Adjustments made the difference, earned praise in Michigan win over CSU
INDIANAPOLIS — It didn’t look good for Michigan basketball in the first half of its win over Colorado State. The Rams were shooting lights out, U-M was slow to rotate, and the offense looked like it was playing in quicksand.
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But then point guard Frankie Collins started to get comfortable, and the Rams started to miss. The Wolverines found another gear in the second half, playing with more intensity, and guarded the three-point line much more diligently in the last 15 minutes.
As a result, Michigan captured a win in its first NCAA Tournament for the eighth straight time with a 75-63 win.
The Wolverines rallied from 15 down behind Collins, a last-minute-starter when point guard DeVante’ Jones was ruled out due to injury.
“Frankie’s a high-level recruit,” CSU coach Niko Medved said. “He’s obviously extremely athletic and capable. We didn’t change our game plan a heck of a lot of [from] what we wanted to do. But you know, he stepped up and had a big game for them.
“[But] I thought this game was won in the paint. We knew that. Michigan is terrific in the paint. We’ve been pretty good in the paint. Early on, we were able to guard the lane a little bit better and they were making shots and imposed their will.”
Sophomore Hunter Dickinson, in particular, made some tough ones in scoring 21 points. He, frosh Moussa Diabate and the rest, meanwhile, made it tough on the other end for Colorado State’s smaller lineup.
“Somebody mentioned we missed a lot of shots in the paint. Some of that is their length — there is no question,” Medved said. “Some of that is rushing. And give Michigan credit. Every time, when you play high-level teams and you miss a shot in the rack zone and the other team gets the rebound, they are going to hurt you in transition.”
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A couple led to freshman Caleb Houstan triples. Michigan only had four, but he made three in a short stretch in the second half.
“Those were huge plays. There were a lot of swings that way where we didn’t deliver, and they came back and did it,” Medved said. “But you have to give Frankie credit. He stepped up for Michigan in a huge moment and did really, really well.”
So did the rest of the Wolverines in the second half when they turned up the pressure defensively. Michigan seemed unconfident and disengaged early, but the Wolverines were all over the three-point line and in the Rams’ grills when they pulled away.
“I thought the game was in the balance and we had our chances tonight, and give a lot of credit to Michigan. They were the better team, clearly, in the second half,” Medved said. “… Sometimes it’s a great thing when shots go down, but we had so many shots go down early. Sometimes that can be a curse where we maybe were settling a little bit too much [later].
“We have been good in the paint all year, and we obviously were not able to do that. I don’t think we responded great when Michigan really turned up their pressure in the second half … I thought some of their pressure ramped up. We had a couple of key turnovers that led to easy baskets for them, like we talked about before, shots in the paint that we normally make or get fouled. We weren’t able to do that, and they turned them into points on the other end.”
And “what might have been” became the end of the road.
“I think all those things just came back to bite us at the end of the day,” he lamented.
Sending the Rams home and Michigan on to play Tennessee in a round of 32 game Saturday.
