For the second night in a row, the No. 7 Michigan Wolverines dominated at the Players Era Festival, destroying the No. 21 Auburn Tigers, 102-72.
This is a revenge game for the Wolverines, who got knocked
out of the Sweet Sixteen by the Auburn Tigers last March. The majority of Auburn’s rotation from last season are no longer with the school, and Bruce Pearl has been replaced by his son, Steven Pearl (shout-out Nepotism!), but this Auburn team is still projected to finish among the best teams in the SEC. The Tigers got picked to finish sixth in a loaded SEC in the conference’s preseason poll, and Keyshawn Hall and Tahaad Pettiford are good enough scorers to give the Tigers a puncher’s chance against any team in the country.
After blowing out San Diego State Monday night, Michigan used a pair of runs to jump out to a 24-point lead late in the first half. Michigan cruised victory yet again, topping Auburn in nearly every major counting stat. This was a wire-to-wire blowout win for the second night in a row.
With the win, per the TNT broadcast, Michigan locks in a spot in the Players Era Final. Shout-out to Dusty May and his crew for continuing the succeed in multi-team exhibitions (MTE); including the Fort Myers Tip-Off and the Big Ten tournament, Michigan is now 7-0 in MTEs under May.
Here are the takeaways from the win
Another hot start snowballs into 29-point first half lead
Michigan got off to about as good a start as possible: after Auburn scored the first points of the game, the Wolverines went on a 16-2 run, with Johnson scoring seven of those first 16 points. Michigan was rolling offensively, and it certainly helped that Auburn missed its first eight shots.
Even as Auburn started knocking down threes, Michigan always answered well off of makes, keeping a double-digit lead for a decent chunk of the first half. Another 10-0 late in the first half got Michigan’s lead up to 22, with the Wolverines dominating in every facet of the game.
The lead ballooned up to as many as 29 points in those opening 20 minutes, with Michigan shooting 58 percent from the field while only turning the ball over twice. Yaxel Lendeborg (tied Roddy Gayle Jr. for a team-high 17 points to go along with six rebounds and two assists) was holding court just like he did in last night’s win, posting a plus/minus of +32 in a truly dominant first half. It speaks to this team’s depth that Michigan was able to increase its lead from 10 to 29 in that first half with Elliot Cadeau and Aday Mara each on the bench with two fouls.
Just like the SDSU win, Michigan dictated the pace, moved the ball with textbook precision, and played good defense to smother the Tigers. We knew this team was talented, but they are playing with a focus and a fire right now that we hadn’t seen in the first five games.
A defensive masterclass
This may have been Michigan’s best defensive performance of the season: the Tigers shot only 35 percent from the field, including just 31.5 percent on two-point tries, with Michigan owning the paint.
Michigan made the most of those defensive stops, snatching seven steals and scoring 12 points off Auburn turnovers. Combine that with 29 fast break points (26 more than Auburn), and Michigan made life easy for themselves on offense. It was a defensive performance that was so dominant, Dusty May got to experiment with a zone for most of the second half, and Michigan looked decent in it.
Entering this game, the Wolverines ranked second in the country in defensive efficiency rating on KenPom, and moved up to first after Houston lost. Much has been made about all of Michigan’s offensive firepower, and that firepower gets even more lethal with a defense that plays this well.
A big night for Morez Johnson Jr.
Just like it has all season long, Michigan dominated in the paint (38 points in the paint to Auburn’s 20), with Morez Johnson Jr. making his presence felt down-low.
The big man scored 15 points, all in the first half, making his first six shots. Auburn defenders struggled to box him out, and Johnson grabbed five rebounds and stayed physical on both ends of the floor.
It feels like a different player steps up for the Wolverines in every one of these games, and tonight, it was Johnson’s turn.
Trey McKenney is steadily getting better
McKenney hasn’t gone through many of the growing pains that we typically see from a freshman starting off his college basketball career.
McKenney has settled in nicely, scoring nine points in that first half and making three of his first five attempts from three. The freshman finished this one with nine points, all scored in the first half, playing great minutes in the second unit. He brings another layer to this offense when he comes off the bench, and he doesn’t struggle rotating on defense.
His role is going to continue to grow as the season goes along; if he keeps playing like this, he may earn himself a few starts.
A note on Bruce Pearl
Pearl, who stepped down as Auburn’s head coach in late September — he’s still a special assistant to the school’s athletic director while working as an analyst at TNT — was on the broadcast alongside Brian Anderson and Grant Hill. To say it was annoying to hear his voice the whole time is an understatement.
I get that he’s a bombastic guy who is learning the ropes as a broadcaster, but having him on the ENTIRE broadcast felt like I was listening to an Auburn podcast. There’s less and less impartial analysis in sports these days, and some fandom makes for entertaining content. But having an analyst who was Auburn’s coach a little over two months ago and is still employed by the school felt like a bridge too far. And I get that Jalen Rose and Chris Webber provided pre-game and halftime analysis and joined the broadcast for part of the second half, but we didn’t have to listen to them for two hours straight.
I think Pearl can be a great broadcaster, but please TNT, let’s not give him more assignments covering his son’s team, especially if he’s not going to criticize them at all in a loss.
Up Next
Technically we still don’t know who Michigan’s final opponent is for its final game in this Festival, but the majority of the third games — championship and consolation — are played tomorrow. With a 2-0 record, we know that Michigan will play in the final at 9:30 p.m. tomorrow, on TNT.
