Michigan basketball finds its offensive touch against Southern Utah, 87-50
The ball caromed toward the sideline as Michigan basketball's Eli Brooks tangled with a defender for a long rebound. Brooks, whose career has been defined by superior effort, secured possession and zipped a cross-court pass to point guard DeVante’ Jones that ignited a fast break.
As Jones bolted down the left side of the court, center Hunter Dickinson raced down the right. The big fella, as coach Juwan Howard calls him, was rewarded for his sprint with a gorgeous feed from Jones for a dunk.
Small as the sequence might have been, it brought associate head coach Phil Martelli to his feet with applause. The Wolverines had combined a successful defensive possession with the requisite tempo to ignite their transition offense, and the point guard whose uneven play has hamstrung U-M this season made the proper decision to feed the team’s best player.
"I saw a guy who was not overthinking it, was able to take advantage of what the defense gave him," Howard said. "There were times when they went under on screens, and he didn’t second-guess himself. He just sat in there and took a shot. ... He also did a really good job of getting to the basket and touching the paint and making plays for others but also finishing. He came out with a burst that was pretty special."
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Such fluidity permeated a terrific offensive performance for Michigan on Saturday against Southern Utah, an overmatched opponent from the Big Sky Conference. Behind a season-best performance from Jones, who had 13 points and six assists, and the reliable scoring of Dickinson, who poured in 22 points and 10 rebounds, the Wolverines dismantled the Thunderbirds in an 87-50 rout. And while the level of competition makes it difficult to measure progress, there’s no question this game was a step in the right direction, as U-M shot 56.3% from the field.
Much of the early part of this season has featured a Jekyll-and-Hyde demeanor, as Howard’s team had yet to manufacture a quality performance against a quality opponent but struggled in a narrow victory over Tarleton State. Predicting which version of the Wolverines would take the floor has felt like an exercise in futility given the distance between their poles.
Saturday’s unmasking came quickly against a Southern Utah squad lacking the interior defense to handle Dickinson, whose feathery touch demoralized the Thunderbirds’ bench in the first half, and the offensive firepower to combat a hot-shooting evening for Michigan, which looked remarkably crisp in half-court settings.
Jones, the graduate transfer whose adjustment to a higher level of basketball has come in fits and starts, was an early catalyst. Gone were past problems with fouls and decision-making; in their place was ruthless efficiency both scoring and facilitating his teammates. Fewer than 10 minutes had expired before Jones, who’d scored more than nine points in a game just once since Nov. 16, reached double figures through a pair of 3-pointers, a nifty curling layup and a stop-start floater that froze a defender in the lane.
"I knew it was going to be some struggles coming in from Coastal Carolina and coming to a Power Five," Jones said. "I knew it wasn’t going to be all easy and stuff like that. It’s definitely slowing down for me. I think me watching more film has definitely helped."
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His scoring burst gave way to the type of court vision and playmaking ability many envisioned when Jones committed to Michigan following three seasons at Coastal Carolina, where he averaged 5.7 assists per game in 2019-20. Jones flipped a beautiful alley-oop to big man Moussa Diabate that electrified a sparse crowd at Crisler Center and later assisted on 3-pointers for guard Frankie Collins and small forward Terrance Williams II as U-M opened an 18-point lead late in the first half. He went into halftime with 13 points, three assists and only one turnover.
However unlikely a Southern Utah comeback might have seemed, Jones snuffed out the possibility with a flurry of assists early in the second half, pushing the lead to 33 within seven minutes. A lovely pocket pass to Dickinson for a transition dunk reflected the control Howard and the coaching staff have been seeking from Jones, while a properly angled entry pass to Diabate carved out an easy layup within the framework of a well-run offensive set.
Two possessions later, Jones brought the crowd to a crescendo with a breathtaking jump stop-turned-assist. He sliced toward the rim after receiving a pass from Brooks and came to a halt on the edge of the paint, lifting the ball over the head of a nearby defender. Then he dropped a no-look, underhand pass to Diabate for another dunk that extended Michigan’s advantage to 61-28 and forced the Thunderbirds to call timeout.
It was the finest of his six assists on a night the offense flowed.
"The last couple games we haven’t been having fun," Jones said. "And today was a game that we showed that if we have fun together and we play as a team, we can be a real dangerous team."
Contact Michael Cohen at mcohen@freepress.com. Follow him on Twitter @Michael_Cohen13.
This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Michigan basketball finds offensive touch against Southern Utah, 87-50
