matchup<\/a> with Oakland, junior forward Morez Johnson Jr.\u2019s career high in points was 20. Against the Golden Grizzlies, he matched that number in the first half.<\/p>\nJohnson ended the night with 24 points, three assists and three rebounds, creating plays from the high post, the dunker, in transition and in the passing game as the Wolverines routed their mid-major opponent. His on-court impact tapered in the second half as Oakland drifted into the rearview mirror, but by then Johnson had already made his point. His mutli-faceted offensive production not only buried the Grizzlies, but proved him to be yet another pivotal figure on this deep Michigan roster.<\/p>\n
\u201c(Johnson) made a lot of tangible plays, and he made a lot of invisible plays,\u201d Wolverines coach Dusty May said. \u201c(I am) certainly happy that he\u2019s on our team. Man, he\u2019s fun to coach.\u201d<\/p>\n
The most talked about name on Michigan\u2019s deep roster, graduate forward Yaxel Lendeborg, was dealing with a hand injury before Monday\u2019s game, leaving a spot vacant in May\u2019s starting lineup for Johnson to fill. He gave fans all of two minutes to stress over Lendeborg\u2019s temporary absence before putting his own 6-foot-9, 255 pound frame to use, driving through the heart of Oakland\u2019s zone defense before spinning off one last defender for his first basket of the night. The very next possession, Johnson found junior center Aday Mara on a lob pass for another easy two points against their undersized opponent.<\/p>\n\n\t\t<\/aside>\nLendeborg found himself on the court five minutes into the game after taping up his dominant hand, but it was Johnson who kept the Grizzlies on their back foot throughout the first 20 minutes of play. For the majority of the 14 minutes he played in the first half, Johnson settled in at either the high post or down low at the block, both options being prime real estate against Oakland\u2019s 1-3-1 zone when given the chance. And Johnson was given lots of those, mostly complements of junior guard Elliot Cadeau\u2019s nine first-half assists. Once the ball was in his hands on the interior, Johnson was free to bully his smaller defender all the way to the rim.<\/p>\n
The defining stretch of Johnson\u2019s night began with around 14 minutes left in the first half and ended just three minutes later. Within that small window Johnson scored 10 points, beginning with a two-point drive to the basket off a pass from Cadeau and immediately followed up by a jumper out of a post move.\u00a0<\/p>\n
On the Grizzlies\u2019 very next possession, forward Isaac Garret drove into the lane and attempted a contested layup, and was met in the air by Johnson, who snuffed out the shot before it even left Garret\u2019s hands. After drawing a few shooting fouls and sinking some free throws, Johnson capped the stretch off with a two-hand slam off a dish from freshman guard Trey Mckinney.<\/p>\n
\u201c(Johnson) is a junkyard dog, he\u2019s a warrior, he\u2019s competitive,\u201d May said. \u201cWhen he was out (of practice), (his) first day back we looked like a different team. There was a different level of energy.<\/p>\n
Johnson finished the half going 8-for-10 from the field while making all four of his free throw attempts in the first half. His only two misses came from beyond the 3-point line, meaning he was perfect in the paint.<\/p>\n\n\t\t<\/aside>\nWhile his interior presence played a significant role in disrupting and collapsing the Grizzlies\u2019 zone, Johnson was just as effective in possessions where Oakland could not even get into a set defense. He recorded two quick fastbreak buckets with under four minutes in the half in order to tie his career high in points at the halftime buzzer.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Johnson\u2019s effectiveness scoring the ball freed up his passing game as well. While the statsheet only shows the three assists he recorded, Johnson consistently used his position on the interior of the Grizzlies\u2019 zone to draw defenders and create ample looks for his teammates, teammates that May believes had an effect on such a positive trend.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cHis passing has improved greatly,\u201d May said. \u201cI\u2019m sure it\u2019s contagious, playing with Yaxel and Elliott and Aday and those guys who really pass the ball.\u201d<\/p>\n
Johnson\u2019s scoring ability was on full display Monday night and took center stage in the first half of the Wolverines\u2019 home opener, and his contributions in the passing and defensive games rounded out his Michigan debut. In just his first regular season game in a jersey for the Wolverines, Morez Johnson performed like a veteran.<\/p>\n\n\t\t<\/aside>\n
Related articles<\/em><\/h3>\n<\/p><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Coming into the No. 7 Michigan men\u2019s basketball team\u2019s Monday night matchup with Oakland, junior forward Morez Johnson Jr.\u2019s career high in points was 20. Against the Golden Grizzlies, he matched that number in the first half. Johnson ended the night with 24 points, three assists and three rebounds, creating plays from the high post, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":3479,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[18],"tags":[1513,33,748,3518,154,1094,3141,3519],"class_list":{"0":"post-3478","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-news","8":"tag-career","9":"tag-home","10":"tag-johnson","11":"tag-morez","12":"tag-night","13":"tag-oakland","14":"tag-opener","15":"tag-records"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/tmbglobal.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3478","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/tmbglobal.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/tmbglobal.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tmbglobal.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tmbglobal.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3478"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/tmbglobal.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3478\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3480,"href":"https:\/\/tmbglobal.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3478\/revisions\/3480"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tmbglobal.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3479"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/tmbglobal.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3478"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tmbglobal.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3478"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tmbglobal.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3478"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}