What we know about this Michigan basketball team after a loss to North Carolina

Michigan fought hard and did plenty of good things in an 80-76 loss to North Carolina in Charlotte, but the Wolverines still haven’t figured out a way to beat good teams. They’ve been close, though, and there are signs of improvement. 

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Against a team like the Tar Heels, though — a skilled group that hasn’t met its potential this year but played well Wednesday — they needed just a little more. A couple more stops, perhaps. Maybe a few less missed bunnies at the rim, including two or three more from Michigan junior center Hunter Dickinson. 

There’s a lot to like about the pieces on this team, starting with Michigan shooting guard Kobe Bufkin’s improvement. The sophomore is starting to hunt shots and play with confidence, and he’s only going to get better. 

Freshman point guard Dug McDaniel has a crazy top gear, and he’s only going to get better. He had a couple costly turnovers, but that’s going to happen. And overall, this team has been really good at protecting the ball given there’s only one true point left on the roster (and again, he’s a freshman). 

So … what’s the problem?

For one, Michigan still can’t figure it out defensively. Armando Bacot got the better of Dickinson (and then some) Wednesday, and the Tar Heels made some tough shots. At the same time, this goes beyond one man. The Wolverines rank 90^th in adjusted defensive efficiency this year after finishing 74^th a year ago. 

Michigan head coach Juwan Howard prides himself on his team’s defense. This needs to be a point of emphasis, individual and team. Bufkin has made strides — McDaniel, Jett Howard, and others need to follow suit. And it’s not as if they aren’t teaching it. Howard talked in his postgame presser about a few defensive plays that were the same mistakes they’d seen before, and it was clear it frustrated him.

“I could go on and on and bore you guys with more plays,” he said after the loss. “If we were able to button it up down the stretch and prevent those mistakes from happening, we would have been really excited to come in here right now and talk to you guys.”

But they didn’t, and they weren’t. It’s clear Howard is frustrated, and though he starts two freshmen in McDaniel and Jett Howard, he wasn’t accepting any excuses.

“Hey, you’re going to grow up at some point,” he said. “Having been a guy who was a freshman, played with four other freshmen, it’s not easy. But it goes to show you … the group I played with was a pretty special group.”

One of the most special in college basketball history. 

But had Dickinson played even a decent game against Bacot, the Wolverines probably would have won. That’s not to say he was the sole reason for the loss, and we all know where U-M would be without him. 

As of right now, there are some really nice pieces, but they’re still working on putting them together. They need a bit more scoring from the power forward spot — Terrance Williams went 2-for-9 and got better looks than anyone, especially from long range (2-for-6) — and again, the defense was sporadic. 

Howard draws up some good stuff offensively, and Michigan will continue to get better at that end. And the Wolverines will have some opportunities coming up to move up from their No. 48 Kenpom ranking. They play No. 23 Maryland and No. 32 Penn State at home in the next few weeks, and they need to win them both. 

They’ve been close in three losses to really good teams, but that’s not good enough. They know they’ve missed some opportunities, and now their backs are against the wall. 

“That’s probably the most frustrating part about it,” Michigan frosh Jett Howard said. “We feel like we’re better than a lot of these teams. We put in a lot of effort and time and it’s the same result, so you can understand why we’d be frustrated.

“The ball doesn’t always roll our way. It’s not always going to go the way we want it. We’ve just got to keep working hard.”

Because now there’s opportunity in Big Ten play, where they’re 1-0. And if they can figure out a few things, they still have a chance to make some noise in the conference.