Michigan basketball No. 9 in USA Today Coaches Poll

The Wolverines hit the hardwood again on Oct. 29 for an exhibition game against Concordia. Michigan will enter that game with a shiny No. 9 ranking, per today's release of the USA Today Coaches Poll.

In a moderately weird coincidence, Florida, Syracuse and Kansas--three teams Michigan beat in the tournament--sit right ahead of Michigan in succession. Preseason basketball polls might mean even less than their football counterpart, but I just thought that was an amusing coincidence (and that is no commentary on its accuracy).

Elsewhere in the Big Ten, Ohio State checks in at No. 10, Bo Ryan's Badgers at No. 21 and the Hoosiers at No. 24. The conference doesn't appear to be as strong as it was last season, but it should still be one of the most difficult leagues in the country once again.

Kentucky nabbed the top spot in the rankings, with Michigan State at No. 2. Louisville, Duke and Arizona round out the top 5. Michigan takes on Sean Miller's Arizona squad on Dec. 14 at the Crisler Center. Of course, Michigan will also travel to Durham to take on Duke at Cameron Indoor for the Big Ten/ACC Challenge on Dec. 4.

The nonconference schedule is formidable, and the Wolverines will once again be breaking in a freshman point guard. Nonetheless, those games against Duke, Arizona, Florida State/VCU and possibly even the trip to Iowa State will certainly help the freshmen get into the swing of things. I'm not sure any of those games will prepare Walton et al for what they'll see in the Big Ten, but the level of competition will be high.

If you're expecting another 16-0 start, you're likely to be disappointed. However, it should be another exciting season of basketball in Ann Arbor and Big Ten country as a whole. Football is king, yes, but basketball is not too far behind these days.

Miscellaneous Minutiae, 9/18/13

It's 70 degrees today in Chicago, but the last few days have started to feel like fall. Here are some Wednesday links:

• Rittenberg diagnoses what's ailing the Big Ten. "Certain position groups have gone downhill in the Big Ten in recent years, but the league has had no problems producing elite defensive linemen." Yeah, no problem at all. 

• Maine, Northwestern's opponent this week, has a player named Dakota Tarbox. Cormac McCarthy dystopian character? No, a freshman tight end. 

• Borges on Saturday: "If you look at the video, there's some really nice plays," he said Tuesday. "Surrounded by garbage."

• Bucky's 5th Quarter gets to know Purdue. I'll be in Madison this weekend and hopefully at the game (which would make my first visit to Camp Randall). 

• Zach on Michigan's new basketball ticket policy. 

• Tom Deinhart and the ESPN Big Ten Blog guys have the Illini going bowling in Dallas. As in, they will be playing in a bowl game, not trying to pick up a 7-10 split as George Strait plays in the background. 

• Joe Tiller had some not so optimistic things to say about the road ahead for Darrell Hazell's Boilermakers. 

Shameless Self-Promotion Time: FGCU Eagles

Source: Fouad Egbaria

Once again, I took a brief look at a potential Michigan opponent in the next round (should the Wolverines advance); this time, I put in a few words on the 15th-seeded Florida Gulf Coast Eagles, this year's Norfolk State if Norfolk State had won another game after knocking off Missouri last season.

Anywho, here it is. We're still many hours away from 7:37 on Friday, so fill your mind with useless sports knowledge.

Shameless Self-Promotion Time: Indiana Recap

Michigan finished the 2012-13 regular season with a mark of 25-6 (12-6); yes, that Big Ten mark is inferior to last year's by one game. Sure, this year's Big Ten is better than last year's, but isn't college basketball just funny sometimes?

Anyway, here is my recap of Sunday's gut punch of a loss, at Maize n Brew as usual. Every single loss Michigan took this season stung in its own way, perhaps all magnified by the fact that they were relatively few in number.

Nonetheless, what would ordinarily be hailed a wildly successful regular season ended with an anticlimactic thud, as the Wolverines enter this weekend's Big Ten Tournament in Chicago with the 5-seed and a Thursday matchup with, yes, Penn State.

To Chicago we go.

One Week

State Street, Chicago

Of course, there's one little thing to take care of before that. Before they can see the red of the Red Line, they'll be seeing Indiana's crimson on Sunday...preview will be up at Maize n Brew at some point tomorrow. I say "one week" instead of "six days" because, yes, I'm hoping for that first round bye. That would be nice, wouldn't it, because we know who awaits if we land the 5-seed. It seems strange to be even somewhat worried about a potential matchup with a conference cellar dweller when you root for a top 10 team, but this is where we're at. College basketball, man.

