Michigan 66, Ohio State 76: Oh no

What is a basketball, but an orange orb, darting through the heavens, like a dimpled comet, on its way to cutting the cord

As ESPN embarked on the avant-garde cinematographic journey dubbed "Floor Seats," a basketball game was played. 

Supposedly. 

That game featured the Michigan Wolverines and Ohio State Buckeyes, second-tier Big Ten squads sitting at 9-4 and 8-5, respectively, in league play -- both, to some degree, fighting for an NCAA tournament spot. 

Unfortunately, watching this game on TV was like sitting behind a stanchion at Wrigley Field. But perhaps it was fortunate, as save for a brief spurt early when Michigan led 12-10, the rest of the game essentially filled the mold of the standard 2015-16 Michigan basketball loss. 

The Buckeyes shot 54 percent from the field (59 percent in the second half) while Michigan shot just 20.8 percent from three. Michigan showed transient glimmers of life late in the second, cutting the deficit down to as few as seven points as late as just under the five-minute mark. 

But they didn't have enough to make it any closer, falling 76-66 in Columbus and moving to 19-8 (9-5) on the season. 

Mark Donnal led Michigan with 17 points. Meanwhile, five Buckeyes scored in the double digits, including Marc Loving and Jae'Sean Tate, who led the home team with 13 apiece. Duncan Robinson was held to three points on 1-for-6 shooting. Derrick Walton and Zak Irvin combined for a 10-for-28 night from the field. 

Save for a few very isolated mini-bursts, Michigan's offense struggled from start to finish. 

Michigan started slow, picked it up, then was handled by OSU's bench players A.J. Harris and Kam Williams in the first half. 

Meanwhile, Michigan, back to a Caris LeVert-less state, started 5-for-16 (2-for-7 from three), with nothing coming easy, as is usually the case when the shots don't immediately start falling on the road. 

Tate and JaQuan Lyle complemented the bench squad with a combined 15 first-half points of their own, and the Buckeyes took a 36-28 lead into the break. 

Michigan kicked off the second, surprisingly, with activity in the paint, including a bucket by Muhammad-Ali Abdur-Rahkman, a finish by Mark Donnal and a drawn foul by Donnal at the rim (which, like Dakich said, should have been an and-1, but resulted in a split pair of free throws). 

But, just like that, Ohio State had its way with the Michigan defense, extending the lead to 10 with a thunderous dunk by Trevor Thompson off of a lob pass. 

Michigan proceeded to pick up its sixth foul of the second half -- just over five minutes in. When it's not your day, it's not your day. 

A Zak Irvin three cut it to seven late, but Michigan didn't have the juice to get any closer, with a lifeless offense and an interior defense that might as well have not been there. 

With the loss, Michigan still needs at least one more win to feel somewhat comfortable about a tournament berth. Lose out, and it's dire straits. 

At Maryland, Northwestern, at Wisconsin and Iowa: that's how the Wolverines close the regular season. 

If tonight didn't inspire confidence vis-a-vis the prospect of pulling off an upset, you wouldn't be alone, particularly with how the Wolverines have played on the road. Even Northwestern, which had tournament hopes at the beginning of the season that have since fizzled out, won't be an easy out by any means. 

Michigan fans will simply have to hold on -- it's going to be a bumpy ride.

And if you're feeling more confident than that, you'll probably still need to hold on, to something, after tonight's dizzying exercise in how to not broadcast a live sporting event. 

Michigan 74, Minnesota 69: Just enough

Looking to bounce back once again from a loss against top-notch competition, the Wolverines welcomed a struggling Minnesota squad to Ann Arbor tonight.

For most of the first half, Michigan appeared ready to deliver its third conference win by double digits. Then Carlos Morris went on one-man run, Nate Mason turned it on in the second half, and Michigan's offense struggled when Zak Irvin went quiet after an impressive first half.

Despite it all, the Wolverines did what they needed to do against a, quite frankly, very bad Minnesota team, notching a 74-69 win -- and eighth straight win at home -- to move to 14-5 (4-2) on the season.

Say what you will about the opponent -- a quality win this was not. Richard Pitino's Gophers were 6-12 heading into tonight's contest and No. 203 in the KenPom rankings.

