Michigan Basketball: 3 things we learned from win over MSU

Defense, defense, defense

Hunter Dickinson was special on Tuesday night. There is no debate about that. But the Wolverines also put together one of their best defensive efforts of the season and that’s the biggest reason why they won the game going away.

After getting torched in East Lansing, in part because of really poor transition defense, Michigan basketball held the Spartans to under a point per possession (98.6).

That’s not a dominant number but Michigan generally wins when it keeps teams under a point and after the previous game with Michigan State, that was a huge victory.

The communication was fantastic and the ball-screen defense was much improved. The Wolveriners went back to their drop coverage with Dickinson defending the bucket and it was effective.

Michigan State still made 51 percent of its 2-point attempts, but that was down from 58 percent in the first game.  MSU was also just 5-for-16 from deep.

Thanks to Dickinson’s domination and Collins’ playmaking in the first half, the Wolverines scored 1.22 points per possession, meaning their above-average defense was more than enough to run away with the game, and really, it was over at halftime.

The Spartans made a push but were shellshocked early and got down by as many as 20. They never got within 10 and in the big picture, this win was once again proof that when Michigan basketball is playing its best, it’s more than capable of doing damage in the big dance.