Michigan started off a bit slow at home for the third consecutive game, but the Wolverines kept shooting and kept scoring. Air Force could not match Michigan and was downed 71-50 Saturday afternoon. With just one more non-conference game remaining, Michigan is in prime position to enter 2019 without any losses on the season.
Game Story:
Michigan's early 5-4 lead after an Ignas Brazdeikis three was early, but short-lived for the time. Air Force took a quick 10-5 lead after seven minutes. It took Eli Brooks' fast-break lay-up for a Wolverine other than Brazdeikis to find the basket, and Jordan Poole followed up quickly with a baseline cut for a reverse lay-up. Michigan regained control after the early deficit with an 11-0 run and a 16-10 lead, which was followed up after its conclusion with a mini 8-0 run punctuated by some beautiful ball movement to find Isaiah Livers open in the corner for three and forcing an Air Force timeout down 24-13. Air Force played themselves back around into the game, but even with Air Force getting the last bucket, Michigan took a 28-21 lead into the halftime break.
Air Force immediately cut the lead to five in their first possession coming out of the break, and Sid Tomes hit a three after a couple strong Michigan possessions to bring it back to a six point lead, but Poole hit another three to make it a nine-point game. Then Brazdeikis got to bringing down the house. He stole the ball away from Pervis Louder and with a full court in front of him went with a double-clutch reverse jam. It's the sort of thing that hasn't been seen since Glenn Robinson III and it was a big way to get the holiday crowd into the ball game. Up eight points, Michigan an Air Force began to trade buckets, but Michigan got to finding their three-point stroke. Livers hit a pair of threes and Brazdeikis drilled another, so while Air Force made three twos on five possessions over two minutes, the lead ballooned from eight to fifteen, with Michigan well in hand by a score of 57-42. The Wolverines continued onward and Brazdeikis' three at the 4:19 mark gave Michigan their first lead over twenty points at 66-45. A Zavier Simpson to Livers alley-oop was the true cherry on top of the game with Colin Castleton completing an offensive rebound tip-in and and-one to mark the final bucket for Michigan as they finished off a 71-50 victory.
What Happened:
Michigan built their lead off the backs of a couple spurts with hot shooting from behind the line. Michigan shot just 31% from three, but that was a 10-for-32 night, and those ten threes came in important moments. On the other side, Air Force attempted just eleven threes and hit only two of them. Not known for their prowess behind the arc, they instead did some decent damage on the inside as they shot 56% from two. This may concern some, but it's where Air Force does most of their damage. Michigan limited anything too easy around the basket with five blocks and while Lavalle Scottie did some serious damage, going eight-for-eleven inside with sixteen points, he was the only Falcon in double figures. The defense forced twenty turnovers as well, a nice clip for a Falcon team that is loose with the ball as covered in my preview of them. Was this the prettiest victory? No. But not a ton of these non-conference 'buy' games have been for Michigan. That said, arguing the semantics of a twenty-plus point victory is a good sign for Michigan as attention begins to be turned towards Big Ten play.
It was all about Ignas Brazdeikis on the court today. Coming off a tough game against Western Michigan, perhaps eyes were on the freshman to see how he would respond to a disappointing game at this stage in his career as a known commodity. Indeed, he responded well with a team-high nineteen points, falling just shy of his fifth twenty-point game in maize and blue. He continues to drive the ball and seemingly score at will, also hitting three threes along the way. At this point of the season, his shooting percentages of 50.8% overall, 38.5% from three, and 78.1% from the line are not mirages, they reflect what he does for this team. He is certainly going to be tested during Big Ten play, and I look for teams to try and make adjustments to him as they face him twice, but he is just so hard to adjust to. He shoots well from deep, he drives the ball strong to the hole and gets fouled with regularity, and as a bonus he's so strong shooting from the line that you cannot afford those sorts of fouls either. The dunk was icing and just confirmed what some fans knew, that his athleticism cannot be overlooked either. He has been Michigan's offensive juggernaut and fans hope to continue celebrating him throughout the season.
This game was all about a team effort for the Wolverines, though. Three other players hit double-figures, and all three did a lot of good for the win. In this portion of the recap, I want to focus on two. Charles Matthews shot just one-for-six from three, but his seventeen points and six-for-eight shooting inside the arc made it easy for fans to ignore that. His mid-range jumper is automatic still and he went two-for-two from the line as well. The shooting woes on Saturday should not be too concerning given how much he has improved from three. The other man in double figures did his damage from outside. Isaiah Livers went three-for-six from three and finished with eleven points along with six rebounds. When talking about improvement, Livers has been key in improving. With more points, rebounds, steals, and impressive shooting percentage improvements from three and the charity stripe, Livers is the key sixth man for Michigan. However, he does have a couple darker marks on the resume over the season. He is shooting a stellar 46.3% from three, but has seen that mark hindered with zero-for-four nights against Holy Cross and Western Michigan, and a zero-for-three game against Purdue. Additionally, he got off no shots against Northwestern and just one (which he made) from three against North Carolina. Subtracting those five games, he's up to 62%, but one cannot pick and choose which games matter to the stats. What is important that Livers has shown up in more games than not. With the ability to play the four or five regularly, he is vital to Michigan basketball this season.