Still, once again without the injured Caris LeVert, the Wolverines would have to take care of business. Given the string of upsets dotting the college basketball landscape of late -- particularly when you look just down the way in East Lansing -- no game is a sure thing.

The Wolverines raced out to a 22-9 lead about halfway though the first half, aided by a strong start downtown from Duncan Robinson and Irvin. The biggest surprise of the half, perhaps, was Robinson going on to miss five straight from beyond the arc after a 2-for-2 start. Yes, he is in fact not a three-point shooting automaton.

Without checking, I'd imagine that's probably that's the first time that's happened this season for Robinson. Even so, he's still shooting 53.5 percent for the season.

As Michigan started to cool down, the Gophers cut it to eight late in the half, but an Irvin triple summarily ended the brief gust of confidence that followed a Bakary Konate putback slam.

But Minnesota surged again, paced by eight straight points from Morris and a strong finish through a trio of Wolverines by big man Jordan Murphy.

Just like that, U-M carried just a 37-30 lead into the break, despite Minnesota shooting just 37 percent from the field.

Luckily for Michigan, Irvin was on like a toaster at 7 a.m. Irvin tallied 15 first-half points, the only U-M player to reach double-digits in the opening 20 minutes. Irvin splashed shots from outside and beat defenders to the rim for easy twos on several occasions, flashing the do-it-all ability we saw late last season. On top of the scoring, he led the Wolverines on the boards and in the assist department.

However, Mason picked up where Morris left off, with nine points early in the second half to keep the visitors hanging around.

Unfortunately for Michigan, its inability to stop penetration from Minnesota's guards -- stop me if you've heard that before this season -- and an inability to do much of anything offensively against a bad defense made this somewhat of a nail-biter when it shouldn't have been. Sans Irvin, Michigan's offense wasn't doing much of anything in the second half. Irvin scored two early second half buckets, then proceeded to disappear from the attack over the next six minutes or so.

And at the halfway mark of the second, Michigan led just 50-47, the wind in Minnesota's sails like a viking ship en route to plunder -- or, more conservatively, a shot at a Big Ten road win, which has to be worth a trinket or two.

Down the stretch, Minnesota proved unable to make the plays it needed, and Michigan got key triples from Aubrey Dawkins and Derrick Walton to give U-M the breathing room to coast to a win concluded by a free-throw shooting contest.

After scoring a combined 15 points on 5-for-16 shooting against Illinois and Penn State, Walton has now scored 10-plus points in four straight games, with a team-high 22 tonight. He wasn't particularly efficient tonight (5-for-13 from the field, 1-for-6 from three), but he hit big shots in the final 10 minutes when Michigan couldn't seem to buy a bucket.

So, this wasn't a particularly aesthetically pleasing 40 minutes of basketball (saying nothing of the foul-fest at the end) but a dynamic first half from Irvin and an ability to win despite a rough night from beyond the arc (29%, 9-for-31) should be enough for even the nitpickiest of fans. (Sadly, Minnesota was even worse from beyond the arc, shooting just 27 percent.)

And I think I speak for everyone when I say that the day we don't have to see shots of sad Caris LeVert on the bench will be a good one, as encouraging as Michigan's play without him has been.

Next up, Michigan heads to Lincoln to face a Nebraska squad that just upset Michigan State. Needless to say, another listless effort and the Wolverines won't be as lucky to pull out a win against Shavon Shields and Co.

Nebraska is just 12-8 on the season, but they'll carry a four-game winning streak into Saturday's contest against the Wolverines in Pinnacle Bank Arena.

That gym promises to be loud. Michigan will have to hope its play is louder.

Michigan 70, Maryland 67: Going downtown

Going downtown can be a good thing. One could be going downtown for a fun time, to see the sights.

Or, going downtown, in hokey police-speak, could mean you're in trouble, set for a night of heavy interrogation in a sterile, fluorescently lit room.

That was much of the story tonight against the visiting No. 3 Maryland Terrapins. In the first half, Michigan shot the lights out from downtown. In the second, not so much, to the point that it squandered a 13-point lead.

But when it came down to it, Derrick Walton (12 points, 10 rebounds), who hasn't had a great season to date, made big shots. And in the final minute, Mark Donnal pulled down a key offensive rebound and knocked down a free throw to help the Wolverines pull out their first win against a top-5 team since January 2014.

