As if the Detroit Free Press could do anything else wrong in the mind of Michigan fans, here’s their latest headline on DeShawn Sims and Manny Harris as they head towards the NBA Draft:

*facepalm*

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With the college basketball season wrapping up this week, I thought it would be a good time to bring a real expert in to talk some Michigan basketball. Chris Balas is the senior editor of TheWolverine.com, and he was willing to answer a few questions on this past season, recruiting, and next year’s outlook for Michigan basketball.

TWB: First, a simple question. After the surprise NCAA tournament appearance last year, what went wrong for this team in 2009-10?

CB: Chemistry, No. 1. This team lacked leadership from its upperclassmen, became a bit “cliquish” after having great camaraderie a year earlier and didn’t have a David Merritt or C.J. Lee type glue guy to hold them together. There just wasn’t enough trust.

These guys got better (and pretty good) defensively, but when you’re playing small, you’ve got to make shots. Thirty percent from long range isn’t going to win you many games, and guys like Zack Novak, Stu Douglass and Laval Lucas-Perry who were expected to improve in this area simply didn’t. If they’d been even adequate from long range this year they’d have been a tournament team again.

After this year’s disappointing season, there has been some questions about John Beilein and if he’s the right man to coach this team (a note: I think these people are crazy, but the questions are out there). Do you still think Beilein is the man for the Michigan job, and what will he have to do next season and beyond to maintain his job security?

Athletic Director David Brandon likes Beilein and the way he runs his program — more than that, he also thinks he’s a good coach. They’ll be on a level playing field when it comes to facilities in a few years, which will help (but which is also overblown) — but honestly, only  a few bad breaks have kept a few potential difference makers from being here. IF German Robin Benzing, a projected NBA first-round pick, had qualified, IF Tom Izzo hadn’t decided last minute to offer Draymond Green, IF Ben Cronin hadn’t been injured and had continued to develop … who knows where they’d be right now?

At some point, though, those IFs have to become WHENs. Beilein knows it, and he’s motivated. He’ll get at least a few more years to build his program, and rightfully so. People talk about him inheriting DeShawn Sims, Manny Harris, etc., but conveniently forget that he was also left with several recruits who weren’t capable of playing at this level (and for the record, the thought that keeping Alex Legion (with all his baggage) in the fold would have helped is laughable).

Michigan fans are holding out hope that Trey Zeigler will commit and be able to step into Harris’ role as the go-to wing for Michigan. Do you have a sense of Michigan’s chances to land Zeigler, and how ready do you think he is to be able to step in and contribute immediately?

There’s still a solid chance … had Michigan had a better season, I think he would have already committed. His best relationships are with Beilein and UCLA coach Ben Howland, though MSU’s success has intrigued him and Central Michigan (with father Ernie) is a darkhorse. He wants to play early, he is comfortable in Ann Arbor … if you put a gun to my head, I’d still say U-M lands him. He likes the thought of playing close to family and friends, too.

Zeigler needs work on his perimeter game and especially free throws … he went two for his last 21 at the line, which is cause for concern … but there’s little doubt he’d play as a freshman. They need people with his athleticism, so he’d be playing and learning on the fly the way Manny Harris did as a freshman (though I wouldn’t expect him to have the same impact as a scorer).

Beilein has already put together a solid class in PF Evan Smotrycz and SG Tim Hardaway, Jr. What roles do you see those two having in 2010-11, and what kind of production should we expect from them?

Both will have an opportunity to play. Beilein is looking for added length on the floor, and both fit the bill, though both need to get much stronger. Beilein has talked about adjusting to physical play in the Big Ten – both of these guys had better hit the weight room this summer and be prepared if they want to play significant roles.

I like the thought of Hardaway in the 1-3-1 and his shooting ability, and I like Smotrycz’s skill set at his size, but these guys are still freshmen, and they’ll be vying for minutes against players who have been here for a while. Think Zack Novak, for example – as limited as he might be — is going to give up his minutes without a fight? He’s going to be hard to keep off the floor, whether people want to believe it or not.

Eventually, these guys (and potentially Zeigler) will be the nucleus of some fine teams down the road – at the very least they’ll provide more competition this fall as guys fight to keep their jobs.

With Manny Harris leaving school early and DeShawn Sims, Zack Gibson, and Anthony Wright graduating, Michigan will return less than half of their scoring and rebounding production from 2009-10. What’s your overall outlook for the team next year, and who do you think will step up and replace that production?

