As U-M opens Big Ten vs. Indiana, Wolverines focused on defense
Tony Garcia
Scoring hasn’t been a problem the first month of the season for Michigan basketball.
The Wolverines (4-4) are No. 3 in the Big Ten in scoring — averaging 82 points per game — and aren’t just doing it with volume: They rank No. 2 in the league in shooting (49.6%) and are No. 3 on 3-pointers (38.6%).
They’re in a 1-4 spiral, however, due to their issues on the other side of the floor — U-M last in the league in defense by a considerable margin.
Michigan has allowed 76.4 points per game through eight contests; that’s nearly a point per game worse than Iowa (75.5), a perennially poor defense and the only other team in the conference even allowing more than 70 points this season.
“I think the defense is not great,” acting coach Phil Martelli said rather bluntly on a video conference call Monday morning. “I think everybody has to amp it up. We have to amp up our ball pressure. We have to give them even more scouting report help.”
Michigan (4-4, 0-0 Big Ten) will need that to happen soon, as it’s set to open conference play against Indiana (6-1, 1-0) on Tuesday at Crisler Center (Peacock, 9 p.m.).
Granted, points allowed, frankly, isn’t the truest way to measure defense, with its relationship to pace of play. But this is clearly more than just a defense allowing points based on a quick pace — Ken Pomeroy’s defensive rankings compare every team on their rate per 100 possessions; Michigan’s defense (102.7 points allowed) is No. 125 out of 351 teams. (U-M’s offense, at 116.4, is No. 20.)
So what’s wrong with the defense?
Martelli has a new working theory and he discussed it with assistant coach Saddi Washington on Sunday.
As he sees it, it’s not so much an issue with one-on-one challenges — something Martelli said the staff has addressed every day in practice since the summer — but rather what happens in decisive moments.
“We’re stopping short, we’re not closing out,” Martelli explained. “We have a few foundations in this program, not a lot, but one of them is trust and our closeouts are a little bit indicative of ‘I’m just not sure. I’m just not sure that I can get there, I’m just not sure that someone has my back.’
“The term we use is ‘daily vitamins.’ We have to keep the daily vitamins going every day. It starts with keeping the ball in front of us and stop getting cracks in our defense.”
Another number the Wolverines and Martelli are focused on: 3-point shooting defense. That has been particularly porous, as U-M is allowing teams to shoot 39.4% beyond the arc — the worst mark in the Big Ten and No. 337 nationally.
Junior forward Will Tschetter said when U-M begins to close out better, it will start to see results.
“Contest percentage, that’s a big thing for us,” Tschetter said. “Just contesting shots, which really is an indicator of guys being in the right spot, guys knowing their scouting report, little things like that which can lead to something so simple.”
According to Tschetter, the target contest rate per game as a team is 70%; if the Wolverines get to that number, their coaches say, their chance of victory goes up dramatically. Unfortunately, Tschetter said, U-M has hit 70% just once in eight games: its 92-62 win over Youngstown State on Nov. 10.
He also said it’s not a matter of skill, but getting everybody on the same page.
“I think it takes total buy-in from everyone involved,” Tschetter said. “Do I think it can happen? Absolutely. But I don’t know, we’ll see the next few games, few weeks. I’m confident it can get fixed, but it’s up to the total buy-in.”
Even before the season began, Martelli said this was a quieter team in its disposition. Now, the need for “more communication, more communication and then more communication” as Martelli put it, is even higher.
That’s because the Hoosiers appear set to contend again in the Big Ten, with their lone loss coming at Madison Square Garden to defending national champion UConn. Martelli thinks that, in a way, the higher stakes of conference play could be precisely what the Wolverines need.
“In some ways it makes it a little bit easier to prepare your team,” Martelli said. “You start looking at Indiana and you already have a sense of how Mike Woodson prepares his team . ... You get your juices flowing when you say, ‘What changes are they making?’ “
Perhaps the biggest change? Star forward Trayce Jackson-Davis is off to the NBA — though Martelli said he keeps double-checking the film to make sure he’s gone — and the big in the middle is Kel’el Ware, a 7-foot transfer from Oregon.
Ware is averaging 17.7 points and 9.6 rebounds a game for the Hoosiers, including 18 and 14, respectively, in Indiana’s Big Ten-opening win last week.
“They just annihilated — the score on Friday with Maryland does not indicate the difference in that game,” Martelli said. “The interior passing jumps out at you, and unbelievable commitment defensively.”
Ware and the Hoosiers will present an early challenge for the Wolverines’ defense, as IU leads the Big Ten in shooting (50.1%).
But Michigan is more focused on itself as it opens its Big Ten slate. Tschetter remembers last season and how, he said, their multiple close nonconference losses — Kentucky, Virginia, North Carolina — slipped away and U-M let that disappointment linger into Big Ten play.
This season hasn’t featured similar disappointments, but U-M is still looking to make a fresh start against its Midwest rivals.
“We’re 0-0, haven’t even played a (Big Ten) game yet,” Tschetter said. “So anything’s possible. We just got to get back on the right track, keep working hard and stay positive.”