18-19 recaps

MGoBlog's tournament coverage is brought to you by HomeSure Lending, who will get your home loan squared away and doesn't hit you with generic "Hey guys, basketball amirite?" autotweets because he's watching the game.

Despite an early barrage of three-pointers from Florida, Michigan was phenomenal again defensively, holding the Gators to 0.80 points per possession and securing a spot in the Sweet 16. Jordan Poole hit four threes and scored a game-high 19 points; Zavier Simpson controlled the game, outplayed his counterpart Andrew Nembhard, and posted 9 points, 9 rebounds, and 9 assists. Solid individual performances across the board aggregated into an impressive overall performance: Michigan grinded out a decent offensive showing and completely shut down the Florida offense, especially as the game wore on.

The first half was defined by runs and surprisingly high-scoring early on. Florida’s first two buckets came on threes: Jalen Hudson hit one in transition and Keyontae Johnson was set up from the pick and roll, but Michigan controlled the paint as they dug out a 15-6 lead. Simpson dished to Jon Teske for two early dunks, Jordan Poole was fouled and had a four point play, then Poole hit a decently contested, quick trigger three in the corner. Florida responded with a 15-6 run of their own to tie the game. Noah Locke got going from off the bench, scoring a quick eight points, and Nembhard’s work in the ball screen game was effective.

Florida’s defense was tricky. The Gators broke out an aggressive 1-3-1 at times, and it worked only because Michigan missed a fair amount of open threes in the first half. Eventually they would settle into man on 1-3-1 possessions after Michigan passed the ball around to distort the zone. The Gators, who finished with the third best defense in the SEC, were willing to defend Michigan with ostensible mismatches, and Simpson was excellent in breaking down different types of defenses. He pushed the ball off rebounds to force those mismatches, picked apart Florida with ball screens, and guided a Michigan offense that was much better at taking advantage of Teske’s size when he was guarded by a smaller player than it had been this season.

[Barron]

The defenses eventually settled in partway through the first half and the game more resembled the slow struggle it was expected to be. Ignas Brazdeikis, the only Wolverine who had a relatively quiet afternoon, had a couple of consequential sequences in the first half — he missed a layup but walled up in help defense at the rim on Kevarrius Hayes to get a stop; he posted up and missed a hook, then committed his second foul, a block. Michigan was without Iggy for the last five minutes of the half. Nembhard hit a three off a dribble handoff when Charles Matthews went under, but Matthews responded a few possessions later by flying down the lane for a two-handed dunk off a ball screen. Hayes scored on an alley-oop layup from Nembhard; Livers finally knocked down a three to give Michigan a 32-28 lead at halftime.

The Wolverines jumped the Gators after the break and looked to be on the verge of a blowout, scoring on their first four possessions. Iggy got a friendly bounce on a 1-4 pop three; Poole threw a nice pass over the top to a mismatched Teske for two; and Poole pump-faked and sliced through the 1-3-1 for an and-one layup. That play prompted a Florida timeout, Poole made the free throw, and then knocked down a step-back three on the next trip.

Michigan led 43-28, but the Gators responded. Hudson replied with a three of his own, Michigan went cold for a short stretch, and a nice drive and dish from Nembhard to Johnson for a dunk capped a 9-0 Gator run. Their lead down to six, John Beilein summoned Simpson for a timeout.

That timeout came with 14:21 left in the game, and Florida only managed to score 12 points the rest of the way. Michigan’s defense, spearheaded by Simpson, was physical and switchable on the perimeter (especially with Isaiah Livers in at the five), stayed in front on dribble drives, and started to take away the three. The Gators shot 6-12 from beyond the arc in the first half, and shot 3-14 in the second. Out of that Michigan timeout, Florida defended the initial action well, but fouled Poole on a three-point attempt. Poole knocked down all three free throws to push the lead back to nine, and Florida started to settle for difficult jumpers. Florida’s leading scorer, KeVaughn Allen, was held in check by Matthews for most of the game, but kept the Gators in striking range with a few buckets.

[Barron]

Michigan went on its decisive run with less than seven minutes left in the game. Up seven, Simpson was tripped and hit both ends of the one-and-one, Teske made himself available for a layup after the Gators shut off Simpson’s initial passing lane, Simpson threw an insane bounce pass to a streaking Livers in transition for a two-handed dunk over Nembhard, and Poole capped the 9-0 spurt with a three. As they pulled away, the defense locked in further and held Florida scoreless on seven straight possessions over that span. As the Gators extended their defense in desperation, Michigan made the right passes to unlock easy dunks for Livers and Matthews to put an exclamation point on the win.

Average offenses don’t have much of a chance when Michigan decides to tighten up the defense, and Florida’s struggles in the second half looked very familiar — no easy looks, tough contests inside, defenders flying around to bother shooters on the perimeter. Forty-nine points was the fewest scored by Florida this season. Even though the Gators had a strong defense, Simpson was the catalyst for what was a more than adequate offensive output, and one of Michigan’s wings — Poole, in this game — was an effective scorer. The Wolverines have been winning games like this all season.

