Phil Martelli on Big Ten schedule: ‘Road games are where winning streaks go to die’

Phil Martelli was brought to the Michigan men’s basketball coaching staff several years ago to be a sort of head coach emeritus for then-newly-minted head man Juwan Howard. Martelli, who had just previously done a decades-long tenure as an NCAA head coach, has as deep an institutional knowledge of the sport as anybody around.

And he knows just how hard winning on the road in the Big Ten is. He shared as much ahead of a road trip for the Wolverines to play at Northwestern.

“You make a great point about, winning on the road in this league. Look around. The road, teams — road games are where winning streaks go to die,” Martelli said.

Currently, Michigan isn’t even on one of those, coming off back-to-back road losses in competitive games they had chances to win. The first was a disjointed, grind-it-out game against Michigan State on the road, a loss where both teams scored in the 50s. The second was an overtime offensive exhibition against Iowa where the Wolverines let a four-point lead slip away in the dying seconds of regulation.

As hard as it is to win on the road — which Martelli made eminently clear — Michigan will need to get it done to get back on track in the Big Ten.

Martelli identified an area Michigan must improve to beat Northwestern

Michigan associate head coach Phil Martelli knows what the key is for the Wolverines to take down Northwestern on Sunday. The Wolverines have dropped two straight games, but have their shot to right the ship when they will host the Wildcats at noon ET in Ann Arbor.

For Martelli, the game will come down to how well Michigan executes on its screens. He called back to a 59-53 loss to Michigan State in which the Wolverines were just 3-of-20 on their 3-point attempts, saying they have to do a better job of getting teammates open.

“We’re going to have to be really, really sharp in our screening,” he said. “If you think about an aggressive switch, that means they’re coming up into their man. If he’s being guarded that closely, then you have to be able to get a solid, legitimate screen on him and maybe nobody will notice, but the coaches will notice and your teammates will notice. Once you’ve set a screen, be ready to use a screen. But we have to be an outstanding — not an average — we have to be an outstanding screening team.

“Going back last week against Michigan State, we thought it but we weren’t dead certain and we ended up spending the whole first half dribbling a lot. We cannot be dribbling the ball here and think that’s going to be effective offense tomorrow against Northwestern.”

Martelli cited freshman forward Tarris Reed as being the team’s best screener. Reed has only averaged 10.3 minutes per game this season, but saw a season-high 21 minutes last week against Iowa. It seems more minutes could also be in store for him Saturday.

However, Phil Martelli knows Michigan will need some of the regular members of its rotations to contribute as well. The coach named starting forward Terrance Williams and backup Will Tschetter as two others the Wolverines will be counting on Saturday.

“If he could get his feet settled, Tarris Reed would be the best screener,” Martelli said. “That was a calling card of his in summer basketball. Here he as a tendency to move too much. He’s probably been called for illegal screen three or four times. But in the starting lineup, right now we don’t have an elite screener. That would be something we would really look for from Terrance and Will. Not so much (Hunter Dickinson). Hunt can get you there and redirect because of his size, but I would say Tarris Reed is the one.”

Michigan got off to a 3-0 starting in Big Ten play this season before its current two-game losing streak. It is currently tied with Northwestern for fourth in the conference, so Saturday’s game will be pivotal in the early going of league play.