Michigan Basketball: 3 takeaways from the extermination of Xavier
By Nick Popio
On Thanksgiving eve in Florida, the Wolverines trailed for a resounding 13 seconds to Xavier. They went down by two and abruptly took back the lead with a Danny Wolf 3-poiner. It was a sign of things to come for the Michigan basketball team and Wolf who had an outstanding shooting night. His teammate, Vlad Goldin, did him one better though, by hitting his first trifecta of his illustrious career.
Here are three of the takeaways from the 25 point routing of Xavier.
1. Danny Wolf and Vlad Goldin tormented the Musketeers
The duo combined for half of the Wolverines' points on Wednesday night in Fort Myers. Goldin shot 78% from the field, mostly dunks and points in the paint, while Wolf shot 67% and did a little bit of everything, including 14 rebounds. Together, it was their best performance in a maize and blue uniform. As for the team, Michigan basketball shined at 50% from deep, too.
Xavier had no one who could guard the pair of seven footers. When they tried to, Wolf made them look silly and Goldin was hammering it home with authority. John Hugley can match the size, but that's about it. Zach Freemantle was their only big who made some noise with 14 points. Ryan Conwell and Marcus Foster were the only other two Musketeers who swam above the 10 point mark.
It was Xavier's lowest point total of the young season by a wide margin. They came in at 83 points per clip and were held to 30 points below that. That is a significant factor as to why Michigan basketball won this game so easily.