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The (#2) University of Michigan men’s basketball team played two games last week, and they won both of them. On Tuesday (12/11/2012), they beat Binghamton 67-39 in Crisler Arena, then on Saturday (12/15/2012), they beat West Virginia 81-66 in the Barclays Center, in New York City, which is the new home of the Brooklyn Nets (formerly the New Jersey Nets) of the NBA. The two wins raise UM’s record to 11-0.

If you’ve been paying attention, you’ve seen that Michigan’s ranking has slowly but steadily moved up all season. They started the year ranked #5, and as teams ahead of them have lost, they’ve moved up to #4 and #3, and this week to #2. All season long, Indiana has been ranked #1, and for several weeks now, Duke has been #2, with UM at #3. Well, Indiana lost to Butler in overtime on Saturday, so Duke moved up to #1, and Michigan is now #2. This is the highest ranking that Michigan has had in a long time, and the 11-0 start is the best start UM has had since that magical season (1988-1989) when they won the National Championship. These are exciting times.

So, why are the Wolverines “the Kings of New York City”? Well, over Thanksgiving weekend they won the NIT Season Tip-Off tournament in Madison Square Garden, and this weekend they won their game in the Brooklyn Hoops Winter Festival in Brooklyn. They’re doing pretty well in NYC.

The Binghamton game was just a joke. It was more like a controlled scrimmage. Binghamton stood no chance, and the only interesting aspect was seeing how sharp (or not) Michigan would look against an overmatched opponent. The answer: meh. They took care of business, but didn’t look fabulous. The WVU game was a much better test. Even though West Virginia doesn’t have a very good record this season (now 4-5), they were scrappy and relentless, and they gave Michigan a good run for their money. Even though the final margin of victory (15 points) looks pretty convincing, WVU made the game interesting a couple times in both halves. Michigan had to play hard and well to beat them.

Stats time! First, the Binghamton scrimmage: Michigan didn’t shoot particularly well overall (27-for-61 = 44.3%), and they didn’t very well from 3-point range (10-for-30 = 33.3%). They didn’t get to the free-throw line much, and they didn’t shoot very well when they got there (3-for-5 = 60.0%). They did win the rebounding battle (39-28) and the turnover battle (7-16). They won the game with all those extra possessions.

The stats for the WVU game are a little better: Michigan shot better overall (26-for-50 = 56.0%), and OK from 3-point range (7-for-21 = 33.3%). There were a lot of fouls in the game, and WVU shot a sizzling 83.3% (20-for-24) from the free-throw line, but UM didn’t do quite as well (18-for-27 = 66.7%). Michigan did win the rebounding battle (32-29), but they lost the turnover battle (14-13). They won the game because they held WVU to 38.5% (20-for-52) overall shooting.

Individually, two players hit double figures in both games:

• Trey Burke (19 vs. Binghamton and 27 vs. WVU). Trey has hit double figures in every game this season. He’s averaging 18.0 points/game.
• Nik Stauskas (12 and 10). Nik has hit double figures in every game this season except the opener (Slippery Rock). He’s averaging 13.2 points/game.

One other player came close to double figures in both games:

• Tim Hardaway Jr. (9 and 25). Tim did a lot better shooting from 3-point range this week: 2-for-9 and 4-for-8.

The other two starters did OK this week:

• Jordan Morgan (6 and 8). Jordan was unusually quiet on the boards this week, with only 2 rebounds in each game.
• Glenn Robinson III (6 and 8).

Besides the starters (and McGary), the bench chipped in a little scoring:

• Mitch McGary (6 and 2). Mitch had a career-high 10 rebounds in the Binghamton game.
• Spike Albrecht (3 and 0).
• Jon Horford (4 and 1). Jon re-injured his knee in the WVU game, and could miss 2-3 weeks. Bummer.
• Caris LeVert (2 and 0).

A few other bench players played in at least one game last week, but didn’t score:

• Eso Akunne – Eso didn’t play in the WVU game.
• Blake McLimans – Blake didn’t play in the WVU game.
• Corey Person – Corey didn’t play in the WVU game.
• Matt Vogrich – Matt didn’t play in the WVU game.

Josh Bartelstein is still out due to his ankle surgery, and Max Bielfeldt missed both games due to an ankle sprain. Bielfeldt is just about ready to return to action.

This Week

Michigan only has one game this week. On Thursday (12/20/2012, 8:30 p.m., BTN), Michigan plays Eastern Michigan, in Crisler Arena. EMU is currently 6-3 on the season, but their only impressive win is over Purdue. I expect this game to be a lot like the Western Michigan game a few weeks ago: tense for a while, then a blowout win for Michigan.

Check back next week to see what happened, and why.

Go Blue!

The (#3) University of Michigan men’s basketball team played two games last week in Crisler Arena, and they won both of them. On Tuesday (12/04/2012), they beat Western Michigan 73-41, then on Saturday (12/08/2012), they beat Arkansas 80-67. The two wins raise UM’s record to 9-0. The Arkansas win also represented win #100 at Michigan for Coach Beilein.