We all knew the story: in four games against top-notch competition, Michigan took four losses by double-digit margins.

And once again without Caris LeVert, the Wolverines tried to score their first statement win of the season. Just like the last game, a double-digit loss at Purdue, Michigan would have to overcome yet another major size mismatch in the paint against a Maryland team carrying a 12-game conference winning streak heading into the game (dating back to last season).

Fifth time's the charm, they say.

Michigan jumped out to an 11-6 lead early with triples from Walton, Zak Irvin and Duncan Robinson (checked by the 6-9 Jake Layman).

Predictably, Michigan struggled to contain Maryland's frontcourters. Layman and Robert Carter combined for 20 first-half points on 8-of-10 shooting.

Meanwhile, Michigan was paced, of course, by lights-out shooting from beyond the arc, with Duncan Robinson prompting Dick Vitale to start rattling off a list of all-time great three-point shooters.

(This sandwich I made is great. Zingerman's. Maize and Blue Deli. Dimo's. I want to see this sandwich one-on-one in a sandwich contest against these guys.-Dick Vitale)

Michigan finished the half 8-of-15 from three with an eFG% of 64 percent (to Maryland's 52%), and a buzzer-beating tip-in by Donnal off of an Irvin miss sent the Wolverines riding high into the half up 37-29.

Robinson kept the good vibes going with a triple in the first minute of the second-frame, and a gust of chilly Ann Arbor wind pushed Michigan to a 13-point lead a little more than three minutes into the second half.

That evaporated quickly.

Diamond Stone ground the Wolverines down in the paint, scoring eight straight points and cutting the Maryland deficit to four. Meanwhile, Robinson went quiet for Michigan -- actually, the entire Michigan offense went dead silent for a span of about eight minutes.

The threes were splashing in the first half, but the Wolverines would need to find an answer when they inevitably stopped falling (or, rather, stopped getting the looks) -- because just like that, a Layman two just before the under-eight timeout tied it, 54-all.

With 7:23 to play, Michigan needed to find itself, fast, especially with Stone continuing to bully Michigan inside like a Monstar in isolation on Tweety Bird.

A nifty two at the rim from Robinson and a Burke-esque step-back triple from Walton gave Michigan some breathing room, a 64-59 lead with 3:33 to play. Walton has struggled this season on both ends of the floor, but hit the aforementioned triple and another jumper to keep Michigan afloat after the long scoring shortage.

But two Rasheed Sulaimon triples and two Stone free throws made it a two-point game with 40 seconds to play.

Not over yet.

With Maryland getting an opportunity to get the ball back after a stop, Walton drove left but missed off the glass. Luckily for Michigan, Donnal was there to grab the rebound.

Out of the Michigan timeout, Donnal buried 1-of-2 free throws to make it a three-point game. Michigan opted not to foul on Maryland's final possession, with a game-ending attempt by Sulaimon.

This time, Sulaimon missed, and Michigan scored its first resume-building win of the season, even without its leading scorer.

Perhaps lost in Stone's dominance (22 points, 11 rebounds) was Trimble's rough night (1-of-7, 2 points). Michigan clamped down on the standout guard, and shooting guard Sulaimon finished just 3-of-10, even with the two late triples.

Unsurprisingly, Michigan was handled in the frontcourt. Carter, Layman and Stone combined for 50 points on 21-of-34 shooting (62%).

Michigan counteracted that with a blazing first-half from beyond the arc, and a final six minutes in which they made just enough plays to squeak by with the win. Irvin led the Wolverines with 22 points on 8-of-14 shooting. Robinson finished with 17 (6-of-10, 5-of-9 from three).

Donnal pitched in eight points, nine rebounds and two steals.

With the win, Michigan moved to 13-4 (3-1) on the season. The Wolverines' brutal three-game stretch comes to an end Sunday when they pay a visit to No. 16 Iowa.

But for now, on a night of upsets in college basketball, it's okay to celebrate and worry about the rest later.

Michigan 70, Purdue 87: Too Tall

NB: Missed about the first 17 minutes of this one (6 p.m. CT starts, I'm not a fan of you). 

Riding high off of two Big Ten wins by double-digit margins, the Wolverines headed to West Lafayette, where two towers stood.