Shameless Self-Promotion Time: Michigan State

So, I won't lie, I've been a little disappointed that I haven't had much time to post much of anything here in 2013. With a break coming up in a couple of weeks, I will have a decent chunk of free time to get this thing going again.

Also of note: thanks to being a Big Ten student again (YEAH #B1GCATS), I am planning on being at every session of the Big Ten tournament here in Chicago. I'll do my best to provide some real, actual coverage of this, doing some journalisty things like video, pictures (probably take from the 300 level of the United Center) and general updates, Michigan and non-Michigan alike. Either way, it should be a fun time, assuming the Wolverines bring yesterday's defensive intensity to the Windy City.

Speaking of, I recapped yesterday's rematch against the Spartans over at Maize n Brew, as usual. Michigan is now 8-5 in its last 13 games, so to say that things have been just a little up and down this past month would be somewhat of an understatement when juxtaposed with that 16-0 start.

Regardless, whether you're beating Northwestern by 28 on Jan. 3 or Michigan State by one on Feb. 3, a win is a win. The share of the regular season title is out of reach unless Indiana gets upset by Ohio State on Tuesday, but a pair of wins to end the season would do wonders for Michigan heading into postseason play.

Even on the heels of a tremendous victory such as this one, it's hard not to look back and think about what could have been (see: @Wisconsin, @Penn State). Luckily, there's still a great deal for which to play.

Shameless Self-Promotion Time: Michigan State

I've been a little negligent of late when it comes to linking my Maize n Brew stuff here, which is probably for the better given the recent stretch. Even Mr. Kurtz is all "man, that stunk," and he was the guy who said "the horror, the horror." So, you know things have gotten pretty real.

Oh well. Anyway, here's my post from yesterday, in which I talk about the Michigan State game and what it means (if anything) going forward:

No, all is not lost. These sorts of things happen, especially when you've been confronted with the schedule that Michigan has in the last 10 days. The good news is that the most difficult portion of the schedule is behind Michigan now. The recently completed 4-game stretch, without looking into this further, has to have been the toughest such stretch in the country thus far. To recap, Michigan: 1) lost a tough one at Indiana despite getting ambushed at the start 2) gritted out an OT victory against Ohio State at Crisler, aided largely by Tim Hardaway Jr.'s sharpshooting 3) lost in OT at the Kohl Center after a ridiculous Ben Brust shot to tie it and 4) got blown out at the Breslin Center to cap this mini-campaign through the Sahara-esque portion of the greater journey.

The only fun thing about writing that post was the title, which I'm still patting myself on the back for. Good job, me. On the bright side, Michigan should have an opportunity for a nice, cathartic blowout victory on Sunday, back in the friendly confines of the Crisler Center. If everything goes according to plan, it will be like a like nostalgic trip to the early portion of the conference schedule, when everything was great and Michigan was invincible and clearly never going to lose a game ever.

Sentimental Education

If I can make it there/You know, I'm gonna make it just about anywhere

Youth is an inherent facet of the college game. It is rare to find a team with a starting lineup stocked with upperclassmen; when such teams are to be found, they are typically either a mid-major or not very good. 

It doesn't seem all that long ago that Michigan was busy dominating all comers in Manhattan and declaring themselves kings of Brooklyn for a night. In between passive-aggressive glances and cigarette drags, area hipsters spoke in hushed tones of Spike Albrecht and his underappreciated work "Four Minutes, Goodbye Appalachia." Those were simpler, rawer times, before all this corporatized, uptight Big Ten stuff. 

In a sense, that is what a nonconference schedule is: a formless sea of conflicting interpretations built on an untenable framework of nothing, by and against nobody you've ever heard of, not unlike an indie album. The Big Ten, on the other hand, is an ordered symphony, at times crashing, at times serene, but thematically consistent and often linear in form if not in plot. If not linear, then its general direction is typically clear: forward, like natural selection adapted to the hardwood. 

That's not to say that the former can't be nice; the non-conference schedule surely was just that. Trey Burke, Tim Hardaway Jr. and Michigan's cavalry of steely-eyed freshmen led Michigan to an unbeaten mark and, more importantly, the promise of something beyond what many of us --myself included-- had ever had the fortune of witnessing on the hardwood. 

