LOUISVILLE, Ky. — Juwan Howard's most recent loss came on April 10, at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn, New York. It was the final game of the regular season for the Miami Heat. Howard, an assistant coach at the time, watched as the Heat fell, 113-94, to the Nets. The leading scorer was Dwyane Wade, with 25 points.
Howard's surroundings were different Tuesday night, when he lost his first game as Michigan basketball's coach. No. 5 Michigan entered the KFC Yum! Center with a chance to earn another signature victory as the underdog after blitzing through the Battle 4 Atlantis tournament in the Bahamas last week. By beating No. 1 Louisville, the Wolverines could have made a case to be ranked as the nation's top team.
It was not to be.
[ Louisville sends message to Michigan: 'We had heard they wanted some smoke' ]
Michigan's high-powered offense sputtered to its slowest starts in recent memory, scoring just 18 first-half points as the Cardinals slugged their way to a 58-43 victory.
After the loss, Howard seemed anything but defeated. He sat at the podium and answered questions with earnest confidence and enthusiasm — and a bit of defiance. He said the Wolverines proved they were a top defensive teams after holding Louisville's explosive offense to a sub-standard performance. He praised point guard Zavier Simpson for getting into the paint and finishing and making plays for his teammates, despite a relatively quiet game. And when he fielded a question about whether fatigue played a role in Tuesday's loss (Michigan's fourth game in six days), Howard replied, "We don't make excuses, sir. Nope."
Since Howard was hired, he has often referred to a "growth mindset" to describe how he operates as a coach. And after Tuesday's loss, Howard again verbalized that idea: Michigan's loss will serve as learning experience for Howard, his staff and the players.
And there's plenty to learn from.
"This builds characters, and it's the best way to learn," Howard said. "Sometimes we get punched in the mouth and our guys, they will respond. I trust, we all trust."
For the most part, Michigan (7-1) breezed through its first seven games. The average margin of victory was 16.4 points, including two top-10 wins and two other games against potential NCAA tournament teams.
Louisville was the Wolverines' first roadblock. And while the Cardinals didn't shoot the ball particularly well (just 36.7%), they entered the game clear-eyed about what they had to do to stop Michigan, and what they could do to score against the Wolverines.
It started with shutting down point guard Zavier Simpson, who averaged more than 10 assists in the Bahamas and who has sliced through almost every type of defense in his career. Louisville coach Chris Mack seemed determined not to end up as the latest coach bemoaning Simpson's effectiveness. He studied Simpson's game, and noticed the point guard rejects a lot of screens, acting as if he'll use them before driving and dishing. Mack noticed how some teams tried to go under screens, only for Simpson to go the opposite direction, barreling down the lane.
Mack compared Simpson to a quarterback: Given enough time, he would tear apart the defense. So the Cardinals blitzed him, hedging hard on every ball screen with the center to throw off Simpson's timing and force him and the offense to reset. The tactic neutralized Michigan's ball-screen offense, which had been among the nation's best, and forced the Wolverines to look for different sources of offense. Simpson had zero assists in that ugly first half, and he finished with just three.
"The deeper he gets in the lane, the more he puts your off-ball defenders in a bind," Mack said. " 'How much do I help him?' And in the Bahamas, he’d just get in the lane and spray it out. Livers and Brooks, they couldn’t miss. So all we talked about was keeping him out of the lane and then hard close-outs. Hands were up early. I really didn’t think they generated a lot of good looks."
Meanwhile, the other three defenders who were away from the ball stayed connected. Mack said it was their responsibility to tag the roll man while staying disciplined on Michigan's shooters.
When the Wolverines went cold early, they turned to Teske in the post. Louisville also had a plan for that, forcing him to catch the ball farther from the basket and sending a guard to dig at the ball. While Teske led Michigan with 18 points, it took him 18 shots to do it.
"I give our guys credit for locking in on a gameplan," Mack said, "but most importantly, executing it.”
"They do a great job of defending overall," Howard said. "We knew that their fives like to hedge on ball screens. Our goal was to make sure that we could get those paint touches that we were comfortable with getting throughout the year thus far. We practiced it ... they did a really good job of compacting the paint, keeping us out of the paint from going downhill."
And while Michigan's defense limited Louisville to 0.91 points per possession, a typically good defensive mark, the Cardinals had a plan. Against the Wolverines' drop coverage, which features the on-ball defender going over a ball screen and the center dropping back in the lane, Louisville asked center Steven Enoch to step out and hit jumpers. He did, shooting 2-for-5 on 3s and scoring 13 points.
The other Cardinal player to score double digits — Jordan Nwora, who had a game-high 22 — also benefited from a sound plan. After the game, Mack said Louisville noticed Michigan's drop coverage change in response to the pick-and-pop. The Wolverines became more aggressive, with the big man stepping out farther. In response, the Cardinals turned Nwora loose. He got to the rim and hit some tough shots that proved key in holding off Michigan.
"If you’re patient and you come off it, and your on-ball defender is getting picked off by the 5, there’s nobody between you and the hoop," Mack said. "He’s 10 feet away. You’ve got a pull-up, they try to get a little bit more aggressive in the second half, and a couple times we turned the corner and got all the way to the basket.”
Louisville expected Michigan to play through Simpson. It expected Michigan to play through Teske on the other end. And the Cardinals put together a plan that gave them their best chance to win. For Michigan, it didn't help that shots weren't falling (the Wolverines had an effective field-goal percentage of 28.5% Tuesday). But the Wolverines were beaten by a team that knew what to expect. As Howard knows, both from his time as a player and a coach, that's basketball. What is successful one week gets defended the next. Teams now understand what Howard's system looks like. It's up to him and the players to continue evolving.
They'll have some time off before Friday night when they face Iowa, a team that blitzed Michigan in Iowa City last winter and features a center, Luka Garza, who could again test the defense's drop coverage with his shooting. Tuesday night's loss might have been a missed opportunity to earn another signature victory. But for Michigan, the most important part comes next: making sure it continues to grow and develop as conference play begins, to avoid similar losses.
"Well, we've played eight games, and we played some tough teams throughout that stretch," Howard said. "We've also learned from each game, and gotten better game-by-game. I trust that we will get better. This is a great development and transition on leading into our conference play.
"The beauty of this game is that you get a chance to play again on Friday, at home, versus Iowa, and we are chomping at the bit."
Contact Orion Sang at osang@freepress.com. Follow him on Twitter @orion_sang. Read more on the Michigan Wolverines and sign up for our Wolverines newsletter.
https://news.google.com/__i/rss/rd/articles/CBMihQFodHRwczovL3d3dy5mcmVlcC5jb20vc3Rvcnkvc3BvcnRzL2NvbGxlZ2UvdW5pdmVyc2l0eS1taWNoaWdhbi93b2x2ZXJpbmVzLzIwMTkvMTIvMDQvbWljaGlnYW4tYmFza2V0YmFsbC1zY29yZS1sb3Vpc3ZpbGxlLzI2MDQ1NzkwMDEv0gEkaHR0cHM6Ly9hbXAuZnJlZXAuY29tL2FtcC8yNjA0NTc5MDAx?oc=5
2019-12-04 11:00:00Z
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