Plenty has been made of the Michigan Wolverines basketball team’s shot selection and style of play following Friday night’s exhibition victory over Saginaw Valley State, with the club clearly putting an emphasis on scoring in transition.
The Maize and Blue also attempted 31 threes in Friday’s win over the Cardinals, with eight of them coming from junior forward Isaiah Livers (he made four), who finished the night as the team’s leading scorer with 20 points.
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“He [head coach Juwan Howard] instills confidence in all of us,” Livers said this afternoon while previewing tomorrow’s season opener against Appalachian State.
“He tells us that whatever we think is a good shot, we should take, and that we shouldn’t overthink the game of basketball.
“I took some quick shots [on Friday night]. We get a lot of shots up in practice, and Coach Howard does a great job of just making it feel natural for us.
“All our scorers’ numbers look pretty good.”
“We’re still working on it,” senior center Jon Teske chimed in. “We have a lot of great outside shooters, including the whole starting five and then the guys on the bench.
“If someone is hot, we’re going to keep going back to them. If we’re open, we have to shoot the ball and trust that our teammates will knock down open shots.”
The change in tempo is a noticeable difference from former head man John Beilein’s crew last year, who seldom tried to score in transition or take shots early in the shot clock.
“We’re all comfortable in that style of play, especially since we’ve been doing it since July when Coach Howard got here,” Livers explained.
“Most of us did it in high school too, and high school isn’t a slow system anymore. It reminds me of when I was in high school, and how we’d get stops and then get out and run.
“I wanted to get a little leaner and quicker on my feet, and it has helped me so far. It also means you have to play smarter, and that it’s more of an IQ adjustment.
“It’s easy to see people make plays going that fast, but it’s harder to do them. Running hard and going hard in transition in practice helps prepare us for the games.”
There will undoubtedly be growing pains with the new offensive style, and that was on full display Friday night when the Wolverines suffered through a 1-of-13 stretch in the first half that allowed SVSU to trim a 23-10 deficit to just 31-27.
Michigan ended the half on a 10-2 run, however, to take a 41-29 lead into the break.
“Trying to find ourselves within the offense,” Teske admitted when asked what his biggest takeaway from Friday night’s exhibition was.
“We took a lot of shots after only one pass, and yet we had a lot of good open looks. We could use the shot clock a little bit more and share the ball.”
“It is a different feeling [heading into tomorrow night’s game with the Mountaineers],” Livers admitted. “It’s Coach Howard’s first game, and that’s huge.
“I wouldn’t be surprised if he gets watered after the game … assuming we get the chance. It’s good for him, because you can tell he loves coaching here.”
More Michigan Basketball Notes
• Appalachian State head man Dustin Kerns is entering his first season as the coach of the Mountaineers, and did not send the Wolverines any tape from a recent scrimmage they had, Howard revealed this afternoon.
Needless to say, the preparation for tomorrow's game has been a bit unique to say the least.
“It’s challenging, because we’re watching highlights of a different college [Presbyterian, where Kerns had previously been]," Livers noted. "Coaches have schemes, so we’re just going off the schemes he’s run over the past year or two from Presbyterian.
"They don’t know what we do, and we don’t know what they do.”
• When asked what kind of impression the Wolverines hope to make tomorrow night in the world's first chance to see Howard's debut Maize and Blue squad, Livers kept his response short and to the point.
“That we’re here to play, and here to stay," he said.
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