Michigan moves to 2-0 in the Big Ten, tops Northwestern 74-51

Michigan 74, Northwestern 51

The only questions coming into this afternoon's game against Northwestern revolved around Glenn Robinson III's injury status and the magnitude of Michigan's margin of victory against the lowly 7-7 Wildcats. 

On the first point, the Wolverines got a boost when Robinson took the floor as one part of Michigan's starting five. With that question settled, only one remained. 

However, nine minutes into the game, the Wildcats led, 10-9, with the Wolverines having shot just 33 percent and turned it over three times already. 

Northwestern's packed in defense gave Michigan trouble, as the Wolverines couldn't hit their outside shots early in the game. Northwestern's defensive strategy was not unlike that of a World Cup underdog, playing conservatively with one striker and hoping to beat a more talented team 1-0 via one swift counterattack goal. 

Chris Collins's Wildcats did their best to slow the game down, walking the ball up the floor and taking as much out of each 35-second possession as possible. However, Michigan eventually decided it was having none of it, and that's when it started to build up a bit of a lead. 

Michigan went into the half up 31-24, but it felt as if the Wildcats had played Michigan to a tie. Regardless, the story of the first half was Jordan Morgan. The fifth-year big man scored eight points and reeled in five boards while flashing the transition speed that has made him a fan favorite over the years. 

When the two teams stepped onto the floor in the second half, Northwestern would try to keep the game slow, while the Wolverines would once again put the pedal to the metal. Either way, the Wolverines would have play better defense, especially Nik Stauskas. Matched up against NU star Drew Crawford, Crawford scored 13 of NU's 24 first half points. 

Michigan's 1-of-8 mark from beyond the arc also conspired to keep the game close; the Wolverines would have to connect more frequently than that in the second half if they planned on pulling away before the game's final minutes. 

The two teams traded 5-0 runs to start the second frame; clearly, the Wildcats did not plan on going away without a fight. 

Fortunately for the Wolverines, Northwestern's offensive attack could most generously be deemed "punchless." Sanjay Lumpkin missed a layup that would have cut Michigan's lead to four; after that, Michigan slowly pulled away. 

Michigan's offense was far from a well-oiled machine, but its defense did get a little better, as Crawford had zero second half points by the 8-minute media timeout. 

A pair of monstrous transition dunks from Robinson later, and Michigan found itself up by 16 with under eight minutes to play. 

The lead continued to balloon, as the Wildcats simply did not have enough to make a serious push. Northwestern might be a tough team to play in two or three years, but, for now, a last place finish in the conference appears to be a certainty. 

With the 74-51 win, Michigan moves to 10-4 (2-0) on the season. Nik Stauskas led the way with 18 points, while Jordan Morgan played Crazy Eights (8 points, 8 rebounds). 

Michigan heads to Lincoln on Thursday, where they'll face the 8-6 (0-2) Nebraska Cornhuskers. 

Way Too Early Basketball Expectations-o-Meter: Jordan Morgan

People I've already talked about: Tim Hardaway Jr.

After starting with THJ in the back court, it's time to shift to the front court. Upon the graduation of the gritty warrior poets known as Zack Novak and Stu Douglass, Morgan officially assumes takes up the vacated title of "Not Superbly Talented But GRITTY Basketball Player Who I Will Endearingly Refer To As GRITTY and TOUGH Whenever I Talk About Him." So, let's talk about Jordan Morgan for a little bit.

Michigan-Purdue: Learning To Fly

Michigan 66, Purdue 64

There were 3.8 seconds left, and Evan Smotrycz was on the line after Michigan capably whipped the ball around berserker Boilermaker defenders trying to foul. A defender stood between him and an open Zack Novak, but he somewhat awkwardly held on to it. Purdue had no timeouts, and even if Smotrycz missed both, their chances of victory were minimal...and yet, it wasn't over. There are those that will be quick to say that it's not over until the clock reads all zeroes, as if there is some yet un-mined nuance of wisdom in the statement. Most fans will find this person annoying; that is decidedly not the case for Michigan fans. Evan Turner. The Wisconsin game. I don't even have to say any more and you know what I'm talking about. End of game scenarios are inextricably linked with fear; College Basketball rings the Pavlovian bell and Michigan fans are conditioned to cringe. 

