our offense is a metaphorical baby

In what became the de facto #1 game of this year's Big Ten/ACC Challenge, Michigan came out looking like they had just played three games in three days in another country, and Louisville showed their home fans why they're the #1 team in this one.

The sluggish Wolverines were stymied by Louisville's defense, which doubled the ball, and harassed Simpson—who came into the game with a nation-leading .500 assist rate—with hard hedges he looked unpracticed against. Their engine already sputtering, Simpson picked up his second foul with 5 minutes left in the frame. Lamarr Kimble made 1/2 ensuing free throws to push their lead to 22-7 as X hit the bench. Brooks took over at point but couldn't penetrate where Simpson had already failed. The Wolverines finished the first half with 18 points, six turnovers to just one assist, and 0.39 points per possession by my reckoning--arguably their worst half of offense since Beilein's first season.

For the most part Louisville managed to do to Michigan's offense what the Wolverines did in Atlantis to Gonzaga and UNC: force them into all kinds of bad twos. Michigan tried to have Teske work down low but that further played into the Cardinals' defensive strength with those two burly bigs they rotate. Louisville too looked uncomfortable with Michigan's length, forcing up contested jumpers or driving into a sea of arms. The teams combined to start the game 5/26 from the field over the first eight minutes, the Cardinals getting just a few more bad shots to fall and capitalizing on a few open shots off loose balls.

Ope, lemme just. [Campredon]

Even when they did find a crack—mostly in the second half—Michigan's shooters could barely hit iron. Isaiah Livers, Franz Wagner, and Eli Brooks combined to go 2/10 from the arc despite mostly decent looks; as a team they were 3/19.

The standoff finally broke in a direction when Louisville center Steven Enoch made long set shot two over Teske, the kind of shot you'd let a 6'10/255 guy take any day. On Michigan's next possession David DeJulius got the ball to Livers in position to drive, but he kicked it back to DDJ who forced a long three attempt. The ball bounced off iron and started a rare transition drive that ended with the first open look all night for Jordan Nwora, who drilled a three to push the score to 18-5 at the 7 minute mark.

We shouldn't even be here today. [Campredon]

The second half began with a glimmer of hope as Simpson started reacting better to the hedges. Assist #500 of his career was, appropriately, a perfect pick and roll to Jon Teske to cut Louisville's lead to four. It was also the last nice moment for their team. Louisville answered Michigan's 6-0 run with an 8-0 period of their own, though every bucket was well-contested. A prayer by SF Samuell Williamson spun 360 degrees around the rim, then popped right back to him for a put-back to extend the Louisville lead to 12 and send their home crowd into an enviable roar.

(Side note: more students near the floor seems like a good idea cc Warde)

Heavy legs set in again from there, though Zavier Simpson at least wasn't ready to quit. He broke through a hard hedge and got the ball to Eli Brooks at the top of the key, but Eli passed it up. Simpson drove and kicked it out to Wagner several times after that, but the freshman struggled to collect one, and missed two more perfect looks. Michigan again had to go back to their C/PG pair until they too finally wore down. Teske finished 5/14 from two, 1/4 from three, and 5/8 on free throws. Simpson went 4-9—most of those hook shots—at the rim, 0/2 deep and 1/3 on free throws, finishing with just 3 assists to 4 turnovers.

Simpson's skyhooks weren't going in at their normal clip, but they were going in more than anything else. [Campredon]

The last 10 minutes got weird. Enoch got away with a travel of six steps before putting in a basket over an incredulously pointing Teske. Simpson slipped while dribbling, picked himself up, drove, and kicked out for a Big Sleep three to cut the lead to 10. A few possessions later Teske had the ball in transition and took a heat check. I guess when you're the only guy on the team who's hit from range you might as well.

Current Kenpom Player of the Year leader Jordan Nwora finally woke up for the last few minutes, driving down Michigan's now clearly exhausted wings and beating them down the court for a dagger of an and-one. A three-pointer by Enoch at the top of the arc was the final sign this wasn't happening.

There are worse losses to take than on the road, on a quick turnaround after a tournament, at even a soft #1 team in the country. Another solid defensive performance against a team that came in unsustainably hot, and the uncharacteristically cold shooting from guys with a track record otherwise, suggest this was probably just one of those schedule losses.

That schedule doesn't ease up yet. A hot-shooting Iowa squad visits Crisler on Friday.

Box score after THE JUMP:

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Coach, can you talk about the tempo of the offense? Is it where you want it to be at this point?

“Obviously we’d like it to play a little faster. Right now our focus is playing right. Execution. We’ll worry about tempo later, and I think like we’ve said before we want to control the tempo of the game on offense, whether that’s to slow the game down or speed the game up.”

Doug, Brady said he’ll have a decision tomorrow on the starting quarterback. What’s going into that decision?

“Well, I think there’s a lot that goes into the decision of who plays quarterback and both guys have done an outstanding job of preparing and practicing and competing. It’s what we’ve talked about all along at every position on our team; we want to have competition and we want to compete and challenge every day.”

Whichever one is in there, I assume the turnover message has to be reinforced.

“Definitely. I mean, you start from base premise of what we talked about fro day one that we continue to talk about every day and until we get it right we’re going to continue to struggle. It’s the turnover margin. You can’t win football games when you lose it. It’s the one telling statistic in all of football over time. You lose the turnover margin week in and week out and you’re going to struggle to have a good football team.”

Doug, I guess at this point not knowing who the quarterback’s going to be what positives do you see? What could you do differently if Shane Morris were your starter?

“Well, I don’t know that you say you start all over and change your offense. No. You do the things that play to Shane’s strengths and Shane’s obviously a talented guy. Got a lot of arm strength. He is a young player like a lot of our players and learning, and Devin does- they both are similar in a lot of their style. Both you can see can make plays with their feet. Both have really good arms, and we feel really good about either one of those guys.”

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