Michigan basketball enters ‘self work’ week between marquee matchups

There’s nothing wrong with self-improvement and that’s exactly what this week is all about for Michigan basketball.

The No. 14 Wolverines (8-2, 2-0 Big Ten) have gotten off to a largely impressive start in the Dusty May era, but their seven-game winning streak was snapped on Tuesday in the bright lights of Madison Square Garden.

U-M held a 15-point first half lead before it got bludgeoned by 33 points in the middle of the game. It then chipped away at its 18-point deficit in the final nine minutes and had multiple looks in the final 60 seconds to tie or take the lead, but none fell and Michigan lost to Arkansas, 89-87.

It was U-M’s second neutral site loss to a potential tournament team from a Power Four conference by a single bucket (U-M lost 72-70 to Wake Forest last month). While neither loss in a vacuum is anything to freak out about, the common themes causing Michigan problems throughout the contests are becoming perfectly plain.

“I think you know the answer to that,” May laughed Friday morning when asked about his points of emphasis. “Two things are keeping you from being your absolute best, so we’re trying to be creative fixing those things.

“Attacking them in film, attacking them in individual work, attacking them in team concepts. Full speed ahead, everything we have in the tank to fix these things.”

Michigan’s next opponent is No. 17 Oklahoma (9-0) next Wednesday at the Jordan Invitational in Charlotte.

Get more shots, limit more shots

Stop us if you’ve heard this before, but U-M is trying to cut down its turnovers.

If it sounds repetitive, it’s only because it is, because when Michigan shoots the ball, it’s simply elite.

May’s group is No. 7 in the country in 2-point shooting (61.0%) and No. 84 in the country from behind the arc (35.9%) according to KenPom. The problem is it’s only shooting the ball on just more than 78% of its possessions because it ranks No. 334 out of 355 times, turning the the ball over on 21. 4% of its possessions.

The other glaring issue, U-M is still winning on the boards. The Wolverines are rated No. 34 in the country in offensive rebounding rate (36.2% of missed shots) but are giving up too many second chances on the other end, allowing opponents to grab 32.6% of their misses, good for No. 276 in the nation.

“Those are exactly the two things,” forward Will Tschetter said. “We looked at KenPom, we’re an elite team in almost every facet. … We watched every single turnover we had in that game and how we can fix it, watched every single board we didn’t grab defensively and how we could have fixed that. Then emphasize that to a ‘T’ during practice.”

Tschetter and Nimari Burnett, the Wolverines two main holdovers from the previous regime, say that the current staff puts a greater emphasis on analytics than the previous one.

Its why May and company can live with some of the aggressive turnovers on outlets up court, or when someone is trying to make the extra pass. But when there’s a sloppy live ball turnover that results in a pick-six?

Well that needs to stop immediately.

“This gives us a few days to spend on us,” May said of U-M’s eight day break between games, the longest stretch of the season. “We needed this week of practice, even though our guys are busy outside of this (with finals) we needed this to be able to really put a lot of teeth into fixing the things that need to be fixed.”

‘Same level of urgency’

Michigan has held double-digit leads at some point in just about every game.

It did against Wisconsin, Iowa and Arkansas, yet in all three of those games Michigan allowed the opponent to get back within one possession or take the lead. Twice, U-M lived to tell the tale. The third time was not the charm.

“We have to stay focused longer, we have to continue to fight when we have the lead,” May said. “With the same level of urgency.”

The good news is all the individual pieces appear to be there. Danny Wolf comes off a near triple-double and is looking like a Big Ten Player of the Year candidate. After a slow start, Vlad Goldin is averaging 20 points and 7.5 rebounds over the past four games. Roddy Gayle Jr. and Tre Donaldson are both averaging 12 points per game and U-M’s bench whether it’s Will Tschetter or Sam Walters has shooters and energy to spare.

However, even with that, Michigan has allowed more 10-0 run than any other team in the country. Much of that happens because of giveaways and not securing boards.

“I know at home the magic formula is the timeout,” May said. “We have to play basketball, can’t turn it over, cant throw the pick-sixes that lead to easy baskets, those are energizer plays. So yeah, the pace we play at, the style we play, we’re succeptible to runs but we’re also capable of stretching leads.

“There’s a give and take with every style of play.”

Ten games into the season, the style of play U-M is employing does not seem to be a problem. Execution at times, is lacking. But part of that is still to be expected as a group that hasn’t been together yet as a complete unit for even six months has navigated a rather difficult schedule with few blemishes.

May is pleased, but not exuberant, about where his team is. He’s said multiple times this year that he could probably plan a little bit better for today, but that it wouldn’t prepare his teams as well for the long run. It’s a fine balance between tweaking playing rotations, emphasizing points of weakness and keeping the momentum all moving forwards.

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But the Wolverines have done that 10 games into 2024-25. Now, in self improvement week, they want to take another step.

“We do respond to failure pretty well,” May said of what he’s learned of this group early. “Wake Forest, we came back with the mindset of being eager to fix what needed to be fixed. It seems like after our second loss, we’re in the same mindset.”

Tony Garcia is the Michigan Wolverines beat writer for the Detroit Free Press. Email him at apgarcia@freepress.com and follow him on X at @RealTonyGarcia.