The Wolverine: Covering University of Michigan Football and Sports
Issue link: https://comanpub.uberflip.com/i/230001
STOP AND GO START New Crew Finds Its Way Through An Uneven Opening Stretch J BY JOHN BORTON ohn Beilein isn't pushing the panic button. He knows as well as anyone that with a play or two here and there, his team could be cruising along at 9-1, still comfortably slotted in the nation's top 10. It isn't, of course. It stood 6-4 in mid-December, fresh off its most gutwrenching loss of the season. The Wolverines led No. 1 Arizona throughout the entire game, taking a nine-point lead into halftime and carrying an eight-point advantage with seven minutes to play. In the end, outplaying Arizona for 38 of the game's 40 minutes only added to the solar-plexus punch of a 72-70 loss. That's how the first month of Michigan's season went. Would-haves and could-haves, followed by slight letdowns and near misses in the postTrey Burke/Tim Hardaway Jr. era. Plenty of talent remains. But with a rough non-conference schedule nearly gone and the Big Ten waiting like a monster hiding in the closet, it's no time for shrinking back under the covers. "I'm telling you, watching scores and the parity [in the Big Ten] — last year was competitive," Beilein said after the loss to the Wildcats. "This year is more, so we'd better be. It's going to be this type of game home and away — hopefully away — nine times in the Big Ten. We've got to be ready and try to win these games and just grow … we have to put it all together so we are on the right side of the scoreboard." They've been on the wrong side just enough to cause consternation, including a pair of two-point losses that simply slipped away. A potential résumé-maker against Arizona turned to dust when the Wildcats crashed in for 17 offensive rebounds, secured 11 of their 15 second-half buckets in the paint and exerted their high-percentage will on the road. "Size, and physicalness, in any sport, both things matter a lot," Arizona head coach Sean Miller said. "But you have to be able to get the results from that size and the physical play. In the second half, we really did." Beilein insisted the physicality on