Part of the Michigan basketball team's success this season comes from offensive balance
Sophomore guard Darius Morris averages leads the Michigan basketball team in scoring at 15.4 points a game, but he's getting plenty of offensive help from his teammates.
Melanie Maxwell | AnnArbor.com
John Beilein sat on a comfortable chair in his Weidenbach Hall office before the season started and spoke enthusiastically about the potential for his team to have options on offense.
At the time, the statement seemed odd. The fourth-year Michigan basketball coach had lost his two leading scorers from a year ago, Manny Harris and DeShawn Sims, along with more than half of his rotation.
He didn’t have a single player who averaged more than the 7.4 points a game provided by Zack Novak, so discussing balance seemed like a way to say he had no idea who would score.
Michigan (15-10, 5-7 Big Ten) still doesn’t have all the answers. But Beilein was right on in his assessment of versatility as his team’s strength.
“This is wide open,” Beilein said in October. “It’s a great puzzle we’re trying to put together but it’s a good puzzle because everybody has got so much energy and worked so hard.
“When a guy is having a tough game, that we have the resources to replace him, that should be helpful for us.”
Before the season, Beilein acknowledged some of his best teams at Canisius, Richmond and West Virginia were the ones where scoring was somewhat unpredictable.
His last team at West Virginia, the one that ended up winning the National Invitation Tournament title, had five players in double figures. It used a rotation of seven to nine players.
It had five players lead the team in scoring for at least a game. While there wasn’t a swoon like Michigan had this season, the way the Mountaineers played was similar.
They were a team that lost most of their key players from a team that made the Elite Eight. Michigan lost its top two scorers.
Yet it found a way to be competitive and win.
“We have some great balance and that was really good,” Beilein said Tuesday. “That last West Virginia had five guys in double figures.
“It really allows you to attack in a lot of different areas.”
Besides sophomore point guard Darius Morris, who has been a constant and is Michigan’s leading scorer at 15.4 points a game, the second and third scoring options for the Wolverines have rotated.
Against Northwestern on Wednesday night, Jordan Morgan had a career-high 27 points. A game earlier, Tim Hardaway Jr. had 17 points.
In all, six Michigan players have led the Wolverines in scoring for at least a game this year. Six have scored in double figures this season, with forward Jon Horford and guard Matt Vogrich also coming close to the double-digit barrier.
“I feel like it’s more so this year, maybe it was different with Manny and DeShawn last year, but teams this year have kind of, I feel like I’ve seen different defenses more so than in the past couple of years,” junior guard Stu Douglass said. “I don’t know if that’s true or not, but it’s kind of how it feels. They’ve taken away certain things and we kind of have to adjust a little bit.
“But our offense has changed, and we’ve done a good job of adjusting after those first four minutes, after the first media timeout, picking things up.”
This season, five Michigan players — Morris (15.4 ppg), Hardaway Jr. (12.2), Novak (9.2), Morgan (9.2) and Douglass (7.6) — average more than seven points a game. Last year, Michigan had three players over seven points a game: Harris, Sims and Novak.
In its four wins since losing to Minnesota on Jan. 22, the Wolverines have had an offensive efficiency rating over 103.4 (Michigan State) for each of its wins against the Spartans, Iowa, Penn State and Northwestern. They had an eye-popping 1.36 points per possession against Iowa and an assist rate over 40 percent in all five of those games.
“I’m very confident that someone else is going to step up and Tim’s been doing a good job of providing that scoring lately but Stu, Novak, Evan Smotrycz, any one of those guys can get hot,” Morris said. “One of those six guys is going to get hot.
“We’re confident as long as we’re executing the game plan.”
Right now, the plan is simple. Find the guy who is hot.
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
Comments
tater
Fri, Feb 11, 2011 : 6:52 p.m.
It's a lot easier when opponents can't key on one or two guys. This has been a fun season, and bodes well for the future.
Rich Rezler
Fri, Feb 11, 2011 : 12:20 a.m.
Interesting analysis, John. I looked back at all of Michigan's boxscores and the confounding thing is that the Wolverines' losing momentum in the second half coincides with the recent streak during which they've won four of five games. So maybe it's a good thing for them! Since Jan. 27: Michigan lost a halftime lead at Ohio State and they were outscored in the second half of wins over MSU and Northwestern. In the win over Penn State, the teams were tied in the second half. Besides those three games, Michigan has extended its halftime lead nine times in 12 other wins. Clemson and Utah outscored them after Michigan took comfortable second-half leads. And they tied Gardner-Webb in the second half of a game that Beilein played his student managers (in their suits) for 12 minutes. On the other end of the spectrum, Michigan has outscored its opponent just once in the second half of its 10 losses. That came against Kansas. Probably the most important stats are these: Michigan has lost three times after leading at the half (to Syracuse, Wisconsin and Ohio State) and won twice after trailing at the half (against Harvard and Penn State). They were tied with UTEP at halftime and lost. So they have a 2-3-1 "turnaround record."
John Agno
Thu, Feb 10, 2011 : 10:39 p.m.
There is no question that the recruiting has provided well-rounded young talent in the 2011 basketball team. They seem to be able to execute the game plan during the first half of their games. However, during the half time break something pulls the team out-of-its focus---with the momentum swinging to the other team during the second half. It happened again last night with Northwestern scoring more points in the second half and Michigan barely holding on to an 8 to 10 point lead (down from a 20+ lead in the first half). So the question is what's up while allowing other teams to blast out after the half time break with the Michigan players losing ball control and going scoreless.......unable to keep up their first half shooting accuracy?