This program has come a long way under John Beilein. Michigan’s in their third straight Sweet 16, they have arguably the best defense in the country (and if not, the second-best), and they notched their third 30-win season since 2013. The Wolverines will head to Anaheim for the West Regional and will face either Texas Tech — Michigan’s only peer in terms of defensive prowess — or Buffalo — a veteran mid-major with the best core in program history. Whichever team wins that Round of 32 game tomorrow will face the nastiest opponent they’ve seen all year.

[Box score after the JUMP]

SPONSORSHIP: MGoBlog's tourney coverage is sponsored by HomeSure Lending.

The sequel wasn’t much different from the original, as Michigan easily handled Montana in their NCAA Tournament opener for the second straight season. Once again, Charles Matthews was clearly the best player of the floor. Once again, the Wolverine defense was phenomenal. Montana missed 21 of their first 25 shots, scored just 6 points in the first 12 minutes of the game, and finished with 0.81 points per possession. Michigan’s lead dwindled to eight after two consecutive Sayeed Pridgett buckets following the halftime break, but the Wolverines responded with a 10-0 run to put the game away. On consecutive possessions, Jordan Poole knocked down an open corner three, Matthews scored on a baseline out of bounds play, Matthews hit a wing three, and Zavier Simpson threw a sky hook alley-oop to Jon Teske. Montana called timeout, the lead was back to 18, and the game was effectively over.

Matthews scored an efficient 22 points, notched a double-double with 10 rebounds (3 offensive), and looked like the player he was last March during Michigan’s run to the national championship game. He opened the scoring with a putback, spun baseline from a post up and made a reverse layup, cut to the basket for a dish from Teske for a dunk, and bailed out a bad possession with a contested baseline fadeaway to beat the shot clock. He got out in transition for a couple of buckets, got to the free throw line, and showed off a complete offensive game — in addition to his characteristically excellent defense. Matthews’s tournament form takes Michigan to another level, and like last season, his athleticism was way too much for Montana.

[Barron]

The undersized Grizzlies were presented with an extremely difficult challenge offensively and most fared poorly. Montana’s starting guards — Michael Oguine, Ahmaad Rorie, and Tommy Falls — combined to shoot 8-33 from the field and were often leveraged into tough looks. Bobby Moorehead jumped a pass at the top of the key, had a breakaway dunk… and missed it. It was that kind of night. Pridgett, a smaller four and Montana’s top scorer, was guarded by Teske when he was on the floor (Teske sagged off of him) and found some success, finishing with 17 points on as many shot equivalents — he had a few nice drives past Teske, knocked down a couple jumpers, and was the lone bright spot for Montana.

Michigan was content to switch often on defense. Simpson found himself guarding Moorehead (Montana’s wing five) and Pridgett (who posted him up for a bucket in the second half); Teske did well to stay in front of smaller and quicker players, as Montana didn’t have any traditional big men. When they did find decent shots, they often missed — Pridgett was basically dared by Teske to take jumpers, there were plenty of long twos that clanged off the rim, and Montana finished 6-24 from behind the arc (after missing their first ten threes). In last season’s game, the Grizzlies got out to a 10-0 lead and then their offense fell apart. Tonight, Michigan’s defense shut them down for most of the first half before eventually letting up; after the outcome had been decided, Montana scored 20 points over the last ten minutes of the game and closed with a 9-2 run in garbage time.

[Barron]

Despite Michigan’s early dominance on the defensive end, the Wolverines weren’t able to race out to a quick blowout. Michigan actually scored less than a point per possession in the first half (a much better second half pushed them to 1.09 over the entire game — better than the output last season against Montana). Before the break, the Wolverines shot just 2-9 from three-point range and had 8 turnovers. Montana trapped Simpson and other ball-handlers on ball screens again, and while there was often an open man, passes got deflected and turned into turnovers. Simpson had 4 turnovers in the first half after taking care of the ball very well over the last few weeks; in the second half, he was more patient and didn’t have any turnovers. He finished with 10 assists.

Until the reserves checked in after the final TV timeout, Michigan went with the tight, seven-man rotation it featured for much of the season. Isaiah Livers was a natural fit in this game: Montana’s lack of size made him the sensible choice as Teske’s primary backup at the five, and Matthews’s outstanding performance lessened the need for his minutes on the wing. Livers enabled Michigan to switch everything and played pretty well on both ends. Matthews was fantastic, Simpson rarely scored but facilitated effectively, and the rest of the starters each scored in double figures. Michigan didn’t take advantage of Teske’s immense size advantage against the Grizzlies with post ups, but did get him a few looks from the ball screen game. Poole was scoreless at halftime but started the run in the second half and got going a little bit. Ignas Brazdeikis was physical, as always, and surely has some new haters after flexing on Falls late in the game.

In the end, it was a stress-free opening round win. Since Florida held on to advance past Nevada, Michigan will face the Gators on Saturday for a spot in the Sweet 16.

