In the 2008-09 season, the Michigan men’s basketball team shot 42.5 percent from the field, including 33.4 percent on three-point attempts. The next year, those numbers dipped to 41.6 percent and 29.9 percent, respectively.

So it comes as no surprise that the former made the NCAA Tournament for the first time all decade, while the latter slid to a disappointing seventh-place finish in the Big Ten, failing to make any postseason tournament.

That’s why the Wolverines’ performance in their season opener last Saturday against South Carolina Upstate was so encouraging for Michigan fans. Michigan (1-0) went 22-of-50 from the field and made seven of 22 3-pointers, good for 31.8 percent.

Those are the kinds of numbers the team will have to continue to put up if it has any hopes of performing above its rock-bottom expectations this season. Thursday night's game against Bowling Green (1-1) at Crisler Arena will provide another test early on.

“(Coach John Beilein) really emphasizes trying to put up a lot of shots in practice,” sophomore point guard Darius Morris said Wednesday. “And we make shots in practice and he recruits a lot of shooters and we know that everybody on this team can get it done. It’s just the bottom line of going out there and executing it.

“Just hopefully we can be consistent this year. We don’t want to have flashes where some games we’re 50 percent, 30 percent or 10 percent. We just want to be consistent.”

The Falcons aren’t a very explosive offensive team. They only mustered 52 points in a season-opening loss to Howard, and they return just two of their top-six scorers from last year’s team, a squad that finished in last place in the Mid-American Conference's East Division.

One of those players though, junior swingman Scott Thomas, has scoring potential. The forward led Bowling Green in scoring last season and is repeating the feat so far in 2010, coming in with 15.5 points per game. Thomas can do damage from any spot on the court, meaning Michigan will have to be disciplined to keep him from getting open looks.

Down low, the Falcons feature big-bodied freshman Cameron Black. The 6-foot-10, 230-pound center is a physical presence in the paint and will be a challenge for the Wolverines’ equally inexperienced group of big men.

“He’s a strong guy,” Beilein said. “He’s just going to get rebounds just because he’s a space eater, so we’ve got to play with our feet around him to make sure that we somehow can establish some leverage with him when he has the ball, and when he doesn’t have the ball, because he can get some put-backs very easy because of his size.”

But if Michigan’s excellent defensive performance against the Spartans is any indication, it should be able to slow down the Falcons’ average attack.

That just makes it even more critical that the Wolverines’ offense remains efficient — a poor showing could keep Bowling Green in the game longer than it should be.

One area of particular focus will be on the fast break. Beilein wasn’t happy with his team’s transition attack against South Carolina Upstate, as Michigan failed to convert on a number of attempts.

Whether it was Morris throwing an errant pass or any number of his teammates mishandling the point guard’s quality looks, the Wolverines appeared rusty when pushing the ball.

But the players believe they can straighten it out.

“(Fast-break mistakes) were all decision-making errors,” junior guard Zack Novak said. “They weren’t effort errors. People were running hard, probably as hard as they ran, but we just made bad decisions. (Improvement) will come as you play together more."

Beilein is familiar with Falcons coach Louis Orr from their days in the Big East — Orr coached Seton Hall when Beilein was still at West Virginia.

And whenever their teams squared off, Beilein said, the home team was usually the victor.

The Wolverines hope that trend continues Thursday night.