The Wolverine: Covering University of Michigan Football and Sports
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sort of impending execution. Instead, John Beilein's squad did most of the executing, coming away with wins over Memphis and UCLA, a hard- fought defeat against Duke and ex- pectation levels elevated even over lofty preseason dreams. The buildup to Michigan's Maui Thanksgiving week featured a com- parative 3-0 turkey at home. Yes, the Wolverines stayed unscarred, but victories over Ferris State (59-33), Towson (64-47) and Western Illinois (59-55) hadn't exactly generated an Ohio State-level of excitement. T BY JOHN BORTON he fearful among the Michi- gan basketball faithful looked at the Wolverines' sojourn to Maui as some rebounds and tossed off five assists, sending notice to all that his fresh- man prowess wasn't any fluke. Meanwhile, this year's most talked about freshman, point guard Trey Burke, kept the buzz going. He slipped onto the court in his first game against a ranked opponent and revealed no nerves whatsoever. Burke connected on 6 of 10 shots from the field, mixing drives and pull- ups. He scored 14 points with four assists, and even blocked a shot at the end of the half that led to some jaw- ing and a shove or two as the teams headed to their respective locker rooms. The Wolverines kept command, eventually pushing the lead to 15 and winning in comfortable fashion. Hawaiian Hints Michigan's 2-1 Effort In Maui Generates An Upbeat Outlook The Western Illinois contest, in fact, stirred the type of excitement not par- ticularly welcome in the non-confer- ence portion of the slate. It was the "we might actually lose this one" stim- ulation that rippled through a Crisler Arena crowd, albeit with some won- dering whether the Wolverines had one foot already on the jet to Hawaii. Once there, however, Michigan performed like the ocean washed back some of the big-game fortitude from last year. "I liked how we played with great passion and energy and confidence against some really good teams," Beilein said. Those teams included back-to- back top-10 squads. The Wolverines opened play in Maui by squeezing the life out of a taller, more athletic crew in No. 8 Memphis, 73-61. The Wolverines mixed defenses well, holding the opponent to an Alaska- cold 33.3 percent from the floor. They also posted a 38-29 edge on the glass — one of three such advantages U-M managed in Maui. Meanwhile, a veteran and a new- comer were revealing plenty of rea- son for optimism against the big boys. Sophomore Tim Hardaway Jr. poured in 21 points, grabbed seven 54 THE WOLVERINE DECEMBER 2011 That set up a rematch of U-M's final contest from last year, against No. 6 Duke. This one didn't go down to the final shot. Instead, the Blue Devils made shot after shot (52.4 percent, 11 of 21, from three-point range) in an 82-75 win. The Wolverines never led, but chopped double-digit Duke leads down within striking distance multiple times and gave themselves a chance at the end. That chance looked like a differ- ent island, namely Fantasy Island, in the first half. The Blue Devils locked down on Hardaway, shutting him out while racing off to a 34-22 half- time lead. Hardaway and the Wolverines came roaring back over the final 20 minutes, the sophomore scoring 19 points to pace U-M. Burke again showed he belongs, tossing in 17 on 8-of-17 shooting, while racking up nine assists against three turnovers. Redshirt sophomore Jordan Mor- gan added 12 and senior Zack Novak 11. U-M learned plenty about itself in that game, Beilein posited, and particularly about Hardaway. "It showed what other people think of him," Beilein said. "They basically made us try to play four on four, by playing almost a box- and-one man defense. We still scored some points, once we made some adjustments." "We found maybe a little more of a comfort zone offensively," assis- tant coach LaVall Jordan noted of the trip overall. "We were struggling to put points on the board before we went out. We got into a little bit of a rhythm, outside of the first half of the Duke game, when they took Tim away." But even when the Blue Devils made a concerted effort to negate Michigan's top scorer, the Wolverines recovered to make it a game against a program that has never lost in Maui. Mike Krzyzewski's team ran up a 17-point second-half lead, but the Wolverines rallied to pare the mar- gin to five in the final minute, before finally succumbing. The Wolverines filled the Lahaina Civic Center with enough drama over the first two days (Nov. 21-22) and then removed all doubt in the third-place contest against UCLA. They shot a sizzling 61.7 percent from the floor, hit half of their 14 three-point shots, posted a 32-24 ad- vantage on the boards and beat back the Bruins, 79-63. Novak capped a strong tourna- ment with a lights-out performance, hitting 7 of 8 shots, including 4 of 5 from three-point range. He scored 22 points with three rebounds and gave Beilein an inspiring flashback to last season. "Zack Novak — it was like he was at Michigan State again last year," Beilein said. "He was playing with great confidence, great leadership." Meanwhile, Hardaway remained on a scoring roll, tossing in 20 with four assists and four rebounds. "Tim had Tim-type games," Beilein observed. "We're finding ways to get smooth air for him, and once he gets some, he can do a lot of things, just in one half." Overall, Beilein noted, for a tour- nament that the Wolverines didn't win, the Maui Invitational provided plenty for his team to feel good about and build on. "I came out of their feeling that Despite increased defensive attention, soph- omore Tim Hardaway Jr. shot 50.0 percent from the field (20 of 40) and averaged a team-best 20.0 points per game in Maui. PHOTO COURTESY U-M SPORTS INFORMATION