Despite a career night from Muhammad-Ali Abdur-Rahkman (25 points, 10-of-16), the Wolverines couldn't find that extra gear to make it a one-bucket game in the second half, falling to 12-4 (2-1) on the season.

In addition to facing a tough Purdue team on the road, the Boilermakers roster is one that one that strikes against Michigan's biggest weakness: the interior. Mark Donnal's success in the Illinois and Penn State games was not likely to repeated against Purdue's A.J. Hammons and Isaac Haas.

Perhaps unsurprisingly, it wasn't, as Donnal scored three points on two attempts in the first half (he finished with 7), and picked up his second foul with just under eight minutes to play in the first half.

And after a somewhat quiet first half, Hammons did Michigan in in the second, finishing with 17 points on 7-of-10 shooting and a quartet of no-sir blocks (4 blocks).

Even so, the Wolverines (once again without Caris LeVert) led 23-19 with 5:32 left in the half.

That is, until Purdue put the pedal to the metal and scored 12 straight, eventually heading into the half up 35-28.

Michigan did an okay job containing Hammons on paper in the first half (6 points, 4 rebounds), and the Boilermakers rebounded "just" 26 percent of their misses (which isn't bad for Michigan given the personnel mismatch).

Purdue's defense, however, was stifling, as it often is. Michigan shot just 32.3 percent from the field in the first half, while Derrick Walton and Zak Irvin went a combined 2-of-9 from the floor.

Given the mismatch inside, this was another classic "can Michigan outshoot its opponent from downtown" game. The Wolverines shot 35.7 percent from three in the first 20 minutes (5-of-14) -- they'd have to be even better in the second to have a chance.

In fact, they were, finishing 40.7 percent for the game, which is pretty good. But it wasn't enough, as Hammons and Co. locked Michigan down when they needed to. Rapheal Davis negated everyone he checked and Hammons blocked or altered a number of forays to the basket.

In the first chunk of the second half, Hammons exploited single coverage on the rare occasion he got it, then deftly found the open man on the outside when Michigan double- or triple-teamed him.

The Boilers extended the lead to 11, at which point it seemed things could get out of hand. But with the aid of Abdur-Rahkman's confident playmaking and an array of tough shots tossed off of the glass with geometrical expertise, the Wolverines stayed in it.

About halfway through the second half, the announcers kept remarking how it didn't feel like a 5-point game ... and really, it didn't.

A key moment late -- Donnal bobbles a pass/gets stripped by Davis going toward the basket, Purdue heads the other way with speed, rotates the ball and Davis splashes a corner triple to up the lead to nine with eight minutes left.

That, however, was just one of several similar sequences in the final 10 minutes. Michigan gets an opening, doesn't take advantage and Purdue makes them pay.

Michigan did begin to trouble the Boilermakers with pressure in the final 10 minutes, pressure which flummoxed Purdue against Iowa, too. It worked, as the Wolverines were able to turn some Purdue turnovers into points.

Every time Michigan got it down to six or seven, however, the Boilers had an answer. And when Hammons hit a triple with about three minutes left to up Purdue's lead to 16 -- making another 12-0 run for Purdue -- that was all she wrote.

Michigan was never able to crack through that 5-point deficit marker, in a game that was simultaneously, paradoxically, not as close it looks on paper, yet closer than it looks on paper.

With LeVert out and this being a road game against a pretty good team, I don't think anyone expected a win tonight. But Michigan can't use that as an excuse, particularly with upcoming matchups against Maryland and at Iowa. Michigan needs to rack up some quality wins (especially on the road) -- the next two games will provide that opportunity.

Michigan will hope that LeVert gets better soon, but, more importantly, it'll need players not named Abdur-Rahkman to bring it, too.

Fortunately for John Beilein and Co., they won't have to face that Purdue frontcourt again until Feb. 13.

Michigan 58, SMU 82: If you're gonna play in Texas, you gotta have defenders in the band

Michigan struggled against top-notch competition in Xavier and UConn, looking generally over-matched and like a team still trying to find its way, as individuals and a cohesive unit.

The same held true tonight in Dallas, as SMU's Jordan Tolbert dunked his way to 23 points (11-of-12 from the field) and Michigan (6-3) did very little right, falling 82-58 and never leading in the game's final 33 minutes.

