Monday Quick Hits: Michigan Snaps Losing Streak with Win Over NU

By Sean · Monday, January 26, 2009 · 2:00 AM |  Share | Leave a Comment 

• John Beilein got his 500th career NCAA win on Saturday night when Michigan defeated Northwestern 68-59. The game was close early on, but Michigan slowly started to pull away from the Wildcats. Northwestern did make a comeback to get within 4 at one point in the second half, but a couple Stu Douglass three-pointers helped Michigan take a comfortable lead that lasted the remainder of the game. The Wolverines needed a win badly, and they got one to end a three-game losing streak.
• DeShawn Sims was dominant for Michigan. He scored 15 total points and most of them came in the first few minutes of the game. Foul trouble kept him off the floor for a good part of the second half, but his dominance in the paint early on set a tone for the rest of the game. As a team, Michigan dominated Northwestern inside, outscoring them in the paint by a big margin and outrebounding them 41-22. That was without a doubt the biggest difference in this game, as Michigan usually is the one getting outrebounded by a near 2-to-1 margin.
• Kelvin Grady scored 11 points, and he and Sims were the only Michigan players to score in double-digits. That wasn’t a big deal, though, as seven other Michigan players scored at least 3 points. Stu Douglass had 8 points thanks mainly to his pair of three-pointers. Manny Harris struggled his way to 8 points but did have 12 rebounds. Zack Gibson also had 8 points and went 4-6 from the field. Zack Novak scored 7 points and had 7 rebounds as well, 4 of which were offensive. Laval Lucas-Perry finally made a three-pointer and ended up with 5 points for the game. Finally, David Merritt and Anthony Wright each made a three-pointer.
• Michigan takes on Ohio State in Columbus on Wednesday. This is the first of two big road tests this week, as Michigan plays at Purdue on Saturday. The OSU game starts at 6:30 p.m. ET and will be broadcast on the Big Ten Network.
• Greg Robinson actually called Rich Rodriguez in December about the once vacant defensive coordinator job. Robinson and Rodriguez spoke again before and during the coaches convention that took place earlier this month, and Robinson was hired shortly after. The two coaches knew each other from their days in the Big East, which made it all the more likely that Robinson would end up with the job.
• Robinson spoke with the media on Saturday before Michigan’s basketball game. Some noteworthy things that were mentioned are that Robinson will hit the recruiting trail on Monday; he considered returning to the NFL but only actively pursued the Michigan job; there is no set system yet for 2009, as he will adapt to the talent he has; he will coach games from the field; he will be a position coach as well as the defensive coordinator, though it hasn’t been determined which position he will coach just yet; and he apparently has known the fight song since he “was about three years old.”
• The Detroit News went behind the scenes with the Michigan hockey team on January 16.
• Wolverine Liberation Army tore apart John Heuser’s awful article about Rich Rodriguez’s total compensation for 2008.
• Jim Herrmann, who was rumored to be a candidate for the Michigan defensive coordinator job, was hired by the New York Giants as their linebackers coach. Herrmann previously coached linebackers for the New York Jets.