Ann Arbor — It’s often said success breeds complacency.
The Wolverines, who are on a ridiculous roll, must have ignored that memo. All they’ve done during one of the most dominant stretches in modern college basketball is deliver one thumping after another.
At no point have they rested on their laurels, even after setting a Big Ten record with six wins by 40-plus points. They haven’t relaxed or lost focus. They haven’t overlooked or underestimated any opponent. They’ve showed no signs of a team that isn’t constantly striving to improve.
“If we’re going to be at our best, our standards have to continue to be the standards that we’ve created,” coach Dusty May said after Friday’s 96-66 win over No. 24 USC. “That’s the beautiful thing about it. It’s not as if the players and the staff aren’t on the same page. There’s a collaborative effort to all of us being at our absolute best.”
Need proof of that? Take the postgame comments following the latest lashing. Michigan stifled USC and held the Trojans to their worst offensive outing of the season — which marked the Wolverines’ third straight win by 30-plus points over a ranked foe, a first in Associated Press poll history — but forward Morez Johnson Jr. still wasn’t completely satisfied.
“I don’t think our defense was up to par. I think we had another level to reach,” Johnson said. “We had a couple mental lapses but can’t do nothing about it now. Just got to keep on learning from it and getting better every day in practice.”
When it was pointed out that the Wolverines forced turnovers on six of USC’s first nine possessions and held the Trojans without a point for the first 6:40 of the game, Johnson conceded a bit.
“Guess it was all right,” he said.
Mind you, this is after Michigan held USC to 66 points on 34.5% shooting, which were both season-low marks, and 23 points below the Trojans’ season average in a convincing victory over a top-25 opponent in conference play.
Yet, the only thing on Johnson’s mind was the few defensive possessions where the Wolverines weren’t locked in.
“I don’t think I got my head up my butt,” he said. “I’m very aware of knowing when I mess up and hold my teammates accountable. I do remember we had (an 11-0 start) … but throughout the game, our defense was not up to par.”
Johnson wasn’t the only one who found fault with Michigan’s performance. Forward Will Tschetter noted the Wolverines didn’t finish a bunch of defensive possessions by giving up 11 offensive rebounds.
According to Tschetter, Michigan finished with a defensive rebounding percentage in the low 70s against USC, a number that’s “way too low for us” and should be in the 80s. Tschetter added the team’s offensive rebounding percentage — the target is “always 40-plus, if not 45-plus” — also didn’t meet the mark.
“Our rebounding can get so much better,” Tschetter said. “We have goals for our offensive rebounding that we’re not even touching right now. Our defensive rebounding (against USC) was not very good, and that’s been a little bit of our Achilles heel.
“It’s one of the ways that teams can hang around with us, is if we’re giving up easy points, letting those possessions reset. We have elite defensive possessions for 20, 30 seconds, we get the stop and (not the rebound). We always talk about on offense, if we get an offensive board, that’s a stop for us. We don’t have to go down and play defense to get the ball back. So that’s them getting a stop if they get an offensive board.”
May praised his team’s defensive effort, he described the offensive performance as “a little bit clunky.” Yet, the Wolverines still scored 49 points in the first half, led by 18 at the break, led by as much as 30 in the second half, and shot 47.7% from the field.
May also echoed Tschetter and noted the Wolverines, given their size, length and athleticism, should be “elite” at rebounding the ball. And while May has been pleased with the team’s field-goal percentage defense and 2-point shooting — the Wolverines lead the nation in both categories at 34.6% and 65.6%, respectively — he feels the team has “another jump to make” shooting 3-pointers and free throws.
Based on the sights and sounds, the Wolverines don’t seem to be a team that has a problem staying hungry and pushing past previous results.
“Every team has their own issues,” May said Monday. “Yesterday I thought was one of our best practices of the year, and that’s the only gauge that I can use. We didn’t play well against USC. We made a lot of errors that we haven’t been making, and they weren’t at their best either.
“There hasn’t been any complacency. I think we have a group that loves to compete. When you have the depth that we have, if one of the guys isn’t in the right mind space, the guy checking in for him is probably going to bring it and then he’ll probably take it home that game. So as an individual, our guys don’t have any margin of error. I think there’s a real community to our group, that they’re accountable to each other. They’re not going to let each other down when it comes to effort.”
Injury updates
It’s possible guard Nimari Burnett and forward Yaxel Lendeborg will be back in the lineup for Tuesday’s game at Penn State after both exited and sat the final 16 minutes against USC due to injury.
May said Burnett was a “full go” at Sunday’s practice and is on track to play. Burnett needed to get stitches above his eye after he landed awkwardly, hit his head on Roddy Gayle Jr.’s knee and started bleeding from his left eyebrow.
May noted Lendeborg, who was limping at times against USC, is “day-to-day” with a bruised calf and will be a game-time decision against Penn State.
“He’s feeling much better,” May said. “We’ll see how he goes today, see how he feels tomorrow at shootaround and then make the decision from there with the medical team. The trainers will tell me if he can go or he can’t, and he’ll say whether he can go or he can’t.”
Big Ten honor
Johnson was named Big Ten co-player of the week after averaging 26.5 points and 8.5 rebounds and shooting 75% from the field (18-for-24) in Michigan’s wins over McNeese State and USC.
He tied his career high with 24 points and added 11 rebounds in 21 minutes against McNeese State to record his second double-double of the season. He topped that scoring a career-best 29 points on 10-for-12 shooting in 26 minutes against USC.
The accolade, which was shared with Purdue’s Braden Smith, is the first of Johnson’s career. He’s the second Wolverine to earn the weekly honor this season after Lendeborg, who netted one last month.
Michigan at Penn State
Tipoff: 7 p.m. Tuesday, Bryce Jordan Center, University Park, Pennsylvania
TV/radio: FS1/94.7
Records: No. 2 Michigan 13-0, 3-0 Big Ten; Penn State 9-5, 0-3
Outlook: Penn State has lost four of five, with close losses to Illinois and Michigan State and blowout losses to Indiana and Pittsburgh. The Nittany Lions are among the top teams at taking care of the ball — their 13.3% turnover percentage ranks No. 7 in the nation — and are led by freshman guard Kayden Mingo (14.9 points).
@jamesbhawkins
