The Wolverine: Covering University of Michigan Football and Sports
Issue link: https://comanpub.uberflip.com/i/1083898
82 THE WOLVERINE MARCH 2019 Nobody in Ann Arbor will. The Spartans ripped off five straight vic- tories over U-M with Michigan miss- ing future NBA standout Caris Le- Vert, point guard Derrick Walton and others on the court at different points in that span. Michigan has since won the last three, all by double digits. The Wolverines, though, had the toughest remaining schedule this year on paper, and ESPN.com's Bas- ketball Power Index (BPI) listed it as the toughest five-game stretch re- maining in the country. It wouldn't completely stunning if U-M finished 14-6 in Big Ten. A Feb. 21 game at Minnesota — a team fighting to secure an NCAA Tournament berth in a difficult envi- ronment — was expected to be tough enough, but U-M had to play Michi- gan State at home Feb. 24 on short rest, Nebraska at home and Mary- land and Michigan State again on the road. Heading down the stretch, defense had continued to be the Wolverines' calling card. When they handled Maryland in a 65-52 win Feb. 16, it marked the 10th time this year an op- ponent had scored 52 or less. Four of those came in conference play — In- diana (46), Ohio State (49), Wisconsin (52) and the Terps. Michigan ranked second nationally in defensive efficiency, according to the analytics site KenPom.com, and was second in the country in points per game allowed (57.1) as of Feb. 18. Offensively, though, U-M was still looking for consistency, especially from long range. The Wolverines ranked only 165th out of 347 teams in three-point field goal percentage, usually an area of strength. Beilein said in early February he hoped his team could find its groove the way it did in closing out the year last season and winning the Big Ten Tournament. "I hope we can do what we've been doing the last couple years, because it could really be a good year if we can do that," he said. "That's the fo- cus in practice, to try and find some holes in everybody's game that we're trying to improve a little bit and then strengthen the areas we think they're strong in right now." Sophomore Jordan Poole was miss- ing a lot of open looks, having gone 3 of 17 in three games ending with the Maryland win. Beilein said his mes- It will be crucial for junior big man Jon Teske to remain healthy and out of foul trouble for the Wolverines to make a deep postseason run. PHOTO BY LON HORWEDEL