The Wolverines not only had a chance to avenge last season's home loss against the Mustangs, they had an opportunity to tally a quality win (on the road, no less), which could have come in handy come tournament selection time -- but, first things first.

Unfortunately, Michigan was without the services of Derrick Walton (Muhammad-Ali Abdur-Rahkman got the start in his place). MAAR contributed to a solid early effort, with a 3-of-3 start from the field, mitigating a slow start from Caris LeVert.

Michigan gained an 11-7 lead, but that was about as good as things would get. The U-M offense was out of sync, and aside from a 1-of-8 start from beyond the arc, the Wolverines committed a pair of shot clock violations, in addition to other bad shots to end possessions.

Michigan fell behind, fast, as the Mustangs found open shooters on the secondary break and Michigan continued to stumble on the offensive end. Speaking of, Michigan didn't get its first big-man points until a wide open Ricky Doyle dunk with three minutes remaining in the first half.

From the outside, Michigan finished the first half shooting just 33 percent (14% from beyond the arc) -- not surprisingly, Michigan trailed 36-22, with SMU closing on a 15-4 run.

Michigan's inability to prevent penetration by opposing guards continues to kill it on a consistent basis -- that's hard enough to withstand even if you have an elite shot blocker (which Michigan does not have).

Without one? You get what you saw tonight: alley-oop slams, transition rim-rattlers, thunderous tomahawks, powerful putbacks.

Michigan heated up early in the second half, including a pair of Duncan Robinson triples and a Zak Irvin three off the glass from the top of the key. Even so, Michigan still couldn't shadow Tolbert, who dunked his way to one of the easiest 23-point nights I've ever seen.

Despite Michigan's early second-half signs of life, LeVert remained scoreless 26 minutes into the game -- until some Keith Frazier trash talking netted LeVert a pair of technical foul free throws. (LeVert's first field goal came with under five minutes to play, when the game was already well out of reach.)

Robinson buried another triple, and Michigan was down 12. To the 1-3-1 they went, and to the slam dunk store SMU went, on that possession and the next. Every time Michigan made a bucket, SMU responded, often emphatically.

There's not much to say and no use in over-analyzing. LeVert struggled mightily for the second year in a row against SMU and the Wolverines had no answers defensively. Part of it is experience, part of it is a lack of physicality, and part of it is simply not doing the basketball things that need to be done. There are some things a Beilein team will never be or never do -- but, for example, being able to stay in front of guards has to be one of those things.

Walton would have greatly helped, to be sure, although not enough to get Michigan a win tonight. His ability to lead and drive the team is obvious when he's on the floor, and especially so when he's not.

One would think the Wolverines will improve somewhat between now and February. As it stands, though, Michigan will exit the nonconference schedule without a win to hang its hat on. The Big Ten schedule is far more forgiving than it has been in recent years, but even a tournament berth can't be taken for granted.

SMU is a strong team, and there is certainly no shame in losing to a team like that, on the road. But, if Michigan is to avoid missing out on the Big Dance for the second year in a row, it has to fix some very basic deficiencies in its play to date, and fast.

In-season improvement is almost a guarantee, but who knows if it'll be enough come tournament time. After Michigan reached the national title one year and the Elite 8 the next, last season and the start to this one are a little tougher to watch than they otherwise might be.

That's college basketball for you, talent pools ebbing and flowing like the tides, with them taking and returning fortune.

Michigan still has plenty of talent, and this is a team that can make a little noise in the tournament if it gets there.

But there's a long, long way to go.

Michigan 66, N.C. State 59: The good, the bad and the wunderbar

Michigan led by as many as 10 points in the first half on the road in Raleigh, led by Caris LeVert's nine points and five rebounds. Heading into the break, the Wolverines led 34-26.

This all sounds good: but there was one catch.

Despite all of the above, the story of the first 20 minutes was Derrick Walton, who limped off the floor late in the half with an ankle injury.

Beilein on Walton: It doesn't look like a long-term thing, we hope.

— Brendan F. Quinn (@BFQuinn) December 2, 2015

Muhammad-Ali Abdur-Rahkman, somewhat of an odd-man-out thus far, picked up many of those minutes, finishing with four points, four rebounds and a steal.

Of course, a Walton-less Michigan team is not a new thing for John Beilein and Co., so the second half was not quite the shock to the system it otherwise could have been.

