Despite cutting an 18-point halftime deficit down to eight by the start of the fourth quarter, Michigan dropped its third straight game in its European tour, losing 70-55 to Oostende, another Belgian professional squad. Michigan may be finding its rotation, however, as they ran out the same starting five for the third consecutive game: Darius Morris, Stu Douglass, and Matt Vogrich at guard, with Zack Novak and Blake McLimans up front. Here’s the box score from yesterday’s contest:

As you can see, the team struggled once again with connecting inside the arc, shooting just 9-for-26 on two point shots. Freshman forward Jordan Morgan was 4-for-4 on the afternoon, all on two-pointers, meaning the rest of the squad hit just 5-of-22 — not good at all. That 4-13 mark from the free throw line is disconcerting as well. I’ll have a more complete look at the European tour — and its potential implications for the 2010-11 season — after the final contest is played this afternoon. For more, as always, check out UMHoops’ coverage.

Similar Posts:

• Hoops in Europe: Wolverines Drop Opener to Gent
• Hoops in Europe: Michigan Falls to Charleroi, 90-60
• Michigan Loses to Utah; I Lose Hope
• Michigan Basketball 2010-11: Post-Manny Edition
• A Closer Look: Michigan Basketball, 2010-11

The Michigan basketball team kicked off its tour of Europe yesterday with a 69-63 loss to Gent, a professional team from Belgium. The Wolverines led for most of the game, but were done in by some poor shooting (23-66 from the field, 6-26 from three) and two 13-2 runs by the Belgian squad. Zack Novak led the team with 17 points and six rebounds, and freshman Tim Hardaway Jr. added 13 points on 5-7 shooting. The whole box score (recorded unofficially by the team) is below:

If that box score doesn’t look familiar, you haven’t been watching Michigan basketball the past year — with the big runs on both sides, the poor shooting, and the high percentage of attempted threes, this box score could have been taken from any number of games last year. John Beilein released this statement after the game on his new website:

It was a tough outcome tonight (losing 69-63 to Gent) from the standpoint that we had the lead by 10 points or so with about five minutes left in the game. But our kids really had some great moments and had some really good spurts. Down the stretch Gent was just older, more experienced, more physical, they made some big shots and we missed some pretty good looks.

Overall I would give us a C+ for the day. There were some really good things and particularly good play from freshmen Tim Hardaway and Evan Smotrycz, and redshirt freshman Blake McLimans. For the first time with the lights on I thought they did pretty well. It was a tough day shooting for some of our guys but they’ll bounce back. They’ve got great attitudes and games like this will go a long way in helping us to grow as individuals and as a team.

Michigan will get a chance to avenge their defeat to Gent when they play fellow Belgian-league squad Charleroi this afternoon (1 pm EST). I’ll have an update when the team releases a box score, and make sure to check out UMHoops for more coverage of the team’s tour of Europe.

Similar Posts:

• Basketball Q&A With The Wolverine’s Chris Balas
• Hoops in Europe: Michigan Falls to Charleroi, 90-60
• Hoops in Europe: Team Drops Third Straight
• Five Things I Hope to See for the Rest of the Basketball Season
• Michigan Basketball 2010-11: Post-Manny Edition

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.

Similar Posts:

• More Great News: Zeigler to CMU
• Shorthanded Wolverines Never Had a Chance
• Same Old Story: Poor Shooting Leads to Loss for Wolverines
• Michigan Basketball 2010-11: Post-Manny Edition
• A Closer Look: Michigan Basketball, 2010-11

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.

Similar Posts:

• More Great News: Zeigler to CMU
• Basketball Q&A With The Wolverine’s Chris Balas
• Five Things I Hope to See for the Rest of the Basketball Season
• Jon Horford Commits to Michigan
• Michigan Basketball 2010-11: Post-Manny Edition

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.

Similar Posts:

• Michigan Loses to Utah; I Lose Hope
• Michigan Breaks Slump, Handles Minnesota
• Hoops Guts Out OT Victory
• The Other Side: Not So Fun
• Splat

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.

Similar Posts:

• Michigan Breaks Slump, Handles Minnesota
• Ugly? I’ll take it.
• Splat
• Dammit
• Same Old Story: Poor Shooting Leads to Loss for Wolverines

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.

