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With one final chance at earning a victory across the pond, Michigan came through in the clutch and earned a win.

Michigan played their best game both offensively and defensively of the entire trip. They were lights out in the first half (67% from the field) and cruised to a 50-31 halftime lead. Mons made a valiant comeback effort but Michigan made just enough plays in order to hold onto the much needed victory.

[More: Post game audio and video interviews]

Matt Vogrich made plenty of plays for Michigan as he finished with 22 points and 7 rebounds while shooting 8 of 11 from the field. Tim Hardaway Jr. was the other double digit scorer with 14 while Novak added 9, Morris 8, and Smotrycz 7. Even more impressive was that they all shot 50% or better from the field.

It’s definitely nice to end the trip on a positive note and also pretty clear that Michigan steadily improved over the week. I’ll have a wrap-up post tomorrow but for now, here is the box score, tempo free stats, and some analysis after the jump.

Continue reading ‘Euro Game 4: Michigan 80, Mons 74′

Full post game post coming soon. For now, here are the various post game interviews put out by the Michigan basketball program.

John Beilein Audio:

Stu Douglass Video:

Tim Hardaway Audio:

Corey Person Audio:

More photos on the Michigan Basketball Facebook page.

Michigan spent yesterday touring Paris and picking up a commitment from Trey Burke. (FYI: We’ve updated the scholarship breakdown chart) Today they are back on the court for another game, this time versus Oostande. Tip off is scheduled 2:30 p.m. eastern (8:30 p.m. local).

In the comments, Sven conveniently tallied a list of American players listed on Oostande’s roster:

• Darrel Mitchell LSU 05-06 16.8 ppg 4.4 apg
• Trevor Huffman Kent State 01-02 16.0 ppg 4.4 apg
• Caleb Green Oral Roberts 06-07 20.5 ppg 9.3 rpg
• Matt Lojeski Hawaii 06-07 16.9 ppg 5.5 rpg 4.5 apg
• Will Thomas George Mason 07-08 16.1 ppg 10.4 rpg

Judging by their 20-12 record and third place finish last season, it’s probably a safe bet that Oostande is closer to Charleroi than Gent. Hopefully Michigan can build off their experience in the first two games and continue to improve.

Here are some updated player diaries from MGoBlue:

• Matt Vogrich Diary
• Colton Christian Diary

We’ll be following along in the comments and on twitter so feel free to join in the action.

The Michigan basketball team has safely landed in Belgium and that means we get a handful of pictures of the team sleeping in their Beats by Dre headphones.

Michigan practices today and will play their first game tomorrow morning/afternoon. For reference, here’s the full game schedule for the next week with links to official team site rosters:

• Aug 22nd – Ghent (4 p.m local – 10 a.m. eastern)  – Roster
• Aug 23rd – Charleroi (7 p.m. local – 1 p.m. eastern)  – Roster
• Aug 25th – Oostande (8:30 p.m local – 2:30 p.m. eastern) – Roster
• Aug 26th – Mons (7 p.m local – 1 p.m. eastern) – Roster

Beilein mentioned that many of the USA players might not be in Belgium yet, so take that into account when examining the rosters. But seriously, how could you not notice Courtney Sims (!) and Chris Hill on the Charleroi roster.

It’s unclear what type of coverage we’ll get but right now one of your best bet is following along on twitter. The Michigan coaching staff (Beilein, Alexander, Meyer, and Jordan) are on twitter. There is an official Michigan basketball twitter page as well as a number of players to follow (Smotrycz, Christian,and Novak). There’s also MGoBlue.com and the newly launched JohnBeilein.com.

This post will serve as an open thread of sorts for the Sunday game and we’ll see how that goes.

Links (constantly updated)

• Sunday Morning Stroll & Chocolate Museum (more pics)
• Corey Person Interview
• 2010 Wolverine European Trip: Player’s Prospective
• Bacari Alexander video interview before practice
• Photos from First Practice

Anytime when we have an unusually high number of posts over the course of 24 hours we like to put together a quick link recap to catch everyone up to speed. With all the recruiting and practice content recently, now is a perfect time.

• Impressions from Michigan’s Last Practice
• Michigan Practice Video Part 2 (8-19-2010)
• Michigan Practice Video Part 1 (8-19-2010)
• Video: Dominique Pointer Highlights
• Video Interview: Jon Horford
• Video Interview: Tim Hardaway Jr.
• Visit Debrief: 2011 PG Trey Burke