The door was slightly ajar, and it pushed open slightly when Smotrycz got fouled. He made the first free throw, calmly and without difficulty, pushing the door back so that it was very nearly shut. He missed the second. I braced for the worst.

When the final heave harmlessly careened off of the backboard, I breathed a sigh of relief. You could say it was the Universe's way of meting out a makeup call.

Sadly, putting this picture in a post does
not magically make this football season.
(HT: Mike DeSimone)

I continue to wear my 2007-08 Michigan basketball shirt in order to give me the opportunity to look at it during games and realize how far we've really come. The last time Michigan had left West Lafayette victorious came a month and a half after John Navarre and Chris Perry led Michigan to a bowl victory against Rex Grossman and Ron Zook's Florida Gators. It was a long, long time ago. Purdue might be down, but don't let that convince you that this win was anything but incredibly meaningful for this team and this program. The fact that Purdue's final desperation heave didn't fall is, in a way, revealing. Maybe this is the cosmos's way of letting us have start to have nice things.

Michigan not only went on the road and won at an extremely difficult place to get a win, they weathered the storm of a 17-3 Purdue run that extinguished Michigan's 10-point lead and then some. It would have been easy to stop there, to say it's not our day and that winning on the road in this conference is just an added bonus, the extra scoop of ice cream that a disinterested employee doesn't bother charging you for.

At the under 8 minutes TV timeout, Michigan was down 47-51. In the remaining minutes, Jordan Morgan, Tim Hardaway Jr., Trey Burke, and Stu Douglass all scored, and Zack Novak contributed the final brilliant assist. This was a team effort. Also, for a team that seems to rise and fall with Jordan Morgan's production in a correlative fashion, it is only fitting that the winning basket was one of his patented thunder dunks.

A Big Ten road win and a 16th win (when Michigan had 19 pre-Big Ten Tournament wins all of last season)? It's a start.

Player Bullets, Also Known As "Welcome Back Tim":

• Burke--It's hard to complain too much after a cathartic win like that, but the freshman has been having a hard time from the field, going 3/10 (0/2 from 3) with two of those makes being layups. Trey had some trouble containing Lewis Jackson, which is a little disappointing after his performance against Jordan Taylor but is also understandable...Jackson is unbelievably quick (he could probably be a slot ninja type in an RR offense). Trey also had one of his most glaring "freshman moments" to date, when Michigan had the ball with under a minute to go, up 1, with the opportunity to run some clock out. It all worked out in the end, but you certainly would've liked to see the offense run for a little bit before having Trey go into play-making mode. 

• Hardaway--First, the bad...THJ had some significant issues on the defensive end. Early in the game, I remember him getting blown by with ease, only to get bailed out by Burke, who was in position to take the charge. Not long after that, THJ was lackadaisical in closing out on an open 3-point shooter (this is not the only instance of this). As much as people complained about aspects of his offensive game, his defense has been equally worthy of criticism. With his size and overall athleticism, he could be an above average defensive player if he wanted to. With that said...man it's nice to see THJ fill it up again. A solid 8/15 from the field (2/6 from 3) and a diverse execution of his offensive repertoire equals a happy me. Hopefully this was the adrenaline jolt he needed to get his game back on track for good. 

• Douglass--Stu has secretly been a really good player for us (minus his outside shooting, which has been either really bad or killer)...it wasn't even a secret this game. Here's the line: 12 points (5/8 overall, 2/3 from 3), 5 boards 3 assists, 2 steals, and only 1 turnover. That is a very good game, and Stu has quietly been a mini-revelation since Smotrycz's benching. 

• Novak--Had a sort of quiet game on the offensive end, but he did only shot the ball four times, going 2/4 overall (1/1 from 3). On the other hand, contributed 8 gritty boards, as usual. He also pitched in 3 assists, the most crucial being the final one during which he created the play on the bounce to find an open ready-to-dunk Morgan on the block. That's not a play that City of Gritville's best and only resident could make a year ago. 

