For long stretches this season, the Michigan men’s basketball team has struggled to win the turnover battle.

The Wolverines committed 13 or more turnovers in 10 games — nearly one in every three contests. Michigan finished in the bottom half of the Big Ten in both turnover margin and assist-to-turnover ratio. Without DeVante’ Jones (concussion) in the lineup against Colorado State in the round of 64, the Wolverines tallied 15 giveaways.

Heading into Saturday’s round of 32 date with No. 3 seed Tennessee, the good news is Jones could be available. He traveled to Indianapolis and practiced with Michigan on Friday. The bad news is that the Volunteers force 15.9 turnovers per game, including an average of 9.4 steals — third-best among all Power Five teams.

“They definitely create a lot of turnovers, but we can’t give them extra possessions and we can’t come out in the situation without getting a shot up,” Terrance Williams said Friday. “We’re going to make mistakes and turnovers are going to happen and when mistakes add up on, and on that’s when problems occur, so we can’t have that. Having another ball handler with (Jones) would definitely help that.”

For the Wolverines, taking care of the ball comes down to preventing Tennessee from speeding them up. Michigan’s ball screen-based offense takes on a slow, methodical pace at times, allowing the Wolverines’ guards to read opposing big men and react accordingly. Jones and freshman Frankie Collins push the pace well in transition, but they’ve settled into that system as a foundational action over the past few weeks.

The Volunteers, however, will try to prevent Michigan from settling into any type of halfcourt offense.

“Defensively, they throw a lot of coverages at you, sometimes they will throw two to the ball and blitz, sometimes they will have a soft blitz,” Juwan Howard said. “There are moments when they put bigs in the drop coverage. They also will switch, ‘1’ through ‘5’ depending on lineups they have in there. I’ve also seen some zone they have played.

“With those different types of coverages, at times they can either speed you up and cause confusion out there on the floor, some will get you out of the timing of your sets, some of the scoring opportunities that you want to score, whether it's inside or outside. But the key with us, we can’t overthink it. Just be patient, make simple plays and not try to make the whole run of plays.”

At Friday’s practice and in two days of studying film, players heard the message loud and clear.

“The guards play a lot of ball pressure, they do a lot of gambling sometimes, as you can see, so we’ve got to take care of the ball and be strong with the ball,” Williams said. “We can’t be loose with it, dribbling, triple threat, not having it out.”

Michigan’s offense is at its best when it has time and space. The Wolverines have proven they can hang in a track meet or shootout at times throughout the season, but it seldom feels as though they’re in control under those circumstances. On the other hand, running sets in order to find All-American big Hunter Dickinson in the post and open shooters around the perimeter is where Michigan looks most comfortable.

If the Wolverines can strike a balance on Saturday, it might just be enough to punch a ticket to the Sweet 16.

---

Not a subscriber to The Maize and Blue Review? Sign up today!

Discuss this article on our premium message boards

Follow our staff on Twitter @MaizeBlueReview, @JoshHenschke, @BrandonJustice_, @DanielDash_, @DennisFithian, @StephenToski, @Baird_CJ, @ZachLibby, @JimScarcelli, @GoBlueMcCue

Subscribe to our podcast on Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts and Spotify

Subscribe to The Maize and Blue Review on YouTube!

Like The Maize and Blue Review on Facebook!