\n\t\t<\/aside>\nThat tenacity wasn\u2019t just shown when grabbing rebounds. Constantly double-teamed in the paint, Mara showcased the full range of his abilities. Footwork, foul-drawing, passing and simple shot-making, Mara did it all against a team that sought to limit the height advantage he brings. Evidenced even in how he did the little things right, like sealing off his defenders to drag in the defense in order to open up both himself and his team, Mara\u2019s gravity was a constant benefit for the Wolverines.<\/p>\n
\u201cI thought a few of the guys that didn\u2019t play nearly as well in the first half as they\u2019re capable of really, really picked up their game in the second half of that and made a lot of contributions,\u201d Michigan coach Dusty May said.<\/p>\n
One of those players was Johnson, headlining the Wolverines\u2019 offense to kickoff the second half. A typical rim-breaker, Johnson equally showed off his footwork, earning his first bucket of the half with a little hookshot before following it up with a second-chance layup after his own miss. Still true to his form, though, Johnson hit the cup hard and was rewarded with trips to the line three times for five shots \u2014 all of which he sunk.<\/p>\n
Defensively, Mara demonstrated the fact that you simply can\u2019t teach height. Causing pandemonium under the hoop, Mara swatted at everything within a 10-foot radius, recording three blocks on the night. The Aztecs mitigated him to some extent, opting for more 3s and jump shots within the arc. But at the end of the day, if Mara can force teams to play outside of the paint, he\u2019s done 90% of his job.<\/p>\n
\u201cAs the season goes on, we\u2019re still building chemistry, especially with guys like Aday and Morez,\u201d senior guard Roddy Gayle Jr. said. \u201cAs (May) said, just (Aday and Morez) being able to protect the rim makes my job a lot easier. If I can be able to kind of get the guard going downhill and be able to veer into the bigs, it\u2019s easy for me to be able to get the big guy off the rim, where guys like Morez and Aday are able to alter shots.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\t\t<\/aside>\nIn a game where just about everything went right, Mara and Johnson didn\u2019t take a backseat role. Still the same hardheaded bigs that they were in tighter games, the duo soldiered on and demonstrated that, once again, they are Michigan\u2019s backbone.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\t\t<\/aside>\n
Related articles<\/em><\/h3>\n<\/p><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Michigan\u2019s frontcourt has been a problem all season. From hauling in boards to catching lobs to even making a highlight pass or two, the Wolverines\u2019 duo of sophomore forward Morez Johnsohn Jr. and junior center Aday Mara have been the No. 7 Michigan men\u2019s basketball team\u2019s steady pillars. And in the Wolverines\u2019 dominant win over […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":3819,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[18],"tags":[1426,3776,3777,222,933,361,248],"class_list":{"0":"post-3818","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-news","8":"tag-anchor","9":"tag-bigs","10":"tag-diego","11":"tag-michigan","12":"tag-san","13":"tag-state","14":"tag-win"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/tmbglobal.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3818","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=3818"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/tmbglobal.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3818\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3820,"href":"https:\/\/tmbglobal.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3818\/revisions\/3820"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tmbglobal.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3819"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/tmbglobal.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3818"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tmbglobal.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3818"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tmbglobal.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3818"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}