The Michigan Wolverines are 19-1 overall and coming off a win over the No. 5 team in the country, handing Nebraska its first loss of the season. Michigan is No. 3 in the AP Poll and No. 2 in country on KenPom,
and is tied atop the Big Ten standings.
We don’t apologize for wins, no matter how ugly. However, Michigan certainly hasn’t looked its best in the seven games since demolishing USC on Jan. 2. With that said, what does head coach Dusty May need to do to get the Wolverines back to their dominant ways?
This is a bit of a loaded question. Asking a coach who leads a team with the No. 2 defense in the country and the No. 10 offense on KenPom is slightly unfair. However, Michigan has largely played down to the level of its competition in the month of January.
Let’s start by addressing some problem areas. Defensively, the Wolverines have softened a bit. Prior to the loss against Wisconsin, Michigan had never let an opponent shoot greater than 47.1 percent from two. Since then, it has happened in four of the Wolverines’ last six games. Opposing offenses have figured out that playing five-out and forcing Aday Mara to play on the perimeter softens up the paint area.
Similarly, teams have begun picking on Michigan’s defense since it always switches 1-4. Nebraska, for example, set so many screens that it essentially waited for the Wolverines to mess up a switch. That inevitably happened far too many times for comfort.
Offensively, Michigan’s shooting has cooled off tremendously. While the Wolverines still attack the paint with the best in the country and have a high two-point field goal percentage, their shooting from beyond the arc is becoming a slight problem. Four of Michigan’s worst three-point shooting percentages this season have come in the month of January, with the Ohio State (21.7 percent) and Nebraska (23.1 percent) games standing out.
Another recurring theme of frustration has been with free throws. As a big man, Mara has been known to struggle from the free throw line, but the rest of the players should be much better than they have been. Aside from the Nebraska game, the Wolverines have been anything but sure-footed at the free throw line this month. They went 15-for-25 against Ohio State last week. Specifically, Yaxel Lendeborg, who had missed one free throw in all of conference play previously, was 3-for-7 against the Buckeyes from the free throw line.
Bring it all together and you have a supremely talented team with championship aspirations that hasn’t been playing up to its full potential lately.
There’s no reason to panic when your team is 19-1 and continues to win anyways, but what does May need to do to get the Wolverines back playing to their maximum potential? Should Michigan continue to switch everything 1-4 on defense? Should May encourage the players to not settle for so many contested threes? And what about all the turnovers occurring on a nightly basis?
So what adjustments need to be made moving forward? Should any major adjustments be made at all? Let us know what you think down in the comments section.