Michigan has taken trips to Minnesota, Illinois, Ohio State and Indiana thus far (Northwestern too, I guess--#B1GCats!), all problematic places to play, and has come away with decidedly mixed results in a season that has otherwise been historic in every way. I don't mean to dismiss everything else to date, but wins against some of those teams aren't worth writing home about vis-a-vis any sort of Big Picture, which may not even exist in the world of college basketball in terms of results. In the span of 40 minutes in March, the Big Picture can become just another mundane piece in the colossal jigsaw puzzle that is your average college basketball season. 

Although I have realized over the past year or two that the losses don't really hit me like they used to, there was still a lingering bitterness Sunday. Perhaps it was the lofty No. 1 ranking, perhaps it was the opportunity to grab Michigan's biggest regular season win in some time, perhaps it was the chance to do so against a superb Indiana team, in that hall of mirrors in Bloomington no less, where every corner reveals a distorted and bizarre view of the very self you thought you knew before entering. 

It should be noted that the season promises to be a great one, and that the end is not near. Michigan will win many more games, and I think it is safe to assume that at least a few of those games will take place in some probably sparsely attended venues in March. 

Other than Michigan's occasional tendency to devolve into an NBA-style heroball game (which, to be honest, I'm not necessarily against despite its inefficiency), perhaps it was the mortality of two of Michigan's youth-belying freshmen, Glenn Robinson III and Nik Stauskas. Oddly, Mitch "CRUNK" McGary, he of the frenetic game and spontaneous shrug-inducing bursts of "Did I do that?" strength, has been the most consistent of the three insofar as his particular game is concerned. 

Again, this shouldn't be construed as me sounding the alarm, pushing the panic button, or whatever such phrase you may prefer. Rather, it's part of an overall narrative that is obvious but was somewhat buried by Michigan's pristine start. 

Like the divine right kings of old, it's hard to conceptualize your fallibility when you're strolling down Atlantic Avenue with a crown on your head and asphalt covered in rose petals in your wake. 

It's even harder to imagine when placed in the context of Michigan basketball as a whole. The moment has finally come, the resurgence, the return, and how could it be but linear and unstinting? Unfortunately, that is not and will not be the order of things, for college basketball, like football, subsists on chaos, pointed statistical variances and home crowds seemingly unleashed from the bowels of Hell. 

Robinson III, he of the No. 1 ORtg in the Big Ten, looked like just another athlete on Saturday. Of course, it's not exactly hard to understand why. Indiana is very good, Assembly Hall is a place so fearsome that you can momentarily forget your own name amid the din and, most importantly, GRIII is just a freshman. The high-flying 360 dunks would seem to defy the laws of space and time, but one cannot outjump youth. 

Similarly, Nik Stauskas (NJAS), he of the Big Ten's No. 6 ORtg, is even more prone to bouts of freshmanitis, given his perimeter-oriented game. After all, the rims do get smaller on the road, and I won't wait for scientific inquiry to prove this fact. On Saturday, our favorite Mississaugan went just 3/10 from the field and 1/5 from beyond the arc. That will happen. 

Even Trey Burke, the heart and soul through which this team draws its every breath, is a mere true sophomore. For all his brilliance, we would do well to remember that he is still very much learning what he can and cannot do, what he should and shouldn't do. 

With trips to Michigan State and Wisconsin still on the docket --in addition to home dates against Ohio State, Michigan State and Indiana-- there is still room within the amorphous bubble that is college basketball to explore. College basketball is like writing; you don't always get it right, and it is often glaringly so when that is the case. 

On the bright side, it can be a self-correcting mechanism in this way. Unlike seasons gone by, it isn't as if Michigan failed at OSU and IU and didn't have the means to answer back, or, pre-Beilein, didn't know how to. In both games, Michigan rallied back and even had the chance to win despite stretches of frazzled play. Now, Michigan has the pieces to beat anyone, but the challengers are numerous and the divine right that seemed a mandate within the boundaries of the five boroughs has become far from unassailable, if it ever was that to begin with. 

Ohio State. Wisconsin. Michigan State. On a practical level, this upcoming stretch will help to determine Michigan's tournament seeding (Big Ten and Big Dance) and the level of assistance it might need to bring home another regular season conference title, preferably unshared. 

Thematically, there is much more at stake, for Michigan's freshmen and non-freshmen. The next three games will begin to reveal just how far-reaching this sentimental education can be, for the players and fans alike. 

