Michigan Sends Seniors Off with 83-55 Blowout of Minnesota

By Sean · Wednesday, March 3, 2010 · 2:45 AM |  Share | Leave a Comment 

In two of Michigan’s last three home games before last night, the Wolverines only scored 44 total points.  Tuesday night against Minnesota, Michigan passed that number 30 seconds into the second half.  In the other of those three home games Michigan only managed to put up 51 points.  Against Minnesota that number was surpassed less than four minutes into the second half.  If that doesn’t give you an idea of how well the Wolverines played on Tuesday then maybe this will: Michigan shot the ball 60.4% from the field (32-53) and 42.1% from three-point land (8-19).  It was without a doubt Michigan’s most sound game of the season offensively and led to a runaway on senior night.  The Wolverines won 83-55, and this game was really over by halftime.

Minnesota did lead for a bit early on and was only down by a few points until there were about nine minutes left in the first half.  At that point Michigan went off and missed shots became a rarity.  It was a glimpse of just how good this offense can be when all cylinders are firing.  Michigan was getting inside frequently, allowing for easy baskets, and three-pointers were shot much more selectively, leading to a higher percentage from behind the arc.  This big run to close out the first half gave Michigan a 41-29 lead with only a few seconds remaining, and Darius Morris made an awesome move followed by a pass to DeShawn Sims right under the hoop for an easy basket right before the buzzer sounded, making the halftime score 43-29.

The second half was no different than the last nine minutes of the first.  Michigan’s offense was running smoothly, and its defense was doing a great job of making stops that led directly to points the other way.  The lead kept growing and growing and got up to as many as 30 points.  In the end Michigan won by 28 points and John Beilein was able to take seniors DeShawn Sims, Zack Gibson, and Anthony Wright off the floor one at a time to properly honor each of them as their final regular season game at Crisler Arena came to a close.

As is usually the case when Michigan plays well and wins, DeShawn Sims and Manny Harris led the team in scoring.  Sims scored 23 points and grabbed 6 boards in 30 minutes of action.  Harris scored 22 points, grabbed 2 rebounds, dished out 3 assists, and had 3 steals.  On top of that, Harris shot the ball extremely well, going 8-12 from the field and 2-2 from behind the arc.

The rest of the starting lineup was very productive as well.  Stu Douglass scored 10 points and had 3 assists.  Zack Novak’s favorite number last night was 6, as he scored 6 points, grabbed 6 rebounds, and dished out 6 assists.  Darius Morris also dished out 6 assists to go along with his 7 points and 3 rebounds, and more than anything he looked very comfortable running the offense and was making some great plays that led to easy points in the paint.

Coming off the bench, Zack Gibson got the most playing time with 14 minutes of action.  He scored 7 points during that 14 minutes and had 2 rebounds, 1 assist, 1 steal, and 1 block.  Anthony Wright got 6 minutes of playing time and made a three-pointer in the first half.  Right before he came out of the game at the end another three rimmed out, and you could tell by the bench’s reaction that they were hoping it was going to fall.  Also coming off the bench were Matt Vogrich, Laval Lucas-Perry, and Corey Person.  Vogrich and LLP both played for 5 minutes each, and Vogrich scored 5 points on a three-pointer and a layup.  LLP went scoreless at home yet again after taking no shots and missing a pair of free throws.  (His only contribution was 3 fouls.)  Person only played for a couple minutes at the end and didn’t record any stats.

When Michigan beat Minnesota on the road a few weeks ago I thought it was the team’s best game of the season.  From start to finish the offense and defense looked good en route to a solid road victory.  Well, that was the case again on Tuesday, except the offense looked even better.  It was probably the team’s best offensive performance since senior night a year ago when Michigan absolutely ran over Purdue, scoring 87 points and shooting 63% from the field.  I don’t know why these hot shooting nights have become so rare, but it’s definitely fun to watch when the team is on its game.

Michigan wraps up the regular season on Sunday at Michigan State (4 p.m. on CBS).  Assuming MSU doesn’t stumble against Penn State on Thursday, the Spartans will be playing for a share of the Big Ten title in their seniors’ final home game.  You can bet MSU will bring it, so here’s to hoping some momentum from the Minnesota game carries over to Sunday, because it will take a close to perfect effort to knock off the Spartans at the Breslin Center.