Effort in Michigan basketball's blowout of Maryland needs to be the norm going forward
Embarrassment proved to be the right motivator for Michigan basketball, even if it came at a price. Days after a humiliating loss to a bad, in-state school team (Central Michigan), the Wolverines came out breathing fire, smoking Maryland from start to finish in an 81-46 drubbing.
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It was so bad that that Terrapins head coach Kevin Willard benched his starters for a good portion of the second half to send a message.
Given the opponent, we had a feeling junior center Hunter Dickinson would come out swinging. His home city Terps have always brought out the best in him. He outscored them by himself in the first half — one in which the Terps managed only 13 points — on his way to 32 points (13-of-16 shooting) and 12 rebounds.
More importantly, he brought the energy on both ends, and his teamamtes followed suit. Two of them, Terrance Williams and Dug McDaniel, also hail from the area, and they were relentless.
“Maryland fans would probably think that this is all I live for,” Dickinson said after his latest huge game against the Terps. “But to be fair, it did lose a little bit of juice with the [coaching] changes.
“But it’s still Maryland. It’s still the hometown team that was like 2 miles away from my high school [DeMatha Catholic].”
Williams scored 11 and McDaniel 8 in a game that was never in doubt. The Wolverines scored the first 17 points, in fact, all in the first 5 minutes, and led by 31 at the break.
Maryland missed some shots — a ton of them, in fact. The Terrapins made only 4 of 30 in the first half.
At the same time, everything was contested, and the defensive rotations were outstanding. Every hand off, every ball screen, there was a Wolverine there waiting and a teammate to cover him.
It was, frankly, the kind of effort you’d expect every game from a Juwan Howard coached team. Wherever he played, including Michigan, that was his M.O.
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“The energy was a big reason why we got to a good start on both ends of the floor,” Howard said. “Our guys were really in tune to getting out defensively and being disruptive. They were very in tune to eliminating our opponents to one-shot opportunities because of last game.
“It was lovely to see the team responding to being the most dialed in, being physical, doing it without fouling and at the same time bringing the effort.”
They outrebounded the Terps 49-30 and held them to 9 offensive rebounds.
And now Michigan is 2-0 in Big Ten play with a home game against Penn State coming up. That will be a tough one — the Nittany Lions are 11-3, 2-1 in Big Ten play with wins at Illinois and over Iowa — but it’s a must win given the hole they’ve dug.
At some point, the Wolverines are going to have to get a few tough ones, too, to make up for the loss to CMU. They’ll get their first shot next Saturday at Michigan State, a team frothing at the mouth for them and a tough place to play.
They’ll need the same effort they showed Sunday( and them some) in both of those games and beyond to claw back into the national picture. Playing hard should be the bare minimum expectation here, of course, and hopefully Sunday’s win is proof of a lesson learned.
But they’re off to a great start in Big Ten play, and they have a new lease on life at 2-0 with a road win at Minnesota.
The second season has begun, and now they know there’s success there for those who want it badly enough.