Shameless Self-Promotion Time: Purdue Recap

(HT: mgovideo)

Here it is, as usual. Michigan wins 68-53, moving to 5-1 in the conference and 18-1 overall. Excellence is good, quoth Henne.

Michigan takes on the enigmatic Illini in Champaign on Sunday. Assuming Michigan doesn't get full on Paul'd (which, given the trolly nature of it is probably better spelled PAWLLLLLL'd), that should be another win for the Wolverines.

Either way, this is fun. I promise I'll actually post something of substance in this space at some point in the near future...school, man. Get outta here, school.

Shameless Self-Promotion Time: Nebraska Recap

As usual, here's my recap of last night's 62-47 win against Nebraska, available for viewing over at Maize n Brew for the low low price of $0.00. As The Boss would say, "you ain't a beauty but hey you're all right."

Michigan makes a visit to Columbus on Sunday for what should be the first real test of the young conference season.

Shameless Self-Promotion Time: Nebraska Preview

Hello. How are you? Hope your day has been nice. Anyway, it's the usual procedure: I wrote something about Michigan, but it is not here, so you will have to go somewhere else to read that thing.

Here is the link to said thing: a preview of tonight's Nebraska game!

Shameless Self-Promotion Time: Northwestern Recap/FLAWLESS VICTORY

 SOBOCOP receiving instruction (courtesy of my friend/photoshop sorcerer @billytrue)

Michigan went to Evanston and handled the short-handed Wildcats with ease, picking up a 94-66 victory. Here's last night's recap over at Maize n Brew.

Michigan held the SOBOCOP to just 7 points on 3/7 shooting, but he might not be so forgiving next time. On a serious note, this was a solid win for a team with several extremely young critical players. The Wolverines' next opponent comes in the form of the Iowa Hawkeyes on Sunday in the Crisler Arena Center Building.

Shameless Self-Promotion Time: Northwestern Preview

The Wolverines head to Evanston tonight for their B1G opener against the Fighting Warrior Poets of Northwestern. Here is a preview of this game, featuring an NU team missing Drew Crawford and Reggie Hearn (i.e. its top two scorers). I guess it's time for...

Shameless Self-Promotion Time: CHIPSAGEDDON

Hello. Michigan is playing a basketball game against the Central Michigan Chippewas tomorrow night at the Crisler Arena Center Building (7 ET, BTN).

Here's my preview over at Maize n Brew of the third installment of "The Wolverines take on Michigan directional schools" this season. I'm not the biggest advanced stats guy in the world yet, but beating three directional schools is probably good for Michigan's ISDSO+ ranking*, which is always good to see.

Unfortunately, this is the last Michigan sporting event that is separating me from it officially being "hey let's think about Jadeveon Clowney" time. Savor this moment, because that reality will become very clear the closer we get to kickoff on NYD.

*In-State Directional School Ownage

Shameless Self-Promotion Time: Eastern Michigan Recap

Despite some very minuscule worries that Michigan might meander through this game on a wave of apathy after a relatively long layoff, the Wolverines smashed those concerns. Michigan rained threes and transition buckets on the hapless Eagles like fiery apocalyptic comets (okay, I promise that's the last one). The Wolverines came out the victors in the BATTLE FOR WASHTENAW COUNTY, which is totally a rivalry because

In case you missed it, I put my recap up night over at Maize n Brew. One day, the following will be the official trophy awarded for this game:

Until that day, we'll just have to accept the 39-point victory and pretend.

Shameless Self-Promotion Time: EMU Preview

 I should probably try to make it to a game at the Crisler Arena Center Building so I don't have to keep using this picture

I haven't put anything up over at Maize n Brew since The Game, so I figured I would get back into the swing of things over there:

After handling West Virginia with relative ease in Brooklyn on Saturday, Michigan enjoyed a nice long break, which ends tonight as the Wolverines take on their intra-county friends, the Eastern Michigan Eagles.

Michigan enters the contest at 11-0 and ranked No. 2 in the country; to say that the season has been a success thus far would is like gently intimating that everyone involved in the NHL lockout negotiations is engaged in an act of extended self-flagellation. No, yeah, that's an understatement.

Anyway, the Wolverines have swagged their way through the requisite slate of awful teams while generally handling the teams with a pulse (N.C. State, Pitt, Kansas State). The underlying concern through it all has been thus: What happens when the shots stop falling and the freshman --namely Stauskas-- start to play like freshmen?