No two guys are going to emerge to replace the scoring Sims and Harris supplied the last two years. It’s going to have to be by committee, and a few guys — point guard Darius Morris, for one — are going to have to make huge strides this summer to pick up the slack. Morris has to become at least somewhat of an outside threat to keep defenders honest – hopefully he’s shooting 1,000 jumpers a day this summer — while Novak, Stu Douglass and Laval Lucas-Perry simply have to shoot the ball better.

The problem, though, is the lack of guys who can do much with the ball off the dribble. Watching the tournament, how many open looks were created by just a little bit of penetration? Morris can provide some and Zeigler might, too, but other than that …

On top of that, one of the big men — Blake McLimans, Jordan Morgan or Jon Horford as a true freshman — is going to have to be at least serviceable. We heard good things about McLimans’ progress, but Morgan would take two steps back with injury for every step forward, and Horford is awfully skinny (though we like his potential down the road).

The hope is that a guy like Lucas-Perry, who can be an unbelievable asset when he’s both aggressive and playing with confidence, can really take a huge leap, your alleged shooters start knocking down their open looks and they become a really tight and close-knit team that overachieves. A lot of that is built in the summer, meaning it’s going to take someone to step up in a leadership role and insist everyone goes the extra mile. We’ve seen Beilen teams in the past that as a whole are better than the sum of their parts — if you’re a Michigan fan, that’s what you’re hoping for this season.

Thanks to CB for taking part in this. For more of his thoughts on Michigan sports, and much more, check out TheWolverine.com.

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A few weeks ago, I took a look at what Michigan basketball’s lineup would look like in 2010-11, with one large assumption: that Manny Harris would be staying with the team. With Manny now off to pursue a pro basketball career, the Wolverines are left without their top two scorers and rebounders from the past three years, and not a whole lot of production from their returning players. With Harris, DeShawn Sims, Zack Gibson, and Anthony Wright departing, Michigan loses 61% of their points, 53% of their rebounds, and 39% of their assists from players who took up just under 42% of the team’s minutes last season.

That wouldn’t be such an issue if the load was spread evenly across those four players (and the rest of the team), but Harris and Sims obviously accounted for most of that production. Now Michigan’s leading returning scorer and rebounder is Zack Novak, who averaged 7.4 points and 4.3 boards per game last season, while Darius Morris is the team’s returning assist leader at 2.6 per game. The scariest part? Morris also is the team’s leading shooter among returning players… after shooting 40.6% from the field last season.

The good news? Michigan is adding two guys with the potential to be high-volume scorers in PF Evan Smotrycz and SG/SF Tim Hardaway, Jr., as well as depth up front in PF Jon Horford. Here’s what next year’s rotation looks like right now:

I hate to say it, but that looks like a team that will struggle to remain in postseason contention of any kind, let alone a squad that will lift the Wolverines back into the NCAA tournament. There is, however, one huge wild card still at play: SG Trey Zeigler, the #26 player in the class of 2010 according to Rivals.com, has Michigan in his final five teams, and many expect his final decision to come down to the Wolverines and Central Michigan, where his father is the head coach. Zeigler could provide something that appears to be lacking in the above lineup, a player who can get into the lane, create his own shot and bear his share of the scoring load.

Even if Zeigler signs, however, there will be huge question marks surrounding this team next season. The lack of depth up front borderlines on dire, with two redshirt freshmen coming off injury-plagued years (Jordan Morgan and Blake McLimans) representing the only returning Wolverines capable of playing center — and that’s a stretch for the lanky McLimans — and two true freshmen (Smotrycz and Horford, who is rail-thin for a 6-9 power forward) as the only other bigs on the roster.

There are equally large concerns with the players who have seen actual minutes with the Wolverines as well. Can Darius Morris round out his game and continue the improvement we saw from him over the course of his freshman season? Will Zack Novak be more effective if he is able to play small forward instead of extremely-undersized power forward? Can Matt Vogrich become a reliable rotation player after barely seeing the floor as a freshman? Will Laval Lucas-Perry do something — anything — positive with any sort of consistency?

Of course, the biggest question, perhaps the key to the entire season, will simply be this: Can this team find their shooting stroke? Michigan finished 2009-10 shooting 41.6% from the field as a team, and just 29.9% from three, in an offense predicated around finding open jump-shooters and knocking down triples. Even if Smotrycz and Hardaway come in and shoot the lights out, this team will still need Douglass, Novak, and Morris to greatly improve their shooting performances from last season if they hope to stay in postseason contention and out of the Big Ten basement.

