We head to the tape, and break down Michigan's defensive strategy against Iowa, as well as look at what allowed for breakout games by freshman guard Franz Wagner and sophomore forward Brandon Johns.
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Taking Away Threes
Coming into Friday night’s game against Iowa, the Wolverines were allowing their opponents to score 22.5 percent of their points on three-pointers. That was good enough to tie for 22nd best in the nation. Iowa scored just nine of its 91 points (9.9 percent) from beyond the arc. The Hawkeyes made three of their 15 attempts from three against U-M. After the game, U-M is now 11th-best in the country in not allowing points from three (20.6 percent), and only allow opponents to make 28.2 percent of their attempts from long distance (44th in the nation).
It wasn’t a coincidence that U-M didn’t give any room to Iowa’s plethora of shooters on the outside. It was by design. Hawkeyes’ junior center Luka Garza was averaging 20 points and 10 rebounds entering Friday’s contest. Aside from Garza’s ability to score on the block, he has made Iowa incredibly difficult to defend, due in large part to the fact that he draws double-teams nearly every time he touches the ball in the post … until he entered Crisler Center Friday night.
“I didn’t really [expect to be guarded one-on-one],” Garza said postgame. “Going into every game, I’m kind of thinking the teams are going to double team me, because that’s usually what I’ve been seeing.
“Early in the game, I kind of recognized it on my first few catches, that they just weren’t coming, and they were going to stay out [on the shooters].”
Juwan Howard and his staff put together the game plan to make Garza beat them down low. Garza went off for a career-high 44 points on 17-for-32 shooting (53.1 percent), but despite his high marks, did not beat U-M. The Wolverines had a deliberate plan to take everyone else away, and did that, for the most part. Only one other Hawkeye scored in double figures — sophomore guard Connor McCaffery had 12 points. Iowa scored 91 points, but that still wasn’t enough to close the deficit that Iowa faced throughout almost the entire game.
Light Goes On For Franz Wagner
Wagner had been finding his way through his first four games as a collegiate player. It’s not necessarily the most ideal situation to play three top-10 teams in his first four games as a Wolverine (all away from home), but that’s the hand Wagner was dealt, coming off a broken wrist. He looked lost, at times, on both offense and defense through four games. A light went on for the freshman on Friday night.
