Tough outing not discouraging Michigan freshman Caleb Houstan: 'Keep shooting'

Michigan Wolverines basketball arrived to Las Vegas for the Roman Main Event late Wednesday night, and is attempting to get acclimated to the time change for a 12:30 a.m. ET tip (9:30 p.m. local time) against UNLV early Saturday/late Friday.

The Maize and Blue are looking to put a 67-65 loss to Seton Hall behind them, after blowing an 11-point second-half lead.

“Obviously, no one likes that we lost, but to be honest, it was a lot of the older guys keeping everybody’s heads up, keeping a positive energy in the room, saying everything’s good, it’s alright and we’re going to learn from this and move on to the next one,” freshman wing Caleb Houstan said of Michigan’s mindset Thursday evening. “We’ve got like 30-some more games this season, and you just have to learn from it. Things are going to happen, and you’ve got to bounce back from it. Definitely a lot of positive energy, so yeah, that was real good.”

RELATED

• Wolverine TV: Caleb Houstan, Phil Martelli preview Roman Main Event in Las Vegas

• Wolverine TV podcast: Chris Balas, Clayton Sayfie and Anthony Broome preview Michigan-Maryland, peek at OSU, talk hoops, more

The Wolverines didn’t make a three-pointer until there were 11 minutes left in the game, and finished 3-of-15 from long range. Widely considered the team’s top sharpshooter, Houstan had a tough night himself, going 1-of-9 from the field and 0-for-4 from beyond the arc. He also had some defensive lapses, yielding eight points as the primary defender according to Synergy.

“Mostly, it was a lot of defensive stuff,” Houstan said of the coaches’ message to him following the loss. “I had a lot of mental mistakes defensively, where I wasn’t doing the right things based on the balls, so just tightening that stuff up. Offensively, they were just telling me to keep on shooting the ball. [Assistant] Coach Saddi [Washington] was saying I was getting good looks.”

The coaches have been stressing to Houstan and others to not let missed shots affect the rest of their game.

“They talk a lot about the next-shot mentality, and not worrying about the last shot and moving on,” he said when asked about having a short memory. “So I guess that could kind of correlate to what you’re saying — not focusing on if you just missed your shot, focusing on defense and then playing the next possession offensively.”

Houstan hit five of his first 12 three-point attempts on the season and scored 11 and 13 points in the first two games, respectively.

Houstan still had three assists in the loss, and whether or not his shot is falling, he’s intent on continuing to stay engaged in the offense and look to make plays for his teammates.

“One hundred percent, I think it’s really important, because I think there are going to be days when that happens,” Houstan said of off shooting nights. “So just focusing on whatever I can do to help the team win. I think I bring a lot more to the table than just my shot falling. Whether that’s playmaking or distributing the basketball, going for 50-50 balls, stuff like that, defending, different things. I think you’ve just got to always bring something to the table, especially when things aren’t going great defensively.”

A five-star recruit who reclassified and originally was supposed to be a senior in high school right now, Houstan still growing in his game. His arsenal will likely expand as Michigan’s season progresses, and there’s a long way to go, as he noted. He’ll run more of the ball screen going forward, an area in which he’s been the ball handler on three possessions this year but has yet to produce any points.

“Definitely a ball screen is a thing that’s going to happen throughout the season,” Houstan said. “I worked at it a lot throughout my summer workouts, as well as when I got to Michigan.

“I’d say I’m definitely comfortable coming off a ball screen, I think I’ve just got to continue getting better and making the right reads — to hit the lift guy, to hit the guy on the roll guy or get all the way to the lane or take a pull up. Definitely, I just have to keep on working on my reads and getting better at that type of stuff, for sure.”

Houstan is just getting started in Ann Arbor, and he’s enjoying his overall experience to this point.

“Everything’s been great. I haven’t had any complaints at all,” he said of his first few months at Michigan. “I’m really just enjoying it and having a lot of fun with the guys and the coaches.”