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Having dropped each of their past two conference games, Michigan looks to take a step back in the right direction as they host Penn State tonight.
The Wolverines have dropped to 2-4 in conference play and fell out of the AP Poll after having reached as high as No. 4 in the nation earlier this season.
Michigan got off to a bit of a slow start in this one, as the Nittany Lions took an 15-8 lead in the opening six minutes on the back of senior Lamar Stevens. The Wolverines struck back quickly however with an 11-0 run to take the lead, 19-15 midway through the half.
The rest of the first half was controlled by Penn State however, as the Nittany Lions counter-punched to take a 37-28 lead into the locker room.
POSITIVES:
- Shooting guard Eli Brooks got off to a quick start against Penn State, hitting three of his first four shot attempts for 7 quick points in the early-goings. It was good to see his strong performance at Iowa carry over into this game.
- Michigan dominated down low in the first half, finishing with 22 points in the paint while allowing just 6 for the Nittany Lions. Brandon Johns Jr. was particularly strong down low, scoring 9 points on 4-of-7 shooting for the Wolverines. Senior center Jon Teske was held to 4 points, but made a bigger impact on the boards than he has in recent games, as he’s already up to 6 rebounds. With the familiar outside shooting struggles present again in this game, Michigan will need to continue to attack inside.
NEGATIVES:
- Lamar Stevens was a problem for the Wolverines in those first 20 minutes. He’s got 14 points on 6-of-10 shooting. Myreon Jones was another matchup-problem for Michigan. He had 12 points on 5-of-6 shooting. It’ll be interesting to see what defensive adjustments are made for those two players in the second half.
- Entering Wednesday’s game, Michigan was ranked T-63rd (out of 353) in three-point shooting at 36 percent. That percentage has been dropping of late however, and the Wolverines did nothing to halt that trend in the first half tonight. Michigan finished the half an ugly 2-of-10 from deep. This has become a troublesome trend for the Wolverines.
- Michigan was sloppy with the ball down the stretch of the opening 20 minutes, in particular point guard Zavier Simpson. As a whole, the Wolverines finished with 8 turnovers in the first half, and Simpson had 4 of those himself. Simply put, that’s not going to get the job done against a solid Big Ten team.