<cliche>The shooting inside was as cold as the weather outside</cliche>
This wasn’t the best game Michigan has played. Neither team was really able to get into any sort of rythm, and the flow wasn’t helped out at all by the referees. I’m not sure if it was how the FGCU Eagles were playing defense or just a bit of laziness, but Michigan rarely got any sort of penetration or post presence. While Beilein does believe in the power of the 3pt shot, I’m sure he wasn’t happy with almost 66% (42/64) field goal attempts being from long range, especially when the team wasn’t shooting particularly well.
For a while it didn’t really matter since since FGCU showed why they are in the bottom 10 of RPI. They didn’t get to double digits until about 3:10 left in the first half, while Michigan had put up a (from just watching the game) very inefficient 27 points. FGCU went on a run midway through the second half to cut it down to eight. Eight seems to be the magic number, because then Manny keyed a little run to put the game out of reach. He didn’t do it with his scoring but rather he finally got some penetration which first led to a Sims dunk. Manny then drove to the right and kicked out on consecutive plays to Novack then Grady for corner threes. From there, the game was basically over.
Quick Notes:
- Reed Baker had 16 points and played fairly well. There were a few people in the crowd really cheering on Reed Baker, which was fine, but when he’s on the line hitting the free throw of a three point play to get them within 8pt, the funnyness is gone, and you should root for your team.
- DeShawn Sims was definitely the MVP for Michigan this game. He went a very efficient 20/20 with 5 offensive rebounds. He generally took good shots and was a force inside on the glass and with the ball.
- Manny Harris had another quiet game and sat on the bench quite a bit after picking up a couple offensive fouls. In the Oakland game, he was still able to get penetration and make plays happen. He was much more passive tonight.
- Laval Lucas-Perry played fairly well, but doesn’t look as comfortable in the offense as the other guards out there. This will come with time. He was still able to make some shots (2/3 from deep) and get to the rim and free throw line. He does look like the third guy to get into double figures most nights.
- Zack Novack, Jevohn Sheppard Stu Douglass, Zack Gibson were never really able to get going. Gibson missed his outside shots and did his Courtney Simms impression whenever he got inside. Novack and Douglass never really got their shots going and Sheppard was never in the game enough get his rhythm.
- There was dumb fan behind me saying we needed to post up when there was Grady, LLP, Novack, Lee and Gibson in the game. I respectfully disagree,
Posted under Basketball