There were a lot of positives for the No. 7 Michigan men’s basketball team’s to take from its exhibition games: a top-10 preseason win, big-time plays from big-time players and the promised depth finally displayed in the frontcourt. But there were issues, namely a lack of communication leading to at least 20 turnovers in each bout.
Luckily, the Wolverines’ coaching staff is both aware and has made active changes to stem the bleeding and promote the positives ahead of their first regular season game versus Oakland.
“We’re going to tighten up our drills,” Michigan coach Dusty May said Monday. “We’re going to tighten up our reward system and practice, do this and that but, and so we’re going to do probably five to 10 different things. … Then hopefully we look back in a week or two, and we don’t know what it was that fixed it, but it got fixed.”
Though with all the offensive analysis that can be done, the Wolverines have yet to face a zone-heavy defense like the Golden Grizzlies. This means learning the weak spots of a 1-3-1 zone and playing disciplined basketball from the get-go — not the start of the second half. Especially with many turnovers coming from players who aren’t point guards, whoever brings the ball up the court needs to have that much more patience when a chaser is on them.
“We don’t see a whole lot of zone in our league and we don’t really know all the time how we’re going to see teams play in the nonconference and so obviously that was an exhibition (against Oakland last year) that was really good for us” Michigan assistant coach Mike Boynton Jr. said Friday. “This year, we didn’t see zone in either one of our exhibitions, so seeing it in our first game would be a bit of a test for us in a different way.”
On the other side of the court, Michigan is going to have to deal with the Horizon League’s Preseason Player of the Year, forward Tuburu Naivalurua. Playing in only one of the Grizzlies’ exhibition games, Naivalurua shot 11-for-20, racking up 28 points in just 30 minutes of game time.
Standing at 6-foot-8 and 240 pounds, Naivalurua will most likely be picked up by graduate forward Yaxel Lendeborg, sophomore forward Morez Johnson Jr or junior center Aday Mara. While Lendeborg and Johnson have demonstrated the athleticism to keep up with forwards in all three levels, Mara may face some difficulty when guarding Naivalurua farther from the basket.
“The thing you always worry about when your power conference team is playing a team that’s not, is (that) their bigs are usually a little bit more skilled and they play on the perimeter, sometimes a lot more,” Boynton said. “And so guys like Aday, specifically (freshman center Malick Kordel), aren’t necessarily used to defending out there.”
Mara’s difficulty guarding the perimeter was put on display against St. John’s when guarding St. Johns forward Zuby Ejiofor. Mara has had the last week to work on it — watching film with coaches while having more practice time dedicated to defending along the arc.
All together, the Wolverines are in the dominant position versus Oakland if they are able to make good on their practice. By limiting turnovers and stifling the Grizzlies’ star forward, Michigan should remove all hope of upset in their first game of the season.