And Michigan played the second frame like it had been in that situation before.

Michigan upped its lead to 15 in the second half after a LeVert dunk. The Wolfpack, however, surged back, cutting the lead down to four after slowly chipping away at the deficit for six minutes.

In what sounded like a tough road environment (on TV, at least), Michigan could have wilted under the pressure. Instead, they responded, and from the exact spots on the floor you'd expect them to do so.

Duncan Robinson shimmied and rose up for a right-wing triple, which he buried and then stared at the Michigan bench, a moment eerily reminiscent of one Nik Stauskas.

On the next possession, LeVert drove right and swung a baseline pass to an open Zak Irvin in the corner. Irvin is still recalibrating his shot, but on this one he was true, extending Michigan's lead to 10.

The home team never cut the deficit to less than seven after that critical one-two.

Without Walton, ball-handling duties fell on LeVert for much of the second half, in which he attempted only four shots. On a number of occasions, he did that thing where he penetrates deep into the lane, and instead of going up for his own shot, attempts a pass to a Michigan big, which seems to result in a turnover or some other negative outcome more often than not.

Nonetheless, LeVert's free-throw shooting late helped seal the deal, and he finished with 18 to lead the Wolverines. Robinson was close behind, with 17 points on 6-for-8 shooting (5-for-7 from three).

On the boards, Michigan out-rebounded N.C. State, 30-23, but once again had trouble on the defensive glass. The Wolfpack rebounded 34 percent of their misses -- the last game I recapped (Elon), Michigan allowed its opponent to grab 33 percent of its misses. Regardless, struggles on the defensive glass are nothing new for this program. It is what it is.

Otherwise, the most important storyline will continue to be what Michigan can get out of its frontcourters. Ricky Doyle continues to suffer from a bit of fumbleitis around the basket, but that's to be expected from a great majority of big guys. Doyle had a team-high three turnovers, but did pitch in six points and four rebounds, and took a charge late.

The freshman from Berlin, however, is the frontcourter likely to inspire the most buzz.

Moritz Wagner scored two points on 1-for-5 shooting in a combined nine minutes against Xavier and UConn, both brutal losses for the Wolverines.

Since then? He's logged 16, 18 and 23 minutes in Michigan's current three-game winning streak, scoring a combined 34 points on 15-for-19 shooting. Tonight, he tallied eight points on 4-for-7 shooting. Fouls could be an issue going forward (he tallied four tonight and four against Texas), but otherwise the nimble big man is doing some good things out there, including a solid finish through contact on a feed from LeVert with just over four minutes left and an emphatic first-half dunk.

Who knows if this will fall in the quality win ledger. N.C. State opened its season with a blowout loss against William & Mary of the Colonial Athletic Association and dropped a close one to Arizona State in New York.

Regardless, a road win against a major conference team is nothing to scoff at, particularly without the team's floor general for the second half.

The Wolfpack shot just 32.8 percent from the field and 23.5 percent from beyond the arc. Anthony Barber and Caleb Martin got their points (a combined 35), but the remainder of the starting five went a horrid 1-for-20 from the field. It's difficult to say how much of this had to do with Michigan and how much could be attributed to N.C. State simply taking bad shots, but the numbers are the numbers.

---
In any case, Michigan has rebounded nicely after a pair of tough losses against strong competition. The team is a work in progress, as Beilein continues to try to find the right lineups, Irvin continues to regain his feel for the game and the young bigs make incremental improvements.

But, all in all, after those two losses, things have gone just about as well as you could hope for.

The Wolverines take on Houston Baptist on Saturday before another quality opponent appears on the schedule next Tuesday, when Michigan heads to currently No. 22 SMU. After last year's home loss against the Mustangs, the Wolverines will surely be looking for a different result this time around.

Michigan follows that up with a series of lesser foes -- but after last year's NJIT game, no contest can be considered a slam dunk -- before Big Ten play opens for Michigan at Illinois Dec. 30.

Michigan 88, Elon 68: Sharpshootin'

Michigan moved to 2-0 with a relatively breezy 88-68 win against visiting Elon tonight in Ann Arbor.

Derrick Walton led the Wolverines with 24 points on 8-for-10 from the field (6-for-7 from three, plus seven assists and six rebounds).

