures for the first time this season, scoring 14 points and making his first 3-pointer of the year. Still, he only attempted six shots.

Austin Davis started and attempted three shots — making all of them, but also gave way to Hunter Dickinson who had 12 points and 11 rebounds in 21 minutes. He also blocked a shot and grabbed three offensive boards, giving us more evidence that he should be starting.

Isaiah Livers was the real story though and that’s where we begin our look at what we learned about the Wolverines against Ball State.