Friday Quick Hits: Michigan Rides Strong Second Half to 71-51 Win

By Sean · Friday, February 6, 2009 · 8:43 AM |  Share | Leave a Comment 

• After taking a beating against Penn State in Happy Valley just a couple weeks ago, Michigan had to flip the script and do the same thing to the Nittany Lions to get its season back on track. Another loss would pretty much end all NCAA tournament hopes, whereas an impressive win would keep the possibility of going to the Big Dance alive for another few days. Thankfully, last night the latter happened, as Michigan won 71-51 after an impressive second half.

  At halftime, Michigan actually trailed 31-29 to Penn State. It’s not like U-M was playing bad, though. Penn State just ended up with a slim lead after a strong finish to the first half. The story in the second half would be much different, though. Michigan stepped up its defense and shut down Taylor Battle, who is actually a candidate for Big Ten Player of the Year. C.J. Lee covered Battle for most of the night and did an awesome job.

  Offensively, Michigan shot 63.6% from the field in the final 20 minutes, which is the best shooting performance in a half by this team in recent memory. The combination of great defense and great shooting led to Michigan outscoring Penn State 42-20 in the second half, which ultimately led to a 20-point victory.

• One of the main reasons Michigan played so well is because Manny Harris returned to his old self. Harris scored 28 points and went 7-13 from the field. He nailed 3 three-pointers and made 11 free throws.
• Kelvin Grady not only didn’t start in this game, but he only played for 1 minute. While at the game, I figured Grady was injured or something, but apparently he is not. John Beilein simply benched him because of his recent play. Grady came into the game late in the second half when Penn State switched to a full-court press, but he was benched a minute or so later after letting Taylor Battle shoot an open three-pointer. Lee definitely played a better game defensively just from the minute we saw Grady on the floor, so I guess it made sense that Beilein kept Kelvin on the bench so much last night.
• I don’t know when a change will be made, but I doubt Laval Lucas-Perry will be starting for very much longer. He went 0-4 from the field last night and continued to struggle. For starting so strong when he returned in December, Lucas-Perry is really struggling right now, so I would expect his playing time to be reduced until he gets his game turned around.
• Zack Gibson started but only played 13 minutes. He scored 4 points and had 3 rebounds while in the game, which was a decent contribution for the most part. The reason his minutes were so limited even though he was a starter is because of the next bullet point.
• DeShawn Sims came off the bench in this game and scored 9 points and had 7 rebounds in 26 minutes. John Beilein brought Sims off the bench at the very start of the season to give the team a spark, and the strategy seemed to work last night. I would expect to see something similar in Michigan’s next game since it seems like Beilein may have finally found a lineup that he can stick with (sans LLP).
• Speaking of Michigan’s next game, they take a quick break from the Big Ten schedule to play at #1 Connecticut on Saturday. Honestly, I just hope Michigan can keep it somewhat respectable. I know this team has already upset UCLA and Duke, but UConn provides perhaps the worst matchup of any team on the schedule.

  The Huskies have lots of height (their best player is 7-3), meaning we should expect a high percentage of their points to come in the paint. On top of that, rebounding should be interesting to watch when you consider that Michigan’s tallest player in the rotation is Zack Gibson at 6-10. The next tallest player is DeShawn Sims at 6-8. UConn has seven players that are 6-8 or taller and has three that are at least 7 feet tall. My heart says that an upset is possible, but let’s be realistic, Michigan will probably be lucky to not get run out of the gym.

  Tip off for the UConn game is scheduled for 6 p.m. on ESPN (ESPN360.com as well). Remember, Michigan State comes to Crisler Arena on Tuesday, so it will be important for Michigan to escape Saturday’s game with only a few bruises. The MSU game will be Michigan’s third in six days, but it is perhaps the most important of all of them.

• Michigan plays Lake Superior State in hockey tonight and tomorrow at Yost. Both games start at 7:35 p.m. ET, but only Saturday’s game will be televised (on Comcast 900). Tonight’s game is going to be streamed live on MGoBlue.com, so that’s better than nothing.
• The Blog That Yost Built has a preview with 10 things to should know about LSSU.
• Will Campbell wants to be a starter this season, and he is going to work hard to put himself in position to crack the starting lineup.
• Via The Big House Blog, two linemen from Holland Christian are going to walk-on at Michigan.
• Tennessee head coach Lane Kiffin isn’t the sharpest tool in the shed. He accused Urban Meyer of cheating for calling Pahokee recruit Nu’Keese Richardson while Richardson was on a visit to Tennessee. Richardson actually ended up signing with Tennessee, even though he had been committed to Florida since May. Less than a day after the comments were made, the SEC and Florida announced that what Meyer did was not illegal, and Kiffin was basically forced to apologize for what he said.

  What’s really interesting about this whole story is what is now coming out about Kiffin. After Richardson received a message from his high school coach at a Tennessee basketball game asking how his visit was going, Kiffin took the phone and pretended to be Richardson when he texted back a reply saying “Yes. I love it. My decision is made.” On top of that, Kiffin was apparently paranoid about Richardson’s letter of intent not making it to Tennessee, so he basically took a shot at Pahokee by orchestrating this whole thing where the LOI was sent from the elementary school instead of the high school, where people apparently couldn’t be trusted in Kiffin’s mind.

  This whole story is very strange, but I think the conclusion we can reach is that Kiffin is a pretty big asshole. I don’t like Urban Meyer and find that some of his recruiting techniques (negative-recruiting a one-time Michigan commit and current player by lying to him after Lloyd Carr retired, for example) are pretty bad, but I really hope Florida pounds Tennessee into the ground next season to put Kiffin in his place. I know things work differently in the SEC, but I don’t know if Kiffin understand the amount of anger he is stirring up in opposing teams by his actions.