All season long, the Michigan basketball team longed for some sort of contribution from its bench. For the most part, though, few players contributed much besides starters DeShawn Sims and Manny Harris.

On Sunday, when Michigan needed it most against No. 15 Connecticut - Zack Novak and Sims were in first-half foul trouble - the bench finally showed up.

Fifth-year senior forward Zack Gibson had four points, two assists, two steals and four rebounds in 11 first-half minutes, the most he’s played in a game since Dec. 19 at Kansas.

Junior forward Anthony Wright, who didn’t even play against Penn State on Jan. 7, had six points in nine first-half minutes. He finished with nine points.

Combined, they bailed out Michigan in its 68-63 win over No. 15 UConn.

“I’ve been hitting them in practice,” Wright said. “In games, I’m looking for the team shot. Today I got a lot of team shot opportunities.”

The production all came after U-M coach John Beilein has said for weeks the Wolverines needed to get more help from his bench and role players.

“There are times where you go out on that floor and some kids just, they haven’t been in a comfort level yet, those guys off the bench yet where they really didn’t have the minutes or didn’t have the time to give them the minutes,” Beilein said. “Maybe if we had a different schedule that wouldn’t have happened but in the big games where we had to shorten the bench to try and win, they didn’t perform as well as they would.

“This is a big boost for them.”

So who does the scheduling?

Beilein and Michigan beat a marquee non-conference opponent at home for the second straight year. The next issue, though, might be continuing to find opponents to come play in Crisler Arena.

“That was good for us, but a place like Michigan, it’s not as hard to get CBS to come in here,” Beilein said. “So they’ll find somebody for us.”

So far, Kansas is scheduled to play at Crisler in 2010-11.

Last season, Michigan beat Duke, which was ranked fourth at the time on Dec. 6, 2008. 

Rich Rodriguez shows up

After Michigan’s win - its biggest of the season - the Wolverines had a special post-game visitor: Football coach Rich Rodriguez.

Rodriguez was at the game because he had 30 unofficial visitors for Michigan’s junior recruiting day and then talked to the Wolverines’ basketball team.

He also gave Brandon Graham his Silver Football Award given by the Chicago Tribune to the Big Ten’s best player.

Rodriguez’ message was short and simple.

“He kept saying we showed how tough we was,” Harris said. “Giving everyone on the team and the staff a high five, and that’s good to know your football coach comes and supports you and just comes watching us play.

“So I enjoyed that.”

This and that

Sims scored eight points, the third time all year and first time since Dec. 2 against Boston College he hasn’t reached double figures. His 11 rebounds were the most for him since he had 12 against Detroit on Dec. 13.

Michael Rothstein covers University of Michigan basketball for AnnArbor.com. He can be reached at (734) 623-2558, by e-mail at michaelrothstein@annarbor.com or follow along on Twitter @mikerothstein.