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A familiar theme is emerging whenever Michigan basketball leaves the friendly confines of the Crisler Center.
Coming into their Top 15 matchup with rival Michigan State, the Wolverines had made just 6-of-37 attempts from behind the three-point arc in road games at Louisville and Illinois. Michigan also shot only 35 percent from the floor in those contests.
Those trends continued Sunday at the Breslin Center, as the Wolverines connected on just 5 of 23 attempts from deep, and finished the game shooting 36 percent overall (25-of-69).
“We got some good shots, especially in the first half,” head coach Juwan Howard said. “There were some shots that did not fall. Unfortunately for us, it’s been like our norm on the road where the threes don’t fall for us.”
In three true road games this season, the Wolverines are shooting 36.5 percent from the floor (67-of-189) and an abysmal 18.3 percent from three-point range (11-of-60).
It’s an issue Michigan will need to correct quickly if they are going to contend in the Big Ten this season. The Wolverines host Purdue in their next contest, but still have road trips to Minnesota and Iowa later this month.
“We’ve just got to be confident in the shots we take,” senior center Jon Teske said. “We’ve got to trust that those shots will go in. Coach [Phil] Martelli said, ‘We got a lot of shots in the first half. How many of those shots did you trust to go in, expect to go in? Or, are you just kind of shooting it?’ So, we’ve just got to have the mindset that this shot’s going to go in, regardless if it does or doesn’t.
“You’re away from home, the environment is different, the travel is different, but that’s no excuse. You’ve just got to come in, come prepared to knock those shots down.”
Sophomore Brandon Johns Jr., who started in place of injured small forward Isaiah Livers, agreed with the suggestion the Wolverines had open looks, and doubled down on the need to take advantage of those opportunities.
“Shot selection was good, I thought it was actually really good,” Johns Jr. said. “I thought we were swinging it, I thought we were trying to get the open man and everything. I think that was a big key for us, to hit the open man.
“We got a lot of shooting in before [the game], but I think we hesitated a lot with our threes and second-guessed ourselves, which caused us to miss them. So, we need to be confident when we shoot them. We’ve got to stay mentally strong, stay composed and the more we do that the more our shots will fall.”
Just three games into their Big Ten schedule, the Wolverines already find themselves 2.5 games out of first place in the conference, and with those road games at Minnesota and Iowa on the horizon, Michigan could find itself out of the race before it’s barely begun if the poor shooting away from Ann Arbor continues.