You can read the rest here. Let the mythical Washtenaw County Cup trophy be ours! This trophy is definitely not just  replica of this made out of hamburger meat:

p.s. Miss you that Big Boy that used to be by the Meijer on Ann Arbor-Saline. This win's for you.

Michigan-West Virginia: What More Can I Say

Explicit lyrics (obviously) 

Michigan traveled to play in its second New York borough during this 2012-13 season, this time taking on the West Virginia Mountaineers in the new Barclays Center on Atlantic Avenue in Brooklyn.

The Mountaineers beat what seems to be an okay Virginia Tech team last Saturday only to drop a contest against Duquesne on the road, shooting 33.3% from the field and relinquishing a 15-point second half lead in the process.

In any case, WVU was a tournament team last season. Kevin Jones is no longer around, but the Mountaineers still have the ability to challenge you if you're not on. 

For Michigan, this game mirrored the motion of a pendulum that somehow manages to knock you in the head on each end point of its travels. This team is young but plays like it is older. This team is young and plays like it is young. 

Luckily, the sheer gravity of this team's overall talent almost always pulls the pendulum back from the latter. Michigan ambushed the Mountaineers early, jumping out to a huge lead; naturally, Michigan came out firing from beyond the arc, with THJ missing his first attempt and nailing a second to begin the scoring. At the 15:24 mark, Michigan was up 17-4.

Like many other times, Michigan shot the lights out early, starting 4/5 from three. Michigan followed this up by going 0/8 from beyond the arc between the 13:51 and 3:03 marks. Perhaps not coincidentally WVU was able to cut Michigan's lead from 15 down to 5 in that time. The Wolverines led just 34-29 with 3:24 left in the half. 

This has not been uncommon this season. There are times when Michigan falls in love with the trey and their prior levels of success with that strategy. In a sense, Michigan sort of sets itself up to fail in a way after going on these ridiculous shooting runs. Indeed, guys like Hardaway Jr., Burke and Morgan are veterans, but this is still a team that is largely dependent on the whims of freshmen like Stauskas, who finally had a truly rough night. The Canuck went 3-for-9 from the field (2-for-7 from 3), good for an entirely mortal eFG% of 44.4%.

There's not much point in dissecting the struggles of a guy like Stauskas too much. He had good looks, he just happened to miss tonight. It happens. At least one of those missed threes was more than halfway down before rimming out. Such is the life of a shooter.

With that said, although he drew a technical for this antic, it was nice to see him getting a little FIRED UP WOO after hitting that three in front of the WVU bench. Obviously he needs to not that do that anymore, but it was one of those moments where you're going YEAH on the inside while tsk tsking on the outside. 

Otherwise, forgetting about the threes: six turnovers for the Pride of Mississauga is not good. Matt Vogrich did not play at all once again, so it's not as if Stauskas is in any danger, but if you're going to have an off night from the night you simply cannot compound it by being careless with the ball, which needs to be valued like the richest poutine. 

Michigan's 11-point halftime lead quickly became a 17-point lead in about five minutes of second half play. The Wolverines kept a double-digit lead for the next seven or eight, generally continuing to dominate play as Hardaway Jr. and Burke racked up monstrous stat lines. 

Following the tv timeout just past the 8-minute mark (at this same point, Michigan was only up by four against Arkansas last week), eight points from WVU's Terry Henderson powered the 'Eers to an 11-4 run that cut the deficit to eight. 

Yes, Michigan was only up eight, which in this brave new world is supposedly cause for concern.

Like the Pitt, Kansas State, N.C. State and Arkansas games, even when Michigan wasn't shooting the ball well and the opponent began to challenge, as a viewer it never felt as if the outcome was in doubt. 

Michigan being up by four points with eight minutes to go this season is analogous to a Yankee team in the 8th inning with Mariano Rivera ready to enter the game in the ninth. In the past, it felt like what Cubs fan probably feel like when Carlos Marmol is on the mound; a sweaty, tense and often frustrating affair. Sometimes the shots would not fall, and Michigan would slowly cede ground until the game was lost in some brutally discordant fashion. 

Michigan no longer has to "hope" for shots to go in, because they just do. Even when they don't, the Wolverines are no longer bound by the strictures of heroball. 

Maybe Stauskas' off night is skewing my perception of this performance, but it once again seemed as if Michigan wasn't playing all that well. Yet, you look at the box score and Michigan has shot 56% from the field as a team while holding its opponent to just 38.5%. More importantly, they won by 15.

