Fab Five Takeaways From Michigan's NCAA Tournament Win Over Texas Southern
No. 1 seed Michigan Wolverines basketball beat Texas Southern Saturday afternoon, 82-66, to advance to the NCAA Tournament's second round. The Maize and Blue will take on No. 8 seed LSU on Monday, with the time of the game not yet determined.
Here are five takeaways from the game.
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1. Player of the game: Mike Smith
Nobody was outstanding for Michigan in this one, but fifth-year senior guard Mike Smith, competing in his first career NCAA Tournament game, was the closest thing to it and wins player of the game honors for the second time in the last three contests.
Smith was really the catalyst offensively, scoring 18 points on 6-of-12 from the field and 2-of-6 from three-point land, while also adding five assists and four rebounds. With senior forward Isaiah Livers (out indefinitely with a foot injury) not in the lineup, more responsibility falls into the hands of Smith and others to handle the ball and run the show. Smith stepped up in that regard in this one, and he just needed more help for the Wolverines to have been proficient for a full 40 minutes.
The Columbia transfer was also guarding bigger guards against a tall Texas Southern team and, while the Wolverines struggled checking the Tigers’ dribble-drives, Smith held his own much of the time.
2. Michigan's offense was clunky for much of the game
Michigan scored over 1.2 points per possession on the afternoon and, to an outside set of eyes, appeared to cruise to victory. But the Wolverines wanted to do more than that playing in its second full game without Livers and with a tweaked rotation. That performance was a far cry away from some of the better ones this team has had this season.
We’ll start with the post play. Michigan’s perimeter players continue to try to force the ball into the post, a lot of times when freshman center Hunter Dickinson doesn’t isn't even in very deep. Other times, it’s to fifth-year senior forward Austin Davis or junior forward Brandon Johns — there’s no need to cram it in there to them when they don’t have great position.
As opposed to stalling a possession by standing still and looking down low, reversing the ball and making the defense work, recover and reset is the much better option.
On top of that, when the ball does go inside, Dickinson has begun the trend of losing control of the ball. He turned it over six times in this one, despite scoring 16 points (on 6-of-7 from the field), and could have made better and more deliberate decisions while facing double teams — that were constant — in the post. Again, sometimes getting it back out to the perimeter and letting the guards swing it is the smarter play.
Dickinson is a very smart player and almost always recognizes when he's getting doubled. He just has to stay under control, decide what he wants to do and stay strong while doing it — he's shown he's up for the task, it just has to be more consistent.
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