2019-20 umass lowell

12/29/2019 – Michigan 86, UMass-Lowell 60 – 10-3, 1-1 Big Ten

As a general rule, whenever Michigan plays an opponent and I think "oh, they have a hockey team" that opponent is going to show up with a 6'5" center and a point guard wearing a beret. One of their bench guys will have wooden teeth. UMass-Lowell has a hockey team. They put a freshman named "Connor Withers" on Jon Teske.

Facing a vastly overmatched opponent without their team leader in scoring, spacing, and uh leading, Michigan stuck to its ultimate weapons: Teske's massive size advantage, and Zavier Simpson's rocket passing. The combo helped to build an early 19-7 lead by the time television viewers joined us after thoroughly enjoying the last five minutes of #2 Ohio State's loss to West Virginia.

Laughing at Ohio State's misfortunes was a good warmup for basketball's second laugher this Christmas Break, which UMass-Lowell played without their third-leading scorer, on one-and-a-half day's rest, and without a player even Nebrasketball coach-turned-announcer Tim Miles (who's pretty good!) would play at forward. Though Juwan Howard made liberal use of his bench, we still got plenty of chuckles from watching Teske and the 6-foot-7 dwarves. We also got 19 assists—ten from Simpson—as the Wolverines took advantage of UML's distinct lack of length. Teske finished with a career-high 25 points (on 16 shot equivalents) in as many minutes, a delight made sweeter as the former Nebraska head coach recounted Big Sleep's previous career high of 20 versus his Huskers. Colin Castleton got in on the action too, with 9 rebounds, three assists, and a block in a solid—if not exactly representative—13 minutes.

Michigan didn't mess around, leaning on their distinct height advantage and running two-big sets [Campredon]

It wasn't all so charming. Most concerning was the first half by Johns, who started in place of Livers and looked awkward trying to guard various little guys and turned an open three attempt into a turnover when he wasn't ready for Simpson's drive and kick. He played the second half with a lot more confidence—the next time X kicked it to him Johns was ready to fake and drive for an easy two, and Johns was there late to help put the game away with his characteristically timely offensive rebounding.

His early giveaway was part of a rather sloppy Sunday afternoon—after climbing back to respectability in this department Michigan coughed up 14 turnovers. This an excusable, if unfortunate, side effect of a team-wide effort to put together a highlight reel of assists. Once Franz Wagner turned up his second wide open three to get the ball to Teske in the paint I was ready for them to just start shooting.

Building confidence [Campredon]

The one guy who didn't seem to mind putting the ball on the basket was Eli Brooks, who was 3/7 from distance, 6/12 on mostly long-ish twos, and unveiled a Rip Hamilton-esque catch and turn jumper that looked like a thing that'll be open against a much higher level of competition. Brooks was also the only Michigan player to play more than 4 minutes without a turnover.

UMass Lowell's slasher corps capitalized on those, of course, scoring, by my count, at least a third of their points on transition drives. The other worrisome bit was the play of Adrian Nunez, who got worked by UML's drivers. That was it for real scoring threats—most of Michigan's defensive possessions featured a handily denied three-point line (UML finished 4/13 with everything either contested or off the hands of a bad shooter), drives into a large man's chest, or bad jumpers that might burble into the basket, bounce off the shot clock, or both.

With Livers out and Wagner a bit under the weather Brooks was Michigan's go-to guy at the arc. [Campredon]

Backup hour featured two points of interest: a Luke Wilson three (yay!) and more good play from Cole Bajema, who racked up a block, an assist, a slam dunk, and two steals in just two minutes.

None of the above moved the needle for the gauntlet coming up nearly as much as losing Livers an to apparent groin injury at the start of this little stretch versus the Lilliputians. Michigan's vacation ends emphatically a week from now as they kick off real Big Ten play with a trip up to Breslin. From there the Wolverines get Kenpom #10 Purdue at Crisler, then visit Minnesota and Iowa. Getting Isaiah back for any of that would be huge.

[Box score after the JUMP]:

THE ESSENTIALS

THE US

Seth's graphic [click to embiggen]:

We haven't had an update on Isaiah Livers, who exited the Presbyterian game with a muscle strain in what appeared to be his upper groin. There's no need to rush Livers back for this game regardless of the severity of his injury. I'd expect Brandon Johns, who missed the Presbyterian game with an illness but was on the bench in street clothes, to start in his place.

UPDATE: The update isn't what you'd hope.

Per Michigan, Isaiah Livers is out indefinitely with a groin injury. No timetable for his return. Big blow for U-M as Big Ten play is set to restart soon.

— Brendan Quinn (@BFQuinn) December 27, 2019

Juwan Howard said he isn't sure of a starting lineup yet but mentioned Livers's absence is an opportunity for Johns and Colin Castleton.

THE LINEUP CARD

Seth's graphic [click to embiggen]:

Seth noted while putting this together that, while not all UML players had 247 pages, those that did tended to be listed a couple inches shorter than they are on the current roster. Take that for what it's worth. This team is already quite small, especially since starting "center" Josh Gantz's status is up in the air.

[Hit THE JUMP for the rest of the preview.]