It was a tale of two halves on Tuesday night in Ann Arbor during the Michigan Wolverines’ 79-71 basketball win over Appalachian State.
The Maize and Blue looked outstanding in the first half en route to a 46-25 lead at the break, but endured a lackluster and nonchalant second half as the Mountaineers outscored them 46-33 after the break.
The end result, however, was still a win, and was the first of head coach Juwan Howard’s tenure at Michigan.
“We’re happy,” senior center Jon Teske said in the postgame when asked what the locker room mood was like. “A win is a win, especially for Coach Howard since it’s his first one.
“It’s the first game of a long season, so we’ll learn and grow from it. We’ll get better.”
“He was obviously happy for his first win,” junior guard Eli Brooks added, after scoring a career-high 24 points in the triumph.
“He had a short message, just saying it was a great win and that we need to take care of our bodies on our off day, and then get back and watch film and learn from it.
“It’s an opportunity to grow for everybody, including himself. [His demeanor] was more of a motivator. Not everything is going to go smoothly, especially in the first game with a new coach and a new system.
“It’s to be expected, and it’s about moving forward with a next play mentality.”
Both Brooks and Teske attempted to provide explanations as to why the Wolverines’ play dipped so drastically in the second half, with the latter admitting the club relaxed a bit after building a 30-point lead.
‘We’ll learn and grow from this, and how we need to keep our foot on the pedal,” he explained. “They double-teamed in the post, and that was the first time we’d seen it.
“We need to share and move the ball and use the shot clock, because we had some silly turnovers in the second half on plays that weren’t there.
“We were on fire and locked in during the first half, but needed to come out in the second half doing the same thing. It’s about staying locked in mentally.”
“I can’t speak for others, but I wasn’t tired or out of character [during Appalachian State’s run],” Brooks added. “Experience plays a factor.
“We didn’t play the second half at the same pace we did the first — credit the zone, and for not pushing the ball at the zone.
“Whenever teams give us zone, there’s a possibility of slowing up the pace. We kind of fell in that same trap and stated walking the ball up the court instead of pushing it like we did in the first half.”
Fortunately for the Maize and Blue, they were able to withstand the run the Mountaineers went on because of the enormous lead they had built.
Michigan came out of the gate on fire on Tuesday, grabbing an early 23-7 edge before Appalachian State even knew what hit it.
Teske was the key cog in U-M’s early run, scoring the team’s first 11 points on his way to an incredibly rare first half double-double.
“Jon was a big influence in that,” Brooks said when asked what the biggest factor was to Michigan’s early success. "His presence allowed me and the other shooters to find open shots because, they were so focused on him.
“Getting up and down the floor and not letting them get set up [also played a factor].”
Notes
• While plenty of blame was put on Michigan for Appalachian State's second half surge, it's also important to give credit to the Mountaineers for the schematic adjustments they made out of the locker room.
“They trapped a couple ball screens," Brooks revealed. "It was a soft hedge and then it turned into a hard hedge, so it was a different look.”
• Prior to tonight's contest, Brooks had never scored more than nine points against an opponent.
He shattered that career mark this evening, however, pouring in 24 on 7-of-15 shooting, including a 5-of-11 showing from behind the arc.
“It’s pretty high," he laughed when asked where his confidence level is at. "X [senior point guard Zavier Simpson] created shots for me and a lot of my shots were wide open, so you can’t get much better than that.”
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