For the Michigan men’s basketball team, the 72-hour stretch from Sunday afternoon to Wednesday afternoon included, in order: a flight to New York for the Progressive Legends Classic, a 9:45 p.m. tip-off against Oregon, a 10:15 p.m. tip against Villanova and a late-night flight home in time for class Wednesday.
That’s for a team with six freshmen, who weren’t playing college basketball at this time last year.
If that weren’t enough, the following days would include game planning for Syracuse’s 2-3 zone defense and a home game against the Orange.
But for a few hours Saturday, the 3-point shots fell and the offense was run to perfection in an easy 91-62 win over Nicholls State.
And for a few hours, there were no worries about the score, the personnel or the experience. Almost everyone played, almost everyone scored and almost everything worked against the Colonels.
“Bouncing back was definitely something that we really wanted to do,” said junior guard Caris LeVert. “We pride ourselves on not losing two games in a row, so coming out early today focused like we did was really important for us.”
In fact, the Wolverines haven’t lost two straight games since back-to-back road defeats at Wisconsin and Michigan State on Feb. 9 and 12, 2013, and they made sure not to let Tuesday’s loss to Villanova send them into a tailspin.
This time, the “comeback game,” as freshman forward Ricky Doyle called it, was at home, with the friendly rims at Crisler Center. Michigan knocked down eight of 12 3-point attempts in the first half and used its shooting to roll from there.
The two games in Brooklyn were physical, aggressive contests, the kind after which a trap game can be an issue. At times in Tuesday’s loss, Michigan took a beating. LeVert was shoved to the floor on an and-1 layup in the second half, and the night ended with sophomore guard Zak Irvin getting stopped at the rim by Wildcats forward JayVaughn Pinkston.
The physicality also showed with sophomore guard Derrick Walton Jr. (toe) and freshman forward D.J. Wilson (knee) sitting out with injuries suffered Tuesday.
But there wasn’t even a remote threat of a letdown Saturday. Nicholls State didn’t have the defense to stop the Wolverines, and while LeVert wouldn’t admit Michigan took Saturday’s game more lightly than any other, he was happy to see things run smoothly.
“I know I played less minutes than I normally do, so that was good today,” he said.
The Wolverines got the bounces they didn’t seem to get in Brooklyn. Junior guard Spike Albrecht — who started in Walton’s place — and freshman forward Kameron Chatman hit back-to-back 3-pointers to kick off Michigan’s 4-for-4 start. From that point, the Wolverines never trailed again.
They rode the experience of their junior floor general to an easy rout ahead of Tuesday’s ACC/Big Ten Challenge showdown against Syracuse.
“It’s great for us, that we have someone with as much experience as Spike (Albrecht) does to come in and play as well as he did when we have our starting point guard out,” LeVert said.
Michigan coach John Beilein said he didn’t know if Walton will be able to play Tuesday. Either way, that game won’t be nearly as easy. But on Saturday, the Wolverines at least had a couple hours to prepare.