U-M played its exhibition game against Saginaw Valley State, and was able to win going away, 82-51. This was the first game situation that the Wolverines have been in since Juwan Howard has been the head coach. The new, more aggressive style of play seems to be an adjustment that will be ongoing. Several players emerged, including junior forward Isaiah Livers, junior guard Eli Brooks and sophomore forward Brandon Johns, as the Wolverines got the job done on their home floor.
Johns, who is coming off a sprained ankle in preseason practice, had 12 points and 4 rebounds on the night. Johns said after the game that he was "95 percent," and is hoping to be 100 percent before the regular season opener on Nov. 5 against Appalachian State.
Brooks had a double-double with 13 points, 10 rebounds and 3 assists, while Livers had 20 points, 6 rebounds and 1 assist.
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There are moving parts to a new scheme under Howard that requires pushing the ball in transition and shooting it quicker into the shot clock.
"We're still getting used to it," Johns said of the new style. "Sometimes we’re going a little too fast for ourselves. That’s something that we really want to apply to the game, is just playing fast and being one of those fast running teams."
"[Coach Howard] kind of yells at us sometimes when we don’t take quick shots," Livers added. That’s a little bit different than what we’re used to but it’s going to take some time."
U-M turned the ball over 11 times, and forced some shots that weren't quite there.
"We had a couple bad shots, Brooks said. "But, it’s just a feel thing. I feel like the more we play, the more we’ll know what’s a good shot, bad shot and be more comfortable with taking those shots.
"We didn’t turn the ball over that much in practice and we had a lot of turnovers in the first half, but it’s just the exhibition game, trying to learn, trying to get experience playing against someone new."
U-M was rolling early, and got out to an early 23-10 lead before SVSU cut the deficit to 31-27 at the under-four media timeout of the first half.
In the second half, the Wolverines came out strong, going on a 26-10 run to start the second stanza. There was no SVSU comeback late in the game, allowing U-M to end the game comfortably with a 31-point win.
"We got yelled at at halftime," Livers said. "We had to come out and do something or Coach Howard was going to grab us up," he joked.
"He said they’re just getting to the basket too easily. They only had five attempts from the three-point line. I think 24 of 29 points were from two guys, so we had to focus on those two guys and shut them down, which we did in the second half.
"When we start off like that, we got to continue. We can't sit back because we punched them in the face. They're going to throw some punches back so we have to continue to throw those punches."
One of the punches that U-M threw at SVSU was a balanced scoring attack, having seven players that scored 6 or more points on the night.
"We’re a really unselfish team," Johns said. "We really want to get the ball out to open players so I think that will be the layout for most of the time."
Notes
• Brooks' double-double was a welcomed sign at the secondary guard position, a spot that was up for grabs after Jordan Poole left for the NBA.
"His confidence has been through the roof since the summer," Johns said of Brooks' performance. "We’ve watched him grow so much. He played really hard tonight. I love it. He played really aggressive."
"I’m trying to tell people — Eli Brooks," Livers exclaimed. "He’s under the radar. He’s been great since the first day of practice. He came in with this attitude that knew what spot he wanted to go get and it showed. This was like his welcoming party."
Confidence is what allowed Brooks to emerge in practice and show his improvement in the exhibition game.
"I think just trusting the work that you put in," Brooks said after being asked how he grew his confidence level. "Also, one thing I did was just meditating, trying to clear my mind and just focus on the good things I did last year and try to improve on those."
• Brooks says that, as an upperclassman, he is in more of a leadership role.
"One person I really respected that I played with was Muhammad [Ali Abdur-Rahkman]," Brooks explained. "He was a great role model. I’m just trying to take away things he did for me as well as other players on the team and just trying to be that. ‘X’ [Zavier Simpson] is that very vocal person, but I sit back and pick and choose when I want to speak so when I speak up, people know I’m serious about it and I care about and have a real interest for the team."
• Livers, Brooks and Johns were the headliners, but some others got much needed extended playing time that, Livers says, is good for their growth and development.
"Exhibition and early games are most important for rising sophomores as I call them because they didn’t get as much experience as the older guys did," he explained. "It’s good for Brandon, Colin [Castleton], Dave [DeJulius], Adrien [Nunez], even Eli. Just for them to get out there. You got the fans cheering, just getting that shot, it’s kind of like practice just with a crowd."
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