Similar Posts:

• Michigan Loses to Utah; I Lose Hope
• Ugly? I’ll take it.
• Same Old Story: Poor Shooting Leads to Loss for Wolverines
• Michigan Basketball 2010-11: Post-Manny Edition
• A Closer Look: Michigan Basketball, 2010-11

Watching Michigan defeat Minnesota 71-63 on the road last night, you could see why this team was supposed to make the NCAA Tournament in 2009-10: when both our stars are on, and the supporting cast, well, supports them, this is a team that can play some really quality basketball. If Michigan doesn’t fall into foul trouble early in the second half (helped, in part, by some dubious officiating) and miss some late free throws, this could easily have been a 15-20 point victory.

The story of the game was the performance of DeShawn Sims, who was benched just a minute into the game and finished the first half with just six points, then exploded in the second half for 21 points on 10-12 shooting. To say that was the whole story, however, would be to shortchange the efforts of the whole team — Michigan managed to take a one-point lead into halftime thanks to some very solid man-to-man defense, which they kept up throughout the whole game, and the team received very solid performances from Manny Harris, Darius Morris, and Zack Gibson (!) on the offensive end.

Before I get to the player bullets, I thought I would introduce a new feature to the game recaps: stealing a little thunder from UMHoops, I decided to head over to StatSheet and see what other charts they had. I like the one below, which is essentially a bar-chart box score, which is nice for visualizing the overall impact of each player.

Player bullets:

• John Beilein didn’t like what Sims was showing on defense early, leading to a lengthy first-half benching, but Sims responded exactly how you’d want a senior to respond: by playing like hell when he got another opportunity. Even though Minnesota had a big size advantage in the post, they had no answer for Sims, who showed off his entire array of post moves and threw in a couple mid-range shots and a three-pointer for good measure.
• You can’t talk about Sims’ performance without mentioning the effect Manny Harris had on his game last night. Manny wasn’t shooting particularly well (5-14 from the field), but he was able to consistently get to the basket, leading to a lot of free throws (8-10 on the night) and opening the lane up for Sims, who Harris found with several great passes in the second half. Manny finished with seven assists and only two turnovers, playing within himself for most of the game and creating offense for himself and the team.
• Darius Morris is really getting better with every game, and this may have been his finest performance as a Wolverine. He finished with five points (2-3 shooting), three rebounds, five assists, a steal, and just two turnovers, and for the most part was able to handle Minnesota’s full-court press like an experienced point guard. He had a couple really gorgeous plays, including a highlight-worthy behind-the-back dish to Harris on a two-on-one fast break. Morris is responding really well to the extra minutes he’s earned, and we’ll likely see him for 30+ minutes a game from here on out.
• Although he had a few really ugly shots and only finished 2-7 from the field, Stu Douglass played a solid all-around game, dishing out four assists (to zero turnovers), adding five steals, and scoring a critical second-half bucket on a beautiful backdoor cut. That last play was really nice to see from Douglass — he was able to earn himself a layup (and an and-one opportunity) by playing smart and having the confidence to look for his own offense.
• Zack Novak didn’t have much of an impact on offense, in part because of more foul trouble, but he was his usual gritty self on defense, hitting the floor multiple times for loose balls. His hustle appears to be infectious — Douglass dove for loose balls a couple times, and even Laval Lucas-Perry made a really nice play on the ground to get control of the ball and call a quick timeout for Michigan. When you see a player put in the kind of effort Novak has all season, it makes the rest of the team want to step up and match that level of intensity, and Michigan did a great job of doing that last night.
• When Zack Gibson came in early to replace Sims, and immediately got called for traveling at the three-point line, I must admit I immediately called for Beilein to put Peedi back in. After that snafu, however, Gibson put in a great game, scoring eight points (on 3-3 shooting, including two threes) and hauling in two rebounds in just nine minutes, mostly in the first half. Without Gibson stepping up like he did, Michigan likely goes into the half with a deficit. Instead, Gibson provided an unexpected lift to the team, and Sims was able to build on his success in the second half.
• Anthony Wright and LLP both played somewhat sparingly (13 minutes for Wright, 11 for LLP), and each finished with zero points. Besides one bad turnover by LLP when he couldn’t handle the Gophers’ press, neither had much of an impact — positive or negative — on the game. Frankly, during a game when Michigan’s other role players really stepped up, that’s fine by me.

