Michigan Basketball: Howard On Wolverines' No. 4 Ranking – ‘It’s Early’
Michigan tied a record by going from unranked in one AP poll to No. 4 in a week after winning the loaded Battle for Atlantis tournament. Head coach Juwan Howard was thrilled with his team’s performance but he knows there’s plenty of work to do, starting Tuesday night at Louisville.
The Cardinals are No. 1 after their own 7-0 start, though they have yet to play a ranked team.
“They’re a very good team, obviously, and their ranking shows that,” he said. “They play extremely hard defensively, play with a lot of energy at home and are a very good team in transition. We must get back, also must guard the three-point line. Their attackers do an excellent job of getting out in transition for layups to finish or make plays for each other.”
They also attack the glass and play extremely well at home, he added.
But the Wolverines are playing with an extreme amount of confidence, having already beaten two top 10 teams, and they have four players who have plenty of experience in hostile environments in senior center Jon Teske, senior point guard Zavier Simpson, junior forward Isaiah Livers and junior guard Eli Brooks.
Howard’s son, also a Michigan recruit, called him today to let him know the Wolverines were ranked in the top five.
“He was excited as well as surprised, but he also felt we earned it,” Howard said. “I agree with him. But at the end of the day, it’s early. Championships are not won now. Yes, we won a championship in Thanksgiving play, but the NCAA Championship is in April, and you can’t get there yet until you play in the Big Ten and tournament, and that’s we have many of those to try to achieve.”
It starts Tuesday night in Louisville.
"It's a tough environment. We're going into the Lions' den," Howard said. "They play extremely well at home. It's our first time being road tested in non-conference play. I'm looking forward to the challenge and I know our players are, too."
NOTES
• Howard said he first saw Teske as “a talented big that has a high IQ, can shoot very well from outside,” and first labeled him stretch five. He started working on his inside game immediately, and it’s paid off.
“He continued working on it, not only in practice but this summer,” Howard said. “He’ll continue to keep working on it, and we’ll rely on him to score inside and outside. We look at Jon as one of the foundation pieces to this team. He’s a senior, a guy who’s had experience, is battle tested, played a lot of big games, won a lot of big games. He’s a senior. He’s been around.”
• Freshman Franz Wagner had his moments in his first tasted of game action since returning from a wrist injury, but he struggled at times. He averaged 6.3 points per game in the Bahamas, shooting 37 percent from the floor and 33 percent from long range, but he defended well.
“Right now, he’s not really in basketball shape,” Howard said. “It takes time for him to adjust to that schedule of change of direction and your body with those different types of movements. Yeah, you can run on the court all you want without practice and you can go out there on the treadmill and prepare yourself for the conditions, but basketball shape is totally different.
“You can score a lot vs. the cones, but when you have that arm in your face or somebody’s beating on your body, that’s a different level of play right there.”
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