It’s no secret that the Michigan men’s basketball team has struggled defensively this season.
Ranking second-to-last in the Big Ten defensively and No. 205 in the NCAA, the Wolverines leave a lot to be desired on the defensive end.
With that, the most glaring aspect is Michigan’s pick-and-roll defense. This isn’t a new phenomenon, as it’s been exploited by opponents all season long, but its been especially problematic for the Wolverines throughout its conference matchups.
The Daily breaks down key pick-and-roll defensive collapses in Michigan’s three most recent losses to Penn State, Purdue and Maryland.
Penn State
The Wolverines were embarrassed by the Nittany Lions, getting blown-out by 22 — after flashing their defensive potential in their win over Penn State a month prior. Sunday afternoon’s loss was full of defensive collapses, but the first possession’s abysmal pick-and-roll defense stood out.
On this play, freshman wing Jett Howard gets screened twice in a row. And while he wiggles his way through the first one after switching with sophomore guard Kobe Bufkin, Howard gets caught in the second. The off-ball screen becomes an easy layup off the roll as freshman guard Dug McDaniel stays with his player to prevent an open 3-point shot from Penn State, instead of switching with Howard.
Michigan never seems to know how to handle screens. Should players switch on screens, or stay on their man? Off the first screen, Howard and Bufkin switch. But on the second, Howard and McDaniel don’t. It doesn’t matter whether these are defensive miscommunications. What does is that the Wolverines need to figure out their pick-and-roll policy in situations like that.
While the solution is unclear, Michigan coach Juwan Howard made it sound so simple after the game:
“We just didn’t do a good job of stopping them.”
If the first possession of the game was any indication of how the night would progress, Michigan should’ve warmed up the bus much earlier.
Purdue
In Thursday’s loss to the Boilermakers, 7-foot-4 center Zach Edey posed problems in the paint for the Wolverines all night. But even without the ball in his hands, he presented a threat.
Here, Edey sets a screen against McDaniel, who just barely manages to clip by Edey’s massive frame. Junior center Hunter Dickinson steps up just in time to knock Purdue guard Braden Smith off course to the block, and recovers back to guard Edey. But McDaniel, also trying to recover, launches himself past Smith in an attempt to block his shot. Instead, he falls for a shot fake, allowing Smith an easy jumper.
The issue here isn’t so much that Smith is a crafty guard, utilizing the shot fake to catch McDaniel off balance. The glaring issue is Dickinson’s need to guard Edey. Earlier in the contest, Edey received a pass on the roll from a Purdue guard and notched an easy bucket. It’s clear that Dickinson needs to guard Edey, and any attempts to switch the screen would be a matchup nightmare for 5-foot-11 McDaniel.
The fault lies in Michigan’s inability to double down on Edey because of the threat of stellar shooters on the wings. The Wolverines decided to play Edey straight up in hopes of forcing outside shooters to make contested buckets. But by guarding Edey this way, Dickinson had to sag off screens to contain Edey’s post presence, instead of helping to contain guards off the screen.
“We were gonna play Edey straight up and let him and Hunter battle and just try and limit their other guys,” graduate guard Joey Baker said after the game. “And I thought we did a pretty good job with that for the most part, but obviously we had some lapses.”
Playing Edey straight up proved fruitless, though. Scoring the first seven points of the game for Purdue, en route to 17 points on the night, Edey tore up Dickinson in the paint. The Wolverines would have been better off containing Edey with double-teams.
“When you have a defensive mistake, those good teams make you pay,” Juwan said. “And that’s what Purdue did.”
Maryland
In this play, McDaniel is screened on the wing, and freshman forward Tarris Reed Jr. steps up to hedge Terrapin guard Jahmir Young. But instead of a successful trap, Young zips the ball through McDaniel and Reed to Maryland guard Julian Reese.
As redshirt freshman forward Will Tschetter steps up to take Reese at the block, the rotation collapses. Reese fires to Terrapin guard Ian Martinez in the corner who drives to the basket for an open layup.
Michigan’s slow closeouts and Tschetter’s inability to take a charge aside, this play is indicative of the Wolverines’ poor screen rotation. Once again, the Wolverine defenders don’t execute pick-and-roll defense to their advantage.
Reed hedges hard on the initial screen, but there’s no clear communication as to who’s supposed to defend Reese as he’s rolling into the lane. It falls on Tschetter, who steps up just fast enough to force a pass out of the lane. But the rotation has already collapsed too far for anyone else to recover, and Michigan’s defense is once again left to watch as an opposing guard scores an easy, crucial bucket.
The Wolverines have consistently struggled defensively all season. Its pick-and-roll defense is only a microcosm of the issues plaguing Michigan. There’s a lot more to remedy if the Wolverines have any chance of a postseason run — or even finishing above .500.
But pick-and-roll defense is as good a place to start as any.