Wolverine work on defense pays
Michigan turning up intensity
ATLANTA — Michigan had all season to improve its defense, but it still looked hopeless as recently as the Big Ten tournament.
The Wolverines gave up 51 points in the second half of a loss to Wisconsin — not exactly a harbinger of good things with the NCAA tournament on deck.
“Even though it didn’t look it to all of you — or to me sometimes, this year — we have worked on defense like crazy,” coach John Beilein said this week.
Michigan has won four straight to reach the Final Four and although the Wolverines haven’t totally solved their defensive problems, they have been a bit stingier of late. Michigan was fortunate to beat Kansas on a night the Wolverines didn’t play well on defense, but that was the only NCAA tournament game they’ve come close to losing.
In victories over Florida, Virginia Commonwealth and South Dakota State, Michigan showed it can indeed stop quality opposition.
“I think a lot of that just goes to our attention to detail, and us being prepared going into the game,” star point guard Trey Burke said. “We know it’s all or nothing now. You lose, you go home, your season’s over with.”
Michigan began the season 20-1, and from the start, the Wolverines looked poised beyond their years on offense. Burke is a sophomore and guard Tim Hardaway Jr. is a junior, but Michigan also relies on freshmen Glenn Robinson III, Nik Stauskas and Mitch McGary.
There might not be a team in the country with better flow and rhythm on offense, but opponents have been pretty comfortable, too. The Wolverines went through long stretches of passive play on defense, allowing 81 points in a loss at Indiana and 75 in a loss at Michigan State. The low point might have been an 84-78 loss at Penn State in late February.
But the Wolverines have learned they are even more dangerous offensively when they’re defending well — because stops can create chances for Burke, Hardaway and Robinson to get out in transition.
“With a young team, they do understand fast break,” Beilein said. “We can play in space on a fast break. Well, we fast break if we play defense.”
With the Final Four approaching and a semifinal matchup against Syracuse on the horizon, Michigan’s defense is still an unknown commodity — but that’s an improvement for what seemed like a clear liabil- ity less than a month ago. The Wolverines haven’t had an intimidating shot blocker inside, but the 6-10 McGary is developing.
This young Michigan team needed almost no time to become an efficient group offensively. Now the defense may be catching up — just in time.
“We’ve just been doing a good job in practice of making sure that when you’re guarding your man, just try to make sure they don’t get in the house, which is the paint,” Hardaway said. “Every time you give Coach Beilein a week to prepare for a team, the outcome is probably a win, but we know that Syracuse is a great team. They’ve got a week to prepare for us as well, so we’ve got to come in there with the same type of intensity.”