5 Takeaways From Michigan’s Win Over Middle Tennessee State

Following a couple of close wins over Wake Forest and TCU, the No. 7 Michigan men’s basketball team finally secured a comfortable win, beating Middle Tennessee State by a score of 86-61.

At halftime, the Wolverines only led the Blue Raiders by six points, 36-30, and it looked like Michigan might have yet another battle on its hands. But it pulled away with a much better second half to secure the 25-point victory.

The Wolverines moved to 4-0 on the season, and are gearing up to take on two very good programs — San Diego State and Auburn — in the Players Era Festival.

Here are five key takeaways from Michigan’s home win over MTSU…

Graduate forward Yaxel Lendeborg had his best game so far in a Michigan uniform. In total, he scored 25 points on 9-for-12 shooting to go along with 12 rebounds and three assists. 

Lendeborg was assertive on offense, hunting his shot, and converting when he found it. He hit two 3-pointers, but he wasn’t content to just be a spot-up shooter, getting downhill and forcing the Raiders to try to stop him — and they couldn’t. 

This is exactly the type of performance Michigan expected from Lendeborg when they landed him this offseason, and it’s the reason he was the number-one ranked player in the transfer portal.

It’s still early in the season, and head coach Dusty May is still tinkering with lineups. This time, he made another change to the starting lineup, inserting graduate forward Will Tschetter in place of junior center Aday Mara, forming the third different starting lineup in four games. 

Mara ended up playing 21 minutes to Tschetter’s 15, but it shows that May is willing to dabble with different rotations and combinations until he finds one that fits his fancy. The Wolverines’ lineup construction is unique — they have a lot of depth in the frontcourt and are relatively thin in the backcourt — so May certainly has a rotation equation to solve.

The Wolverines didn’t play to their standard in the first half. They struggled against ball pressure, especially on the hard-hedge off of screens, and were settling for 3-point shots despite owning a significant size advantage. As a result, they let MTSU hang around for longer than expected.

In the second half, however, Michigan played more tactfully. It pounded the ball inside, cleaned up much of the sloppiness on both sides of the ball, and kept the game simple. After finishing the first half up just six points, the Wolverines outscored the Raiders by 19 in the second half.

Michigan hasn’t quite lived up to its potential yet, but it’s still incredibly early in the season. Still, the second half performance was the version of the Wolverines that May wants to see all the time.

Michigan dominated the paint against MTSU. The Raiders are a significantly smaller team, and the Wolverines took advantage, especially in the second half. After scoring 16 points in the paint in the first 20 minutes, they piled on 34 more in the second half, burying MTSU. In total, Michigan won the battle of points in the paint 50 to 12.

The Wolverines have struggled from beyond the arc this season, shooting threes at a 32.7% clip — 21.2% in their last three games — but their interior play has been quite consistent.

Michigan is still searching for its identity, but it might have something in its play around the rim. 

It was clear from the jump that junior guard Elliot Cadeau was going to be an extremely important piece of this roster. He is one of the only true point guards on the team, and certainly the one with the most experience, but he’s had some struggles to start the year. 

In his last two games, he’s tallied just two assists to eight turnovers, figures that no point guard is happy with. Cadeau has proven that he can be an excellent point guard at this level, and he will undoubtedly turn things around, but if he is having a tough game, the Wolverines need someone that can step up.

Right now, sophomore L.J. Cason and freshman Trey McKenney are trying their hands, but neither have quite handled the duties of a true point guard as well as hoped. Again, the season is still quite young, and both Cason and McKenney have plenty of time to develop, but it’s something to keep an eye on.