Michigan sees room for improvement in blowout win

DETROIT — At first glance, the final score of the Michigan men’s basketball team’s 87-54 exhibition win over Wayne State suggests there may not be much room for improvement.

Juwan Howard would disagree.

Watching from the bench as his Wolverines surrendered 17 offensive rebounds, Howard repeatedly shook his head. Despite a massive physical advantage over the Division II Warriors, Michigan found itself routinely losing out on 50-50 balls and tipped balls off the glass.

“That cannot happen,” Howard said. “We cannot have a recipe of giving up that many offensive rebounds in any league, whether that’s non-conference or Big Ten.”

Sitting in the postgame locker room with his arms folded across his chest, Howard didn’t hesitate to express displeasure with the Wolverines’ performance on the glass. They ultimately won the rebounding battle, 51-39, but grabbed just 10 offensive boards compared to Wayne State’s 17.

In Howard’s mind, keeping teams off the glass boils down to three components: boxing out, energy and effort. All of them are within his team’s control.

“It’s correctable,” Howard said. “We’ll get to it and we’ll make sure we get better with it.”

Friday was a reminder of exactly why teams play exhibitions. Howard realizes it’s November 5 — not March 5. Working through growing pains and learning curves is a major part of a successful preseason, and the exhibition trip to Detroit was a step in the right direction for the Wolverines.

Take turnovers, for example. Michigan committed 17 of them, often a product of excessive aggression, slow footwork and poor passing choices. By all accounts, that’s a sloppy offensive performance. But when Howard was asked about the high turnover tally after the game, he shrugged and let out a laugh. He claimed he expected the final number to be in the 20s.

“I’d grade it to be a C, maybe a C+,” freshman forward Moussa Diabate said. “(We) definitely have to work on some stuff, details. No disrespect to them, I think we’re going to play better teams. We’ll have to be more focused and locked in to the plays and the details. That’s going to be the main difference right now.”

Added graduate guard DeVante’ Jones: “Definitely (on) boxing out, today we didn’t do a good job of seeing our person and touching them a bit. We turned around and they just came in and got the rebound over us.”

Between now and Wednesday’s regular season opener, Michigan has a handful of practices to work through its defensive rebounding and turnover woes. Those issues aren’t surprising to the coaching staff this early in the season, but that doesn’t mean they’re not cause for concern. Last season, the Wolverines were pushed to the brink in an overtime contest against Oakland at Crisler Center. The narrow win could’ve easily gone the other way as a case study about a costly early-season slip up.

But on Friday, Michigan rode a strong defensive effort and 3-point shooting performance to a comfortable 33-point win. The blowout gave Howard a chance to see 13 players in action, painting an accurate picture of what the team must improve before the regular season tips off.

“With what I’ve seen in practice, everyone is competing,” Howard said. “Guys have bought into the teaching and applied everything being taught by myself and my staff. With their character and how they accept coaching, it’s a beauty to watch.”

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