Tarris Reed on Michigan identity crisis: 'We're not all trusting coach right now'
The Michigan Wolverines men’s basketball program is in a bit of a spiral right now having lost 11 of its last 15 games. Those trends typically have to do with an identity crisis and a lack of attention to detail. and sophomore center Tarris Reed sees it, too.
During Thursday night’s 88-73 loss to Illinois, Michigan gave up 51 points in the second half and rushed itself often on the offensive end of the floor. Too many momentum-killing mistakes led to a pair of second-half runs – namely a 17-2 deficit – that led to another frustrating loss.
“I feel like shot selection and knowing that we at a point we were on the run, we were down one point and I don’t know, like, sometimes we need to take our time and stop rushing,” Reed said. “Then we gave up 51 points in the second half on the defensive side. No team in the country is gonna win if you give up 50-plus points in the second half. Have to stay solid, stay disciplined, and trust the process.”
This is a group desperate and searching for answers, but it might just come down to the man in the mirror for the Wolverines.
“I feel like it’s our identity,” Reed said. “Some players might not know who they are at certain points in the game or on the defensive side, so we just gotta be more disciplined. That’s the biggest thing. Discipline. We work on it every day.
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“I feel like we’re not all trusting [head coach Juwan Howard] right now, but I know we’re going to turn it around. We just gotta ask ourselves and look at the man in the mirror and figure it out from there. We gotta find our identity as individuals and as a team.”
Communication on the defensive end of the floor has been a problem for Michigan all season long, even with a ton of new pieces on the roster. With the calendar approaching February and the margin of error long gone, it is beyond overdue for them to figure it out together.
“It is our first time playing together, but that’s not an excuse,” Reed said. “So we just gotta be calm, knowing what to do in certain situations in certain points in the game, and from there be able to take the game over. “We’ve got a lot of players that can switch the ball one through five, and I feel like we have to take advantage of that more.”
Michigan is off Friday before picking up on Saturday to prep for Tuesday night’s game at Purdue. The Wolverines will be without point guard Dug McDaniel, who will serve the second game of an academic suspension that will cause him to miss six trips away from Ann Arbor.
