The Wolverine

January 2016

The Wolverine: Covering University of Michigan Football and Sports

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BY CHRIS BALAS B arring something unfore- seen — cough, NJIT and Eastern Michigan in 2014, cough — Michigan should finish the non-conference portion of its season 10-3. The Wolverines stood 6-3 and were still facing December games with Delaware State, North- ern Kentucky, Youngstown State and Bryant — four teams with a com- bined record of 6-21 as of Dec. 9 — before opening the Big Ten season at Illinois Dec. 30. On the surface, 10 wins heading into Big Ten play isn't bad at all, es- pecially when they include a road victory over North Carolina State in the ACC/Big Ten Challenge. The Wolfpack weren't ranked at the time, but any road triumph over an ACC team is a good win, and the Wolver- ines held up their end of the bargain for the Big Ten in its 8-6 Challenge victory. Another highlight was a 2-1 record at the Battle 4 Atlantis tournament in the Bahamas over Thanksgiving week, including a win over a solid and veteran Texas team. The Wolver- ines crushed Charlotte 102-47 a day earlier and seemed to be figuring out exactly who they were. More importantly, head coach John Beilein was starting to figure it out. "I don't know about identity, but I know I'm starting to know more about the buttons to push defen- sively and offensively, what they can handle right now," Beilein said fol- lowing the 66-59 win over the Wolf- pack. "Some guys still can't handle some things. "Certain sides of the floor, going to the right or left, understanding [things] … [junior wing] Zak [Ir- vin] had a big guy on him, shot a step-back three when we were in the bonus. These types of things we're starting to understand and work on … but I also know some things we're pretty good at." Among them — three-point shoot- ing. The Wolverines were shooting an impressive 41.0 percent as a team as of Dec. 9, led by junior point guard Derrick Walton Jr.'s amazing 63.6 percent (14 of 22) in seven games. That number was even more im- pressive considering Irvin, coming Work In PROGRESS John Beilein's Wolverines Are Ironing Out The Kinks In The Early Going

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