Eli Brooks wants to see Michigan basketball play more physical
Michigan basketball has been tested in ways people never thought imaginable this early in the 2021-22 season. The latest setback came in the form of a 75-65 loss to Minnesota on Saturday night.
Michigan allowed 43 points and a number of blow-bys and easy buckets in the second half and trailed by 16 points to a team projected to finish at the bottom of the Big Ten. A furious comeback ensued, but the Wolverines could not make the plays it needed to finish it off.
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Graduate senior guard Eli Brooks was visibly irritated when meeting with the Michigan media after the loss.
“[We have to be] more physical,” Brooks said after the loss. “This is not high school basketball. This is not a different conference. The Big Ten is about physicality. You get that every single night, so embrace that challenge.”
Michigan has struggled to find its idenity through the first ten games of the season, dropping four of the last eight contests. The Wolverines were expected to compete for a national championship, but look like an NCAA Tournament bubble team presently.
The younger pieces on the team are being asked to do a lot, but Brooks continued to hammer home he expects them to be more physical moving forward.
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“I don’t think we were the most physical team out there,” Brooks said. “We let them move freely and that’s one of our key points as a defense, making them feel us. We didn’t do that.
“We’ve got to start hitting people. I mean, if they call a foul, then they call a foul. But we need to hit people.”
There is a lot to correct in a short time before Big Ten play kicks into overdrive after the New Year.
Michigan basketball’s next challenge comes Saturday afternoon with Southern Utah in town. They will follow it up with Purdue Fort Wayne on Tuesday in Ann Arbor before traveling to UCF on Dec. 30.
