Michigan basketball faces an uphill battle to make the NCAA Tournament

Experts projected Juwan Howard’s third Michigan basketball team as a top five squad and potential Final Four contender. Instead, the Wolverines are now fighting for their NCAA Tournament lives.

U-M is among ESPN expert Joe Lunardi’s “next four out,” meaning there’s a lot of work to do.

Sketchy point guard play, poor defense and an apparent lack of chemistry are all culprits in U-M’s 7-6 start. A home loss to Minnesota and road loss at Rutgers have put Michigan behind the eight ball in Big Ten play, and COVID has now made the task even more difficult.

Michigan needed wins over Michigan State and Purdue in the last two games to make up some ground. Instead, the Wolverines — a 2.5-point favorite to beat Michigan State at home Saturday — have been struggling with COVID. Both games were postponed. That likely means Michigan will be playing several games in a small window later in the season.

Howard noted it had been a struggle just to field a team to practice.

“We haven’t been good to go 100 percent,” he admitted. “We’ve just been figuring out ways to navigate through what we’ve been dealt with COVID and COVID protocol. We’re trying to stay afloat and stay ready, which each day by day we’ll continue to keep working to try to get to that point.

“I’ll be honest with you — it’s frustrating. But, it’s frustrating for us all in the sports world and non-sports world.”

Michigan State coach Tom Izzo credited Howard for staying in touch with him and keeping him apprised. At the same time, he was frustrated they couldn’t play. His team entered on an eight-game win streak.

“We gave them Saturday off and said, ‘Hey, listen — this is going to happen. It could happen again next week, it could happen the week after,'” Izzo said. “This is the cards you’re dealt. And he who handles adversity the best is probably going to be the most successful. And I do believe that.

“I said it’s tough on [Michigan’s] players; it’s tough on our players. And yet we had momentum. How do you maintain momentum? You maintain momentum by worrying most about ourselves.”

And that’s exactly what Michigan will do, too. There’s no guarantee the Wolverines will play at Illinois Friday. They were short of the required seven scholarship players needed to participate the last two games. Even if those players are back, they’ll be rusty, having not practiced together much or played in several days.

Howard, though, was confident his team would respond.

“I really commend and respect — and always have — and been a big fan of how our guys have been able to deal with adversity,” he said. “And while that’s not making excuses, we have a type of mentality within our group where we roll up our sleeves and embrace the suck.

“And so, not making an excuse, which we never will — we’re a non-excuse-based type of group — what we have, who’s available to play … we trust that each and every guy is going to play hard, play together, play smart and play to win.”

He has no qualms, either, about the way the league is handling COVID protocol.

“I’ve always been a type of guy that’s in favor of rules and respects them,” he said. “And the leadership that’s in place — they have come together and unanimously have felt that this is the best way moving forward to continue our season. You’re not going to always like everything that has been thrown your way, but you have to respect it. And I do respect it.

“With seven players, one coach that is healthy, they considered that you have to play. Hey, we meet the criteria. We met the criteria on Tuesday versus Rutgers. Hopefully — we haven’t got to tomorrow yet — but I pray to God that we have healthy bodies to compete tomorrow.”

That didn’t happen. It remains to be seen whether it will be the case Friday.

Michigan needs games to bolster the resume

But make no mistake — Michigan wants to play, knowing wins are the only way to improve the NCAA Tournament resume. U-M is officially a bubble team, but that will burst if the Wolverines don’t start playing better defense and shooting the ball better.

Freshman Caleb Houstan is one who needs to pick it up. He was 1-for-8 from long range in a loss at Rutgers, and he’s been inconsistent, to say the least.

That’s affected his defense, as well. All the freshmen, in fact, are struggling with where to be on the court on that end.

“Sometimes we fail to realize that in college, it’s very, in a sense, fragile,” Howard said. “And fragile in the way of now, you’ve got to be careful of how and what you demand of your group. But at the same time, [it’s] understanding that they’re going to make mistakes.

“The ball is not going to always bounce in every time, and to keep encouraging is the most important thing. That’s what I’ve always been, that type of guy, whether when I played or now in coaching. You need to [feel] a pat on the back, and you also need to know that your coach is in your corner and supporting you.”

He’s confident it will start to click for his group. At the same time, while it’s early in the season, they’re running short on time. They need some big wins, and they aren’t getting the opportunity due to COVID.

“At the end, I look at all that and I sum it up in one group and say we won when you have a group that has that type of mindset,” he said. “We have an amazing group of young men that want to make every shot, that want to make the right play, that want to play mistake-free basketball. 

“As a coach, I’m so proud of how our mindset has been and the attitude has been within the team.”

But he also knows they have a lot of work to do. The sooner they’re able to get back at it, the better.

It starts with defense. That’s supposed to be the Michigan calling card, but U-M is currently 48th in adjusted defensive efficiency and fading.

The schedule only gets tougher, too. Road games at Illinois, at Indiana and at Michigan State are on the schedule in the next few weeks. If Michigan climbs back into the race, the Wolverines will have earned it.

For now, though, they just want to play. That appears to be a huge challenge in itself.