The University of Michigan men’s basketball team played their one and only exhibition game of the 2011-2012 season on Friday (11/04/2011) vs. Wayne State, and they won 47-39. That’s the good news. The bad news is that they didn’t look very good. It’s not unusual for a team to look a little raw or ragged or rusty during an exhibition game, but this was worse than usual. Michigan never really got into any “flow” offensively, although they did play pretty well defensively. There were a few good plays on offense, and some good individual performances, but nothing very exciting.
The game was dreary, and the stats are dreary. Neither team shot well: UM shot 37.3% (19-for-51) overall, and WSU shot 32.7% (17-for-52). 3-point shooting was even worse: UM shot 20.8% (5-for-24), and WSU shot 12.5% (2-for-16). Even free-throw shooting was bad, at least for Michigan: they shot 4-for-12 (33.3%). It was ugly.
As bad as the shooting stats were, the non-shooting stats were worse. UM got out-rebounded (40-31) by a much smaller team, and they had more turnovers (14) than assists (11).
Individually, only two UM players hit double figures: Tim Hardaway Jr. had 20 points, and Zack Novak had 14. Hardaway had to take 17 shots (7-for-17) to get his 20 points. Only two other UM players even scored: Jon Horford had 6 points, and Trey Burke had 7. That adds up to 47 points.
Coach Beilein started a slightly unusual lineup: Hardaway, Novak, and Evan Smotrycz were expected, but Horford started ahead of Jordan Morgan, and Stu Douglass started ahead of Burke. Since I already mentioned the four UM players who scored, that means that two of the starters (Smotrycz and Douglass) went scoreless (0-for-5 and 0-for-4, respectively), and so did Morgan (0-for-1). Two other players (Matt Vogrich and Carlton Brundidge) also played, and also went scoreless (0-for-2 and 0-for-0, respectively). Blake McLimans and Colton Christian never even got in the game.
Looking at the stats, it’s obvious that no one had a great game, but some of the players had good games. Novak hustled all over the floor, as usual, and Hardaway played hard (no pun intended), just not always smart. Burke looked pretty smooth out there, and Horford looked improved over last season.
So, the one-game exhibition season is over. On to the real games. First up is Ferris State at 7:00 p.m. this Friday (11/11/2011) in Crisler Arena. Come on down to the new, improved Crisler Arena and see if the real Wolverines show up.
Go Blue!