The third man, Jordan Poole, scored eleven points on three-for-six shooting from three. He continues to be steadily solid for Michigan and his variety in offensive weaponry allows him to be a first, second, or third option as a scorer, or simply a distributor. He makes those around him better and does well to get his own points as well. Also to be touched on: Eli Brooks and Brandon Johns. First, Brooks, who had another strong outing. He went three-for-four from two with six points and four assists. In 25 minutes, he played frequently with Poole and ceded "point guard" duties to him, which ultimately amounted to Poole bringing the ball up, not him. While he missed both of his threes, seeing him score and continue to shoot is massive for this team and building his confidence. Finally, Johns played a minute in the first half which saw him, notably, foul a three-point shooter in the act of shooting then get removed for Jon Teske. Johns went to the bench where Luke Yaklich then John Beilein calmly explained to him what exactly he did wrong. He did not play non-garbage time minutes after that. Michigan fans liked seeing Johns check in, but he still seems unready to contribute hugely meaningful minutes. With Austin Davis remaining on the sidelines the entire game, it seems that against these smaller teams Michigan is content with going seven-deep. Whether that will hold up over the grinding Big Ten season is yet to be seen.
What's Next:
It's eight more days between games as Michigan hosts Binghamton as a non-conference and 2018 finale on December 30th. Tip-off is at noon against the Bearcats, who won a wild game against LIU Brooklyn where they were fouled down three, hit the first free throw, missed the second, got the offensive rebound, and hit a three for the win. They will hope to carry a bit of that luck through into their visit to Ann Arbor. Additionally, with Kansas losing to Arizona State and Gonzaga falling to North Carolina (weakening both Duke's and Tennessee's lone loss and key win, respectively) there is a very likely chance that Michigan jumps from number four in the AP Poll to at least number three, perhaps even higher. That is worth watching for.
Follow me on Twitter @RMAB_Ryan for plenty more Michigan basketball coverage, as well as AFC Ann Arbor and Liverpool FC coverage as well!
Game Story:
Michigan's early 5-4 lead after an Ignas Brazdeikis three was early, but short-lived for the time. Air Force took a quick 10-5 lead after seven minutes. It took Eli Brooks' fast-break lay-up for a Wolverine other than Brazdeikis to find the basket, and Jordan Poole followed up quickly with a baseline cut for a reverse lay-up. Michigan regained control after the early deficit with an 11-0 run and a 16-10 lead, which was followed up after its conclusion with a mini 8-0 run punctuated by some beautiful ball movement to find Isaiah Livers open in the corner for three and forcing an Air Force timeout down 24-13. Air Force played themselves back around into the game, but even with Air Force getting the last bucket, Michigan took a 28-21 lead into the halftime break.
Air Force immediately cut the lead to five in their first possession coming out of the break, and Sid Tomes hit a three after a couple strong Michigan possessions to bring it back to a six point lead, but Poole hit another three to make it a nine-point game. Then Brazdeikis got to bringing down the house. He stole the ball away from Pervis Louder and with a full court in front of him went with a double-clutch reverse jam. It's the sort of thing that hasn't been seen since Glenn Robinson III and it was a big way to get the holiday crowd into the ball game. Up eight points, Michigan an Air Force began to trade buckets, but Michigan got to finding their three-point stroke. Livers hit a pair of threes and Brazdeikis drilled another, so while Air Force made three twos on five possessions over two minutes, the lead ballooned from eight to fifteen, with Michigan well in hand by a score of 57-42. The Wolverines continued onward and Brazdeikis' three at the 4:19 mark gave Michigan their first lead over twenty points at 66-45. A Zavier Simpson to Livers alley-oop was the true cherry on top of the game with Colin Castleton completing an offensive rebound tip-in and and-one to mark the final bucket for Michigan as they finished off a 71-50 victory.
