The Wolverine: Covering University of Michigan Football and Sports
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36 THE WOLVERINE MAY 2022 the Wolverines made just five shots, and allowed CSU to score 11 points off nine turnovers and 18 from six three-pointers. They trailed by 15 points before the light turned on. U-M outscored the Rams by 27 points in the last 25 minutes. The Wolverines used their size ad- vantage, pounding the ball inside, with Dickinson and Diabate combining for 19 second-half points. Houstan heated up from range, too, with three triples af- ter the break, and freshman point guard Frankie Collins recorded 14 points in his first career start. CSU hit eight three- pointers in the first half but only four in the second, and the Rams didn't have much offense once the long ball wasn't falling, finishing 11-of-30 from inside the arc. Crisis averted, with Michigan win- ning, 75-63. "It's not going to always go perfect for 40 minutes," Howard said. "It just doesn't work that way. But our guys stepped up when they had to." The focus quickly shifted to a quick turnaround for a game against No. 3 seed Tennessee, one of the hottest teams in the country at the time. The Volunteers had won 13 of their last 14 games coming in and were fresh off an SEC Tournament championship and 88-56 first-round blowout win over No. 14 seed Longwood. Tennessee touted an elite defense and an offense predicated on great ball move- ment and a lot of three-pointers. The Volunteers had connected on a whopping 42.6 percent of their triple tries in the 14 previous games, and U-M's defense was on high alert. The Volunteers shot 11.1 percent from behind the long line in their seven regular-season losses, so there was a blueprint to victory. U-M held Tennes- see to 2-of-18 three-point shooting for the game and 0-of-9 in the second half from range. The Vols' two made three- pointers marked their lowest total of the season and fewest since Dec. 12, 2020, more than 55 games ago. "That was mostly in the game plan, guarding the perimeter," sophomore for- ward Terrance Williams II, who scored nine points off the bench, said postgame. "They had shooters, their guard play, [guard Santiago] Vescovi [who averaged 2.88 made threes per game entering the night] is definitely a big shooter. But one of the [biggest emphases in the] game plan was to guard the three-point line. I felt like we did our job today." "That was the main focus," Brooks added. "Run 'em off the line and stay down on shot fakes, we did that. That was the biggest key to winning the game." Tennessee found some success on the inside, but U-M countered with a zone defense, and it slowed down the Vols' driving lanes. All told, U-M's first two NCAA Tournament opponents scored 0.92 and 0.97 points per possession (PPP), respectively, just the second and third time the Wolverines held oppo- nents under 1.0 PPP since Feb. 10. U-M got those individual perfor- mances that can keep a team alive in March, too, with Brooks and Dickinson carrying the Wolverines offensively. The former scored 23 points, including 15 in the last 13 minutes and a running hook shot to put his team up four with less than a minute left, and the latter ex- ploded for a game-high 27 with three made three-pointers. Jones, who drove himself from Ann Arbor to Indianapolis, played 12 first- half minutes but wasn't able to return due to what was described as an illness. The Wolverines were down six points with seven and a half minutes remain- ing, but they found a way to win going away. "The game is built on 40 minutes, and until that buzzer sounds, we're going to keep competing from start to finish," Howard said. Brooks refused to be eliminated on that Saturday night, scoring 11 points from the 7:21 mark on. His performance was reminiscent of his 21-point night that lifted U-M over LSU in the 2021 round of 32. "They've got a man named Eli Brooks that's been here for five years," Dickinson said when asked how U-M always seems Since Juwan Howard was hired in the spring of 2019, U-M has won five NCAA Tournament games — more than any other team in the Big Ten in that span. Going back further, the Wolverines have advanced to the Sweet 16 in five consecutive NCAA Tournaments. PHOTO BY PER KJELDSEN