Three takeaways from Michigan's loss to Arizona

With 9:50 remaining in the second half something incredibly rare fell into Michigan’s lap: an easy opportunity on offense. Frankie Collins caught a deflected pass, then lobbed it from Arizona’s three-point line downcourt to Hunter Dickinson at the half circle. Dickinson, feeling the pressure of a defender closing, went straight up for what looked like a gimme bucket...but the ball rolled around the front of the rim and out. That play captures how difficult everything looked for Michigan on Sunday night in a xx-xx loss to the Arizona Wildcats.

MIchigan’s offense looked lost against the Wildcats, and what at first was helpside defense giving up a few easy baskets turned into every player struggling defensively. A few takeaways from a game in which Michigan showed much to work on:

Arizona’s aggressiveness and length stopped Michigan from getting to the basket

It didn’t matter who the ballhandler was, Michigan could not get past Arizona's defender tonight. Michigan is a ballscreen team and when Arizona trapped the ballhandler on screens the offense fell apart, as Michigan seemed unable to pass out of the trap. Arizona didn’t have to respect Michigan’s three-point shooters (more on that later) and could double whenever they wanted to, and they used that luxury to great effect.

Hunter Dickinson drew doubles regularly and finished with 11 points on 4-of-10 shooting. Michigan's only other player to finish with double-digit points was Eli Brooks, who had 14 while going 5-of-9 from the floor.

One explanation outside of defensive aggression is Arizona's length. Their starting guards are 6'3", 6'6" and 6'7", while their starting front court is 6'11", 7'1". Contrast that with Michigan's starting guards' heights of 6'1" and their starting frontcourt heights of 6'8" (x2) and 7'1". It's not the sole reason Arizona won, but that and Arizona's speed did seem to have an impact on Michigan.

Michigan’s icy-cold three-point shooting is seeming less like an aberration

Michigan’s poor three-point shooting is a lingering issue, and without it the Wolverines have no other option than to hit floaters or get to the rim, and they couldn’t get to the hoop because of the aforementioned pressure from Arizona’s defense.

The Wolverines shot a woeful 7% on 1-of-14 shooting from behind the arc. Tonight's performance drops Michigan to 28.3% three-point shooting on the season. As TMBR's Daniel Dash mentioned in the game thread, Michigan did not have a three-point field goal in the first half against Seton Hall or Arizona. Last season the team shot 38.1% from deep; at this point it's clear the Wolverines desperately miss the three-point shooting of Isaiah Livers (43.1% on 116 attempts) and Franz Wagner (34.1% on 102 attempts).

Unforced errors compounded problems

By my count there were at least seven turnovers caused by either communication issues or flat-out mistakes by the ballhandler of the variety we haven’t seen yet this season; for example, there are five turnovers labeled “bad pass” in the official box score. In total Michigan turned the ball over 15 times. Prior to tonight Michigan was averaging 13.3 turnovers per game after averaging 11.3 per game last season.

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