Time For the Other Michigan Basketball Team
Sitting here on my couch watching the NCAA Tournament, a thought popped in my head that I hadn’t previously considered. Michigan could actually win the National Championship.
As I think this the Wolverines are headed to the locker room holding a demanding 52–28 lead over Texas A&M. The Wolverines built that lead with 10(!) 3’s over the first 20 minutes. Ten threes in one half from a team that averaged just 9 per game over their first 37 games of the season.
Now I want to you to picture your prototypical title contender for the NCAA Tournament. It probably looks something like this:
Great Coach: John Beilein has certainly pushed his way into the discussion of top coaches in the country. For me, this became apparent last season when the Wolverines rolled through the Big Ten Tournament. The story sounds a bit like a movie: they entered as underdog 8-seeds, the team plane slid off the runway on the way to the tournament (nobody was hurt), then they proceeded to roll through the tournament and on to the Big Ten title. Oh and the fact that he’s brought them to the tournament 8 times in 11 seasons, including a trip to the championship game.
Stingy Defense: The Wolverines held their opponents to the sixth lowest points per game in the country this year.
Three-point shooting: On top of the clinic they are demonstrating on Texas A&M as I write this, Michigan managed to knock down 36.4% of their threes throughout the regular and postseason. On top of that five different players hit 30+ three pointers this season. Which leads me to my next point….
Depth: This isn’t the 2013 Michigan Wolverines. That year the team rode superstar guard Trey Burke to a runner-up finish in the Tournament. This year’s Wolverines feature no stars but rather the ensemble approach. Moritz Wagner is the team’s leading scorer and a versatile big man. Charles Mathews and Muhammed-Ali Abdur-Rahkman, the complementing backcourt duo averaging a combined 25.8 points per game. And they all play good defense.
The one factor that could trip up Michigan is free throw shooting. The team shot a lowly 65.9% from the charity stripe thus far this season. And as we all know, you have to make your free throws in March.
So let’s get behind the Wolverines this March. The team with the coach who’s due, defense is tough, and the team that hasn’t won since the first Glen Rice roamed the college hardwood.