Manny Harris leaving early may become the ultimate test of John Beilein and his system — he will have to take a nucleus of supporting cast players and true freshmen and mold them into a productive team, somehow, or there will be very serious questions about his job security (whether those questions are deserved or not). Let’s all hope he’s as good a coach as his resume makes him appear to be, or it could be a very ugly 2010-11 season.

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When I was growing up, I’d read the sports section of the Ann Arbor News and the New York Times every day, without fail.

Every day, that is, except after days when Michigan lost.

You’d think things would change, but all I wanted to do when I got up today was go back to bed, ignore everything that happened last night — and this morning — and try to pretend like this wasn’t the worst possible way to end the worst year in Michigan sports… ever.

We all know what happened by now: Michigan got completely screwed out of what should have been the game-winning goal in OT against Miami when the ref blew the play dead (or at least intended to) with the puck sitting uncontrolled in the crease. One OT period later, and a quick wrister got by Shawn Hunwick. Season over, in unbelievably painful fashion.

This morning, Manny Harris officially announced he was opting to declare early for the NBA draft.

To be honest, I’ve got nothing: last night took everything out of me — all the vitriol towards the refs couldn’t overcome the feeling of emptiness, of total defeat, that has accrued over this year of cruelty. So, I will keep my thoughts brief.

First, this Michigan hockey team was a joy to watch for the past few weeks, and should be remembered fondly for their miracle run and unbelievable play down the stretch. They played great hockey last night, and I think every team in the Frozen Four feels a sense of relief that the Wolverines won’t be in Detroit this weekend. If nothing else, that is something to be proud of.

To the hockey seniors — captain Chris Summers, Steve Kampfer, Brian Lebler, Anthony Ciraulo, and Eric Elmblad — thanks for four great years of hockey. I wish their careers could have ended on a better note, but one unfortunate loss shouldn’t ruin the memory of four years with a fantastic hockey program.

To Miami, I only wish them the best of luck. The team has gone through a lot this season, losing one of their student team managers in a fatal car accident, and have a very likable coach and team. The RedHawks weren’t the ones holding the whistles last night, so I hope Michigan fans have the decency to keep their anger directed at those who deserve it. Personally, I’ll be pulling for Miami to go all the way this weekend.

As for Manny, I again can only wish him good luck. Ultimately, this is a college student making a choice about his career (and a very lucrative one at that), and we have to respect the decision that he has made. Manny has played three tremendous years of basketball for Michigan, and has represented his school well. I hope he finds an equal amount of success at the professional level.

That’s really all I have in me for today. Like most of you, I’ll be doing my best to put this weekend in perspective and move on. Tomorrow I’ll have a breakdown about how Manny’s departure will affect the basketball program moving forward. Today, I’ll be doing my best to avoid the papers.

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It was a busy weekend for Michigan sports, and while one team lost in heartbreaking fashion, another pulled off a surprising road sweep to keep their tournament dreams alive.

By now, we all know what happened to the basketball team on Friday, when Evan Turner’s 37-foot prayer was answered at the buzzer to give Ohio State a 69-68 victory over the Wolverines and ending the 2009-10 basketball season for Michigan. My quick thoughts on the game, because it’s still painful to talk about and somewhat old news at this point:

• First, it’s important to mention just how well the team played. While Michigan did allow Ohio State to go on a big run to end the first half, for the most part Michigan hung with, and outplayed, a team that just secured a two-seed in the NCAA tournament and had a strong argument for being one of the one seeds. Losing in that fashion was heartbreaking, but there’s no shame in the loss itself.
• Unbelievable effort by Manny Harris, which unfortunately was overshadowed by Turner’s late-game heroics. 26-6-4 for Manny on 8-15 shooting, including the go-ahead shot that should’ve given Michigan the win. When it came time for someone to step up and get the Wolverines back in the game or to put them ahead, there was no question who was getting the ball: Manny took over, scoring 22 of his 26 points in the second half and putting the team on his back in the final minutes. I felt bad for DeShawn Sims, whose college career ended on Turner’s shot, but I felt just as bad for Manny, who poured everything he had into that game.
• As for the last play: I can understand not guarding the inbounder, but there’s no excuse for not doing that and not getting a great deal of pressure on Turner in the backcourt. John Beilein and his players have tried to defend his, um, defense, saying they (obviously) didn’t expect Turner to hit a half-court shot and just wanted to contest without fouling or double-teaming and allowing another shooter to get an open look. That’s fine, except Ohio State had 2.2 seconds to get the ball all the way up the court and get a shot off. The only way to do that is to either pull the Christian Laettner (a desperation, full-court pass, for those that somehow don’t know what I’m referring to) or do exactly what Michigan allowed them to do: hit a guy running full steam towards midcourt and hope he has the space to get a shot off. If Michigan plays a tight man defense in the backcourt, Turner doesn’t have the chance to sprint before catching the ball, and there’s no way he crosses half court and launches a shot before the buzzer goes. Maybe he gets a look from 50 feet, but if he tries to pass it up to a closer player, he’s in grave danger of allowing time to expire without getting a shot off. I just don’t know how you can defend how Michigan played the last couple seconds, and it cost the team a (very slim, but still) chance at postseason play.
• As always, UMHoops has a more in-depth breakdown if you enjoy pain and whatnot.

