Michigan cruises past Penn State

The Wolverines gave their coach a very happy birthday present with a convincing 71-51 win over Penn State. I for one finally exhaled as the season was teetering on the brink of disaster heading into the game. Michigan did exactly what they had to do and they did it with strong, hustling defense and patient execution on the offensive end.

Manny Harris said that Coach Beilein challenged him at the half to be more patient. Harris was more then up to the challenge as he led his team in a dominant second half performance in which they outscored Penn State 40-20.

Credit CJ Lee as he started the game and played tough defense on the Big Ten’s leading scorer, Talor Battle, and helped frustrate him into a 3-16 shooting performance for 9 points. Lee also ran the offense like a true floor general scoring 5 points to go along with 4 assists and 3 rebounds.

Manny Harris played one of his best all around games and as Gus Johnson said was a real “stat stuffa”. Manny stuffed the stat sheet to the tune of 28 points, 7 dimes, 6 boards, 2 steals, and 2 blocks. The most important stats might have been his 7-13 shooting and only two turnovers.

Stu Douglass chipped in 13 points with some timely three point daggers. DeShawn Sims came off the bench and added 9 points and 7 rebounds.

The story of the game was definitely Michigan’s defense. Jamelle Cornley scored 25 points but the rest of the Nittany Lions combined for 26 points. Michigan forced 13 turnovers and logged 7 steals and 6 blocks in the game.

The much needed win boosted Michigan’s record to 15-8 and 5-6 in the conference. Next up is a trip to Storrs, Connecticut to take on the #1 ranked Huskies on Saturday. That will be followed by a quick turnaround to a Tuesday home game against Michigan State. 

The road to 21 wins: This was a game I had them projected to win and a game they had to win. Let’s just take this one game at time from here on out. You don’t have to be a bracketologist to figure out that a win at Connecticut would be gigantic. 

Penn State Preview

Michigan has been off since Saturday’s debacle in West Lafayette. The extra day of practice should be a good thing. The Wolverines (14-8, 4-6) host Penn State (17-5, 6-3) in a critical match up on Thursday. The game is set to tip at 7pm and will be televised on the Big Ten Network.

The Nittany Lions are riding a 4 game winning streak, including a win at East Lansing on Saturday. We know all about Talor Battle and Jamelle Cornley.

The question for us Michigan fans is how will the Wolverines respond to being backed into a corner?

Zack Novak will be back in the line up after sitting out the Purdue game, due to suspension. Manny Harris will be playing after getting ejected from the Purdue game.

Michigan is coming in having lost 5 out of their last 6 games. They really don’t want to make that 6 of 7 heading to #1 Connecticut on Saturday.

As a fan I am really getting antsy about this game. A win would be huge. Their NCAA hopes are still alive but they have to get this season turned back around quickly before it all slips away.

Coach Beilein has said all along that this season would be a roller coaster. We are currently experiencing a downhill trend. Let’s hope this roller coaster starts climbing again. I still believe in this team but I would sure like to see them come through with a win against Penn State.

The road to 21 wins

Let me start off with the good news. The Big Ten will not be suspending Manny Harris. Which is absolutely the right call. Click here for John Beilein’s statement regarding the incident.

 

I think now would be a good time to review the road to 21 wins. When Michigan started the season 13-3 the projection was looking good. Now that they have lost 5 of their last 6 it would seem like the projection is in jeopardy. Actually it is not.

To quickly review my projection was based on breaking the schedule down into two categories; projected wins and remaining games. I projected 17 games as wins and there were 14 remaining games of which I said Michigan had to win 4 to get to 21 wins.

So far Michigan has played 13 of the games I had projected as wins and they have won 12 and lost one (at PSU).

They have played 9 games from the remaining 14 games category. Michigan has won 2 of those games (UCLA and Duke) and lost 7.

Based on my projections Michigan should be 16-6 or 15-7 and their record is 14-8. How do I come up with this? They should have won 13 games from the projected category and 2 or 3 of the remaining games.

So you see they are not that far off the pace.

There are 4 more games I had projected as wins; Penn State, at Northwestern, Minnesota, at Minnesota.

There are 5 games left from the remaining games; at Connecticut, Michigan State, at Iowa, Purdue, at Wisconsin.

The other factor is the Big Ten Tournament.

Those projections were made before the season started. I realize now that sweeping Minnesota is unlikely.  I also think they have a good chance to win 3 of the games in the remaining group. I think they have a good chance to win these games; Michigan State, at Iowa, Purdue.

Plus you still have the Big Ten Tournament where they could pick up some more wins. Let us know what you think my submitting a comment.

Michigan falls at Purdue

This was a slow starting game. It took Michigan almost 7 minutes to score their first points. The good news was that Purdue had only scored 4 points in that same span. DeShawn Sims scored Michigan’s first 6 points, on two triples. Then Jevohn Shepherd came in and gave Michigan a lift. Zack Gibson and Anthony Wright also provided a spark off the bench. When Gibson tipped in a bucket at the first half buzzer Michigan took a 27-26 lead into the break.

Coming out of the break Michigan appeared to be playing with some confidence and was leading 29-27 at the 18:28 mark when Manny Harris inadvertently elbowed Chris Kramer in the nose. A flagrant foul was called and that was fine even though there was no intent on Harris’ part to elbow Kramer. The Purdue crowd went nuts as Kramer lay on the floor bleeding. So the officials decided to eject Harris. I think that was a bad call. He was called for the flagrant foul, that was all that needed to happen. Heck when Novak got bloodied by Legion there wasn’t even a foul called on that play not to mention an ejection.

Harris getting ejected deflated Michigan and Purdue dominated the rest of the game. The Boilermakers coasted to an easy 67-49 win.

 

The road to 21 wins: It is getting a bit bumpy. This was not a projected win. The breakdown is as follows: there are 4 games left that I had them projected to win (Penn State, at Northwestern, Minnesota, and at Minnesota). There are 5 other games left on the schedule, plus the Big Ten tournament. I think the best case scenario is that Michigan wins 3 of the 4 I had them projected to win which would put them at 17 wins. That leaves 5 games left plus the Big Ten Tournament to get 4 more wins.

Novak Suspended for One Game

MGoBlue is reporting that John Beilein has suspended Zack Novak for the Purdue game as a result of the elbowing incident at Ohio State. “We are taking swift and appropriate action with Zack for this isolated and very uncharacteristic incident,” said Beilein. “He is a fine young man, and while his actions were unacceptable he understands the severity of them and is apologetic and regretful for his behavior. I am confident Zack will learn a valuable lesson from this imposed discipline and the consequences of his actions.”