Similar Posts:

• Michigan Loses to Utah; I Lose Hope
• Hoops Guts Out OT Victory
• The Other Side: Not So Fun
• Ugly? I’ll take it.
• Splat

As the season wears on, it’s getting tougher and tougher to write these game recaps. I think, for the sake of my sanity, my mind has stopped allowing me to get emotionally invested in Michigan basketball games. On Saturday afternoon, as Michigan’s deficit hung somewhere between 16 and 20 points for what felt like an eternity, my friends and I took entertainment in seeing which referee would make the most animated call (Ed Hightower, of course, emerged as the champion). We left when the clock ticked below eight minutes. Call me a fair-weather fan if you want, but at some point, you have to cut your losses and move on with the rest of your day.

Despite the score, the team didn’t play particularly bad, at least in the first half — Wisconsin simply didn’t miss, shooting 15-22 from the field (and a ridiculous 9-13 from three) in the first 20 minutes to open up a 49-26 halftime lead that would not be relinquished. For the latter stanza, Michigan seemed resigned to its fate, as DeShawn Sims (15 first-half points, 2 second-half points) and the rest of the team (12-20 on field goals and 2-2 from three-point range in first half, 5-19 — including 0-9 from three — in second half) cooled off considerably.

• Manny Harris continues to slump — and kill his 2010 draft stock — with some ugly shot selection and a broke jumper. He scored just 11 points on 4-11 shooting, and just doesn’t look like himself. It’s tough to tell how much of Manny’s woes are mental and how much are physical, but it’s clear that he’s not playing on the same level he was early in the season, and this team can’t afford to have one of its two stars not playing like one. I guess the positive here is that Manny may have no choice but to come back next season.
• DeShawn Sims did all he could in the first half to carry the team, dropping in 15 points on an array of fallaway jumpers and inside post moves, but was likely discouraged by the lack of support from his teammates — with only two second-half points on five shot attempts, it didn’t look like Peedi was working as hard to get in position like he was earlier in the game. It’s tough to blame him on this — after that kind of first-half effort, only to see those results, I’d be discouraged too.
• The (only) bright side of these past few games, Darius Morris has made some encouraging progress at point guard, where he has now earned the starting spot. Morris was efficient in all facets on offense, scoring eight points on 3-4 shooting and dishing out three assists against only one turnover. Since he doubles as Michigan’s most athletically gifted perimeter defender, expect to see Morris get even more playing time as the season wears on.
• The rest of the team was nowhere to be found. Zack Novak and Stu Douglass combined for three points on 0-5 shooting. Those two players comprise 40% of this team’s starting lineup. That wouldn’t be so bad if this team had any bench production, but only Laval Lucas-Perry scored among the reserves, with four points on 2-3 shooting. You can’t expect your team to be competitive if only five players score in a game. You just can’t.

I haven’t even bothered to check if this team has a chance at postseason play (and when I say postseason, I mean the NIT or that other random postseason tournament that nobody watches), but at this point, I’d like for this season to mercifully end as soon as possible, so we can regroup, assess what went wrong, and gear up for next season. This team is clearly ready for this nightmare to end, as DeShawn Sims is the only player you could say has remotely lived up to expectations, and he’s an outgoing senior. Hopefully John Beilein can get this team to put together a few decent games down the stretch, Manny will reaffirm that he’s coming back, and we’ll move on.

Similar Posts:

• Michigan Loses to Utah; I Lose Hope
• The Other Side: Not So Fun
• Ugly? I’ll take it.
• Splat
• Dammit

Sorry. I have a hard time thinking about last night’s game without bursting out into a stream of expletives. Up three, with a minute and a half on the clock, with the ball — even the most cynical of Michigan fans would’ve had a hard time betting on MSU at that point. If these past couple years have taught Michigan fans anything, however, it is that cynicism is the only protection against crushing disappointment.

Sonofabitch.

