Who out there went to bed at halftime of the Duke game?
The good news is the top-ranked Blue Devils are not invincible. They played a putrid second half at Ohio State and lost a double-digit lead, shooting 22 percent in the last 20 minutes. Duke didn’t look physical at the end, supposedly its difference-maker this season.
Before the Michigan game, Hubert Davis was asked about toughness. He said his definition is a willingness to go through the process of improving at practice in preparation for the next game. He says there are different ways to be tough.
And he hopes the last eight days spent on team-building pays off against the 24th-ranked Wolverines who are pretty statistically even with the Tar Heels. Both have two losses to ranked teams, both have a big man in the middle who can be dominating and both teams shoot about the same percentage overall and rebound equally well.
They also have former NBA players who were assistant coaches before taking the reins at their alma maters, where they missed playing against each other in their only common season of college ball, 1992, when Juwan Howard was one of the infamous Fab Five that lost to Dean Smith’s Tar Heels in the national championship game the next season, and Davis won all-ACC honors as the best 3-point shooter in UNC history.
Howard played in the NBA for 18 seasons and was an assistant coach for seven more years before being hired by Michigan. Hubert spent 12-plus seasons in the NBA and then five with ESPN before joining Roy Williams staff for nine years. So, both had about the same period of preparation in basketball on the way to head coaching.
This is Howard’s third season leading Michigan, which won the Big Ten regular season in 2021. His best player is Hunter Dickerson, a 7-foot-1 brute who averages 15 points and 8 rebounds. His starting point guard is also their leading scorer, senior Eli Brooks, who scores almost 16 points a game and averages 2.5 assists. They’re the only Wolverines scoring in double figures compared to the Tar Heels who have five, led by their big man Armando Bacot and point guard Caleb Love.
The big statistical contrast is 3-point shooting, where UNC is making 41 percent and Michigan under 30 percent. With a capacity crowd cheering them on, let’s hope the Tar Heels prove tougher there and notch what would be their best victory of the young season.
Photo via Todd Melet.
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