So, what does “4 Minutes Of Mild Discomfort” mean? Well, Arkansas plays an aggressive style of basketball, with a nasty full-court press, that they call “40 Minutes Of Hell”. Last season, when Michigan played in Fayetteville, Arkansas hit their first 11 shots and sprinted out to a big early lead. UM played from behind the whole game, and almost won it at the buzzer, but the Arkansas press really flustered Michigan for most of the game. This time around, Michigan controlled the tempo of the game, and didn’t let the Arkansas press bother them. They broke the press consistently, and Arkansas decided not to run it much. My guess is that they ran it for a total of 4 minutes during the 40 minute game, and got maybe 2 turnovers out of it. So, it was more like “4 Minutes Of Mild Discomfort And 36 Minutes Of ‘Press? What Press?'”. It was a great revenge win over a pretty good team.

It wasn’t brought up much, but the game against WMU was also a revenge game. It turns out that Western had won the last two games in the series, back in 2001-2002 and 2002-2003. This season’s WMU team was pretty good, with a 6-1 record coming in, and for the first 12 minutes, it was a tight game, with Michigan up 20-15. Then UM went on a nice 15-6 run to end the half, up 35-21. Michigan pushed the lead up to 20 early in the 2^nd half, and kept it around there or better for the rest of the game.

So, these were both good wins over pretty good teams, and Michigan looked good winning them. People were starting to get worried after the weak endings in the NC State and Bradley games, but Michigan played well down the stretch in both of these games.

Let’s look at the stats, first for the WMU game: Michigan shot pretty well overall (29-for-58 = 50.0%), but not as well as usual from 3-point range (8-for-21 = 38.1%). They didn’t get to the free-throw line much, and didn’t shoot particularly well there (7-for-11 = 63.6%). They did win the rebounding battle (35-31) and the turnover battle (10-18). The biggest factor was defense, since they held WMU to 28.9% shooting (13-for-45).

The stats for the Arkansas game are pretty similar: UM shot pretty well overall (29-for-62 = 46.8%), decent from 3-point land (7-for-18 = 38.9%), and much better from the free-throw line (15-for-18 = 83.3%). They won the game on the boards, where they dominated (42-26), including an amazing 18 offensive rebounds. They did lose the turnover battle (12-11), but that’s not bad considering the “40 Minutes Of Hell” thing.

Individually, two players hit double figures in both games:

• Trey Burke (20 vs. WMU and 16 vs. Arkansas).
  
• Nik Stauskas (11 and 21). Nik finally had an “off” game shooting 3-pointers vs. Arkansas, going “only” 2-for-5. For the season, he’s now 23-for-38 (60.5%), which is still very good.

Four other players came close to double figures in both games:

• Tim Hardaway Jr. (9 and 14). Tim continued to have trouble shooting from 3-point range: 1-for-3 and 1-for-4.
  
• Mitch McGary (10 and 6).
  
• Jordan Morgan (8 and 12). Jordan also had 10 rebounds in the Arkansas game, for another double-double.
  
• Glenn Robinson III (7 and 17).
  

 

If you paid attention there, you noticed that all five starters hit double figures in the Arkansas game, which is great scoring balance.

Besides the starters (and McGary), the bench chipped in a little scoring:

• Spike Albrecht (2 and 3).
  
• Matt Vogrich (3 and 0).
  
• Caris LeVert (3 and 0). LeVert got the first points of his career on his first attempt, a 3-pointer.

A few other bench players played in at least one game last week, but didn’t score:

• Eso Akunne
  
• Jon Horford
  
• Blake McLimans
  
• Corey Person – Corey didn’t play in the Arkansas game.

Josh Bartelstein is still out due to his ankle surgery, and Max Bielfeldt missed both games due to an ankle sprain. Bielfeldt won’t require surgery, and he should be back in action soon.

This Week

Michigan has two games this week, one at home and one on the road. On Tuesday (12/11/2012, 7:00 p.m., BTN), Michigan plays Binghamton, then on Saturday (12/15/2012, 8:00 p.m., ESPN), they play West Virginia, in Brooklyn (NY) in the Barclays Center, which is the new home of the Brooklyn Nets (formerly the New Jersey Nets) of the NBA. This game is part of a tripleheader of college games called the Brooklyn Hoops Winter Festival. Since Coach Beilein came to Michigan from West Virginia, this game has added significance.

Binghamton is pure “cupcake”, and I expect Michigan to crush them. West Virginia is currently 4-3, with only one impressive win (68-67 over Virginia Tech). Due to the fanfare of the event in an NBA arena, and the history surrounding Coach Beilein, I expect the WVU game to be close and hard-fought, but I expect Michigan to win in the end.

Check back next week to see what happened, and why.

Go Blue!

 

7-0. Still perfect. Seven wins and no losses. It’s a good start.