Funny enough, though, the point guard wasn't even Michigan's most accurate shooter.

Transfer Duncan Robinson went a perfect 6-for-6 from the field, and 5-for-5 from downtown. If you aren't used to it already, get used to the phrase "he just doesn't miss."

I didn't have a chance to watch this past Friday's Northern Michigan game, so I finally got to see him in action for the first time tonight. I read some of the offseason practice reports with skepticism -- after all, we've heard flowery praise like that before about so many players, some of whom turned out to be pretty good but maybe not quite as good as such praise indicated.

But, so far, Robinson's outside stroke is as good as advertised. Obviously, we'll need to see it against real competition before he gets thrust into the Nik Stauskas Honorary Ring of Sharpshooters, but early returns are promising, to say the least.

In any case, there's not much use overanalyzing this game too much. Elon offered more size than NMU, but not so much to overwhelm. (Elon grabbed 33.3 percent of its misses in this one, which seems a little high, but it is what it is.)

Defensively, it wasn't a strong performance, but it's still early, obviously, and guys like D.J. Wilson are still getting their sea legs, not to mention Zak Irvin, who is still working his way back from injury and didn't start.

Elon shot 39.1 percent from beyond the arc, but Michigan made up for that by turning the Phoenix over 17 times. On that front, Caris LeVert (3-for-8, 11 points), flashed his length and general disruptiveness in the passing lanes and on the ball. He might not be a defensive stopper, per se, but he's good for at least one scoop and score a game.

In this one, he notched four steals, with at least a couple resulting in scores going the other way.

And not to sound like a meathead, but Michigan is going to need that sort of perimeter defensive intensity, because interior physicality is once again likely to not be their forte. On one play late in the first half, Elon's Brian Dawkins backed down Mark Donnal with startling ease, putting up an easy layup.

Ricky Doyle is the best option Michigan has on the physicality front. He picked up a ticky-tack foul outside of the three-point line on a hard hedge in the first half. That is something to watch out for going forward; if that continues to be called tightly, Michigan could be looking at some quick two-foul outings for the sophomore big man.

Overall, though, nothing has really been too surprising so far. Defense is a work in progress, the Wolverines can shoot the lights out and the frontcourters have a long way to go, even Doyle (who actually had a nice game, going 3-for-4 for eight points).

As for the others, Kam Chatman still seems to be searching for his outside shot, and he did get some good looks tonight (0-for-3 from downtown, 3-for-5 overall). At some point, some of those have to start falling for him.

Aubrey Dawkins had a relatively quiet night (3-for-5, 7 points) and Spike Albrecht wasn't much of a factor -- not that he needed to be -- although he did take a nice charge in the second half.

Moritz Wagner has a long way to go, obviously, physically and otherwise, but did have a nice strip that led to a transition opportunity. Muhammad-Ali Abdur-Rahkman, the subject of much "guy who is going to possibly be lost in the shuffle" talk, didn't do much, but had a nice strong take to the basket for two, just the sort of explosive slashery we saw from him in his Michigan debut season.

Michigan won again, and comfortably. The defense wasn't great, and several possessions ended in long jumpers at the buzzer (some ended with makes, but still), but expecting a well-oiled machine in November is far from reasonable.

The competition will pick up, and eventually we'll be able to make meaningful observations about these performances.

For now, though, the most encouraging things are clear. Walton, who has already been excellent in his career to date, looks ready to round into elite college point guard form. It's a long way off, but the matchup against Indiana's Yogi Ferrell on Feb. 2 is going to be one of the best position-to-position matchups of the conference season, in my opinion.

Walton's ability to get the transition game going is paramount: on one sequence in the first half, he threaded a beautiful bounce pass from the back court to hit Robinson in stride for two going the other way. Every assist only counts as one, but that's a super-assist right there.

Otherwise, Robinson's shot appears to be as ridiculous as advertised, and LeVert continues to do LeVert things when he's not having a particularly exceptional night from the field.

With these first two preseason-esque games out of the way, Michigan gets set to face Xavier, UConn and NC State in its next three. The competition picks up -- so does the chance to see some of these guys in meaningful game situations, in which mistakes matter and deficiencies can't be covered up by talent mismatches or a barrage of wide-open threes.

