The Wolverine: Covering University of Michigan Football and Sports
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44 THE WOLVERINE JANUARY 2018 BY CHRIS BALAS M ichigan head basketball coach John Beilein issued a warning to the fan base before the season began … anyone expecting a well-oiled ma- chine from the get-go might be in for a rude awakening. The early season, perhaps longer, would be a roller coaster, he said, while the new faces assimilated with the veterans and players adjusted to their new roles. Sure enough, that's what they witnessed through the first third of the season. There was a disappoint- ing loss to LSU at the Maui Invita- tional before Thanksgiving, though the Wolverines rebounded to beat Chaminade and VCU to finish 2-1 in Hawai'i. And the Wolverines were competi- tive with North Carolina for 15 min- utes before getting blown out on the road in the ACC-Big Ten Challenge. When asked then how his team had fared through the first eight games compared to expectations, Beilein didn't hesitate. "We played really well at times at North Carolina, and we had a bad, bad 12 minutes," Beilein said. "It made us look silly at times. At the same time, we're going to find a way to make it positive. "The great thing about the Big Ten and our schedule is that we have chances to make it up from the poor performance we had in that game to do well again [the next day]. "We're probably right where we should be right now. We're probably right on schedule. I don't think we're ahead or behind on anything." The game with the Tar Heels was part of a six-game stretch he deemed a season within a season, and it was different than anything the Wolver- ines had ever faced. Of those half-dozen opponents, two were early December Big Ten games — home against Indiana and at Ohio State. The Wolverines (and all other conference schools) were forced to open league play early due to an earlier start for the Big Ten Tournament (Feb. 28). Because the conference higher-ups wanted to play this year 's postsea- son session at Madison Square Gar- den — a kind of "welcome to the Big Ten" gift to Rutgers, apparently, the way last year's in Washington, D.C., was to Maryland — all Big Ten teams were forced to play a pair of confer- ence games a month early. If Michigan could cap the stretch with a win over Detroit Mercy, he said before the Wolverines trounced the Titans 90-58 at Little Caesar 's Arena in downtown Detroit Dec. 16, and go 4-2, he'd be pleased. "It's obviously a big challenge," junior center Moritz Wagner said be- fore the stretch. "The Big Ten … that doesn't make it easier to have two conference games that really mat- ter toward the end of the year. The Big Ten seems so far away, and those games are really important. "But it's awesome. It's fun. We haven't had that the last two years, so this stretch controls a lot about what the team is all about, and I'm very excited about." BIG TEN SEASON STARTS WITH A SPLIT The Wolverines came out of the gate swinging in Big Ten play, han- dling Indiana at home from start to finish. The Hoosiers aren't vintage IU this year, off to a 6-6 start, but Michigan's win looked much better after Indiana beat No. 18 Notre Dame 80-77 Dec. 16. It appeared U-M was well on its way to a 2-0 league start after grab- bing a 20-point first-half lead in Co- lumbus against Ohio State. The of- fense was clicking, and the defense was doing its part, too. Then … the collapse. The Wolverines made only five field goals in the second half, and their four leading scorers — Wagner, redshirt sophomore wing Charles Matthews, senior shooting guard Muhammad-Ali Abdur-Rahkman and fifth-year senior forward Dun- can Robinson — went more than 20 minutes (from 1:43 of the first half to 0:16 of the second) without scoring. The 71-62 loss was the latest frus- trating setback to the Buckeyes. Last year, Ohio State came to Ann Arbor as a 10-point underdog in Febru- ary and delivered an upset that had many questioning the team's path. Michigan rebounded and went on a huge run, winning the Big Ten Tournament and making the Sweet 16. U-M struggled for most of the following game, though, and it ap- peared as though they were destined to lose at home to UCLA. A furious rally got them to overtime, and they ended up winning 78-69. Three days later they beat Texas 59- 52 in Austin, giving their RPI a huge boost (it stood 28th as of Dec. 18). "I thought it was a fantastic bounce back," former Michigan center and current television analyst Tim Mc- Cormick said. "Teams show trends. When they were up comfortably and collapsed against Ohio State, I was really curious to see how they built some leads against UCLA and Texas, and if the same thing would hap- pen." T h e Wo l v e r i n e s p e r s e v e re d , though, and they did it the way they've done it much of the year — primarily with defense. They ranked third in the conference for scoring de- fense (62.5 points per game allowed) and defensive rebounding percent- age (74.9 percent of all boards were defensive), and fourth in steals (7.5 per game) through 13 games. They're starting to understand the rhythm to the game and how to play, Beilein said, but are still not execut- ing at both ends the way he'd like. A DIFFERENT LOOK Rest assured, that will change as the offense improves, which it al- ways does under Beilein. However, the defensive element has been eye- opening. ON THE RISE John Beilein's Team Is Showing Steady Improvement Junior forward Moritz Wagner hit clutch three-pointers to help secure a pair of key non-conference victories for U-M versus UCLA (78-69) Dec. 9 and at Texas (59-52) Dec. 12. PHOTO BY LON HORWEDEL