Deepak is a writer for the Big Ten microsite of Rush The Court. Follow him on Twitter for more about B1G hoops at @dee_b1g.

As soon as Duke went down at North Carolina State on Saturday, Michigan was next in line to claim the top national ranking so long as it took care of business on Sunday. The Wolverines had to win just one more game, but the timing could not have been worse because that one game was against one of their rivals, Ohio State, on the road. While the Wolverines had been on a major roll, the Buckeyes were suffering from a little bit of an identity crisis because they had not beaten a ranked team after more than two months of basketball. Even though the Wolverines cut into a 21-point deficit and came back to tie the game, they fell short 56-53 in Columbus. The following are a couple of concerns derived from the Wolverines’ loss:

John Beilein’s freshmen will run into some trouble against formidable opponents on the road.

1. Nik Stauskas should not be asked to defend bigger forwards like Deshaun Thomas – It is a well known fact by now that Stauskas has been extremely effective shooting from long range (50% 3FG) but he was 0-of-3 from deep against Ohio State and finished scoreless. Sunday’s loss also proved that without the freshman guard on the floor finding open spots, Beilein’s offense will not be very smooth. He has averaged 30.1 MPG so far this season, but only played 23 minutes in the loss after picking up early fouls because he was defending bigger forwards such as Thomas or Sam Thompson. Beilein plays just one true big man, Jordan Morgan, along with three guards – Stauskas, Tim Hardaway Jr., and Glenn Robinson III. None of these three are big enough to defend a bigger forward and as a result, Stauskas was stuck defending bigger players on several possessions. Robinson was too slow to keep up with Thomas, but Stauskas couldn’t hold his position as Thomas pounded the ball inside the paint to end up with 20 points. During several key possessions during the final minutes of the game, Stauskas was assigned to Shannon Scott or Aaron Craft but had to switch over to Thomas on occasion, and even during one possession to (gulp) Evan Ravenel, who took the ball to the basket immediately after recognizing the mismatch. If Morgan is assigned to the biggest opposing forward, then Beilein needs to figure out a way to “hide” Stauskas on defense because clearly a frazzled Stauskas won’t help the Wolverines on the offensive end. This will be a tough task for Beilein to solve because Robinson will have a difficult time staying out of foul trouble because his freshmen wings will be exploited by aggressive players like Indiana’s Victor Oladipo or Will Sheehey.
2. Tim Hardaway Jr. needs to be more active on the offensive end – It may seem like we are picking on Hardaway’s game again, but we have to point out his inefficiency because he settled for the long-range shot way too much (1-of-6 3FG) during the first half. Hardaway has been great this season with his shot selection and has been offensively versatile enough to average 16.3 PPG. But he needs to be more assertive against tougher competition on the road because the freshmen will have a tough time. Stauskas and Robinson have been a more-than-competent duo, but they are still freshmen who may have a tough time staying out of foul trouble or slump as we head into the heart of conference play. Trey Burke did not dominate the game either, scoring just 15 points and turning the ball over four times, but that’s understandable because Aaron Craft decided to glue himself to Burke throughout the game. But Hardaway should have had a bigger game because no Buckeye could realistically match up with him. Thomas is too slow and not known for his defense and Thompson does not have the size to keep Hardaway from getting into the paint. But it took him until the last 10 minutes of the game to recognize those mismatches and only then did he pull the Wolverines back into the game by consistently cutting toward the basket. One of the best plays of the game was Burke’s alley-oop pass to Hardaway in transition which ignited a big run that led to a tie game in the last few minutes. If Hardaway could have looked for more points in and around the paint throughout, he could have changed the the arc of the game much earlier than when Michigan finally did.

Despite the concerns listed above, there were a few positives for Michigan in the loss. The game showed that they can chip away at a big lead, even in a hostile environment, and Spike Albrecht was very effective by scoring seven key points in just 11 minutes of action. But the freshmen may continue to have a tough time on the road against formidable opponents, so veterans like Hardaway need to bail them out. It will definitely be interesting to see how the Wolverines will react to their first loss because their next opponent on the road is also known for its big guards who will exploit size and quickness mismatches — the Minnesota Gophers.

Deepak Jayanti (270 Posts)

This entry was posted on Monday, January 14th, 2013 at 12:18 pm by Deepak Jayanti and is filed under big ten, microsites. Tagged: john beilein, michigan, nik stauskas, tim hardaway jr. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.