In much less depressing news, the Michigan hockey team was able to sweep the hated Spartans in their own arena this weekend to advance to the CCHA semifinals this weekend at the Joe, keeping the team’s NCAA tournament hopes alive in the process. The weekend saw a maddeningly inconsistent Michigan squad turn into the team people expected to roll through the CCHA in the preseason, as they dominated MSU 5-1 on Friday and clinched with a 5-3 victory on Saturday that was much more dominant than the score would suggest. I was able to catch the Saturday game, so here are my thoughts on the clinching victory:

• First, as Brian gleefully points out in his weekend recap, karma finally caught up with Corey Tropp, the Spartans’ leading scorer who you may remember as “Goon #2″ in the Steve Kampfer on-ice assault last season. Tropp stepped on a puck in warmups before the clincher and wasn’t able to play because of the ensuing ankle injury. Seriously. If you don’t believe in karma, read that again: in all my years of watching hockey, I’ve never heard of that happening to a player, especially right before a potentially-deciding playoff game. Couldn’t have happened to a nicer guy, in my opinion.
• One would look at the box score and think this was a close game, with Michigan needing an empty-net goal to seal a 5-3 win late, but this game never should have been close. The Wolverines put in two early goals within a minute of each other, and looked to be running away with the game before taking a couple dumb penalties that allowed the Spartans to score two quick goals of their own and then a go-ahead tally with just 0.7 seconds left in the first period. The shot totals tell the real story of the game: the final tally was 44-21 Michigan, and the Wolverines outshot MSU 16-9 in the first and 16-1 (!) in the second. The team did an unbelievable job playing defense by controlling the puck on offense, which was much-appreciated considering the walk-on playing in net.
• Those penalties, however, were infuriating, and not because of any issues with the officiating (surprise!). Tristin Llewellyn has a fully-deserved reputation for taking bad penalties at bad times, and he nearly cost the team the game on Saturday. He took an entirely unnecessary elbowing penalty with a minute left on a Chad Langlais penalty in the first, leading to a five-on-three that the Spartans capitalized on almost immediately, giving them time to score a second time before Llewellyn’s penalty time had expired. He then took another penalty, this time for a trip along the boards after turning the puck over, with under a minute left in the first, and MSU again took advantage with a goal. Yes, you could easily pin all three of MSU’s goals on Tristin Llewellyn taking bad penalties on Saturday. Brian points out, with a fair amount of surprise, that Llewellyn is a very impressive +9 in the CCHA tournament, which would be great if he didn’t spend so much time in the box. But he does, and it completely mitigates the positives he contributes when on the ice — take away his penalties, and this game is much like Friday night’s: a total laugher.
• Michigan’s first two goals were set up by absolutely gorgeous passes. Ben Winnett made a great cross-ice pass that Matt Rust knocked home (with a deflection, it appeared) on the power play to put Michigan up 1-0, and David Wohlberg hit A.J. Treais tape-to-tape from the corner on his backhand 21 seconds later for the 2-0 lead. It was nice to see Wohlberg, who has been a disappointment in his sophomore season, have a great game on Saturday — he was passing the puck really well, especially in the first period, and he made a nice play to force a turnover and convert the empty-net goal to seal it.
• Chris Brown’s effort to whack home a loose puck at the side of the net — a goal that proved to be the game-winner — was nothing short of a tremendous individual effort. To display that kind of power and presence of mind as a freshman is really impressive.
• As for the goaltending situation: Shawn Hunwick has done an admirable job of stepping in for the injured Bryan Hogan, and the (awful) Comcast announcing team was calling for Red Berenson to stick with Hunwick until the team stops winning, but I think this team needs Hogan back if they hope to knock off Miami on Friday and move on to the title game. Hunwick makes up for his lack of size and talent by committing very hard to every shot, but while that style keeps him afloat sometimes, it also leads to goals like the one that tied the game at 2-2, when State’s Andrew Rowe (after faking out Brandon Burlon) made a quick fake on the short side that Hunwick over-committed to before going behind the net and converting a wide open wraparound. A better team probably would have been able to take more advantage of Hunwick’s style — it was really an adventure any time State got consistent pressure, which luckily wasn’t often. Hunwick has played well enough to advance Michigan this far, and he should be praised for it, but now is not the time to try “riding the hot hand” instead of going with your one scholarship goalie.

