During the first three-and-a-half minutes of 2010-2011 Michigan men's basketball, junior guard Zack Novak knocked down a mid-range jumpshot, the Wolverines were 5-for-5 from the free throw line and freshmen Tim Hardaway Jr. and Evan Smotrycz had both hit 3-pointers from the wing.

They were perfect. They hadn’t missed a single shot.

But then a drought hit and Michigan didn’t make a 3-point field goal for more than 26 minutes. In fact, the Wolverines would only hit one more 3-pointer the entire game on the way to finishing 3-for-21 from behind the arc — a pitiful 14.3-percent — in the 68-59 exhibition win over Saginaw Valley State University on Saturday.

“It’s a mental thing,” Smotrycz said after the game. “If you’re making shots, then the game’s going really well, if you’re not, then it’s more of a struggle.”

Smotrycz, one of two players for the Wolverines to reach double-digit scoring, resisted attributing his poor shooting to being a freshman or first-game jitters.

“Everyone’s been saying, ‘Are you nervous for the first game?’ But I feel like we’ve already played a bunch of first games in Europe,” Smotrycz said of Michigan’s four exhibition games played in Belgium this past Aug. “Definitely the crowd was different and playing here against people who aren’t wearing Michigan (practice) jerseys.”

Michigan coach John Beilein said he anticipated jitters under the lights from his young players, adding that Smotrycz and Hardaway Jr. — who shot a combined 4-for-18 from the floor — have been shooting consistently in practice.

But it wasn't just the freshmen who struggled to make shots. Juniors Novak and Stu Douglass along with sophomore Darius Morris — the most experienced players on the team — shot 7-for-20 from the field.

The troublesome shooting became even more evident in the second half when the Wolverines shot 25-percent from the floor and only managed to outscore the Cardinals 36-35.

It's still not clear whether Michigan will have a clutch player that can score on command. Morris scored 18 points, 12 coming from the freethrow line, but if he is to remain at point guard, it'll be difficult to lead the team in both scoring and assists.

With the poor shooting, it’s hard to overlook the startling statistics from Saturday’s game, considering that Michigan State opened its season last week with an 88-44 win over SVSU.

But Michigan isn’t looking that far into the future quite yet. Next on the schedule is the season-opener against South Carolina Upstate this Saturday at Crisler Arena.

“It’s the first game, we’re coming in with no expectations for this season — just playing loose, were not gonna beat ourselves up about an exhibition game,” Douglass said. “There’s a lot of stuff we have to work on but it’s early and we’re a young team and we played well in the scrimmage … We know what we’re capable of and I’m not worried about that.”