Gonzaga looks like the team that beat this year, Baylor is a short-headed second and the third hottest team in college basketball is … Michigan?
It is true.
The Wolverines are now 11-0 after beating the no. 77-54 on Tuesday night. 9 Wisconsin destroyed. Wisconsin was a tough opponent who had lost only two games before. They beat Michigan State by two figures on Christmas Day 12 and won two consecutive games in the top 10 game with no. 7 Michigan. But it was never close on Tuesday. The Wolverines led 40 at one point and had a 43-6 run that bridged the first and second halves. Four players finish in double figures, and this is the first time in the history of basketball basketball that a team has beaten three opponents in the rankings by at least 19 points.
“They were trapped to make everything difficult for their opponent, and it’s not easy,” Michigan coach Juwan Howard said after the game. “It’s the purchase to drill it into practice, watch it on film and put the work into practice if it feels uncomfortable.”
In two short seasons, Howard has managed to make the Michigan program his own.
Before taking over as head coach of his alma mater, Howard was one of the most enjoyable coaches in the NBA and built a great career as an assistant to the Miami Heat. When Howard took over at Michigan, former head coach John Beilein had just taken an NBA head coach position in Cleveland after a 12-season run at Ann Arbor.
There used to be NBA players who took over college programs, but no one was as successful as Juwan Howard. Avery Johnson was the head coach at Alabama for four years and had little success; Penny Hardaway has won a few winning games in Memphis with James Wiseman and Precious Achiuwa, but he has only had a team once in three seasons.
Michigan made an early statement in the 2019-20 season, 7-0 and Gonzaga defeated to win Battle 4 Atlantis Tournament. Howard was able to do that with a team he inherited from Beilein, filled with players he does not recruit. The Big Ten was the toughest conference in college basketball last season and the Wolverines were still able to finish with a 19-12 record. Howard wasted no time in the off-season and brought in a high school talent at the higher level, including four-star recruits Hunter Dickinson, Zeb Jackson, Terrence Williams and Howard’s son, Jace.
The Wolverines lost just two seniors and returned key players such as senior Isaiah Livers, sophomore Franz Wagner and graduate students Austin Davis and Mike Smith. Michigan was at the No. 25 spot this season, and it took five weeks and a 6-0 record until Howard’s group gradually began to climb the rankings.
“Everyone is inside. Everyone has bought the culture within two short years and I think there is another step for us,” Isaiah Livers said after the victory in Wisconsin. “It’s similar to my second year, starting 17-0, but I think this team is much deeper.”
This is a Michigan team that lives and dies through their defense.
“To play in Howard’s team, you have to play defense,” Livers said. “We just said, ‘Why don’t you try to stop every team from carrying out their offenses?’ ‘And it just led to this culture of being disruptive and blocking shots stealing in the gap, talking, just flying around. We want to play as if there are six guys on defense. ”
Michigan had nine blocks against Wisconsin and had a lot of depth and height in the front yard with 7-year-old freshman Dickinson, 6-foot Wagner and 6-year-old Brandon Johns Jr. junior. of 6 feet.
Wagner, the younger brother of former Michigan player and current Washington Wizards forward Moe Wagner, is the improved player in this Wolverines team and was the best player on the field on Tuesday night. Wagner only had £ 205 in his first year and worked with his brother in DC during the long quarantine period and now plays at £ 226.
“He just practiced his butt all spring,” he said. Jon Sanderson, strength and conditioning coach of Michigan, told Brendan Quinn of the Athletic. “I mean, he pushed it. It was not perfect. He did not have an actual weight room, but he made the most of the three-month period and then returned to campus, determined to be different. ‘
Wagner has scored double figures in the last five games and finished Tuesday night with a double double, which includes 15 points, 10 rebounds, four steals and one block. Due to the extra weight, he is no longer pushed into the track and finds different ways to score.
Michigan has no five-star one-time recruits on the team. Every player on the rankings bought early on how Howard Michigan’s basketball should look. Other elite high school players want to be a part of it and learn from a coach like Howard, and that has helped tremendously on the site. Michigan has the first yard class no. 1 for next season, led by five-star wing Caleb Houstan.
“We worked very hard to identify high-profile players and the pieces that will help our program,” Howard said. ‘We want to make sure we have high quality young men, from families who can come and represent the Block’. M ‘and this university with dignity and grace. ”
Shaka Smart took six seasons in Texas to finally get some traction, and what Howard did in two years in Michigan is nothing special. There are so many gripping pieces at the university level, from recruiting to preparing games, hiring the right coaching staff and building a winning culture that everyone buys from. Gonzaga may get the best as the best team this season, but Michigan is hiding in the shadows and has all the tools to be there as one of the Final Four teams in Indianapolis.
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