The Wolverines will need to advance to — and probably win — the CCHA title game to earn a bid in the NCAA tournament. They take on top-seeded Miami on Friday night at 8, and the game will be televised on the Big Ten Network. As this is our last chance at salvaging something good out of an otherwise-awful 2009-10 academic year, I encourage you to make your way to Joe Louis or your sports bar of choice and pull hard for the Wolverines this weekend.

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Well, it certainly wasn’t pretty, but Michigan came away with a win today in the first round of the Big Ten tournament, defeating ninth-seeded Iowa 59-52 in a game that probably shouldn’t have been that close. Early on it looked like Michigan would turn the game into a blowout, as the Wolverines opened the game on a 12-4 run and held a 28-13 lead partway through the first half. Iowa would battle back to within eight at halftime and close to within four early in the second half before the Wolverines seemingly blew the game open again, holding a 56-41 lead with four minutes remaining. Again, Iowa would make it a game, closing within five points and having several opportunities to get within one possession before Michigan finally closed out the game.

The difference in the game was the ability of Michigan’s stars, Manny Harris and DeShawn Sims, to get inside and either finish or get to the line: the duo combined for 36 points on 12-27 shooting, hitting 10 of 19 shots from two point range, and Manny knocked down nine of ten free throw attempts. Michigan probably would have been able to run away with this one if it hadn’t been for Iowa’s Cully Payne, who scored 25 of the Hawkeyes’ 52 points, including hitting five of ten three pointers. No other Hawkeye had more than ten or hit a three pointer (in ten tries), so it was essentially a one-man show for Iowa today. Luckily, Michigan mustered just enough offense to hold him off, or the season would have ended on a decidedly sour note.

No player notes for this one, since Michigan has another game at noon tomorrow against Ohio State, and I was watching the game while working on a paper (I know I said I would go to class instead of watch, but yeah, temptation kept me in front of the TV and I had to get some work done today). Harris did a tremendous job of lifting Michigan while getting very little help from the supporting cast: Wolverines not named Harris or Sims combined to go 7-23 from the field, and nine of Peedi’s 14 points came in the first 6:28 of the game. It would have been nice to see Michigan try to get the ball to Sims more — after his initial burst of points and his first sub out, he seemed to get out of sync with the offense and didn’t see nearly as many touches down low. I won’t complain too much, however, as a win is a win, especially come conference tourney time. The team will have to step up the performance, however, if they hope to hang with the co-conference champs tomorrow.

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I realize that Michigan has a game on Thursday against Iowa, and crazy things can happen in March. However, Michigan beating Iowa, Ohio State, the Wisconsin/Illinois winner, and either Purdue or Michigan State — essentially, what the Wolverines need to do to make a tournament run — goes beyond crazy and into the realm of the completely impossible, so I’m going to go ahead and address something more relevant: what will this team look like next season?

First thing’s first: I’m assuming that Manny Harris, who said he’ll be back next season in the midst of a year where his NBA draft stock has plummeted, will in fact be back next season. If he’s not, this article could be extremely short: we will be bad, there will be blood, and the hockey team will be our only hope of having a decent spring. Kind of like the whole Ellerbe era. Let’s hope this doesn’t happen.

Second, I’m becoming less and less convinced that Michigan will be able to land Trey Zeigler: he’s got great offers from better schools, and if he wants to stay close to home he has the option of playing for his father at Central Michigan, something that seems to be a very real possibility, or playing for Michigan State, only one of the best programs in the country. With Harris probably returning, and the Michigan program not looking nearly as good as it did a year ago, nobody would blame Zeigler for heading to MSU, UCLA or Duke or taking the opportunity to be the star on a team his dad coaches. In short, I’m not optimistic that John Beilein will be able to convince Zeigler that Ann Arbor is the place for him.

