The Wolverine: Covering University of Michigan Football and Sports
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the minutes between Robinson and Dawkins. Both have work to do on defense, he said, and two unforced traveling calls on Dawkins against HBU bothered him. Dawkins also found himself on the bench to start the second half at SMU after scoring only two points and failing to grab a rebound in 10 first-half minutes — after Beilein and his staff spent added time with him in practice in the days leading up to the game. "I think he's got to sort of look at the court different, see where is his time to attack and where is his time to hold back a little bit," Beilein said before the game. "We certainly want him to take good shots, and you can see his shot is as pure as there is, but as he goes forward he's got to get to the foul line, attack and attack under control. That's the biggest thing. "To put him in the ball screen is the next step. We worked 20 minutes [recently] just on that alone. That's the Tim Hardaway Jr. progression … he's not ready, not ready, okay, we think he's ready. That changed our offensive world. This is a similar type of thing." He's not there yet, however, and it's clear U-M's ceiling is higher when he's playing to his potential. Players improve under Beilein and his staff, and most thought Dawkins would take the next step toward stardom this year. At times, he's appeared le- thargic on both ends of the floor and most of his 16 points against HBU came in the second half when the game was out of reach. The Wolverines still need more from the center position, as well. Sophomore Ricky Doyle has strug- gled to catch the ball and grasp the offense this year, though Beilein was pleased with his effort on the glass against Houston Baptist. He only managed four points and four rebounds against SMU, however, while Wagner and junior Mark Don- nal went scoreless. It was the sec- ond game in which the group fell well short of the 15 points and 10 rebounds the Wolverines want from the position after managing only three points and eight rebounds the previous game. Wagner has shown he's capable of great things at times; at others he dis- appears, just as Beilein predicted he would on occasion while he adjusted to the college game. The season's still young, of course, and there's plenty of time for guys to improve. Mitch McGary didn't reach his stride until the NCAA Tourna- ment in his freshman year, for exam- ple, and while Wagner is a different player, he's only going to get better. There's no Jordan Morgan, though, to pick up the slack while Wagner and Doyle progress. One of them will need to step up — and the sooner, the better with only a few weeks re- maining before the Big Ten season. It could be the difference between a good and great campaign. TOUGHNESS NEEDED At the same time, it's not just the big men who need an infusion of toughness. The Wolverines were be- ing outrebounded by 3.1 per game through nine contests and were dom-