Michigan Basketball: 3 takeaways from demoralizing UNC loss
By Nick Popio
1. Starting Moussa Diabate is a no brainer from here on out
The talented freshman got the start for Brandon Johns to try and mix things up in the lineup and it worked well in the beginning. He got off to a scorching start by scoring seven of Michigan’s first 12 points. It helped Michigan to go step-for-step in the first half and kept the game close until both clubs went into the locker room.
Diabate finished with 13 and did very little following his hot start. He probably did enough though to earn another start in the lineup on Saturday. His confidence, which was on full display tonight, is something that this group can rally around if they ever find an identity to put all of this untapped potential together.
After scoring 11 points on 5-6 shooting in the first half, Carolina has held Moussa Diabate to 2 points on 0-3 shooting in the first 9 minutes of the second half.
— Isaac Schade (@isaacschade) December 2, 2021
As a team, Michigan is shooting 21.4% in the second half.
Johns played 17 minutes and didn’t do much either. He’s been struggling as a starter so this decision to tap Diabate over him was a rather easy one for coach Howard.
Diabate has more to offer and unless something changes, he should remain ahead of Johns on the depth chart for the time being.