After the loss to Penn State Tuesday night, Michigan was looking to bounce back against No. 24 Maryland Saturday.
Freshman forward Ignas Brazdeikis said Friday that the Wolverines learned from the loss to the Nittany Lions — and it showed against the Terrapins.
Michigan defeated Maryland 65-52, with U-M showing resiliency after losing its third loss of the season.
Junior point guard Zavier Simpson does not like losing.
“It messes with us, it doesn’t sit well,” Simpson said of losing. It ticks us off.”
After the loss, Simpson said the team emphasized three things to get back on track.
“Play hard, play smart, play together,” Simpson said. “Holding our teammates accountable every single day of work like it’s a summer practice and we’re competing for a spot or competing for a national championship. I feel like that carries over.”
Only area where Michigan improved against Maryland was in transition. The Wolverines had 14 points in transition against the Terrapins. Sophomore forward Isiah Livers said head coach John Beilein emphasized scoring in transition in film and practice this week.
“On that 14-2 run, I did see Iggy running the lane,” Livers said. “Iggy is usually, he’s not the fastest guy on the team, he doesn’t sprint his lanes, but he did a really good job today of creating space for others. That small cut on a fastbreak can get anybody open.”
Simpson was a key driver on the fast breaks for Michigan.
“Probably within the last week or two, Coach B has been working with us on the fast break, pressing us on the fastbreak about finding the open lanes,” Simpson said. “He’s been on our wings about running. I just told my wings just to run and I’ll find you.”
The other area where Michigan improved against Maryland was on the defensive end. The Terrapins only scored 18 points in the first half and shot just 36.4 percent from the field. In the first half, Maryland sophomore center Bruno Fernando had zero points.
“I think our bigs did a really good job of making it hard for [Fernando],” Livers said. “Our job was to make him dribble three or four times and I think we did that every post touch expect some. I think we did a tremendous job against Bruno.”
One of Michigan’s leaders on defense was redshirt junior guard Charles Matthews. Matthews had a team-high 14 points Saturday, continuing his recent stretch of offensive production. Beyond just scoring, he’s becoming a bigger leader for the Wolverines.
“The Charles that we all knew that first semester is not that same Charles,” Livers said. “He was more of a leader by example, now he’s starting to be vocal like Simpson. We have two very loud and persistent captains that are going to be voices out there.”
Matthews is locking in right as the calendar nears March.
“I’ve seen a ferocious, loud Charles,” Simpson said. “He’s talking, he’s ripping on everybody. It doesn’t matter, no excuses, he’s done with excuses, it’s February so we can’t have any excuses if we want to win championships.”
---
• Talk about this article inside The Fort
• Subscribe to our podcast on iTunes
• Learn more about our print and digital publication, The Wolverine
• Follow us on Twitter: @TheWolverineMag, @BSB_Wolverine, @JB_ Wolverine, @AustinFox42, @Balas_Wolverine, @DrewCHallett and @Qb9Adam.
• Like us on Facebook