A couple points on the last play before I get into player breakdowns:

1. I was not just okay with the play drawn up at the end, but thought that was by far our best chance of getting a basket in 1.5 seconds from near midcourt. I’ve seen or heard several people say they would have rather seen Michigan get a look at a jump shot. Have you seen Michigan’s ability to hit jump shots? We shot 19-58 from the field against MSU, and 7-29 from three. We managed to get our best inside player a shot from within three feet of the basket. It didn’t fall. Barely. Of all the things to c0mplain about, the final play call is not one of them.
2. Yes, DeShawn Sims was probably fouled on that last play, as this screenshot from UMHoops shows. If you expect a ref to do anything but swallow his whistle on the final play of a game, however, you haven’t watched a lot of basketball — it would’ve taken a full-fledged assault to draw a foul on that play. That’s basketball. In this instance, we lost. Those are the breaks of the game. If you really want to complain about something, complain about the two airballed three-pointers in the final two minutes, when we could’ve made a last-gasp effort unnecessary.

Motherf******.

Let’s get to the good part about the game: Michigan, with a converted shooting guard and a true freshman manning the point, only turned the ball over four times. I’ve watched a lot of basketball, and don’t remember many games where a team held on to the ball that effectively.

Of course, there’s the bad part about this game (or this team, really): They can’t shoot. At all. I’d love to have an easy explanation for this, be able to say that John Beilein’s offense isn’t getting open looks, isn’t creating chances, and we could all point fingers and play the blame game. When your team goes 7-29 from three, you should be able to say that they were forcing bad shots, and this is a poorly coached team. Except it isn’t. The vast majority of those 29 attempts were good, open looks. But, just like the rest of the season (Michigan is now a stellar 29.7% from three on the year), the shots weren’t falling.

Quickly, before I give up on life, or at least sports, let’s get to the player bullets:

• Even with the two late misses from DeShawn Sims, you can’t put this loss on either of Michigan’s two stars. Yes, Sims wasn’t efficient on offense, scoring 19 points on 7-18 shooting, but the Wolverines didn’t exactly have a lot of other options to go to. He hit a couple of huge threes down the stretch, and actually went 3-5 from downtown in the game. Manny Harris, after a bit of a slow start, finished with 16 points, four rebounds, five assists, five steals (!), and two blocks. After struggling on the defensive end in his last couple games, Manny came out focused and put in his best defensive effort of the season, cutting off passes like a free safety. The two stars came to play, which leaves, well, the rest of the team…
• Stu Douglass just can’t get on track, and you can tell from his play that his confidence on offense is completely gone. He had a few plays where he beat his man off the dribble, but instead of going up strong for the layup, Douglass would stop and either force a pass or, in one case, travel. He accounted for three of Michigan’s four turnovers and went just 2-7 from the field (1-5 from three). Michigan’s lack of depth appears to be the only thing between Douglass and the bench — there just isn’t a reliable alternative. He’s going to have to break out of his slump at some point, or his starting spot will be in serious jeopardy when Evan Smotrycz, Tim Hardaway, and potentially Trey Zeigler hit campus next season.
• I love the way Zack Novak plays — I’m not sure how many more ways I can say I like how much he hustles. This game was no different, as Novak pulled down five offensive rebounds and seemed to get a hand of half of Michigan’s (numerous) misses. However, he shot 2-9 from the field (1-7 from three), and that’s just not going to get it done.
• Like Novak, Laval Lucas-Perry played a solid game if you took shooting entirely out of the equation. But, since the object of basketball is to put the ball through the basket, it’s tough to praise a starter when he puts up a goose egg on the scoreboard — LLP was 0-4 shooting, and his misses were not pretty.
• The reason Douglass remains on the floor, as evidenced last night, is that Darius Morris is simply not a threat on the offensive end. Morris played just about how he’s played all season — 20 or so minutes, two points, two assists, one turnover, decent defense, no offensive impact. He had an open look at a three from the corner, and clanged it off the side of the backboard. That about sums up Morris’ offensive acumen at this point in his career. I expect him to get much better, but he just isn’t someone the defense has to account for right now.

Nobody else really got significant minutes, which is merciful, since I’m getting really sick of writing about this game. For more pain recaps, check out UMHoops, MGoBlog, and The Only Colors (an MSU blog, so you’ve been warned).

Similar Posts:

• Michigan Breaks Slump, Handles Minnesota
• Hoops Guts Out OT Victory
• The Other Side: Not So Fun
• Splat
• Same Old Story: Poor Shooting Leads to Loss for Wolverines