Michigan Basketball: 3 takeaways from essential win over Rutgers

Phil Martelli and his fellow assistants did a splendid job filling in for Juwan Howard as Michigan basketball surged past a hot Rutgers bunch by the margin of 71-62.

Rutgers battled for most of the night, but Michigan basketball put it in overdrive for a must-have win when it comes to their tournament resume.

Four of the five starters went for 11 or more points, while barely catching a breather because of the lack of depth. Kobe Bufkin played a poignant role, as his continued progress is developing at a game-by-game rate.

Here are the three takeaways from the home triumph.

1. Caleb Houstan found his stroke from deep

The inconsistent freshman who is self-proclaimed to be harder on himself than anyone else is played arguably his best game of the season.

He had a career-high and team-high of 21 and tied his season-high of five made 3-pointers in the win. He was over 50% from the field and the same from three-point land.

Houstan’s first meeting with Rutgers was a commendable one even though Michigan lost in Piscataway in the first contest of their 2022 schedule. This time around Houstan and his mates left no doubt. It was one of the rare times this year that someone else besides Hunter Dickinson was the primary scorer for the Wolverines.

Michigan basketball has been yearning for Houstan to showcase his five-star talents all year now. He’s shown glimpses, but he has failed to live up to the lofty expectations that many recruiting pundits thought he would have surely become by now.

Houstan hit the proverbial freshman wall one too many times and is due for a string of good fortunes to come his way.