The (#3) University of Michigan men’s basketball team played two games this week, and they won both of them. On Tuesday (11/27/2012), UM beat (#18) North Carolina State 79-72 in Crisler Arena as part of the ACC/Big Ten Challenge, then on Saturday (12/01/2012), they beat Bradley 74-66 in Peoria, IL. The two wins raise UM’s record to 7-0. Oh yeah, the Big Ten and the ACC tied 6-6 in the Challenge, so the Big Ten keeps the trophy since they’re the defending champs.

Both games last week were tough, and that made sense for the NC State game, but not for the Bradley game. NC State is a good team, a Top 25 team, a team from the ACC. Bradley is not. They were lousy last season, and they’re a little better this season, but they still should have been cannon fodder for Michigan. Instead, UM let a 16-point lead almost disappear in the last 3:34 of the game. They let Bradley go on an 11-0 run in 3 minutes, but managed to stop the bleeding just long enough to run the clock out. It was scary. Sure, this was Michigan’s first true road game (the 2 games in NYC were neutral site games), and the Bradley crowd was pretty big (over 11,000) and loud, and UM played pretty well overall, but they seemed to lack the killer instinct against an overmatched opponent.

On the other hand, the win over NC State was pretty impressive. Michigan controlled the game, and once they got a decent lead, they never let NC State back into it. They did let the lead slip a little near the end, just like the Bradley game, but it’s much more understandable against a Top 25 team.

Time for some stats. First, the NC State game. Overall, Michigan shot pretty well (27-for-54 = 50.0%), but not as well as usual from 3-point range (9-for-24 = 37.5%). They got to the free-throw line a lot, and shot a good percentage: 16-for-20 = 80.0%. That was the difference in the game, since NCSU was only 6-for-9 (66.7%) from the line. Those extra 10 points made the difference. For the first time this season, UM was out-rebounded (25-31), but UM did a great job of protecting the ball, with only 6 turnovers.

The stats from the Bradley game are about the same. Michigan shot pretty well overall (26-for-53 = 49.1%), but much better from 3-point range (7-for-15 = 46.7%). Once again, they made more free throws than Bradley attempted. UM was 15-for-21 (71.4%) from the line, while Bradley was only 8-for-12 (66.7%). Those extra 7 points sure helped in an 8-point victory. Michigan won the rebounding battle this time (32-24), but had too many turnovers (13).

After 6 games of the “Matt Vogrich Experiment”, Coach Beilein finally replaced Vogrich in the starting lineup with Nik Stauskas for the Bradley game. Stauskas has played very well in every game this season coming off the bench, and Vogrich hasn’t really done much, so the change makes sense.

Looking at the individual stats, three players hit double figures in both games:

• Trey Burke (18 vs. NCSU and 16 vs. Bradley). Trey also had a career-high 11 assists in the NC State game, for his first career double-double.
  
• Glenn Robinson III (11 and 13).
  
• Nik Stauskas (20 and 22). Nik was the leading scorer in both games. Each game represented a new career high. He was 4-for-7 and 4-for-5 shooting 3-pointers. He was awesome.

Two other players came close to double figures in both games:

• Tim Hardaway Jr. (16 and 9). Tim continued to have trouble shooting from 3-point range: 1-for-9 and 1-for-2.
  
• Jordan Morgan (6 and 10). Jordan did have 10 rebounds in the Bradley game, for his second career double-double.

The other (semi)starter didn’t do much:

• Matt Vogrich (0 and 0). Matt is going to have to fight his way off the bench.

Besides Stauskas, some of the other bench players chipped in some points:

• Mitch McGary (8 and 2). Mitch also had 5 rebounds in each game.
  
• Max Bielfeldt (DNP and 2). Max didn’t play vs. NC State, but he played for 9 minutes in his hometown (Peoria) vs. Bradley. He did fine.

A few other bench players played in at least one game last week, but didn’t score:

• Spike Albrecht – Spike did OK running the point in relief of Trey.
  
• Eso Akunne – Eso didn’t play in the Bradley game.
  
• Jon Horford – Jon didn’t play in the Bradley game.
  
• Caris LeVert – Caris didn’t play in the NCSU game. In fact, it looked as if he was going to be redshirted this season, but I guess that’s not the case any more.

Blake McLimans and Corey Person didn’t play in either game. Josh Bartelstein is out for the next 6 weeks after surgery on his ankle, which was injured in the regular season opener vs. Slippery Rock.

This Week

Michigan has two games this week, both at home. On Tuesday (12/04/2012, 8:30 p.m., BTN), Michigan plays Western Michigan, then on Saturday (12/08/2012, 12:00 p.m., CBS), they play Arkansas.

WMU is pretty good this year. They’re 6-1, and they’ve beaten a couple pretty good teams: South Florida (on the road) and Oakland. Their only loss was in their opener at Cornell. Arkansas is 3-3, and they’re down a little from last season, but they still managed to beat Michigan at their place last season, so this is a revenge game on national TV. I expect both games to be exciting and hard-fought, but I expect Michigan to win both of these games.

Check back next week to see what happened, and why.

Go Blue!