Thus far, this team has demonstrated a strange yet intriguing combination of showtime and inexperienced talent doing what inexperienced talent does. Michigan is 11-0 and I don't believe that anyone will claim that the Wolverines have played their best ball yet.

Think about that: the best is yet to come. I mean, what more can I say?

Michigan-Western Michigan: It's Good To Be The King

#3 Michigan (8-0) 73, Western Michigan 41 (6-2)

As a freshman in 2007, I went to every single home game during what was John Beilein's first season in Ann Arbor. Michigan went 10-22 that year, including a December loss against Central Michigan at home. That CMU team finished the 2007-08 season with a 14-17 record. It was one of many stultifying losses in a season marked by transition, not unlike the 3-9 2008 football season. 

Fast forward through four entire seasons, and here we are. You might as well be Philip J. Fry, emerging from millennium of cryogenic sleep to find himself in the brave new world that is the 31st century. 

This isn't the Michigan basketball of yesteryear, when turning it over 23 teams against a mediocre Michigan directional school was met with nothing more than resignation. 

Even as Michigan struggled through most of the first half, they held an 8-point lead about 14 minutes into the game. Even when Michigan was sloppy with the ball or when the shots didn't fall, there was never a sense that this MAC team existed in the same plane of competence as Michigan, as was the case with CMU back in 2007. 

---

With THJ shooting just 2-for-7 from the field and Nik Stauskas failing to connect from beyond the arc through over 15 minutes of first half play, Michigan looked to its trusty point guard to navigate it through the mildly choppy waters of the early stages. Burke was on in the first half this time around, unlike the past couple games when Michigan only needed him to facilitate the offense; Burke was 4-for-5 with 10 points and two steals through 16 minutes of play, powering Michigan to a 27-15 lead late in the half. 

After some sloppy play bogged Michigan down early on, the Wolverines settled down and continued to feast on Western's own carelessness throughout most of the half. The Broncos accrued 12 turnovers by the 3:56 mark, five of them Michigan steals (a pair from Burke and Morgan each and one from Stauskas). 

Michigan bled the shot clock on its next possession. Burke meandered around on the right side, and with only three seconds left on the shot clock, tossed it to newly minted contributor Caris LeVert at the top of the key. He rose, fired, and sank a trey to put Michigan up 15. 

On its next possession, Stauskas finally hit his first three of the game to put Michigan up 16. It probably says something that I'm using the word "finally" to describe a sequence during which a freshman hits a three in the first half of a game. 

For Michigan's next trick, THJ penetrated in the lane and found an open Mitch McGary at the basket for an open layup. 

I defy you to find a sequence of possessions such as the aforementioned trio in the entire body of work that was the 2007-08 season. I'm willing to guess that Michigan was not able to pull off an unbroken stretch of cold-blooded competence very many times way back then, against a Michigan directional school or not. 

Despite a relatively forgettable first half, Trey Burke and defense carried Michigan to a 35-21 halftime lead. 

Halftime Stats

--Michigan (1.04 PPP) 

--WMU (0.66 PPP)

 ---

By the 7-minute mark of the second half, Michigan had built up a 27-point lead, 61-34. The Broncos were shooting 31.6% from the field at this point, with Darius Paul the only double-digit scorer (and even he was just 3-for-11 from the field). 

Unlike the Bradley game, there was no hanging around for Michigan's overmatched opponent. It was a masterful half in which Michigan completely suffocated a WMU offense that was already pretty bad in the first half, and the offensive end was a 20-minute Michigan bicep flex. 

Up 70-36 late, Michigan was able to roll out a lineup of Vogrich-Albrecht-LeVert-McLimans-Horford for the home stretch (Corey Person and Eso Akunne came in at around the 2-minute mark).

Michigan blew up the 22-point spread in what ended up being a smashing 32-point victory. In case you just roused yourself from a 5-year nap, no, it is decidedly not 2007. In a vacuum, a win like this is as memorable as a random face on the subway. But, with the memory of 2007 in mind, wins like these are prominent points of divergence, counterpoints to a once fundamental incompetence. 

It is a brave new world indeed.

Michigan-Western Michigan Preview: Rollin'

#3 Michigan (7-0) vs. Western Michigan (6-1) 

Time: 8:30 ET (BTN) 

Place: Crisler Arena Center--Ann Arbor, Mich.

