Takeaways from Michigan’s loss to Wake Forest

Despite shooting nearly 50 percent from three in the first half, the #Michigan Wolverines went cold in the second half and turned the ball over too often, losing to Wake Forest to fall to 1-1 on the year. @Kellen__Voss has takeaways from Dusty May’s first loss at Michigan:

In the first Deacon-Wolverine challenge, the Michigan Wolverines lost a tight one to a likely NCAA Tournament in Wake Forest , 72-70.

No disrespect to Cleveland State, which Michigan beat by 48 points in the season-opener on Monday , but this was the first true test of the season. Wake Forest is a program that just missed out on the NCAA Tournament last season and is 61st in KenPom after two wins against Coppin State and North Carolina A&T. This is technically a “neutral site” game even though it’s in Greensboro, about 30 miles from Wake Forest’s campus.

In their first true test, the Wolverines got a C-. They had a really hot first half, but going cold from the field in the second half and having too many turnovers led to Michigan’s first loss of the season.

Here are the takeaways from the game.

U-M needs to clean up the turnovers, and the ball movement was inconsistent

We know the Wolverines like to move the ball a lot on offense, and when you do that, you’re going to turn the ball over at least a little bit. Turnovers were a big concern for the Wolverines in that first half, as their nine giveaways directly led Wake Forest to claw back into this game. U-M lost the turnover battle in this one, 16-13.

Turnovers kept plaguing the Wolverines in the second half. At the under-8 timeout, they had more turnovers (three) than made threes (two). Michigan shared the ball so well in the first half, and it was just not the same in the second half. The shot selection between the two halves took a sharp decline.

I love how Michigan shares the ball and creates shots for one another, especially around the three-point line. But the lack of quality three-point shooting limited what Michigan did offensively, and the turnovers squashed any sort of momentum U-M tried to build.

This isn’t a squad with a lot of obvious weaknesses, but limiting turnovers is an area of concern early this season.

A tale of two halves from three (and so-so three-point defense)

Michigan got out to a hot start, jumping out to an 18-6 lead with 11:35 left in the half. It led for most of the half by moving the ball, shifting the Demon Deacon defense, and knocking down open threes. U-M shot 47.1 percent from deep (8-for-17) in the first 20 minutes, with sophomore Sam Walters leading all Wolverines with nine points.

That hot shooting didn’t continue in the second half, with Michigan shooting an abysmal 2-for-17 from three in the final 20 minutes. Michigan also went on a very ill-timed scoring drought that lasted more than three minutes — feeling Deja Vu from last season? — putting the nail in the coffin for the Wolverines. Michigan didn’t have a made field goal in the final 3:48.

Open three-pointers were a nice safety valve whenever Michigan failed to get a good look off penetration, but Michigan’s offense sputtered when those shots weren’t falling. Roddy Gayle Jr. led U-M in scoring with just 11.

After a relatively slow start, the Demon Deacons started hitting their shots late in the first half and carried that into the second half, making their first three three-pointers of the half to get their first lead of the game. Michigan was a step slow on rotations, which lead to those threes.

As good as the Wolverines were at making threes in the first half, they need to make those shots more consistently and guard the three-point line better moving forward.

You got to be better on the boards

The Wolverines and Demon Deacons were dead even in rebounds (33), with a smaller Wake Forest team grabbing more offensive rebounds (11-10), including a few key offensive rebounds late with both Danny Wolf and Vlad Goldin on the floor.

The two-big lineup has to be better on the glass if they’re going to share the floor. And the offensive rebounds aren’t just on them — not to sound like a high school basketball coach, but all five guys on the floor have to box out instead of just running at the ball.

Rubin Jones makes Michigan debut

Jon Rothstein reported this morning that Rubin Jones would be going through warmups and was expected to be available for this game after sitting out of the opener with an undisclosed injury.

Jones was the first player off the bench for the Wolverines, and he played well overall. He got his Michigan career started on the right foot, scoring eight quick first-half points while playing excellent defense. He finished with eight points, but he did play limited minutes cause he struggled with foul trouble, picking up his fourth with 12:39 left in the second half.

Jones is going to be a much needed 3-and-D glue guy for Michigan. You can never have too many veteran guards like the North Texas transfer on your roster.

A limited rotation with Michigan’s foul trouble

One of the benefits of having a deep rotation is having insurance in case your squad gets into foul trouble, like Michigan did in this one.

As mentioned above, Jones struggled with foul trouble, but he wasn’t the only Wolverine who did. Nimari Burnett and Vlad Goldin were each limited in the second half after picking three fouls each. Wake Forest especially took advantage of Goldin being on the bench, attacking the rim more with consistent success.

This meant more extended minutes for some Michigan role players. We saw a lot of Will Tschetter and Sam Walters in the second half, which led to some clunky offense at times, albeit Walters did shoot three-for-four from three in that first half. Phat Phat Brooks also got a few second-half minutes, mainly to play defense.

It feels like I’ve praised him in every article I’ve written over the past month, but L.J. Cason (10 points) was quite impressive, too. When Michigan needed a bucket late in the shot clock in second-half possessions, he stepped up in a big way.

The luxury of a deep rotation is not being cooked in close games like this one when key players get into foul trouble. Unfortunately, those role players didn’t score enough to steal this win for Michigan.

Play of the game: A super important half-court buzzer beater

The Demon Deacons were firing on all cylinders to end that first half, going on a 10-0 run to cut Michigan’s lead to one after the Wolverines had an 8-10 point lead for the majority of the half. It looked like they would grasp all the momentum heading into the half.

But then Tre Donaldson said “Hold my Beer.”

That half-court buzzer beater gave the Wolverines a four-point lead heading into the break after Donaldson did his best Payton Pritchard impression. It was a solid game for Michigan’s starting point guard, who finished with 10 points.

Up Next

The schedule doesn’t get any easier for the Wolverines, who face a TCU team ranked 50th on KenPom. This will be the first time that Frankie Collins, who transferred from Michigan to Arizona State and is now at TCU, will be playing at Crisler Center in more than two years. That game is set to tip-off this Friday at 6 p.m. ET, and will be broadcast on FS1.