Michigan basketball: Is 'toughest, nastiest' Terrance Williams II in line for more minutes going forward?
Michigan basketball beat No. 3 seed Tennessee, 76-68, despite getting no offensive production from freshman wing Caleb Houstan. The Wolverines also got an up-and-down game from freshman forward Moussa Diabate, who scored eight points in the first half but also missed five shots from the floor, many of them easy looks around the rim.
Sophomore center Hunter Dickinson (27 points) and fifth-year senior guard Eli Brooks (23) carried the offense, especially in the second half when the pair combined for 33 points. But the Maize and Blue wound up needing one more player to step up, and that was sophomore forward Terrance Williams II.
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Williams played just six minutes in the first half and drained a three — he’s up to 38.8 percent from long range on the season now — before making a huge impact in the second stanza after entering the game when Michigan was down six points with under eight minutes to go. He had two offensive rebounds and tap-ins, both tying the game with five and four minutes remaining, respectively, then hit a pair of free throws to put Michigan up four points with 2:09 remaining. His eight second-half minutes were mostly playing in replacement of the struggling Diabate.
“In the huddle, we talk about him being a dog, being the toughest, nastiest out there,” Brooks said. “And those two rebounds and put-backs were big to keep the momentum going. We know he can do it, and I’m just happy for him.”
Williams also played sound defense, especially on the Tennessee shooters. The Volunteers were shooting 42.6 percent from long range in their previous 14 games but went just 2-of-18 Saturday night. Williams and Michigan’s other guards and wings were running the Vols off the three-point line with much success, with Tennessee’s two made threes standing as their least in over 55 games.
“That was mostly in the game plan, guarding the perimeter,” Williams said. “They had shooters, their guard play, Vescovi is definitely a big shooter. But one of the of game plans was to guard the three-point line. I felt like we did our job today in guarding that three-point line. They went 2 for 18, and I think we did our part.”
Williams finished as a plus-14 in his 14 minutes, leading all players in the game.
Michigan’s depth has been lamented all season. The Wolverines rank 313th nationally in bench minutes, largely because there hasn’t been enough reliable options to step in. Williams has had his moments, though, none bigger than Saturday night in the most important of moments.
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The epitome of head coach Juwan Howard‘s mantra, ‘stay ready so you don’t have to get ready,’ Williams already had the trust of his teammates, and his performance against the Volunteers was a prime example of why. Williams has an ability to enter the lineup and keep whatever flow his team has going, or when it’s not going so well, change its fortunes.
“I felt like we stayed connected,” Williams said of how Michigan held strong despite trailing by six points with under eight minutes to go. “We turned the ball over, things weren’t going our way. But being the most connected team is what Coach Howard talks about, and we were the most connected team, and we didn’t go our separate ways even though we were making mistakes.”
“This has been my guy since day one, since I started playing basketball,” Dickinson said of his former AAU teammate. “He’s a prime-time player. But I don’t care how much minutes he plays, or what, my man is going to make winning plays when he’s out there, and he did that today. We don’t win without Terrance Williams II today.”
Michigan might well need him Thursday against Villanova, too, or in another game down the line. And we’d bet the Wolverines’ staff won’t wait as long to put him in next time they need a spark.
