Michigan Wolverines Basketball: Elite Coaches Impressed By U-M
Michigan is “on the map now,” head coach Juwan Howard said of the season after his team plastered a pair of top 10 teams in North Carolina and Gonzaga to capture the Battle for Atlantis Tournament in the Bahamas.
He wouldn’t get an argument from Tar Heels head coach Roy Williams or Bulldogs head man Mark Few, both of the receiving end of beatdowns in paradise. The Wolverines went up 24 on UNC before winning by nine and captured the tournament title by beating Gonzaga by 18.
They’re doing it the way this group has done it for the last three years — by playing unselfish basketball (more this year than last), tweaking the sets but running a lot of what they already knew and playing at a faster pace. They’re fouling more, but they’re also blocking more shots and defending well.
Williams spent several seconds talking to Howard after the game, clearly impressed by what he’d seen.
“Michigan … give them credit. Juwan has done a really nice job with that team,” Williams said. “The most impressive thing to me is he’s taken some of the guys that played for John Beilein that were important to John and they guarded like crazy, they shared the ball, they shot three-point shots, and Juwan has embraced that and hasn’t shied away from trying to be the man that, ‘I can make every decision.’
“John Beilein’s a really good coach, and I just commend Juwan for doing that and putting his own little part into it with more screens on the ball than they’ve ever set in the past, the toughness defensively. Last year, they were one of the best defensive teams in the country and they’ve continued to do it with [senior center] Jon Teske and those guys bothering every shot around the rim. The guards get after you and make it difficult for you to go where you want to go.”
The sets are different defensively, but the tenacity is the same, the tone set by senior point guard Zavier Simpson. The goal is to force the action baseline and protect the rim, and while there’s been more foul trouble than we’ve seen in the past, the emerging depth has allowed them to play more aggressively.
Guards Eli Brooks and David DeJulius have proven they can handle the load when Simpson’s been on the bench in foul trouble. Sophomore big man Colin Castleton is doing his part to spell Teske, and even redshirt junior Austin Davis has provided a few quality minutes in the early going.
They’re also getting great looks and knocking down shots. As one analyst noted, Howard has continued to use much of Beilein’s offense to keep the familiarity — Howard even visited Beilein in Cleveland earlier this year after meeting with him each summer in Ann Arbor.
The formula has been a winning one in the early going, to the point that U-M is set to break into the top 10, maybe even the top five with its 7-0 start. If they do, ESPN reported, they’ll be the sixth team since the AP poll expanded to 25 teams in 1989-90 to go from unranked to top 10. Only one team — Kansas in 1989-90 — went from unranked to top five, but it’s a possibility.
The way they’re playing, they have emerged as a legitimate Big Ten contender.
"Every time we made a mental breakdown, they scored,” Few said. "They literally made us pay on every one of our assignments that we screwed up — a switch, or we screwed up a coverage, and they made us pay. So, they deserve a lot of credit for that.”
Next up is No. 2 (perhaps No. 1 after the polls come out later today) Louisville Tuesday night, and an opportunity to build on the early success. The Wolverines will be underdogs again, but the way they’re playing, they’ve got a legitimate shot for a big road win.
“We're having fun together,” Teske said. “We’re sharing the ball. We know where we’re going to be on the court at all times.”
Those are two signs of an experienced, well-coached team, one that’s off to a better start than anyone could have imagined.
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