The Wolverine: Covering University of Michigan Football and Sports
Issue link: https://comanpub.uberflip.com/i/230001
MICHIGAN BASKETBALL Stauskas said. "Obviously, this is a big one for all of our freshmen, and even our returning guys. It's just getting tougher down the stretch: rebounding, boxing out. That's the key for us. We gave them too many second-chance opportunities today. "I don't think anyone on this team is worried. If you look at our losses right now, Duke, we were there down the stretch; Iowa State, we were right there; Charlotte, we were right there; and we were again today. It's just a matter of closing out games right now, which is something we haven't done. We're right there. It's just paying more attention to detail and making big plays down the stretch." Rather than getting down about a loss to the nation's top-ranked squad, Stauskas expected his teammates to turn it into motivation for better days down the road. "You have to take away from this game all the positive things we saw, the cohesiveness of the team, the talking," Stauskas said. "It was a positive energy. If we can keep that going forward, we'll win a lot of games. "They're the No. 1 team in the country, and it's not like they blew us out of the water today. It was a two-point game, and we had them. We can't hang our heads low. We have to be confident and continue to work. Down the stretch of the season, I think we're going to win those games." MICHIGAN POSTS SOLID OFFENSE THROUGH 10 GAMES Michigan's offensive numbers had the Wolverines in the top half of the Big Ten through 10 games, despite perhaps the most rugged schedule of any team in the conference. John Beilein's squad, through midDecember, stood fourth in the Big Ten in scoring average (79.3 points per game), third in scoring margin (plus16.2 points per game), third in free throw percentage (74.6), sixth in field goal percentage (46.7) and second only to Wisconsin (40.3) in three-point percentage (39.2). Michigan's defense hadn't suffered extensively through high-scoring games. The Wolverines were fourth in the Big Ten in scoring defense, giving up 63.1 points per contest. That's a ways from Ohio State's 54.6 average, but no one else in the Big Ten was holding opponents to less than 60 points per outing. Foes were shooting 42.0 percent from the field against Michigan, putting the Wolverines eighth in the conference in that defensive category. They were 10th in three-point defense, with opponents connecting on 32.7 percent from long range. The Arizona loss notwithstanding, Michigan was holding its on own on the boards, tied with Michigan State for fourth in the conference in rebounding margin (plus-4.0). The Wolverines were 11th in the Big Ten in blocks (3.0 per game), but third in assists (15.7 per game) and fifth in turnover margin (plus-3.0). U-M stood eighth in steals (6.1 per game), but was third in assistto-turnover ratio (1.7). Individually, the Wolverines featured a number of players in the higher reaches of the conference statistical cat-