{"id":4186,"date":"2026-01-03T06:49:04","date_gmt":"2026-01-03T06:49:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/tmbglobal.news\/index.php\/2026\/01\/03\/michigans-defense-led-by-mara-smothers-usc\/"},"modified":"2026-01-03T06:49:08","modified_gmt":"2026-01-03T06:49:08","slug":"michigans-defense-led-by-mara-smothers-usc","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/tmbglobal.news\/index.php\/2026\/01\/03\/michigans-defense-led-by-mara-smothers-usc\/","title":{"rendered":"Michigan\u2019s defense, led by Mara, smothers USC"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><\/p>\n<div>\n<p>On No. 24 Southern California\u2019s first possession of the game, the No. 2 Michigan men\u2019s basketball team\u2019s junior center Aday Mara snatched away a bad pass by guard Ryan Cornish. The next time up the floor, Mara came up with another steal. On the third possession for the Trojans, graduate guard Nimari Burnett poked the ball away from USC off a catch near the charity stripe.<\/p>\n<p>The Wolverines\u2019 defense set the tone in just three possessions.<\/p>\n<p>And throughout the remaining possessions Friday night, the tone stayed that way. During the entirety of the game, Michigan brought an infectious defensive energy, keeping the Trojans away from the basket and forcing poor shots. By the time the final buzzer sounded, the Wolverines\u2019 enveloping defense left USC shooting an abysmal 34.5% from the field and 21.7% from three.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe can\u2019t let our lack of making shots particularly affect our defensive energy and edge, and for the most part, we didn\u2019t,\u201d Michigan coach Dusty May said.<\/p>\n<aside class=\"scaip scaip-1    \">\n\t\t<\/aside>\n<p>Including those original three possessions, the Wolverines didn\u2019t allow a single point in just under seven minutes after tip-off. Rotating around the perimeter while closing off the paint, Michigan\u2019s defense made it hard for the Trojans to settle into their offense. Specifically, USC couldn\u2019t make connective passes, instead relying on hero ball.<\/p>\n<p>Behind this early dominance was Mara. Beside his early steals, he affected shot after shot with his height and length. An imposing figure in the paint, Mara\u2019s presence on the defensive end stifled interior looks, forcing the Trojans to look to attack from deep.<\/p>\n<p>But USC had no luck from outside either. With Mara locking down the paint, Michigan utilized strong on-ball defense and switches in order to keep the Trojans on their toes. It suffocated USC\u2019s ballhandlers around the perimeter, forcing the Trojans deep into the shot clock, taking desperation heaves before the buzzer went off. Even when they got off a look with time on the clock, it was seldom open.<\/p>\n<p>In the first half alone, the Wolverines forced 12 turnovers, turning those into 11 points. Though it struggled to consistently make shots, those steals helped turn defense into offense as Michigan started to pull away.<\/p>\n<p>\u201c(We) definitely take pride on the defensive end,\u201d sophomore forward Morez Johnson Jr. said. \u201cWe know the offensive end, we can\u2019t really control that. \u2026 We can definitely control shots on the defensive end, our talking, our physicality, communicate with each other, hold each other accountable, switching. \u2026 Definitely take pride on the defensive end.\u201d<\/p>\n<aside class=\"scaip scaip-2    \">\n\t\t<\/aside>\n<p>Even on a night where the Wolverines didn\u2019t shoot the ball well, it didn\u2019t really matter. Like it has time and time again this season, Michigan\u2019s smothering defense kickstarted another blowout, leaving the Trojans in the dust. In the second half, this strong performance on the defensive end went nowhere, as the Wolverines discontinued to lock down USC even with important defenders like graduate forward Yaxel Lendeborg and Burnett out of the game with injuries.<\/p>\n<p>Defense has been a hallmark of Michigan\u2019s identity so far this season. Suffocating opponents of all kinds, the Wolverines have drowned out its competition time and time again. And Friday, the Trojans were the next victim of Michigan\u2019s stifling defense.<\/p>\n<aside>\n\t\t<\/aside>\n<p><h3 class=\"jp-relatedposts-headline\"><em>Related articles<\/em><\/h3>\n<\/p><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>On No. 24 Southern California\u2019s first possession of the game, the No. 2 Michigan men\u2019s basketball team\u2019s junior center Aday Mara snatched away a bad pass by guard Ryan Cornish. The next time up the floor, Mara came up with another steal. On the third possession for the Trojans, graduate guard Nimari Burnett poked the [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":4187,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[17],"tags":[1169,2472,1700,726,4042,3183],"class_list":{"0":"post-4186","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-sports","8":"tag-defense","9":"tag-led","10":"tag-mara","11":"tag-michigans","12":"tag-smothers","13":"tag-usc"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/tmbglobal.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4186","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=4186"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/tmbglobal.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4186\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4188,"href":"https:\/\/tmbglobal.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4186\/revisions\/4188"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tmbglobal.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4187"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/tmbglobal.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4186"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tmbglobal.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4186"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tmbglobal.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4186"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}