Another player posts his career high against Michigan. It’s been a problem all year, whether it is Rice, Leuer, Grant,Coble, Moore, McKenzie or Battle they all do it the same way: rain three pointers on the Michigan defense. You don’t win games in the BigTen when you allow your opponents to shoot 55% from deep in a game (box score).
Snyder says Michigan didn’t fold like teams of old because they cut it to 6 late, however I would argue that giving up a 15-0 run on 5 three pointers is pretty reminiscent of recent teams.
Manny played great, the comfort he is starting to get with his three point shot is encouraging. Sure he makes some bad decisions but as I have said all year long without him this team would be nothing. Manny had a career high 29 points and knocked down 5 out of 11 triples.
Grady is also starting to come together, he has started consistently making the three point jumper when left open and looked good yesterday. However it must be noted that his terrible entry pass led to the start of the 15-0 PSU run. Gibson also showed flashes in the first half with some very nice moves to the hoop and one big dunk. But then only ended up playing 13 minutes for the game, not sure what Beilein was thinking here.
DeShawn Sims and Ant Wright have packed it in. They combined for 1-15 (0-10 3pfg) shooting yesterday while only scraping together 9 rebounds in 60 combined minutes. Not to mention their backups Ron Coleman and Jevohn Shepherd don’t provide much more. The wing is such a huge problem (even moving Manny there next year) that it almost makes me want to take two more in 08. If Michigan goes as DeShawn goes, that explains why we keep losing.
Beilein got his first technical in the first half. Didn’t really see what he did but it was after a loose ball foul on Ekpe going after an offensive board. Michigan has shot a school record 657 threes, however making 207 is only good for third in school history.
Another tough loss, hopefully Michigan can play spoiler next weekend against the Boilermakers. It’s a shame to see the momentum they had build up get wasted away by tough losses at Minnesota, against Northwestern and at Penn State.
