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Michigan basketball’s newfound physicality caught Maryland off guard

Chris Balasby:Chris Balas•about 10 hours•

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Michigan Wolverines basketball center Vladislav Goldin with a block against Maryland. (Photo by Robert Goddin-Imagn Images)
Michigan Wolverines basketball center Vladislav Goldin with a block against Maryland. (Photo by Robert Goddin-Imagn Images)

Michigan basketball fans have been waiting for the team’s size to really matter this year, having seen plenty of games in which the Wolverines have been beaten on the glass. They’ve gotten their wish so far this weekend, but especially in a win over Maryland Saturday. 

U-M stunned the Terrapins in outrebounding them 47 to 18, including 18 offensive rebounds to 4. Junior forward Danny Wolf led the way with 14 and Vlad Goldin added 10, but everyone got involved … the way it needs to be if the Wolverines are going to make a run in the NCAA Tournament. 

“Impressive,” Michigan coach Dusty May said. “Throughout the game, 47-18 … at half we had 50 percent of our misses back. I do think we did a better job in the first half of getting downhill, and we were cutting better off our penetration and driving the closeouts.

“The second half we tried to feed it to [Goldin] a little bit too much. Like I said going into the game, they’re elite at keeping you from throwing it to the 5. They bait you into the floaters … they bait you into throwing it to 5. I thought we did a better job in the first half of breaking their defense down, which you get more second shots when that’s the case.”

But it still came down to the wire, in part due to turnovers and some questionable whistles. But guard Tre Donaldson saved the day with an end-to-end lefty finish to win it, 81-80. 

“Give Michigan credit,” Maryland coach Kevin Willard said. They made some good plays down the stretch. We just couldn’t get a stop down the stretch. It’s a good basketball team … 

“I’ve got to make an adjustment late in the game, and give Tre a lot of credit. He made a tough left-handed layup.”

As for the rebounding, Willard noted it wasn’t just the 7-footers who gave them trouble. 

“I think really where that size gets you — Donaldson’s a big guard. [Nimari] Burnett is a bigger guard,” he said. “When Roddy Gayle is playing the way he played today, I think that gives them a different dimension. Obviously, their size is different, our guards have to do a much better job of helping rebound.

“It’s one thing that’s been a little bit of a weakness of ours. We have two of our starters that have one rebound each. Sometimes when you play against bigger teams, you need your guards to go in there and dig them out, and I think that’s the biggest challenge with them.

“I knew we’d get back in it because these guys have battled all year and they’ve been really good all year. It’s just when you’re giving up offensive rebound after offensive rebound, when you’re getting some good defensive stops, it gets a little disheartening. It’s something we haven’t had happen to us, and it was really the difference in the game.”

Something that couldn’t be said about a Michigan team owning the glass for much of the year. As a result, U-M will be playing for a title today against Wisconsin while Maryland is headed home.

“It’s hard to win conference championships. It’s hard to win conference tournament championships,” Willard said. “When you have a chance, you’ve got to take advantage of every opportunity you get.”

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