After seeing his guards struggle with getting the ball across halfcourt at times against Northwestern earlier this week, Michigan coach John Beilein made a change.

The third-year coach put freshman point guard Darius Morris into the starting lineup.

“Coach just said I had to be a solid point guard, that this is what the team needs,” Morris said. “For me to be solid on offense and defense, especially defense and me being vocal out there.

“I need to go and be an outlet of him on the court.”

Morris started the first nine games of the season before sophomore Stu Douglass replaced him against then-No. 1 Kansas on Dec. 19. On Saturday, Morris took the spot of sophomore guard Laval Lucas-Perry, whose production has tapered off since he scored 16 points on Jan. 7 at Penn State.

Morris was a bright spot for Michigan in its 62-44 loss to No. 16 Wisconsin, scoring eight points, making three assists and grabbing a rebound.

He provided Michigan with a prototype point guard at the start of the game. Douglass - more of a two-guard - had been working on transitioning to the point almost the entire season with mixed results.

“We really felt that right now that the conversion for Stu and it’ll always be a difficult position for Laval to play but Stu, we just need some guy to get in the lane a little bit and get a point guard mentality,” Beilein said. “So, and I thought he did a good job. He had a couple nice passes and still has a lot of areas he needs to work on and just throw him out there and let him play and see what he can do.”

The 1984-85 team returns

At halftime, Michigan honored its 1984-85 Big Ten championship team.

Among those that came back was guard Gary Grant, the Big Ten freshman of the year that season. He was supposed to drive from his home in California but weather forced a last-minute switch to a flight.

Yet it was still exciting for him to be back for a game for the first time since he left after the 1988 season.

“I just remember everything,” Grant said. “See the All-American plaques up on the wall, stuff like that, just brings back memories.

“It feels good.”

Long range valve shut

Rare is the game Michigan shoots less than 10 three-pointers in a game under Beilein. An end-of-game flurry pushed the Wolverines over the mark - they finished with 11 three-point attempts.

But overall, they struggled to find any room to take, let alone make, three-pointers on Saturday against Wisconsin.

They didn’t take their first three until 2:50 remained in the first half. That's when junior guard Manny Harris made a three-pointer from the top of the key to cut Wisconsin’s lead to 29-19.

Senior forward DeShawn Sims made another on Michigan’s next possession. After that, the Wolverines missed the rest of their three-pointers for the game, finishing 2 of 11.

“They chase you off every screen and they were going to take that part away from us,” Beilein said. “So we weren’t trying not to shoot them, we were trying to get open ones and we just couldn’t get any.”

The fewest three-point attempts in a single game during the Beilein era came during his first season, when the Wolverines attempted eight against Central Michigan.

Michigan's 18.2 percent from the three-point line (2 of 11) Saturday was its worst since Kansas on Dec. 19, when the Wolverines were 5 of 28 (17.9 percent).

This and that

Former Michigan coach Bill Frieder and Wisconsin coach Bo Ryan spent a few minutes talking after Wisconsin’s win. … With 11 points Saturday, Harris moved into 17th place all-time in scoring at Michigan with 1,509. He passed Bernard Robinson Jr., who played at Michigan from 2000-04 and had 1,505 points. … Beilein fell to 0-7 against Wisconsin at Michigan.

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.