WOLVERINES BOUNCE BACK FOR FIRST BIG 10 WIN

The Michigan Wolverines rebounded from a New Year’s Eve loss to Wisconsin with an important home win over Illinois on Sunday. The Illini were coming off of an impressive win at pre season conference favorite Purdue on Tuesday night and were looking to keep the momentum going. Illinois established its offense in the first half with Mike Tisdale, their 7’1 Center patrolling the paint and kicking the ball out for open 3’s, which were going down. Former UM recruit, Alex Legion, now playing for Illinois after a detour to Kentucky, had 10 points in front of a hostile crowd (Legion had originally signed with Michigan 2 years ago before backing out of his commitment when Tommy Amaker was let go.)

Down by 1 at the half after some erratic shooting in the first half and too much reliance on the 3 pointer, Coach Beilein intelligently went away from the man to man defense and into the zone trap that has been working well this year. The defense created several key turnovers in the second half that led to easy transition baskets and 3 big dunks by Zach Gibson kept the noise level high. After scoring 11 points with 3 three pointers in the first half, Zack Novak went off the floor bloodied by an inadvertent elbow, only to return in the final minutes with 6 stitches over his eye, and gave the Wolverines an emotional lift. 5 Michigan players would score in double figures led by Manny Harris, who bounced back from a poor game against Wisconsin, to score 16 points, and add 6 rebounds and 5 assists. Deshawn Sims and Laval Lucas-Perry had 13 points and 3 three pointers apiece, Novak added 11 also with three 3’s, and Gibson had 10 and a huge block on what looked like a sure Illinois lay-up in the second half. Michigan was 11-27 from behind the arc and shot 11-14 from the foul line, while only allowing Illinois 3 free throws all game. The Wolverines played much more disciplined defense and came through on offense in the final minutes to pull away and win a huge Big Ten home game 74-64. This game, though early in the conference season, was close to a must win, as falling to 0-2 after 2 home games, would have been a big hole to climb out of. Michigan next travels to Indiana on Wednesday to play the Hoosiers, who at this point appear to be the doormat of the Big Ten as Tom Crean tries to rebuild the once powerful program out of the wreckage left by Kelvin Sampson. If Michigan wants to contend for the Big Ten title, they do not need to lose to Indiana the way the Hoosiers have been playing.

The Illinois win came after a poor showing against Wisconsin in the Big Ten opener at home on Wednesday afternoon. Michigan fell behind early and could not get close as they trailed by 8-12 points most of the way. Defensively the Wolverines looked slow and out of sync as Wisconsin had a lot of lay-ups and close shot opportunities to help them shoot an amazing 59% from the floor, compared to just 39% for Michigan. Playing from behind caused Michigan to fire up a lot of 3’s with less success then usual as they were 8-24 from outside. Manny Harris played what may have been his worst game of the year, shooting only 3-13 from the floor with 9 points and 3 turnovers. Deshawn Sims played well scoring 14 points but he was only 5 for 6 from the floor as Wisconsin kept the ball out of his hands most of the game. The one bright spot for Michigan was Zack Novak who was 5 for 8 from 3 and had 20 points, but it was not enough as Michigan fell at home to a good Wisconsin team 73-61 for their first home loss of the season.

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