Unlike John Beilein-coached teams of the past, Michigan has won several games this season with defense.
Monday night was a perfect example of that, when the Wolverines beat Northwestern, 58-47, in a defensive slugfest.
The Wildcats shot just 38.3 percent for the game and only had 19 points at the break.
Freshman guard Jordan Poole explained a few of the contributing factors that have led to the Wolverines’ defensive surge this year.
“We’re so locked in on that side of the ball,” he said. “At the beginning of the year, everybody thought we weren’t a tough defensive team, but we feel like we’re different now. We wanted to make a statement on defense, and that has been one of our focuses since the beginning of the season.
“We all took it upon ourselves in practice not to let others score, and it rubbed off on everybody. That’s about the time we started to get tougher as a team. The defensive mindset came from Coach [Luke] Yaklich and us players.
“Coach Yaklich was the one who really stressed it to us right away, though, and told us we’re not going to win games if we don’t play great defense.”
Poole explained that one of the factors that has aided his defensive play this season has been his knowledge of opponent tendencies.
“When I wasn’t playing as much earlier in the year, I was on the scout team, so I had to know the plays like the back of my hand,” he revealed. “During games, the coaches would be on the bench calling out the other team’s plays, but now we’re already on top of it. That is so frustrating for the other team's offense.”
Offensive play has actually been the bigger issue for Michigan at times this season, and Poole admitted the team needs to be more consistent in that area.
However, he explained the reasoning behind two recent poor offensive performances against Nebraska and Northwestern, respectively.
“When we played Nebraska, they were switching everything defensively and it was something we hadn’t seen before,” he said. “Then Northwestern played this zone against us Monday night, which was also new.
“We’re not as consistent offensively as some other teams. We just have a different type of team where we can lock in on defense. We have different guys, like [redshirt sophomore guard] Charles [Matthews], X [sophomore point guard Zavier Simpson] and [senior guard] Muhammad [Ali Abdur-Rahkman] who are a lot tougher than some of the guys other teams have.”
Fans have often criticized Beilein's teams for being soft in the past — that certainly isn't the case anymore.
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