Michigan Basketball: 3 things to watch vs UNLV

2. Will the defense finish strong or fall apart again?

Tuesday night, Michigan basketball sold me defensively. I understand that’s a piping hot take but hear me out. For 3/4 of the game, Michigan had Seton Hall on absolute clamps. DeVante Jones is such a good defender on the perimeter it is unreal. Seton Hall was hitting 100% contest in-your-face shots that are a once-in-a-lifetime deal.

Even with them hitting those insane shots they still only shot 40% from the field and 30% from three. Another key component was getting defensive rebounds. While Michigan struggles to get offensive rebounds, they’ve had little pushback with getting defensive boards. Picking up 28 defensive boards against Seton Hall was a big part of Michigan’s success defensively.

However, the last five or so minutes happened. Seton Hall climbed its way back into this game by hitting wide-open threes and shots as we talked about earlier that were contested. Michigan’s defense completely collapsed at the end which pushed Seton Hall over the edge.

As long as Michigan basketball can play a full 40 minutes of defense it should be fine. UNLV is not an offensive powerhouse, so they need to capitalize on that and keep them below 60 points.