Michigan Wolverines basketball is now allowing a whopping 30.3 points per game to opposing centers in six Big Ten games. The Wolverines knew change was needed in how they would defend the post, and change is exactly what Juwan Howard implemented in the team's second matchup with Iowa last Friday.
Iowa junior center Luka Garza scored 44 points against U-M back on Dec. 6 at Crisler Center. Howard didn't want to let that happen again, and attempted to do something about it schematically. Friday, Garza still went for 11 points over his average, scoring 33 on U-M. He proved to be too much to handle for even a different approach to defending him.
We take a look at the adjustments U-M made in trying to stop Iowa's post game.
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One-On-One
The first time U-M played Iowa, Howard left Garza one-on-one in the post with his post defenders, usually senior center Jon Teske. Howard cited taking away three-pointers as one of the main reasons for not helping from the perimeter.
Below, you'll notice just how focused U-M's perimeter defenders were on staying glued to the Hawkeyes' shooters.
As you can tell, there's a lot of distance between Garza and his defender, and the rest of the players on the floor. This is by design for both teams. For U-M, the focus is to stay on the shooters, not wanting to give up any open looks from long-range. For Iowa, the focus is taking advantage of what U-M is giving up, and letting Garza go to work down low with space to maneuver.
In the first Iowa-Michigan game, the Hawkeyes shot just 3-for-15 on threes (20 percent), so the strategy worked in that respect, even if Iowa put up 91 points, 56 of which came in the paint.