[Box score after the JUMP]

For the third time this season, Michigan fell apart in the second half against Michigan State. For the second time, they handed a banner to their rival. This one was closer down the stretch, but State scored the last ten points of the game after erasing a 13-point second half deficit. With the game tied at 60 with less than a minute left, Zavier Simpson missed a wide open three, Cassius Winston muscled a layup past Jon Teske to take the lead, Ignas Brazdeikis missed a floater badly, and Aaron Henry missed the back end of a one-and-one. With the Wolverines trailing by three, Winston tried to give a foul on Jordan Poole, Poole put up a shot, and the refs swallowed their whistle on a clear three-point foul to effectively end the game.

Michigan State started the game up 17-11, but Xavier Tillman’s second foul with about nine minutes left in the first half swung the game. With Nick Ward and Thomas Kithier at the five, Michigan found easy looks in the ball screen game and locked up the Michigan State offense. Two threes by Matt McQuaid were the only Spartan points for the rest of the half, and Michigan took a solid 31-23 lead into halftime. Despite another McQuaid three to open the scoring after the break, Michigan extended the lead: an off-balance Poole three, an Iggy three over Kenny Goins, and a pair of Iggy free throws put the score at 39-26. By that point, Iggy had scored 17 points — he was Michigan’s only source of offense early on and had made a few threes. Michigan State shut him down from there.

Much like in Michigan’s previous losses to State, the Spartans went on an inexorable run over much of the second half to get the win. In those first two wins, the hero was Winston; in this game, it was McQuaid. The senior wing went off for 27 points, including 7-13 from three point range (State’s other players were just 2-10). Winston read Michigan cheating off McQuaid in the weakside corner on the pick and roll, and the sharpshooter made the Wolverines pay. McQuaid was essential in State’s comeback, and came up big late by twice getting State to within two points after they’d fallen down five, baiting Poole into a three-point foul with two minutes left, and hitting a three over Zavier Simpson. Goins had a rough game and Winston took a while to get going, but McQuaid was there to pick up the slack and take advantage of every poor tag and recover.

[Campredon]

The Wolverine offense again bogged down in the second half. In the first half, Michigan scored a respectable 1.15 points per possession, and in the second, they scored just 0.88. Michigan settled and went one-on-one against State’s switch-heavy defense, Tillman was an important presence inside, and Michigan couldn’t feed the ball to Teske when they managed to switch Winston onto him. The Wolverines’ shot selection was about as bad as it’s been all season. Tillman was impressive once again: State was clearly more vulnerable defensively as he sat on the bench in the first half, and Tillman was active on the offensive glass to generate a few extra possessions in the second. Tom Izzo realized that his backup bigs couldn’t handle this game, and played Tillman 18 minutes after halftime.

Michigan defended Cassius Winston well for most of the game, but it was his work in the ball screen game with Xavier Tillman that propelled Michigan State in the second half. Winston, who had just 3 points and 4 assists in the first half, had 11 and 7 in the second — finding McQuaid on the kick and Tillman on the roll, and eventually getting a couple buckets himself. It was a tough Winston layup past Isaiah Livers to beat the shot clock that completed the Spartan comeback and tie the game at 48, and Winston’s ability to power a shot up through a strong Teske contest gave State what would prove to be the game-winner with a little over 30 seconds left. Simpson had a decent game — 10 assists to just 1 turnover — but missed all of his shots from three, including one late in the game. For the third time this season, Winston won that battle.

After State tied the game at 48, Michigan got out in transition for an Iggy dunk and Simpson found Teske for a quick turn and lay-up alley-oop. Winston hit both free throws after a Teske reach in, Poole made 1-2 free throws after getting fouled on a fastbreak, then Winston got around Poole for another late clock layup. After the last TV timeout — Michigan was up one — a nice set play got Poole two free throws (he made both), and Simpson blew past Winston for a layup. Livers responded to McQuaid’s three free throws with a big three, but Michigan didn’t score on their final four possessions. Starting with that McQuaid three over Simpson, State scored on each of their final four possessions.

[Campredon]

Had the foul on Poole’s final shot been called correctly (Winston was clearly trying to give a foul and grabbed Poole’s arm with both hands), Michigan would have needed an 82% free throw shooter to knock down all three free throws and would have needed to get a stop on a State possession with a couple of seconds to work with to even force overtime. None of the refs blew the whistle, Goins caught the airball, and the game was over. Michigan played poorly on both ends in the second half and State’s comeback — outscoring the Wolverines by 18 over the last 17 minutes of the game — didn’t hinge on one play… but it was a tough no-call for Michigan.

State won the Big Ten Tournament, the regular season title, and all three matchups against Michigan. Both teams enter the NCAA Tournament as two-seeds, and Michigan will have to advance past Montana (again) and either Nevada or Florida to get to the Sweet 16. Potential matchups against Texas Tech, Buffalo, Gonzaga, Florida State, Marquette, and Ja Morant would stand in the way of a second straight Final Four.

[Box score after the JUMP]