Michigan played an awful defensive first half, took forever to get it going on offense, and finished their game against a solid UCF team with only one starter scoring double-digit points. The team's leading scorer entering the game, Isaiah Livers, scuffled to five points on nine shots. Franz Wagner only played 16 minutes because of early foul trouble. The Wolverines trailed by as many as 12.

UCF needed a 12-2 run against the end of M's bench to whittle the final margin to 22.

Wait, what?

The turnaround began with the insertion of the bench unit. Chaundee Brown entered for Wagner when the latter picked up his second foul less than five minutes after the tip. Hunter Dickinson replaced Austin Davis a few minutes later. When Mike Smith committed an unforced turnover, Brandon Johns came in for him. The final piece: Juwan Howard yanked Isaiah Livers shortly after he got his pocket picked at halfcourt for a UCF layup and put in freshman ball of energy Terrance Williams.

​Brandon Johns gave M a spark off the bench [Campredon]

Before the shift change, Michigan had been a disjointed mess on both ends of the floor. UCF had their choice between layups and open threes. The Wolverines were 5/16 from the floor when Williams checked in; the Knights were 11/16. Williams immediately drove hard at the rim, absorbed contact, and converted an and-one.

It was an entirely different game from there. Michigan closed the half on a 20-6 run, shooting 11-for-16 with no turnovers while holding UCF to a mere 2-for-11 from the field. Dickinson made all four of his shots and dominated the paint; Williams tied the big man for the team lead at the half with eight points; Brown had seven, including a three assisted by Johns, who also had a bucket, two rebounds, a steal, and a block in the opening stanza.

Despite the awful start, Michigan went into the tunnel up four. Wagner drove for a bucket on the opening possession of the second half. Upset Watch quickly morphed into Extended KenPom Time. Helped by Dickinson taking a bigger share of the minutes, the Wolverines solved UCF's frequent changeups from man to zone, creating a series of open looks that largely benefited Brown, who knocked down three more three-pointers to finish with a team-high 18 points.

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Big Dunkinson [Campredon]

With Wagner and Livers picking up their defensive effort and overall play, the other two bench stars weren't needed to do much in the second half. Eli Brooks played his part stabilizing the team at the point while Smith took a back seat to the hot hand and energetic defense of Brown.

If we can stretch the definition of a "run" to include a 25-minute period of time, Michigan went of a 63-21 run from the time Williams entered the game in the first half to when he hit a free throw with 3:41 remaining. By that point Williams was joined on the court by Jaron Faulds, Jace Howard, Zeb Jackson, and Adrien Nunez.

That's the kind of depth we like to see. Michigan now sits at 4-0 and hopes to host NC State, which canceled their game scheduled for Saturday because of a positive COVID test in the program, on Wednesday night for their final non-conference game.

[Hit THE JUMP for the box score]