So, what does that leave us? Something like this:

Obviously, the actual lineup could appear much different next season, but the cast of characters remains the same. Darius Morris will have the point guard position locked down, and Manny Harris will obviously be starting on the wing. Other than those two top-100 guys, Michigan will be rolling out a shooting guard who has completely lost his touch (Douglass), a shooting guard masquerading as a Big Ten power forward (Novak), and in all likelihood an untested redshirt freshman at center (Morgan, probably, or McLimans, but he’s more of a power forward).

Freshman Evan Smotrycz has a solid shot at starting, which could help this lineup immensely: if he can play at power forward, Michigan can shift Novak down to the three and play Harris at shooting guard, which would suddenly give Michigan a decent-sized lineup and great rebounding from their wings and guards, something the team will probably need given the situation at center. The added bonus would be being able to bring Douglass from off the bench at point guard, instead of leaving him in the starting lineup despite his struggles on both offense and defense this year. That hangs on a huge if, however, and that is if Smotrycz is ready to step in and play at power forward in the Big Ten.

There are some wild cards. I included three-star prospect Jon Horford on the above list, although Michigan has not yet extended an offer. I would expect, if Michigan loses out on Zeigler, for Beilein to grab Horford in this year’s recruiting class, and he could add some depth and possibly compete for a spot at the four or the five (he’s listed at 6-9, 185, so hopefully adding weight would be in order before he took the court next season). The younger Tim Hardaway is an interesting prospect at the wing — the guy is scoring like crazy in high school, and could be the type of instant offense this team has desperately needed outside of Harris and Sims the last couple years. Again, however, he will be a freshman. Matt Vogrich will have a full offseason to get physically prepared for Big Ten college basketball, but it would take an enormous leap for him to be a big-time contributor after spending the majority of this season riding the pine.

Maybe this year has beaten all the optimism out of me, but I have a hard time looking at that lineup and seeing a team that will be better next season. Maybe the system will finally take hold. Maybe the shots will start falling. Maybe Zeigler bolsters an already-solid recruiting class and adds another scoring threat on the wing. Maybe Evan Smotrycz is Kevin Pittsnogle 2.0. Maybe it’s just me, but it looks like Michigan will be depending on a lot of maybes if they hope to be an improved team next season.

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There’s not a whole lot to analyze about this team right now: heading in to Saturday, few thought Michigan could hang with Ohio State, a team contending for the Big Ten title. They were right. The Buckeyes could roll out five former top-100 recruits and know that they’d get solid contributions from at least a couple of them (in this case, 18-11-7 from Evan Turner, 24-9-4 from William Buford, and 14 from Dallas Lauderdale). Michigan would try to counter with their duo of top-100 players, but with neither Manny Harris nor DeShawn Sims bringing their A-game, the Buckeye run in the second half to put the game away felt like an inevitability.

The frustrating part about this team is that, as far as I can tell, the offense, schematically, is working: Michigan has done a great job of limiting turnovers (just six this game) and getting some decent looks, but their shots just don’t fall (in this case, 17-47 from the field and 5-17 from three). I was arguing with a Michigan fan the other day about whether giving John Beilein an extension was a mistake (he said yes, I said no, for the record), and both of us agreed that this team would be really dangerous if we could just his 35% of our threes. This is not exactly asking the world of Michigan — shooting 35% from three would put a team at 144th nationally — but it’s a far cry from what Michigan is putting up: 29.8%, good for 320th in the country.

That’s what’s so frustrating about this team: in a slightly alternate world, where Michigan becomes just an average three-point shooting team (not crazy, since they shot 33.4% last year and brought practically everyone back), this is a dangerous team vying for another NCAA tournament bid. Instead, we’ve been treated to a lot of games like Saturday: 40 minutes of hoping the shots will fall, but knowing we’ll probably come up short. Can this season be over already?

Bullets:

• For once, Michigan got some decent, balanced scoring, with all five starters breaking double-digits. Unfortunately, when Sims and Harris combine for 21 points (on 5-20 shooting), Michigan has almost no chance of winning. This team got about as good a contribution as they could hope for offensively from their role players, but the stars didn’t step up this game.
• Yes, Darius Morris’ three-pointer was banked in, but he’s still making great strides as a point guard: 11 points on 4-8 shooting, three rebounds, three assists, and just one turnover. If he can continue this kind of improvement in the offseason, Michigan will have a very solid point guard for the next few seasons.
• Novak and Douglass had similar games: decent offensive output mitigated by defensive struggles against bigger, stronger, faster players. See the above picture for an example of why Zack Novak is not a Big Ten power forward, and Douglass was absolutely abused by Evan Turner (who, in fairness, is one of the two best players in the country) when he was forced to guard him.
• The bench, once again, had no impact: Zack Gibson had the only bench points, with two, to go along with four rebounds and three fouls in 11 minutes. Laval Lucas-Perry has mastered the on-court disappearing act, going 0-3 and not recording a single other statistic in 14 minutes. Ant Wright and Matt Vogrich barely saw the floor, combining for six minutes.

