Last night’s 82-53 blowout win over Nebraska had several intriguing storylines surrounding it.
The most obvious involved redshirt junior guard Charles Matthews’ ankle injury, which caused him to miss what was likely his final home game in Ann Arbor.
The next biggest storyline had to do with the emergence of freshman center Colin Castleton, who played a career-high nine minutes and scored a personal best 11 points on five-of-seven shooting.
Junior center Jon Teske also posted the best offensive game of his collegiate tenure, pouring in 22 points to surpass his previous high of 17.
Sophomore forward Isaiah Livers was the main beneficiary of Matthews being out, playing 34 minutes while registering 12 points and 10 boards for his first-ever double-double.
“I tried to replace Charles as well as I could by going after 50/50 balls and dunking on people,” Livers explained. “He's always telling us ‘next man up.’
“If someone goes down, we know we have to pick our brother up. We would love to have Charles back on Sunday, but we’ll be alright if we keep playing the way we have been.”
“We wanted to go out on top for Charles,” Teske added. “Coming out with the win was special, but we knew right away that he wasn’t going to play and Isaiah and Colin both stepped up as a result.”
The fact that Livers had an outstanding game was not a surprise (he averages 21.3 minutes per contest on the year), but Castleton’s emergence was eye-opening.
He had never played more than four minutes in a game and had never scored more than three points, but shattered both of those totals with a variety of impressive moves around the rim.
“Nebraska switched a lot of their ball screens, so I just tried to flash and keep my hands high,” he explained.
“The coaches told me the last two days to be ready if my name gets called. They then told me after the game I deserved the performance I had because of how hard I’ve been working.
“I’ve had some bumps in the road and some really tough days, but have also been progressing gradually — a lot of it is mindset.
“I weighed 211 pounds when I got here but am up to 230 now, so gaining weight has been important for me as well.”
Livers explained that he and his teammates have been seeing flashes of Castleton’s excellence in practice, and that he wasn’t necessarily surprised by the youngster’s breakout performance.
“He always talks about how he wants to be great someday,” the sophomore noted. “I feel like his dad because of how proud I am of him.
“He shows moves in practice I didn’t even know he had. Colin brought an intensity and ferociousness into the game, which is the same thing he brings to practice.
“He made the simple moves too, and Coach B will love how fundamentally sound he was. He’s the future, and fans are going to start seeing a lot more of him. Our future is so bright — I’m sure people will be hearing about [freshman guard] Adrien Nunez next year too.”
Teske echoed Livers’ sentiment in a lot of ways, noting how proud he was of the 6-11 freshman who he has taken under his wing in a lot of ways.
“Colin has the touch around the rim to go around guys,” Teske observed. “He’s never sulked about not playing, and has always kept his head up. He showed tonight how far he’s come — Coach Beilein has been talking about outliers lately, and that’s exactly what Colin was against Nebraska.”
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