3/24/2022 – Michigan 55, Villanova 63 – 19-15, 11-9 Big Ten, Season Over This is not going to be a romantic post about the end of a season. Last year, yes, romance abounds. This year it's time to say good job making the best out of a bad situation and start speculating about the future. Because, well, sometimes the bear eats you: Tonight was Michigan's worst 2-point field-goal percentage (34.9 percent) since Feb. 4, 2020 in a loss to Ohio State. Michigan played 70 games between the two performances. Zach Shaw (@ ZachShaw) March 25, 2022 The other stat floating around out there was Michigan going 12/29 on dunks and layups. This kind of thing has happened before, but for it to happen against a team with no real shotblocking (and to a team that was 28th in shooting at the rim nationally) is boggling. Much like the early going of the Colorado State game, it felt like every weighted coin flip came out the wrong way. Michigan would put up a shot that rolled around on the rim
After roughly a month of defensive improvement, Michigan came crashing back to earth in a loss against Illinois yesterday. Brad Underwood's team put on an offensive clinic that Phil Martelli and staff seemingly had no answer for. You may recall Brian's column from a year ago entitled The Book, which more or less conveys a schematic/personnel adjustment to bottle up a certain player/play-type that becomes a blueprint moving forward. So what does The Book look like against Michigan? Let's take a look below. Trap Coverage Early on in the game, Michigan went with trap coverage against a side ballscreen from Frazier/Kofi. Eli makes a great low-man rotation to beat Kofi to the spot before the catch. That forces Cockburn to swing-through, allowing Diabate to give help. But it simply doesn't matter because a 5'11 low man isn't going to deter a legit seven-footer. Icing Ballscreens After Illinois easily handled the trap approach, the Wolverines started hav