Michigan Basketball: 3 takeaways from sluggish win over Penn State

It wasn’t one of Picasso’s masterpieces, but Michigan basketball went to Happy Valley and prevailed by the slimmest of margins.

Things looked bleak in the first half when Michigan basketball trailed by 11 before halftime. That’s the moment when the Wolverines went on a 15-0 run to go up by four entering the second stanza.

Michigan was on top the rest of the contest except when Penn State tied it at 48 for a second, then Michigan reclaimed the lead for the remaining couple of minutes on the clock to drain it away.

Here are the three takeaways from the victory.

1. The second half was a snooze fest

The announcers mentioned it in the broadcast that players were just standing around a lot and waiting for something to happen. There was little movement, but when it would come Penn State used pick and roll ball screens to try and get open drives down the lane of the defense to set up for contested lay-ups.

Hunter Dickinson was usually the one contesting those shots for Michigan’s defense. He was the only maize and blue defender to block a shot on the night and he finished with four of them. His presence in the lane made the Nittany Lions stand behind the three point line and wait for the ball to come their way.

That’s a big reason why Michigan held Penn State to only 57 points. The Nittany Lions are in no way an offensive explosion of a team. The competition will not be that easy for the next four games though, as they go to battle with three top 25 clubs over that four game span starting with the number one club in the Big Ten on Thursday.