The Michigan Wolverines (7-2) jumped out quick on the Utah Runnin’ Utes (6-3) and never looked back in a 75-64 win. Michigan has been a pleasant surprise through the season’s first 9 games with their only 2 losses coming in the Legends Classic to Syracuse and UTEP. Strong wins over Clemson, Harvard, and now Utah have put the Big 10 on notice that the young and hungry Wolverines mean business.
With Rich Rodriguez, some assistant coaches, and a slew of Michigan recruits in the audience, all eyes were on the upstart basketball team.
Darius Morris erupted once again in the 1st half with 13 points (5-8 shooting), 4 assists, and 3 steals to push Michigan to a 39-22 halftime lead. In all, Michigan yanked 6 steals in the 1st half to fluster the Utes and effectively put them into submission.
Jon Horford
Michigan played good team defense all night, which led to a lot of transition buckets. “We bought into defense as a team and you get a lot of offense. It was fun to get a win tonight,” Jordan Morgan said. Corey Person added that, “we stayed with our defensive principles.” Utah is a tall and athletic team that Michigan could have been exposed against but Coach Beilein had his team ready.
Morris finished the game with a dominant stat line: 19 points, 10 assists to just 1 turnover, 3 rebounds, and 4 steals. He is playing at an extremely high level early in the season and is making a name for himself as one of the top point guards in the Big 10. He is shooting 55% from the field on the season and has a 70:25 assist to turnover ratio.
At the twelve minute mark of the 2nd half, Tim Hardaway, Jr. brought Crisler Arena to its feet with a sweet tomahawk jam off of a length of the court pass by Blake McLimans and then followed it up with two straight 3’s to put Michigan up 57-40. Michigan fans got a little taste of what kind of a special talent TH2 is during that three-play stretch. Utah had no response to the run and the game was essentially over from that point on. Mclimans said, “I just wanted to see if we could get a transition bucket and I looked up and Tim was wide-open so I used my outlet pass and he finished it.”
Jordan Morgan continued his stretch of impressive play despite battling through some foul trouble. He finished the night with 11 points, 4 rebounds, and 3 steals and made 3-3 from the free throw line.
Jon Horford made his presence felt in a big way in six 1st half minutes as he threw down a monster jam over 7’3’’ David Foster, pulled down 2 solid boards, and notched a block. He continued his strong play in the 2nd half by knocking down his first career 3 on a wide open shot. Look for Horford to start logging more minutes if he continues to play with this type of energy.
Zack Novak turned in a typical Zack Novak night with 11 points and 9 rebounds. He worked through a slight tweak of his back in the first half. Hardaway made 3 of 6 from deep on his way to a 17-point night.
This Michigan team plays with a passion and intensity that was missing in a big way last year. With a favorable upcoming schedule, Michigan should be primed to enter Big 10 play at the end of the month with a full head of steam.
Up next for Michigan is a Tuesday night game with North Carolina Central. Tipoff is set for 7 pm and the game will be televised on the Big Ten Network.