• Morgan--When Morgan is on, this team is so much more fun to watch. I would argue that when Morgan's play/statistical contribution (yes, again, some of his points are due to just being wide open) is the biggest indicator of Michigan's success on a given day. If I didn't know what the score was, and you told me that Morgan had gone 5/7 from the field for 12 points, I would guess with confidence that we had won. By the way, this is the second time that someone has grabbed him by the arm like that (the first being the incident during the Northwestern game)...hey, tiny Big Ten guards. Stop that. 

• Vogrich--Only five minutes...made his one field goal attempt (and it wasn't even a 3). 
• Smotrycz--A very solid performance from the bench, going 3/5 from the field and 1/2 from 3, good for 10 points. Throw in the only one turnover and I'll take that from him every time. I don't think he's close to starting again yet, but this was a good first step toward that end. 
• Akunne--Resurfaced in this one only to get hurt at some point during his 2 minutes of play. Hopefully it's not too serious; he's obviously not a big piece, but Michigan can't really afford that many injuries, even to low-usage depth guys. 
• Brundidge--One minute. Looked awkward the one time he had the ball. It's hard to really say anything about him when he plays so few minutes. Hopefully Michigan will be on the winning side of a blowout one of these days so we can get a better look at him.

Michigan-Bradley: Onward and Upward

Michigan 77, Bradley 66

Michigan looked to finished out the non-conference schedule in as drama-free a manner as possible. They came away with the win and the game was actually fairly exciting, which, considering the opponent, is sort of the problem. The Wolverines took on a 5-6 Bradley team--Bradley, an entity doubling as a university as well as, potentially, an anonymous generic dude living down the hall from you in West Quad--in one last contest before the Big Ten schedule began. Michigan pulled away with about 8 minutes left in the game, but everything till that point was essentially an outline of the strengths and weaknesses of this time in one overt archetypic package. 

Michigan got killed on the boards as we trotted out positively Lilliputian lineups (even more so than usual). I think this team misses Horford in the interior I little more than we know. Additionally, the fact that most of Bradley's points were unassisted indicates a some lacking on-the-ball defense, which, given our general lack of athleticism, is understandable but not encouraging. At the same time, Bradley players were often reckless or out of control in their 1-on-1 game, so I guess it evens out. 

The first half didn't exactly go as planned. Michigan shot the ball well early on, but eventually cooled off, especially after Bradley went to the zone with 6 or so minutes left in the half. Michigan was quite simply dominated on the boards, giving Bradley a number of second chances that negated the Braves' pedestrian shooting percentages. As such, Bradley was able to keep pace despite not assisting for field goals nearly as much as the Wolverines, and a very deep three from Brown sent the two teams tied at the half, 33-33. Michigan was 12/34 from the field and 7/18 from 3, with very little inside game to speak of. Jordan Morgan had two points at the half. 

Thankfully, the Wolverines began to involve Morgan, leading to several high-percentage shots that started to blow the game open. Morgan's 13 second half points were essentially what allowed the Wolverines to leave the pesky Braves in the dust. A pair of dunks by Morgan and Hardaway (the latter on a nice lob from Stu) got the crowd going and put the game away. Michigan shot well from outside, but it seemed that Michigan's best option--as Beilein et al asserted during BTN's halftime peek into the Michigan locker room--was the fast break/pushing the ball. That's not to say that Michigan's half court game is Memphis-esque or anything, but with a guy like Burke running the show, not running is like putting Denard under center with regularity. 

Aside from the game, listening to Gus Johnson and the two live looks into the locker room were pretty great (if you were at the game or unable to watch, it's definitely worth watching for these two things alone). Watching Bacari Alexander motivate the team before the game by wrapping tape around them as part of a teamwork talking point was priceless. Also, hearing Beilein talk about actual basketball stuff and using actual basketball verbiage was interesting and I wish this sort of thing was shown more often. 

