Michigan Basketball: 3 takeaways from the pile driving of Pitt

Pitt came out strong but faded over time as Juwan Howard’s guys excelled in just about every aspect of the neutral court face-off.

Pitt was leading midway through the first half when Michigan basketball finally made their move. They never relinquished the lead as it only grew from that moment on. It got as high as 32 as time mercifully ran out on the Panthers’ fight. Michigan’s offense just poured it on in the second half to the tune of outscoring the Panthers 53-28.

Here are the three takeaways.

1. Michigan’s onslaught was well balanced

Three starters notched double digits and Hunter Dickinson wasn’t even the leading scorer in Wednesday night’s mauling of Pitt. That’s a very productive night for Michigan’s offensive attack when Dickinson doesn’t have to be the focal point. Joey Baker threw in 14 off the bench with 12 of them coming from deep.

34 of the 91 points came from the reserves, with seven youngsters seeing action in the win. Michigan basketball will obviously win a lot of contests if it can shoot like it did against Pitt, but don’t have to rely on Dickinson to carry them all the time. That’s something that its future opponents had better be very wary of.

Kobe Bufkin was the only starter who had to play over thirty minutes in the victory. That’s another feather in the cap for the coaching staff to keep everyone on the roster fresh for tomorrow night’s championship tilt. The Wolverines are going to need it against Arizona State (and Frankie Collins) in what should be a much closer outing than what Pitt gave them.