Turnovers were an issue, but @umichbball used a hot shooting night from Nimari Burnett and good shot creation in the second half to edge out the TCU Horned Frogs, 76-64. @Kellen__Voss has the takeaways:
It wasn’t pretty, especially in the first half, but Michigan used great second-half shot selection and a standout performance from Nimari Burnett to beat the TCU Horned Frogs , 76-64, to improve to 2-1.
The Wolverines entered this game with a 1-1 record, scoring 101 in a beatdown of Cleveland State (193rd in KenPom) and narrowly falling to a good Wake Forest squad (73rd). After Wake Forest narrowly beat USC Upstate, TCU is now the top team on KenPom (53rd) Michigan has faced this season. Like the Wolverines, the Horned Frogs are a team full of transfers, and among those transfers is Frankie Collins, who started his career at Michigan before playing two seasons at Arizona State .
Michigan needs to take care of the ball well moving forward, but a fairly crisp second half and solid interior defense helped sealed tonight’s victory. Here are some key takeaways from the win.
Solid performance by Burnett, and a sizzling second half from Donaldson and Wolf
We’ve known that Nimari Burnett can light it up in a hurry since his 21-point half in last year’s win over St. John’s in what was coincidentally also the third game of the year. He was hot again in this one, scoring 16 points, including 10 in the first half.
He made his first six shots, including three threes, and was the only Wolverine to score in double figures in that first half. Burnett picked his spots well and got great baskets within the flow of Michigan’s offense. He was the beneficiary of a lot of wide open looks off drives from other players, and he made the most of those looks.
In the scoring department, Tre Donaldson was the best player on the floor at times in the second half, scoring all 14 of his points in those final 20 minutes. Danny Wolf especially stepped up down the stretch of this one, scoring a few key buckets late to seal this one in Michigan’s favor. Donaldson and Wolf (14 points, 13 rebounds) played well off each other; the shot creation both those guys give the Wolverines is invaluable
Too many turnovers, especially early on
Turnovers were a problem for the Wolverines early and often. U-M jumped out to a 7-0 lead to open the game, but lost it quickly after turning the ball over five times in the first 3:55 of action. It completely killed the momentum of what was otherwise an excellent start.
The Horned Frogs pressed the Wolverines with a 3⁄4 court trap that was fairly effective, and they were aggressive on the perimeter all night, getting up into ball handlers two steps off the three-point line. It gave Michigan fits early, as TCU was speeding up Michigan to a fault, a big reason for the turnovers.
Michigan was averaging a turnover a minute — far from ideal — for the first nine minutes of action. They logged 16 of their 21 turnovers in the first half alone, struggling to establish any sort of offensive rhythm.
Turning the ball over that many times is an easy way to lose a basketball game, but luckily didn’t take advantage of all the extra opportunities.
Moving the ball well (when not turning it over)
In the second half of that loss to Wake Forest, we probably saw a little too much one-on-one ball from the Wolverines. They corrected that in this one.
While the Wolverines did turn the ball over way too much, when they did care of the ball, I thought they moved it well, especially in the second half. You often saw four or five guys touch the ball ahead of a wide open look.
Michigan also had more assists than TCU in this one (15-8), with Danny Wolf notching four assists, and Tre Donaldson and Rubin Jones each posting three assists. That doesn’t always lead to victory, and again, Michigan’s got to take better care of the ball, but I thought they had better shot selection and did a good job generating open looks. You can tell that this team’s chemistry is slowly but surely improving in the half court.
Solid defense around the rim
Michigan was sloppy with the ball for most of this one, often having to contest lay-ups and shots around the rim off turnovers.
The Wolverines shouldn’t have put themselves in that spot to begin with, but I thought they recovered well, doing a decent job protecting the rim. TCU was only able to score 17 points off their 16 first-half turnovers, and shot 29 percent from the field in their first 20 minutes. TCU made just over a third of their total shots: the Horned Frogs missed a lot of shots just a few feet from the rim. Being without starting center Ernest Udeh Jr., the only returning starter from last season, hurt them in this one.
I thought the defense around the rim was especially good from Vlad Goldin and Danny Wolf, who each picked up a block in that first half. Durral Brooks also forced a few misses with good defense around the rim.
Speaking of Brooks…
Checking in on the freshmen
All three of Michigan’s scholarship freshmen saw the floor in this one, likely to help alleviate TCU’s pressure.
L.J. Cason struggled early in this one, turning over the ball early — he was one of three players with four turnovers, along with Wolf and Vlad Goldin— and picking up two quick fouls. He looked like he was in a funk and couldn’t get anything going scoring-wise.
Justin Pippen got his first action and almost immediately logged an assist off a Roddy Gayle Jr. and-one. He also notched a steal in that first half gave Michigan good minutes in his debut. And Durral Brooks subbed in for him, still proving to be one of Michigan’s best on-ball defenders.
Caoson and Pippen shared the floor briefly in that second half, too. Out of all the freshmen, I thought Pippen played the best in limited action.
I’d expect all three players to get more minutes before conference play to give May a better idea of what he wants to do with his rotation. Hopefully the three roommates can build off the game experience they got tonight.
Up Next
The Wolverines will stay in Ann Arbor for the next week and a half, hosting Miami (Ohio) on Monday, Nov. 18 (6 p.m. tip-off on Big Ten Network) and Tarleton State three days later (8:30 p.m. tip-off on Big Ten Network). After that, the Wolverines head down to Fort Myers, Florida, for match-ups with Virginia Tech and then either South Carolina or Xavier. Believe it or not, Big Ten play kicks off in less than a month, with U-M traveling to Madison to take on the Wisconsin Badgers (Dec. 3, 9 p.m. tip-off on Peacock).