Monday Quick Hits: Michigan Takes Down Illinois 74-64

By Sean · Monday, January 5, 2009 · 2:40 AM |  Share | 2 Comments 

• Michigan got a much needed win against Illinois yesterday by a score of 74-64. It was a close, back and forth game until Michigan pulled away with around five or so minutes left. The Wolverines went on a 12-2 run to finish the game and ended up with a 10-point victory. After the first half I certainly didn’t expect this result, but Michigan played much better in the final 20 minutes. U-M actually scored in the paint, leading to a higher shooting percentage, and defensively they played much better as well.
• Here are highlights of the game:

• Almost six Michigan players scored in double digits. Manny Harris led the way with 16 points and played a pretty solid game. DeShawn Sims and Laval Lucas-Perry, who started for the first time as a Wolverine, both scored 13 points. Zack Novak had 11 points despite missing part of the second half to get six stitches above his left eye (see next quick hit). Zack Gibson scored 10 points in what was one of his best games at Michigan. Finally, Kelvin Grady ended up with 9 points and scored on a nice play late in the game to help put this game out of the Illini’s reach.
• Zack Novak got busted when he collided with Alex Legion, who was once going to be a Wolverine (story is in next quick hit), and had to go to the locker room to get his cut fixed. He later returned to the game in a #11 jersey since his #0 uniform was covered in blood, as you can see in the picture below from the Detroit News.
  
• Illinois’ Alex Legion signed with Michigan before Tommy Amaker was fired and went on to get out of his LOI to go to Kentucky after John Beilein was hired. Legion transferred to Illinois a year ago and got booed quite a bit today in his first game at Crisler Arena.
• Michigan has now surpassed last season’s win total. The Wolverines will look for win #12 at Indiana on Wednesday. The game starts at 6:30 p.m. ET and will be broadcast on the Big Ten Network. Michigan doesn’t usually win in Bloomington, but there is absolutely no excuse for losing to Indiana this season. They are terrible and will be lucky to win a single game in the Big Ten. Although games against ranked teams get more publicity, the ones against crappy teams like Indiana are just as important.
• The Big House Blog found a video of William Campbell’s announcement from Saturday. You can check it out below.

• Former Michigan and current Lions quarterbacks coach Scot Loeffler may end up taking a job at Florida following the Gators’ national title game on Thursday.
• Don’t ever take anything ESPN says about recruiting seriously. Why? Well, one of Tom Luginbill’s “fearless recruiting predictions for ’09″ is that Tate Forcier and Shavodrick Beaver will battle Justin Feagin for Michigan’s starting quarterback job. That would be pretty surprising considering Beaver decommitted to Tulsa and Feagin is now a slot receiver. Nicely done, ESPN.