Shameless Self-Promotion Time: Michigan State and Wayne State

Halftime of Bears-Packers is my chance to post my usual reminder that my Monday recap went up at Maize n Brew this morning.

Also, I posted a quick recap just after Michigan's exhibition victory against Wayne State tonight. Michigan wasn't incredibly impressive tonight, but the outcome was never really in doubt; the closest it got in the second half was a 13-point Michigan lead. Nik Stauskas, Caris LeVert and Glenn Robinson III filled it up and the freshmen impressed once again.

Exhibition No. 1: No. 9 Michigan 117, Concordia 44

NB: Just like last season and the season before, most of my basketball writings will go up at Maize n Brew. With that said, I'll still be putting some stuff up here, starting, well, tonight. 
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With Mitch McGary on the bench in street clothes and the Wolverines taking on Concordia, an NAIA squad, in an exhibition contest, the stakes were about as depressed as Eeyore on a bad day.

Then again, it is a sign of the times that someone such as myself, who has always held college football aloft as the apex of amateur athletics, is legitimately excited about such a matchup. The game itself might not have meant anything, but it does mark the beginning of the next installment of the John Beilein era. On the heels of finished runner-up in 2012-13, the Wolverines have several questions to answer before the real question--Can they do it again?--can be addressed in earnest.

The Final Four run has etched itself in the minds of Michigan fans everywhere; once the afterglow of that campaign started to fade, the logical array of questions bubbled to the surface. No Trey Burke? Tim Hardaway Jr.? What about Derrick Walton? Can Mitch McGary, Glenn Robinson III and Caris LeVert take the next step? Can Spike Albrecht run the show full-time? 

And so on. Although the final outcome of these sorts of games is generally immaterial, it is worth watching just to see how various lineup combinations play together, whether the ball is ultimately being scored or not.

Michigan began with a starting five of Albrecht, Robinson III, Jordan Morgan, Jon Horford and Nik Stauskas. At the 16:27 mark, Walton, Max Bielfeldt and LeVert subbed in (Stauskas and Robinson remained in).

It wasn't a particularly great start for Albrecht; he missed an open layup in transition and also turned it over on another possession in which Michigan mostly stood around. He did take a charge down on the block before being subbed out.

Elsewhere, Stauskas started things off with a familiar sight: him driving hard to the rim and going to the line after not quite being able to throw it down. Upon hitting his patented corner three, Stauskas had scored seven of Michigan's first nine points.

Abotu four minutes into Walton's shift, Concordia brought a little full-court pressure. Walton took the ball up the right side, saw two defenders beginning to collapse on him, and left his feet to lob a doomed pass well past No. 21 Zak Irvin. In case you needed reminding, Walton is a true freshman, and he will likely make those sorts of mistakes early on in the season.

Stauskas got into the double-digits in scoring after nailing his second trey of the game, executing a seamless shot fake and one dribble left into an effortless stroke from the the left wing. Level of competition caveats aside, there probably shouldn't be any concerns about the added muscle affecting Stauskas's shot.

Despite not playing a perfectly clean game, the Wolverines jumped out to a 30-9 lead just about 12 minutes into the game, partially aided by nine Concordia turnovers. Stauskas once again put the ball on the floor, taking it from the corner and ripping through challenging defenders into an uncontested layup.

For the sake of history, let it be known that Walton tallied his first points with about 7:12 to go in the half. The freshman buried a three from the left wing, then added two more buckets in the span of about 30 seconds. Shortly thereafter, Walton lasered a no-look pass to a wide open Jordan Morgan under the rim for an easy two and dropped another easy dime to LeVert in transition. After committing a careless turnover earlier, Walton had clearly picked up some confidence during this later stretch in the first half.

Michigan went into the half up 60-19, with an eFG% of 89%. Five Wolverines tallied seven or more points in the first half. Stauskas and LeVert led the way with 12 points apiece. Not that this means anything at all, but Michigan scored at a clip of 1.71 points per possession in the first half (Concordia was at 0.56 PPP).

Also of note, late in the half Beilein rolled out a lineup of LeVert-Stauskas-Morgan-Irvin-GRIII, with LeVert running the point. There have been rumblings about the potential for LeVert to run the show some this season, so perhaps that is the lineup we'll see when he does.