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Rarely does a narrow overtime victory over a 3-10 Big Ten team inspire confidence or hope in a fan, but I’d be lying if I said that last night’s performance by Michigan didn’t have me excited, at least temporarily. It may have been Iowa, it may have been meaningless to the Big Ten standings, and maybe it shouldn’t have been that close, but I can’t be angry when I see Michigan pull out a road game in dramatic, come-from-behind fashion. With the way this season has gone, nobody would have blamed the Wolverines for letting up down the stretch, when Aaron Fuller kept making big shots and Iowa held a five-point lead with 22 seconds to play. Instead, Michigan’s big man hit some big shots of his own, and the Wolverines were able to pull out a great overtime victory on the road. The fans may have given up on this team a long time ago (I know I’ve said some things to that effect), but this team continues to fight to the bitter end. You have to tip your cap to John Beilein for that.

If you told me before the game that Michigan would hit over 50% of their threes, I would have expected a blowout victory. Instead, Michigan had to battle with an equally-scorching Iowa squad that was lighting it up from outside and riding the hot hand of Fuller (30 points and 13 rebounds) inside. This wasn’t anywhere close to Michigan’s best defensive effort, but the offense carried the day. We haven’t been able to say that much this season. While you’d certainly hope that the team would play better D, it was nice to see the team find its shooting stroke (at least from the outside).

Player bullets:

• This wasn’t DeShawn Sims’ best effort, as he struggled to hit his inside shots (10-25 from the field), but he hit the biggest shot of the game when the team ran a play specifically to get him an open jumper, and you can’t ask for much more than that from your senior leader. Sims managed to battle through the game despite not quite having it all night, and he ended up with 27 points — to me, that’s the sign of a really good player.
• Manny Harris also struggled from two-point range, going 3-10 on the night, but he finished 4-7 from three (including a few pull-up shots that had every Michigan fan cringing until they went in), pulled down 10 boards, and added seven assists. When Manny was struggling to create his own shot, he was able to find open teammates and help the offense with his passing. Again, it’s great to see your stars finding ways to make the team better when they’re not having their best game — Manny managed to be effective despite not having his bread-and-butter (getting to the hoop) and made some big plays in overtime to help lift the team to victory. Yes, he had six turnovers, but Manny’s good plays offset his poor ones.
• Stu Douglass started hot, hitting two early threes, but then disappeared from the stat sheet until he hit a huge three in overtime. While it’s nice to see him hit that late shot, we need more production from Douglass — three rebounds, no assists, and two turnovers is not what you want from a guy playing 42 minutes at guard.
• Zack Novak put up a nice overall stat line — 3-5 from the field (all his attempts from three) for nine points, four rebounds, five assists, a steal, and no turnovers, but you can’t talk about his game last night without mentioning that he was the main guy guarding Fuller, who routinely abused Novak in the post. It’s tough to put too much of that on Novak — on any normal team, he wouldn’t be guarding power forwards — but you’d still like to see Novak hold his guy under 30.
• Darius Morris has made a lot of progress in the last few weeks, but last night he was a complete nonfactor — 26 minutes, no points, 0-3 from the field, two rebounds, two assists. Games like this make you remember that he’s still a very raw, freshman point guard getting his first taste of Big Ten basketball.
• Laval Lucas-Perry briefly caught fire in the first half, hitting three consecutive three-pointers to help stake the Wolverines to a nice first-half cushion (that completely disappeared by halftime). He finished with his best stat line since early January, scoring 13 points on 3-5 shooting, hitting 4-4 free throws, and adding five rebounds and two assists. I’ll never understand how LLP can have games like this and then completely disappear for a month, but it’s always nice to see him step up.
• Zack Gibson finished with three blocks in just 12 minutes, but didn’t haul in a single rebound, which is somewhat unacceptable for a 6-10 college basketball player. Michigan went with Sims down the stretch, obviously, and it’s way too late in his career to complain about how limited Gibson is — at this point, he is what he is, which is a guy who can block a couple shots, eat up some minutes in the middle, and is a very inconsistent offensive player.