As for the Gus-isms...they were flowing indeed: 

• "Shayok Shayok!" This was said maybe 50 times. 
• The always classic "Ha haaaa!" after Shayok gets an "and 1" opportunity.
• Lastly, this, upon Michigan going up by 15: "Wolverines poppin' their collars now!" GAME BLOUSES, BRADLEY. 

Player Notes, Also Known As "Trey Burke And Those Who Are Not Trey Burke": 

• Burke--Trey struggled a bit from the field (5/13 overall, 1/7 from 3), but he still managed to score 12 and drop 8 assists to one turnover. Of course he is not him, but, as a Bulls fan, watching Burke accelerate down the court continues to remind me of Derrick Rose. The sequence in the first half--after Bradley had briefly taken the lead 26-25--comes to mind. Trey blocked a shot and accelerated to get the ball and take it the other way for a layup. It truly is a treat to watch. 

• Hardaway--It was clear that Tim was trying to find his shot early, taking 3 threes and a 2 within the first 5 minutes or so. He, like Burke, also struggled from three, going 2/9. However, 16 points and an 5 assists to zero turnovers is a solid game, outside shooting notwithstanding. Nine threes is a few too many, but I'd rather he shoot than not. Showed a nice aggressive "euro move" in the first half. 

• Smotrycz--Simply on fire from outside. The Smoshtrycz came into the game shooting a torrid 55% from 3-point land, and he only upped that percentage by going 5/7 in this one. He tied his career high of 20 points, and also broke the string of almost double-doubles by snatching 10 boards. He has to cool off eventually, but we can only hope that he can continue to shoot the lights out at this pace. 

• Novak--A gritty 11 points for True Grit tonight. Also continues to drop dimes at a surprisingly high rate, with 4 more in this one (although 2 turnovers make the ratio not as sterling as the past 3 games). Again showed off his newfound handles with a nice take that saw him power through a defender into a jump stop and an 8-9 foot bank shot. 

• Morgan--Two different players from the 1st half to the 2nd. After getting blocked twice on the opening possession, he was essentially invisible the rest of the first half. In the second, missed missed a few shots against the zone and then decided to get Morgan involved. He was aggressive, and although many of his points come as the result of being the benefactor of top notch point play (whether from Morris last year or Burke this year), the majority of his baskets in this game were the result of hard work. 

• Douglass--A quiet game, yet somehow played 33 minutes. Only three points, but again, scoring is not a huge issue as long as he's playing defense and doing other things, like notching a 6:1 assist to turnover ratio.

• Vogrich--Took a charge (the GRIT, it's spreading), 0/2 from the field. 

• McLimans-Only three minutes...despite being insanely tall, got shot blocked once from what I remember. 

• Brundidge--A few nondescript minutes halfway through the first half; drove for a mid-range shot that got blocked from behind. We're going to need a little more from somebody if Trey's going to keep playing 37+ minutes, but that somebody doesn't appear to be Brundidge right now.

This Is A Tribute, 11/16/11

Hoke Exhorts You To Do Something: In addition to the card stunt that is going down this Saturday, Coach Hoke wants YOU to get to your seat fifteen minutes early for a tribute to Lloyd Carr.

So that's happening and it won't be slightly awkward for everyone that has read Three and Out. Nope, not at all.

War is Peace, Freedom is Slavery, Regression is Progression: In actual football-related news, Hoke gives Denard the ol' vote of confidence:

"I think he’s gotten better every week, within the offense," Hoke said Tuesday during his weekly conference call with reporters. "I think the way he goes out every day, and his work ethic every day, his leadership and his real attention to detail, whether it be in the pro-game or carrying it, (helps him adjust)."

Wait, he's getting better? If following Michigan football the past several years has taught me anything, it's that every individual mistake or bad game is reason to sound the OMG REGRESSION alarms.  Coach Hoke, are you saying that there are certain things we can't necessarily see, and that the world isn't a black and white caricature of regression and progression? My God, this changes everything. I guess we can all breathe easy and stop presaging the fall of empires every time Denard throws an incomplete pass.

