Michigan offers glimmer of hope it may yet salvage its season
Admit it. You thought Michigan was toast after Caris LeVert's season-ending foot injury earlier this month, right? I know I certainly did.
This was a player who led Michigan in nearly every major statistical category, from scoring (14.9 ppg), to rebounding (4.9 rpg), to assists (3.7 apg), to steals (1.8 spg). And this was a Wolverines team that hadn't even been all that good with LeVert, having dropped six non-league games and left themselves ample work to do in Big Ten play just to get within sight of the NCAA tournament bubble.
Michigan has shown in its first three games without LeVert that it still has a pulse even without its best player. The injury-plagued Wolverines won at Rutgers last week, took Big Ten favorite Wisconsin to overtime on Saturday and throttled previously surging Nebraska on Tuesday night despite also losing starting point guard Derrick Walton to a lingering toe injury.
The victory over Nebraska improved Michigan to 13-8 overall and 6-3 in the Big Ten, good enough for no worse than fourth place at the halfway point of league play. The Wolverines don't appear in most mock brackets today because they're still only No. 66 in RPI and No. 78 in KenPom, yet it's tough to imagine them missing the NCAA tournament if they can maintain a spot in the Big Ten's upper tier the rest of the season.
Michigan's formula for success in recent weeks is the antithesis of what it was in recent years under Beilein.
The Wolverines were one of the nation's elite offensive teams with Trey Burke, Tim Hardaway Jr., Mitch McGary, Glenn Robinson III and Nik Stauskas, but they don't have that kind of firepower now, especially without Levert. Before injuring himself in the final seconds of Michigan's victory over Northwestern on Jan. 17, LeVert accounted for 14 of the Wolverines' 20 field goals, scoring seven himself and assisting on seven others.
What Michigan has done to offset its historic plunge in offensive efficiency is become a defense-oriented team in Big Ten play. Switching between man-to-man, a 2-3 zone and Beilein's tradmark 1-3-1 zone, the Wolverines have allowed the least points per game and the second fewest points per possession of any Big Ten team so far since conference season began.
Scoring remains a struggle for Michigan, but the past few games have offered glimmers of hope.
Walton shouldered a greater scoring and distributing load in Michigan's first two games without LeVert. Zak Irvin showed Tuesday night that he can do more than just be a spot-up shooter. And unheralded freshmen Aubrey Dawkins an Muhammad-Ali Abdur-Rahkman have contributed far more than anticipated when pressed into duty by injuries, the former showing grace and athleticism in transition and an accurate jumper and the latter attacking the rim with an ability to finish through contact.
The return of Walton and the further development of Irvin, Dawkins and Abdur-Rahkman will be crucial for Michigan because the Wolverines' upcoming schedule is daunting. Their next seven games include a pair against Michigan State, road games against Maryland, Illinois and Indiana and home games against Iowa and Ohio State.
That sounds daunting, but don't be too quick to count Michigan out. If the last three games have taught us anything, it's that the Wolverines sometimes find a way when there doesn't appear to be one.
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Jeff Eisenberg is the editor of The Dagger on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at daggerblog@yahoo.com or follow him on Twitter!
