Michigan’s 80-60 win Sunday over Northwestern did not actually take place in a parallel universe. This was Jon Teske, all 85 inches and 260 pounds of him, doing exactly what many have long hoped he’d do.
Jacob Shames
Daily Sports Editor
Men's Basketball
“As far as the type of grit and determination he has. You put a challenge in front of Zavier Simpson and he’s gonna eventually win. Time will run out sometimes in life, but he will eventually win if there’s a big challenge in front of him. And so that’s what it is."
Michigan has areas which can be exploited, certainly. But in the same way that not all of the Wolverines’ strengths show up at once, neither do their weaknesses.
From the beginning, it was clear that the Wildcats were sticking with their strategy. Six and a half minutes into the game, Northwestern left Simpson wide open from beyond the arc, leaving everyone else blocked. And even though it hadn’t worked last time, even though the whole team had shot terribly in Saturday’s practice, Simpson did the only thing there was to do: shoot the ball.
The Wildcats have developed a penchant for pushing Michigan of late. They handed the Wolverines their last regular season loss — a 61-52 affair in Rosemont, Ill. last year — and came closer than anyone else to delivering their first of this year. On Sunday, Northwestern will get another shot.
With that in mind, The Daily broke down the tape from December’s game to find three questions for Michigan to answer.
Ask Beilein and he’ll tell you that it doesn’t matter who those open shots fall to. But the answer from the other sideline might be more revealing.
“I think they showed tonight why they’re such a good basketball team,” Underwood said. “They had everybody in double figures.”
Thursday night in Champaign, Michigan will play the most important game of Illinois’ season.
As Michigan approaches a program-record win streak to start the season, a target has, inevitably, taken shape on its back.
Illinois senior guard Aaron Jordan isn’t the most heralded player on the team, but he is the most veteran of a starting lineup composed of two four-star freshmen and a sophomore. The Daily sat down with Jordan at Big Ten Media Day in October.
Through five games, Poole was averaging just 7.8 points per game, reaching double-digits only once, while the freshman forward had done so four times. Since then, Poole hasn’t had a game with under 11 points, transitioning from the enigmatic scorer he was a year ago to the Wolverines’ most reliable weapon.