Michigan basketball easily dispatches Eastern Michigan 83-66 in Juwan Howard's return
Tarris Reed Jr.'s body sprawled across the Block M at the center court logo of Crisler Center when he grabbed the loose ball and whipped it up court to his former roommate, Dug McDaniel, in stride.
The sophomore point guard had nobody between himself and the basket, so he stuttered his step and appeared to gather the ball in an attempt to go up for a dunk; only at the final moment to opt for the safer finger roll.
While it ballooned the lead to 12 all the same, McDaniel heard about it on the back to the huddle: from Jaelin Llewellyn, Jace Howard, Ian Burns — even his recently returned head coach Juwan Howard appeared to flash a wry smile before he motioned for a whiteboard.
“It’s a blessing, truly a blessing,” said Howard postgame, his first time speaking to media since March. “To be back on the sidelines, something that I love doing, being the head coach at the University of Michigan men's basketball program, I just love the maize and blue."
It was a day of smiles for Michigan basketball's entire team, which unlike last year in a five-point thriller in Detroit, didn't need until final minutes to put Eastern Michigan away, this time 83-66 on Saturday.
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Five Wolverines were in double-figures for the second game in a row: Olivier Nkamhoua just missed a double-double with 17 points and nine rebounds, Nimari Burnett added 14, Reed had 13 points and eight rebounds, Terrance Williams II scored 13 (all in the first half) and Dug McDaniel had 11.
"Just the unselfishness of this group," Howard said. "Just showed you guys are really sharing the basketball."
Even though U-M got its first relatively easy win in more than a month, Howard's return was the main story line. Not only was Saturday the first time Howard has served as head coach since his heart surgery on Sept. 15. but, this comes on the heels of his altercation with strength and conditioning coach Jon Sanderson.
Sanderson, who filed an HR report and didn't travel with the team to Iowa, was again not on hand Saturday.
"I'm not sure," Howard said of Sanderson's status with the program postgame.
Pivotal minute flips sloppy second half
Michigan's comfortable lead had dwindled to 10 points after a sloppy start to the second half. There was no flow, with 12 combined fouls called in the first 10 minutes after the break, as U-M scored just 10 points in that stretch as it made just 4 of 13 field goals and committed seven turnovers.
Eastern Michigan's star and former Detroit Cass Tech standout Tyson Acuff took advance during that stretch, made four EMU buckets as he led all scores with 24 points on 10-for-27 shooting, and cut the lead to 59-49 with 10:00 to play. But the moment the Eagles seemed to grab the momentum, it swung right back.
Yusuf Jihad missed a wide open 3-pointer on one end which would have cut EMU's deficit to seven, before Tray Jackson buried a corner 3 on the other. The Eagles pushed the ball in transition going the other way but missed the dunk; only for Reed to put home the alley-oop from Jaelin Llewellyn on a fast break just a few seconds later.
It sparked the Wolverines as they made seven consecutive buckets from the field: a Llewellyn 3-pointer, Nkamhoua dunk, Reed layup, Burnett 3-pointer and Jackson 3-pointer to go up 76-61 with 5:05 to play.
"It was great, he brings a good energy, we've been slowly and steadily working up to it and it was just good to see him out there, just being a part of it and being able to do what he does," Nkamhoua said. "He's someone that we all love and respect, it's just a good thing to see."
Even when a Williams 3-pointer broke the streak, Reed got an offensive rebound and Nkamhoua made a layup to score for an eighth consecutive possession and then a mid-range jumper on a ninth straight trip down court.
Hot from the start
Defense seemed optional in the first half for Eastern Michigan, as the Wolverines made 59% (17 of 29) of their attempts from the floor, 47% (8 of 17) of their tries from long range and even 7-for-9 free throws.
Burnett sandwiched a pair of 3-pointers around a Williams long ball and a bucket by Nkamhoua, as Michigan went on a quick 11-0 run in just more than 3 minutes to build a 13-4 just after the first media timeout.
From there, Reed continued his active play that was on display when he scored a career-high 19 last weekend at Iowa. First, it was a pair of free throws. Next, he made an and-one layup and got the free throw to drop, before on the next possession he corralled a loose ball that was nearly a turnover and laid it in for the 26-17 lead.
Even on defense, Reed was active; he got switched onto Acuff out on the perimeter, held his own and contested the shot at the rim and came away with a rebound.
EMU would cut Michigan's lead to five with a quick 6-2 spurt, then Williams caught fire. The senior drilled a step-back three and a pair of free throws, before he added a contested midrange jumper and another long ball later in the half.
The Wolverines averaged a blistering 1.58 points per possession and scored on 67.7% of their first half trips.
Contact Tony Garcia: apgarcia@freepress.com. Follow him at @realtonygarcia.
This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Michigan basketball tops EMU in Juwan Howard's return as head coach