Exposition 
The Wolverines head back to the friendly confines of the Crisler Center after a comfortable road win against a seemingly improved Bradley team. Things were a bit dicey at the end, but such is the way of college basketball games on the road. 

Regardless, Michigan is riding high, particularly off of the efforts of freshman sharpshooter Nik Stauskas. At 8-0 and ranked third in the country, things are prettyyy, prettyyy, prettyyy good. 

The remainder of the nonconference schedule features all three Michigan directional schools, Binghamton, Arkansas and a fairly disappointing West Virginia team. Needless to say, a 14-0 start seems extremely likely for the Wolverines.

The Opponent  
Of course, this is college basketball, where upsets do happen. For all of Michigan's success to date, this is still a very young team; it will be interesting to see how the Wolverines respond when its freshmen finally play like freshmen, all in the same game. 

Western Michigan comes to town tonight, entering the contest with a 6-1 record. The Broncos dropped their season opener at Cornell, who currently sits at 4-5 on the season. 

Otherwise, the Broncos are riding a 6-game winning streak, beating the following stalwarts: Marygrove, Loyola (IL), Maryland-Eastern Shore, South Florida, HP (High Point, not a team of surprisingly nimble Hewlett-Packard employees) and Oakland.  Excluding the game against this so called "Marygrove," the Broncos have compiled an average margin of victory of 7.4 points, which seems like a modest sum even for a MAC team, but that is an impressionistic statement at best. 

Offensively, the Broncos are paced by a triumvirate of double-digit scorers in: 6'7'' senior F Nate Hutcheson (13.7 ppg); 6'8'' freshman F Darius Paul (11.7 ppg), brother of Illinois' Brandon Paul; and 6'4'' senior G Brandon Pokley (11.4 ppg). 

As a team, the Broncos are averaging a fairly middling 68.1 ppg, good for 176th in the country. For the sake of comparison, Bradley currently sits at 68th with 74.9 ppg. 

6'10'' RS Jr. center Shayne Whittington is also pitching in 9.9 ppg and a team high 8.6 rebounds per game. Indeed, he is basically an Ent. 

The Broncos seem to really only go seven deep, with small forward Connar Tava and guards Jared Klein and Austin Richie rounding out the regular rotation.

The Broncos are shooting an okay 37% from beyond the arc. Michigan's opponents have shot just 30.8% from downtown thus far. Hutcheson and Pokley have taken 58% of WMU's treys between them; Hutcheson is shooting just 33% whereas Pokley shoots a sterling 46%. As such, Pokley is clearly the guy to watch on the perimeter. 

The Gameplan  

Although Western Michigan has been relatively successful under head coach Steve Hawkins' tutelage, they are in fact still a MAC team. Especially at home, this is not a team that Michigan should struggle against a la last year's Oakland game. 

WMU does not possess exceptional depth or size, as you might expect. Their two most-used forwards are 6'7'' and 6'8''. Whittington is the only source of worry for Michigan in the front court. Otherwise, it's a medley of guards for this team. If Michigan doesn't go all 2009 Denard "broken plays are very dangerous" on this squad, that would not be good (although probably indicative of nothing save a disappointing singular performance). 

The Broncos do possess a shiny 37% offensive rebounding percentage, but schedule caveats certainly apply.  As long as Michigan cleans up the boards, this should be a pretty comfortable victory. Getting Whittington in foul trouble early would surely be a death knell to WMU's already minuscule chances at an upset. Whittington fouled out in WMU's last game against Oakland, and is averaging 2.71 fouls per game on the season. 

So, go to work, Michigan bigs that now exist because it is 2012 and up is down and down is up.  

Miscellaneous Stats 

• Slow and steady. Pace-wise, Michigan should feel right at home in this one; the Broncos are averaging 64.1 possessions per game, just under Michigan's 67.1 mark. The faint smell of molasses will linger in the Crisler Center air tonight. 

• Charity. WMU has amassed a decent FT rate of 42.5%, good for 74th in the country (Michigan is ranked 255th at 31.3%). Just like any other game, stupid fouls on Michigan's part are one of only a couple things that could keep this game somewhat close. 

• Give and take. Despite the less than difficult schedule, the Broncos have managed an assist to turnover ratio of exactly 1:1 (86 turnovers, 86 assists). Point guard Austin Richie leads the team in assists, but even he is only averaging 4.0 apg, with an assist percentage of 29.4 (140th in the country). Michigan should be able to force the Broncos into some ugly half court sets; again, as long as the Wolverines decline to present WMU with second chance opportunities, I don't see the Broncos consistently generating offense in the half court game.

