Michigan Basketball: Grading the Wolverines against Toledo

Michigan basketball took down Toledo in the final non-conference game of the season and here are the grades for the Wolverines.

When Michigan basketball scheduled Toledo earlier this week on late notice, there was a reason to be concerned about the Rockets possibly pulling an upset.

Toledo is a very good 3-point shooting team and on short notice, you wondered how this Michigan basketball team would respond?

The answer was with flying colors. Austin Davis dominated early and Michigan really controlled the paint throughout. U-M also hit 9-of-15 shots from 3-point range and held a solid offensive team to just 1.0 points per possession.

https://twitter.com/umichbball/status/1336863629887610881

On the other end, Michigan scored 1.28 points per possession and had five guys reach double figures. The Wolverines also got 30 points off the bench.

All in all, it was an impressive win, but now Big Ten play starts Sunday and the real bullets start flying. Before we look ahead though, let’s take a look back at the grades for Toledo.

Guards

Mike Smith: B+

In terms of running the offense and creating shots for others, Smith was really good Wednesday night. He scored seven points and made a trey, but his biggest contribution was his seven assists and zero turnovers. He really excelled out of ball-screen actions and it’s clear that he is the Wolverines best weapon in those sets. However, his jumper needs to come along for him to be even more effective. He was just 2-of-6 from the field and has struggled to shoot.

Eli Brooks: A-

When looking at the box score, I’m not a big fan of the fact that Brooks took 12 shots on the night. However, he did make five, scored 12 points in the second half and hit a couple of 3-pointers. His defense was also exceptional and he was a huge part of the suffocating effort in the first half. He also had three steals, three assists, a block and no turnovers. His offensive game is a little limited but he’s invaluable to this team.