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11/10/2021 – Michigan 88, Buffalo 76 – 1-0

No column for a quick turnaround column on a WTKA day, but here are some

BULLETS

Dickinson things. I'm not sure if this is a sane thing to say, but it felt like Hunter Dickinson had a quiet 27 points last night. For some reason I thought that he wasn't doing all that much; then you'd look at his stats and think "uhhhhhhh am I having a stroke?"

Best I can figure is that there are various Hunter Dickinson moments where my brain fast-forwards through the inevitable hoop and starts thinking about how Michigan needs to get back on defense. Supporting evidence is that when Dickinson does miss there is a record scratch in my head and I have to remember not to be offended at the cosmos. It is amazing what you can take for granted, and how quickly.

Dickinson went to his right hand a couple of times here, once spinning baseline for an and-one dunk over a befuddled Generic White Post Stiff. He also did a good job not picking up charging calls on the very frequent occurrences where he was provided a pocket pass in PNR and Buffalo was rotating over extremely well. The one call he did pick up was hot garbage, naturally.

if 29 minutes counts as a sixth man [Campredon]

Sixth man: hello. Much of the offseason chatter centered on Terrance Williams II, and how he was a different guy in year two. That bore itself out here as Williams had 15 points on 9 shot equivalents, a couple of offensive rebounds, an assist, and drew the defensive assignment on Jeenathan Williams after his outburst in the second half. Per Craig Ross, Williams already had 28 points when Michigan stuck TWII on him and finished with 32. The buckets he did get were heavily contested.

Williams has clearly slimmed down after a year of Camp Sanderson and took a step towards trashing his freshman numbers by hitting 2/3 from deep, one of them a semi-transition look that was Chaundee-esque in its authority. He also hit a late-clock Dirk fadeaway and took his man to the bucket on a drive.

That was an impressive suite of skills to display in just one game.

Williams isn't a guy who's likely to end up on NBA radars and so I am looking forward to having him around as an upperclassmen, when opposing fanbases are going to moan about how this guy is still around and isn't he 80 and why does he have to do various this well while not being an NBA caliber athlete.

[After THE JUMP: Spain!]