For more on last night’s game, check out the recap from UMHoops.

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With the Michigan basketball team hitting the home stretch of the regular season with little to no hope of an NCAA Tournament berth, it’s time to start looking ahead to 2010-11. There are just six games remaining before the Big Ten Tournament (@Iowa, PSU, ILL, @OSU, MINN, @MSU) but still a lot of questions to be answered about this team and their potential next season. Here are five things I’d like to see out of the team before the season is over:

1. The continued improvement of Darius Morris: This is an obvious one, but also very important. We’ve watched Morris grow in the last couple weeks from an offensive non-factor to the guy John Beilein trusts as his starting point guard, and the true freshman appears to be getting better with every game. If he can continue that improvement, Morris could be one of the stars of the team next season. If his game doesn’t develop, we could have another season with a point guard who won’t score more than 5-10 points in any given game. I’d like to see Morris, who has been deferential sometimes to a fault this season, look to create his own shot a little more — if Manny Harris ends up going pro, Michigan will need someone to step into the role of slasher/creator, and Morris is the most likely candidate. If he can show an ability to get to the basket and finish consistently, Michigan’s outlook for 2010-11 gets a lot better.
2. Manny Harris playing within himself: Let’s assume, at least for the time being, that Manny Harris will stay true to his word and come back next season. If he does return, Manny may have to shoulder even more of the offensive burden for Michigan without partner in crime DeShawn Sims. We’ve seen what happens to Manny when he tries to do too much for the team: turnovers, poor shot selection, and unnecessary risks on defense. Harris has made strides in the turnover department, improving in turnovers per game and turnover rate every season of his career, but his overall efficiency on the offensive end hasn’t made the leap that Michigan fans were expecting heading into this season. If he can start showing maturation now, I’ll be a lot more confident that Manny can be an efficient and effective player while still carrying his supporting cast.
3. Someone — anyone — find their shooting stroke: I guess I should amend that to “any returning player” but you get the point — as a team, Michigan is shooting 29.8% from three, and only three players (LLP, Stu Douglass, DeShawn Sims) who have attempted more than 25 is shooting better than 30%. John Beilein’s offense is predicated around the three-pointer, and that’s not going to change anytime soon, so it would be nice to see someone step up and start consistently hitting shots. If I had to pick a player I’d like to see find his stroke, it’s Zack Novak — he does everything well for this team right now except score, the other players feed off of his energy (and when he plays well, you can feel how he boosts the team), and he’ll almost certainly be starting next season, so having him become a bigger offensive threat would really benefit this team.
4. Stu Douglass regain his offensive confidence: It’s been tough to watch Douglass playing against himself for much of the season, and you can tell that his inability to hit jumpers has caused him to lose confidence in his all-around offensive game. With Morris now manning the point, Michigan doesn’t need to keep Douglass in the lineup going forward — few teams should be desperate enough to keep giving 30 minutes per game to a guy who shoots 31.5% from the field, doesn’t rebound well for his height, and can be exposed defensively against quicker guards. I’m not ready to give up on Stu, however, because of his ballhandling, passing, and his potential as a shooter. If Stu starts getting more aggressive, like he showed against Minnesota with that great backdoor cut for a layup, he could be an integral part of this team for the next two seasons. If he plays like he did earlier in Big Ten play, when he was passing up open layups and tripping over himself to avoid shooting, he may find himself getting passed over by younger players starting next season, when Evan Smotrycz and Tim Hardaway get to campus.
5. See what Matt Vogrich can bring to this team: When this team was still battling for a (meaningful) postseason berth, I had no problem with John Beilein keeping the freshman Vogrich mostly out of the rotation (6 mpg this season). At this juncture, however, I’d like to see how Vogrich responds to a bigger role — in very limited opportunities, he has shown a Novakian ability to get to rebounds and loose balls as well as an effective three-point shot (9-for-24 on the season). Especially if Manny Harris turns pro, Michigan will need Vogrich to take on a bigger role next season. With nothing to lose this year, it would be nice to get him some experience getting big minutes in Big Ten play.

Michigan has a good opportunity to continue their momentum from the Minnesota win tomorrow night when they take on cellar-dweller Iowa on the road. Given how their first game against the Hawkeyes went (a 60-46 victory that wasn’t that close), the game could be an opportunity to see some experimenting with the rotation if John Beilein desires, and a chance to see guys like Vogrich get some burn off the bench.

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