Michigan basketball weaknesses evident in loss to Arizona

The atmosphere was outstanding — the basketball, not so much, at least on the Michigan side.

Juwan Howard’s Wolverines struggled on both ends of the floor, never found their stride and were blown out by Arizona, 80-62, Sunday night in Las Vegas.

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• Full recap, box score from Michigan basketball’s loss to Arizona

U-M fell to 3-2 with it’s second loss in three games, yet another in which shooting and rebounding were serious problems. Two games after dropping a game at home to Seton Hall in which their first triple didn’t come until 11 minutes remained in the game, the Wolverines made only one of 14 three-pointers.

“Overall, we didn’t do a really good job of going at their length,” Howard said. “At times we forced the issue by driving and trying to finish over the top of their length instead of as we talked about as a team, drive and kick would be open. I love the aggressiveness, but mostly we have to be smart aggressive, and that’s something we lacked this evening.”

Arizona pushed the pace, too, and got into starting point guard DeVante’ Jones. Once again, Jones got into early foul trouble, going to the bench midway through the first half with two.

That’s been an issue for much of his career, and it’s something they’ll need to work on, assistant Phil Martelli said last week.

Freshman Frankie Collins came in and provided some solid minutes offensively, but the Wolverines went with so many different lineups it was tough to develop a rhythm.

It was clear many of them hadn’t played together a lot.

At times, we just weren’t in our right spots offensively,” Howard said. “There were some sets where maybe three guys knew what we were going to run and two guys didn’t, or four knew and one didn’t.

“So, we had a lot of guys with mental breakdowns. I don’t know if it was because of the fatigue factor, because that’s one of the only things I can think of is mental fatigue settled in with our group.”

They lacked energy at times, Howard admitted, while the Wildcats brought it on every possession. The Wolverines were again outworked on the glass, giving up 10 offensive rebounds and losing that battle, 34-29.

Arizona did a solid job negating big man Hunter Dickinson, whose touches were limited in an 11-point, seven-rebound showing. Teams have been able to — and will continue to — collapse on him given U-M’s shooting woes. They dropped to 28 percent from long range as a team after going 1-for-14 from long range.

Freshman Caleb Houstan continues to struggle in that area. He was 0-for-5 Sunday night and is 23.1 percent this season.

The Wolverines also struggled defensively, allowing the Wildcats 50 percent shooting (33-for-66) despite a 4-for-21 showing from long range. They were beaten off the dribble and the rotations were off for a second time in three games.

“Give Arizona credit. They did a really good job of getting anything they wanted when the wanted to,” Howard said. “That was the only game so far that a team was able to beat us in the paint … for 54 points. They’d come off ball screens and get lobs over the top.

“Unfortunately, we did not do a good job of getting deflections with high hands. We [also] didn’t do a good job of having a presence on the ball.”

Michigan forced only 10 turnovers and coughed it up 15 times on the other end. They now have 68 turnovers this year to opponents’ 57, something that needs to change.

“That’s not the Michigan defense we’re accustomed to,” Howard said. “But, as Eli [Brooks] mentioned earlier, we will get back to the lab and see how we get better. I trust this team and I also trust this staff that we’re going to come back looking for solutions. We’re a solution-based group.”

It’s a Michigan team that’s young and talented with pieces, but lacking chemistry. It’s up to Howard and Co. to figure out how to get them to work together, and he’s confident it they will.

“We’re going to get better, and I trust we will,” Howard said. “It’s part of the game — adversity. When adversity hits, it defines the man with how he responds the next time.”

It’s a long season, after all, with many more challenges to come.