Opponents, They Watchin' Us: The straightforwardly named Corn Nation takes a look at the Wolverines. Most of it actually seems to be a pre-season preview, but I only mention it to include this part:

Throughout Rich Rodriguez's three year run at Michigan, we've repeatedly noted the similarities between Rodriguez and Bill Callahan's career at Nebraska. Granted, they were mirror images, taking teams in opposite directions philosophically, but the result was the same: square peg, round hole.

/weeps

Job Huntin': Rich Rodriguez talks to Tim Brando about his job prospects. The only noteworthy parts--other than RR's declaration of still having the "hunger to coach"--are: a) Houston Nutt said something sort of intelligent and b) RR's legal issues with both WVU and Michigan are over and should not present a problem for future employers (per RR, at least).

To the first point, Nutt, the SEC's Zook, explained who I thought would be a good fit at a place like Ole Miss, mentioning Mike Leach in the process. Basically, Ole Miss needs somebody with a "different" (see: "spread") approach in order to mitigate the talent, facilities, and tradition gaps. Despite recruiting enough people per class to fill CHEM 1800, things haven't worked out for Coach Nutt, but that doesn't mean that nobody can do it. Nutt is just a bad coach; RR is not. However, as long as Miles and Saban are chilling in the SEC West (and even Petrino, I guess), it'll be hard for anybody to really be successful*.

He says we'll see what happens in the next three or four weeks, so whether or not that is an actual timetable...you've got to think that things should start to move in the near future once certain guys get fired and ADs fire up the university jets.

*Dan Mullen says "Hey, remember me!"

Early Season Hoops: Michigan defeated Towson on Monday, 64-47 (UMHoops, as always, has it covered with a phenomenal recap). This means very little in the grand scheme of things. The fact that Michigan got outscored after a 21-0 run to start the game? Not really too worrisome given the protean nature of the lineups at this point, not to mention the fact that the team is still fairly young.

The only thing that really matter is that Michigan got the win, which teams like UCLA and Vandy can't say. I'm pretty sure nobody is going to remember Duke's one point win against Belmont come tourney time. That said, winning each and every one of these games is critical because you don't want to see a cupcake under the 'Bad Losses' line of the ESPN bubble team graphic. In any case, a few meaningless observations:

• Horford looks pretty solid so far. The added weight is definitely a plus...where as he was sort of useless on the offensive end and was just sort of a tall noodly guy on the defensive end last year, he could be a contributor this year, especially if Morgan continues to suffer from the departure of his benefactor Darius Morris. 
• Smotrycz also looks like a guy who will see the added weight pay off once the conference schedule begins. He caught a lot of flak from some people last year but I'm pretty excited to see him develop. 
• Burke will be a good one. It's refreshing to see the outside shooting coming from that spot on the floor (one of Morris's few flaws as a player), but it's hard to gather much else given the limited serious pressure he got in this game against a severely overmatched opponent. Let's see how he does against an athletic Memphis team, Duke/Tennessee, and even UVA on the road in Charlottesville. 
• 3-point shooting was pretty terrible, which should generally be pretty scary but especially for a Beilein-coached team. But, like I said, it's early in the season and everything will come in time. These games are basically practice, man. 

Michigan looks to go 3-0 on Thursday against Western Illinois (8:30 ET, ESPN3). I won't be coming in for the Nebraska game until the following morning so I won't be able to make it but, Ann Arborites: can we sort of try to fill up Crisler this year? This team is exciting and for the first time in a while we have a guy that can evaluate talent and get his players to confidently execute a system. I know these early season games aren't the most exciting but it's pretty sad to see Crisler look so empty outside of the Maize Rage. 

More? As much as I made fun of Zook...reporters, they are annoying. Lot's of guys that run the ball well in the Big House this Saturday...that's BIG TEN FOOTBAW right there. Butch Davis is like "hey guys that wasn't my fault." Urban Meyer's response to Arizona's job offer: HALOL.