What Happened:
Michigan built their lead off the backs of a couple spurts with hot shooting from behind the line. Michigan shot just 31% from three, but that was a 10-for-32 night, and those ten threes came in important moments. On the other side, Air Force attempted just eleven threes and hit only two of them. Not known for their prowess behind the arc, they instead did some decent damage on the inside as they shot 56% from two. This may concern some, but it's where Air Force does most of their damage. Michigan limited anything too easy around the basket with five blocks and while Lavalle Scottie did some serious damage, going eight-for-eleven inside with sixteen points, he was the only Falcon in double figures. The defense forced twenty turnovers as well, a nice clip for a Falcon team that is loose with the ball as covered in my preview of them. Was this the prettiest victory? No. But not a ton of these non-conference 'buy' games have been for Michigan. That said, arguing the semantics of a twenty-plus point victory is a good sign for Michigan as attention begins to be turned towards Big Ten play.
It was all about Ignas Brazdeikis on the court today. Coming off a tough game against Western Michigan, perhaps eyes were on the freshman to see how he would respond to a disappointing game at this stage in his career as a known commodity. Indeed, he responded well with a team-high nineteen points, falling just shy of his fifth twenty-point game in maize and blue. He continues to drive the ball and seemingly score at will, also hitting three threes along the way. At this point of the season, his shooting percentages of 50.8% overall, 38.5% from three, and 78.1% from the line are not mirages, they reflect what he does for this team. He is certainly going to be tested during Big Ten play, and I look for teams to try and make adjustments to him as they face him twice, but he is just so hard to adjust to. He shoots well from deep, he drives the ball strong to the hole and gets fouled with regularity, and as a bonus he's so strong shooting from the line that you cannot afford those sorts of fouls either. The dunk was icing and just confirmed what some fans knew, that his athleticism cannot be overlooked either. He has been Michigan's offensive juggernaut and fans hope to continue celebrating him throughout the season.
This game was all about a team effort for the Wolverines, though. Three other players hit double-figures, and all three did a lot of good for the win. In this portion of the recap, I want to focus on two. Charles Matthews shot just one-for-six from three, but his seventeen points and six-for-eight shooting inside the arc made it easy for fans to ignore that. His mid-range jumper is automatic still and he went two-for-two from the line as well. The shooting woes on Saturday should not be too concerning given how much he has improved from three. The other man in double figures did his damage from outside. Isaiah Livers went three-for-six from three and finished with eleven points along with six rebounds. When talking about improvement, Livers has been key in improving. With more points, rebounds, steals, and impressive shooting percentage improvements from three and the charity stripe, Livers is the key sixth man for Michigan. However, he does have a couple darker marks on the resume over the season. He is shooting a stellar 46.3% from three, but has seen that mark hindered with zero-for-four nights against Holy Cross and Western Michigan, and a zero-for-three game against Purdue. Additionally, he got off no shots against Northwestern and just one (which he made) from three against North Carolina. Subtracting those five games, he's up to 62%, but one cannot pick and choose which games matter to the stats. What is important that Livers has shown up in more games than not. With the ability to play the four or five regularly, he is vital to Michigan basketball this season.
The third man, Jordan Poole, scored eleven points on three-for-six shooting from three. He continues to be steadily solid for Michigan and his variety in offensive weaponry allows him to be a first, second, or third option as a scorer, or simply a distributor. He makes those around him better and does well to get his own points as well. Also to be touched on: Eli Brooks and Brandon Johns. First, Brooks, who had another strong outing. He went three-for-four from two with six points and four assists. In 25 minutes, he played frequently with Poole and ceded "point guard" duties to him, which ultimately amounted to Poole bringing the ball up, not him. While he missed both of his threes, seeing him score and continue to shoot is massive for this team and building his confidence. Finally, Johns played a minute in the first half which saw him, notably, foul a three-point shooter in the act of shooting then get removed for Jon Teske. Johns went to the bench where Luke Yaklich then John Beilein calmly explained to him what exactly he did wrong. He did not play non-garbage time minutes after that. Michigan fans liked seeing Johns check in, but he still seems unready to contribute hugely meaningful minutes. With Austin Davis remaining on the sidelines the entire game, it seems that against these smaller teams Michigan is content with going seven-deep. Whether that will hold up over the grinding Big Ten season is yet to be seen.
What's Next:
It's eight more days between games as Michigan hosts Binghamton as a non-conference and 2018 finale on December 30th. Tip-off is at noon against the Bearcats, who won a wild game against LIU Brooklyn where they were fouled down three, hit the first free throw, missed the second, got the offensive rebound, and hit a three for the win. They will hope to carry a bit of that luck through into their visit to Ann Arbor. Additionally, with Kansas losing to Arizona State and Gonzaga falling to North Carolina (weakening both Duke's and Tennessee's lone loss and key win, respectively) there is a very likely chance that Michigan jumps from number four in the AP Poll to at least number three, perhaps even higher. That is worth watching for.
Follow me on Twitter @RMAB_Ryan for plenty more Michigan basketball coverage, as well as AFC Ann Arbor and Liverpool FC coverage as well!
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