Ending Thoughts, Predictions, Etc.
There really isn't much to say. This is a MAC team that Michigan should easily handle. At 6'10'', Whittington provides a decent matchup for Michigan's front court, but given Michigan's lockdown effort against Pitt 7-footer Steven Adams, this isn't much of a concern at all.

Michigan should be able to get the bench some significant run about halfway through the second half. The only thing I'm looking for tonight and heading into the rest of the nonconference schedule is how the freshmen, particularly Stauskas, respond when things start not turning up Milhouse all the time, which you have to think is an inevitability. I mean, he can't keep maintain his current eFG% of 75.0% forever, right? Right? The funny thing is, I'm not even sure that that is a rhetorical question.

Score: Michigan 75, Western Michigan 59.

Michigan-N.C. State: Showtime

"WE ON!"

#3 Michigan 79 (6-0), #18 N.C. State 72 (4-2)

The Wolverines took the Crisler Center floor in the big game maize jerseys for an intriguing early season contest against N.C. State for the ACC-Big Ten Challenge. Play early on was a bit sloppy, with each team committing a pair of turnovers within the first three minutes of play. 

The Wolfpack jumped out to an early 6-2 lead, but Nik Stauskas executed a masterful move to the basket, going behind the back and flying through the lane to lay it up on the left side while going right. 

On consecutive possession, THJ found the soft spot in the middle of the zone and calmly knocked in a free throw line extended jumper, and then, off of a block, Burke found THJ in the corner in transition. Again, THJ hit with a nonchalance that belied his 2011-12 shooting woes. 

At the 13:30 mark, the Wolverines were up 14-10, with THJ having already racked up nine points on 4-6 shooting. Shortly after, Nik Stauskas knocked in a trey, again with the 'Pack in the zone. Naturally, they went man on their next possession, where Michigan picked up an offensive board after a missed THJ three but eventually turned it over, again leading to a breakaway dunk for NCSU. 

With 23 points halfway through the first half, Michigan was well on its way to a prolific night on the offensive end against a shaky 'Pack defense. The zone was very clearly not working for them early on, as Dakich's constant admonitions of "you can't zone a Beilen team" echoed. Even worse for the 'Pack, C.J. Leslie picked up a pair of fouls, forcing him to sit at the nine minute mark. 

A beautiful pick and roll between Burke and McGary led to a McGary thunderdunk and a Gottfried timeout. Out of the timeout, Michigan went to the super secret weapon that is the 1-3-1; after knocking it out of bounds, however, they reverted to man after the inbounds. 

Yet another Stauskas trey put Michigan up 30-16. Mercifully, a tv timeout allowed N.C. State to gather itself again. Michigan racked up a 14-point lead with 7:54 to go in the half; with Trey Burke shooting 0-1 from the field and scoring zero points. It is a brave new world, indeed. 

With Eso Akunne taking a couple questionable shots, the 'Pack rattled off a 7-0 run, sticking with the zone on D, as Michigan started to cool off a bit from its previously torrid shooting pace. Luckily for Michigan, Howell had to go to the bench after picking up two quick ones, an unfortunate series of events for Gottfried, as Howell had basically single-handedly brought the 'Pack back during the aforementioned run. 

The 'Pack brought it down to five, but another Stauskas three stemmed the tide. I have to echo Rod Beard here: might need to just CTL+V that sentence for the next four years. 

A lapse in transition D brought Michigan's once sizable lead back to 5, at 41-36. The 'Pack continued to zone away out of necessity (foul trouble), and Michigan started to settle for low-percentage outside shots after eviscerating the middle of the zone earlier in the half.With the final offensive set of the half, Michigan pick and rolled up top and Burke penetrated all the way to the basket before a slick wrap around pass to GRIII for a layup. Michigan entered the intermission up 43-36, a solid performance but slightly unsatisfying after the aforementioned State foul trouble and a once 14-point lead.

Halftime Stats

Michigan: 

Team PPP (points per possession): 1.33

• Stauskas: 4-5 (3-4 from 3), 13 points
• THJ: 5-10, 11 points, 1 block
• Burke: 0-2, 0 points (!), 9 assists (!)

N.C. State: 

Team PPP: 1.16

• Warren: 3-4, 8 points
• Howell: 4-4, 8 points
• Wood: 2-4 from 3, 8 points