Michigan's biggest strength this season has been its defense. That wasn't the case against Purdue on Sunday. It also wasn't the case for long stretches against Howard on Thursday in the first round of the NCAA Tournament in an 101-80 win.
The 16th-seeded Bison made things interesting for half, way too interesting for Michigan basketball fans. The Wolverines had a 50-39 lead, but after a 7-0 run, Howard trailed by just four points at the half.
Howard was hot from 3-point range, but eventually cooled down. At one point, Michigan made 10 of 11 shots, while the Bison missed 1 of 9. They came back to earth. Michigan, which scored 50 in the first half, allowing 46, continued to dominate.
Howard couldn't keep up with the efforts of Michigan to run. Some easy dunks and 3-point shots turned a tight game into a blowout, along with the tandem of Morez Johnson and Aday Mara.
That was good to see. Johnson scored 21 points and grabbed 10 rebounds. Mara scored 19 points, had seven boards, and six assists. Yaxel scored just nine points on five shot attempts, but offense wasn't the least of the worries on Thursday night.
Michigan explodes for 100 points but defense is a concern
The bench helped Michigan pull away as Roddy Gayle, Will Tschtter, and Trey McKenney combined for 29 points and five 3-point field goals. The Wolverines knocked down 11 treys compared to 13 for Howard, which shot 46 percent. Michigan shot 48.
The Wolverines shot 67 percent overall. They dominated the paint and outrebounded Howard 34-21. Turnovers weren't an issue in the second half for U-M, which did resemble the team that was blowing teams out with ease early in the year.
However, it's hard to ignore the 46 points surrendered to Howard in the first half. Purdue torched Michgan, too, scoring 1.26 points per possession.
This was the sixth straight game where the Wolverines didn't cover the spread. That doesn't mean anything, other than this team hasn't been firing on all cylinders.
It didn't on Thursday either, outside of 5-10 minutes. That's all that was needed to knock out Howard. That might be enough to beat either Georgia or Saint Louis in the second, but it won't be enough to cut down the nets at the Final Four.
That's the goal of this Michigan basketball team. It will have to be better to achieve it. Howard wasn't good enough to make the Wolverines pay for giving up 14 3-pointers, but in the next round and hopefully beyond, Michigan might not be so lucky.