Michigan Basketball: Grading Wolverines against Northwestern

Guards

Eli Brooks: A

Brooks does so many important things for this team that he doesn’t need to score a ton to make an impact, but he does and he was huge Sunday with 4-of-5 makes from 3-point range and 14 points as well as five assists.

Brooks won’t get the headlines that go to Dickinson and Wagner or even Brown, but he was the third-best player in terms of plus-minus and he only had one turnover. He also led the regular rotation guys in true shooting percentage (77.8).

For the season, Eli is scoring 9.9 points, dishing out 3.9 assists, turning it over just 1.9 times per game and also shooting 38.5 percent from deep with 1.7 makes per game. He’s a glue guy but he’s shooting the ball at high level and he’s easily the most underrated guy on the roster.

Mike Smith: B-

Smith didn’t have a great night scoring and finished with just five points but he dished out six assists and even when he isn’t scoring, his command of the offense is huge.

He and Brooks were a huge part in Michigan assisting on 22 of its 32 field goals and his ability to create offense out of ball screens has been exemplary.

Smith turns the ball over more than I’d like at times, but it’s not terrible and it’s something Michigan can live with.