'Something was off': Michigan basketball players-only meeting pays off with huge win over Maryland

Before last week’s 63-61 loss to Central Michigan at Crisler Center, Michigan Wolverines basketball hadn’t suffered a Quad 4 loss since falling to Indiana in 2009-10, former head man John Beilein‘s third season at the helm.

Michigan entered Sunday’s meeting with Maryland with a 7-5 overall record. The loss to the Chippewas could’ve sent the Wolverines’ season into a tailspin, but instead they rebounded with a dominant, 81-46 win over the Terrapins.

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Afterward, Michigan freshman point guard Dug McDaniel revealed that he and his teammates held a players-only meeting. They believe it was positive, filled with honest conversations and ultimately helped them get back on the right track.

“Everyone just got together,” McDaniel said. “We all felt that something was off. We all just felt like we needed to talk.”

The coaches were unaware of the meeting at the time, McDaniel noted.

“We just talked like, it’s deeper than basketball,” McDaniel added. “We had to figure stuff out within ourselves. Our main focus was to make sure we are fine, make sure we’re a team and everybody is on the same page. I feel like we had a few guys thinking this, a few guys thinking that.

“We just got everything off our chest and let everyone know where our heads are at, how we feel. I feel like that was very important. It got everybody on the same track. It showed today. We were all on the same accord for 40 minutes, and I have a good feeling going forward.”

Michigan head coach Juwan Howard has been in players-only meetings throughout his career as a youth, high school, college and professional player. He hasn’t always been a fan of them, but feels like this one was positive.

“Some of those team meetings can be B.S. because guys are afraid to speak up and say real things to one another,” Howard said. “But from what I was told, guys were honest, being real. And that right there has a response, a carryover, and we saw the carryover today.”

Michigan had struggled with defense all season long but held the Terrapins to 13 first-half points, tied for the least amount a U-M team has allowed in program history. The Maize and Blue led 44-13 at the break and were up over 30 points for all but a couple minutes in the second half.

It was a good, old-fashioned rout — something few saw coming, with U-M entering the game as a 1-point favorite on its home floor.

“We were playing with energy and effort, and we were all on one accord,” Michigan junior forward Terrance Williams II, a team captain, said. “The past couple games, we weren’t on the same accord, I feel like, even the games we won, squeaked out. But today, we were all on the same accord and played with energy and effort.

“A lot of times we didn’t really play with effort, but this game we came out with a lot of it. I think that’s what really got us over that hump on the defensive end.”

“We didn’t even look at the scoreboard,” McDaniel added. “We were just having fun out there, just playing basketball.”

Michigan feeds Hunter Dickinson, improves rebounding

Michigan allowed 17 offensive rebounds to CMU and was out-rebounded 44-32 in the embarrassing loss. Maryland, however, only grabbed 9 offensive boards on 50 missed shots for 12 second-chance points. Michigan won the battle on the boards, 49-30.

“When we went to look at the film on Friday, that’s what we started with was the amount of offensive rebounds that we gave up,” Michigan junior center Hunter Dickinson revealed. “That was something that we definitely talked about and had a big emphasis on going into the game.

“It was a big emphasis for us, trying to rebound as much as we can. We know it’s not a one-man thing, two-man thing — it’s the whole team. It’s a group of guys trying to come together and achieve the common goal of getting the rebound.”

Dickinson was also more involved, and his teammates made it a point to find him in the post. He had just 9 field goal attempts in each of the previous three games, which included two losses, before cashing in with 32 points on 16 field goal attempts and 6 made free throws. He led the rebounding effort, too, with 12 boards. That marked his 20th career double-double, passing Howard for the 18th-most all time among Wolverines.

The Wolverines played through his inside game, and it benefitted his teammates with open looks and space to work on the perimeter.

“I think the team knows that,” Howard said of him opening up looks for others. “When it gets into me, I feel like I’m a really unselfish player. So when it gets inside, I’m very unselfish, and I enjoy my teammates’ success.

“[They] know that I’m going to pass it out to them if I get doubled. So I think that balance of inside-out is something we have and something that, when it’s clicking like that, we’re a really hard team to guard.”

Michigan scored 42 of its 81 points in the paint and made 14 layups and 4 dunks.

The Wolverines host Penn State Wednesday and have a chance to improve to 3-0 in Big Ten play.