3 takeaways from Michigan Basketball’s win over Southern Utah

Michigan basketball won its seventh game of the season Saturday night against Southern Utah and here are three takeaways. 

For what seemed like the third or fourth time this month, Michigan basketball put together a solid performance and actually looked like the Michigan basketball team we expected this season.

The Wolverines took on Southern Utah in a buy game but it wasn’t going to be easy if they didn’t play well. Southern Utah won the Big Sky last year and has a good shot of making the NCAA tournament.

It also forces teams to shoot a lot of jumpers and for once, the Wolverines knocked some down, making seven 3-pointers.

The biggest difference-maker, outside of Hunter Dickinson, was DeVante Jones. He directed the offense early and also made an early 3-pointer that seemed to boost his confidence. He scored 13 points, dished out six assists, and grabbed three rebounds.

And here are our three takeaways from Michigan’s 87-50 win.

DeVante Jones needs to keep playing with confidence

Jones had a ridiculous 1.90 points per possession rating and frankly, it was probably his best game as a Michigan basketball player.

The former Sun Belt Player of the Year was 5-of-6 overall from the field and made all three of his 3-point attempts, which could be a gamechanger if he can do that with consistency.

Now, this was Southern Utah. Hunter Dickinson dominated too and scored 22 points on 11-of-15 shooting, as well as grabbing 11 rebounds. The difference is that Dickinson has consistently performed against the best competition in college hoops.

Jones hasn’t done that consistently. He needs to prove he can handle playing point guard in the Big Ten and on Saturday, he looked the part but that won’t mean much if he can’t replicate that in January when the most important games start in earnest.