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12/2/02-
Week #05 – Season on the Brink, Already
The University of
Michigan men’s basketball team lost 2 more games this week, dropping
their season record to a miserable 0-4. This matches Michigan’s worst
start ever. The only other time UM started the season 0-4 was back in
the 1933-1934 season. That team finished the season 4-16.
The two losses this week were to Kansas State (82-71) on Monday
(11/25/2002) in the 6th-place game of the Virgin Islands Paradise Jam,
and to Western Michigan University (56-52) on Saturday (11/30/2002) in
Michigan’s home opener. Once again, both losses were to teams that UM
could and should beat. Michigan should never lose to a MAC school in
basketball. In both games, poor shooting was the biggest problem.
Against KSU, Michigan shot 25-for-64 (39%), and they did even worse
against WMU, shooting 19-for-52 (36%). They shot an acceptable 35%
(7-for-20) from 3-point range against KSU, but they were horrible
against WMU from 3-point range: 2-for-13 (15%). Turnovers and rebounds
weren’t a factor in the KSU game, but they sure were against Western:
UM had 21 turnovers (WMU had 16), and Michigan got out-rebounded by a
shorter WMU team (41-36).
Individually, some of the Wolverines had a decent week. Daniel Horton
had a career-high 17 points against Kansas State, and scored 11 more
against Western. Unfortunately, he shot pretty poorly getting those
points: 5-for-15 vs. KSU, and 5-for-16 vs. WMU. LaVell Blanchard also
had 17 points in the KSU game, and 14 against Western. He also shot
poorly against WMU: 5-for-16. Bernard Robinson, Jr. had 14 and 10
points in the 2 games, and had a bad shooting day vs. WMU (3-for-11).
Lester Abram had 13 points against KSU, although he had a tougher time
in the WMU game, scoring only 5 points on 2-for-7 shooting. The other
starter, Chris Hunter, only had 3 points in each game, shooting
1-for-6 against Kansas State. Michigan needs more production from
Hunter in order to be successful.
Once again, the bench didn’t help out much in either game. In the KSU
game, Gavin Groninger had 3 points, and Graham Brown had 4 points
(1-for-5 shooting), and that was it. It wasn’t much better against
Western: Groninger had 3 points again, Brown had 4 points again, and
Chuck Bailey had 2 points. Michigan needs much better bench scoring
than 7 and 9 points to be successful.
The bad news for the week didn’t end with the 2 losses. In the middle
of the week, Avery Queen was dismissed from the team, for unspecified
disciplinary reasons. That leaves Michigan with only one point guard
on scholarship: Daniel Horton, a true freshman. Sherrod Harrell, a
freshman walk-on, is also a point guard, and he did a pretty good job
of running the team against Western, but he’s not much of a scoring
threat. Apart from the effect this move has on the depth and
experience of the team, it is also upsetting that yet another player
has left the program. Besides Queen, Coach Amaker has also dismissed
Maurice Searight, and Josh Moore voluntarily left the team. These
losses hurt the team and the program, and are very worrisome. I’m sure
that there were good reasons for the moves in each case, but this has
got to stop. Michigan has got to get good, quality players, and keep
them on the team and contributing for 4 years. The lack of continuity
in this program has been a killer in the last 10 years. I wrote about
this topic last year when Moore left the team, and this latest
dismissal just adds to the problem.
Speaking of Horton and the point guard position, that was one of the
big problems in the WMU game on Saturday. Instead of running the
offense and distributing the ball, Horton was thinking “shot” first,
and “pass” second. He took way too many quick shots, sometimes before
the offense was even set up. He took the most shots (16) on the team,
and only had 2 assists, to go with 4 turnovers. While it’s true that
he’s a good scorer, and he can be a good shooter, Michigan needs him
more as a floor general, running the offense and hitting the open man
for easy baskets.
Next, speaking of shooting guards, where are they for Michigan? Abram
had a decent game against KSU, but he was non-existent against Western
Michigan. Groninger played 13 minutes against KSU, and 16 minutes
against WMU, and managed to take only 2 shots in each game. He passed
up several open 3-point shots vs. Western. Dommanic Ingerson is
probably the best 3-point shooter on the team, but he didn’t even
travel with the team to the Virgin Islands, due to an Achilles heel
injury, and he didn’t play against Western on Saturday. Again, in
order to be successful, Michigan needs better play from their shooting
guards.
Finally, there’s the “L” word: leadership. I’ve said it a couple of
times already this season, but this team needs a leader, and that
leader needs to be LaVell Blanchard. He may already be the quiet
leader of this team, but he needs to step up and be the vocal leader
of this team.
Looking at what I’ve written above, you’ll notice that I’ve identified
5 areas where Michigan needs to improve:
• Better play from the center position, especially Hunter.
• More bench scoring.
• More assists from Horton.
• Better play from the shooting guard position.
• Better leadership from Blanchard.
If the coaching staff can correct these problems, Michigan can start
winning. If not, the young season on the brink will end up in the
dumpster.
The beat goes on for the Wolverines. They play 2 games in the next
week. On Tuesday (12/03/2002), they play at home against Central
Michigan (another MAC school), and on Saturday (12/07/2002), they play
at #7 Duke. They’ll get slaughtered by Duke, but they should beat CMU.
The game on Tuesday is at 7:00 p.m. Come on out and see if Michigan
can break into the win column.
Drew
Montag
UMGoBlue.COM Basketball Editor
dmontag@umgoblue.com
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