5 Takeaways From Michigan’s Win Over Washington

Following its first defeat of the season at the hands of Wisconsin on Saturday, the No. 2 Michigan men’s basketball team didn’t let the loss turn into a losing streak. Instead, it handled business on the road at Washington, winning 82-72.

Any road game in the Big Ten is a tough test, but playing a late-night west-coast game on a Wednesday night takes it to a whole new level. The Wolverines responded, however, pulling out a Quad 1 win despite the conditions.

It wasn’t pretty the whole way through, but they have some momentum heading into a struggling Oregon’s house for a matchup on Saturday.

Here are five key takeaways from the late-night win…

Junior center Aday Mara was an offensive machine. He finished the game with 20 points on 10-for-11 shooting, two rebounds, two assists, and three blocks.

Mara asserted himself in the paint early and often, and the Huskies had no answer for him. Towering over his defenders, he got basically whatever he wanted. Whether it was a soft post-hook or an emphatic slam, Mara put the ball in the basket with efficiency.

His two assists don’t do his passing justice either. While it’s easy to point out his no-look, over the head dime, his passing even on plays that didn’t end up in an assist was quite impressive. 

Defensively, Mara will always have gravity in the paint, but it was his offense that helped the Wolverines the most Wednesday night.

It wasn’t just Mara controlling the paint — although he was a major contributor — Michigan’s entire frontcourt claimed territory near the rim.

The trio of Mara, sophomore forward Morez Johnson Jr., and graduate forward Yaxel Lendeborg combined for 50 of the Wolverines’ 82 points. Johnson scored 16 points to go along with his 16 rebounds, and Lendeborg collected 14 points and seven rebounds of his own.

In total, Michigan outscored Washington 50 to 28 in the paint, asserting its size and physicality all night.

At times, the Wolverines have struggled to shoot from distance. It’s a luxury to have such a dominant frontcourt to make up for shoddy shooting performances, but they’d love to have shot better than 21.7% from deep.

Michigan missed its first 10 3-point attempts before freshman guard Trey McKenney finally broke the curse. The shooting got a little bit better from that point forward, but not enough to make the percentage any less unsightly.

The Wolverines are still shooting a respectable 35.3% from deep this season, but they’ve proven to be quite streaky — either their blazing hot or ice cold. As the season wears on, some more consistency from distance could be a major advantage.

Michigan finished the first half shooting an abysmal — for its standards, at least — 35.9% from the floor and 18.8% from three. Luckily for the Wolverines, the Huskies were shooting even worse.

Almost nothing was going right for either offense, and the halftime buzzer was almost a welcome sound. Out of the break, however, it was like a brand new game. 

Washington still struggled, but Michigan shot a much-improved 60% from the field, and a slightly-better 28.6% from deep. If the Wolverines offense can put together 40 minutes of playing like it did in the second half, they are almost impossible to stop.

Losing a game like Michigan did against Wisconsin was inevitable, the real question was, ‘How will they respond?’ The Wolverines answered that question with their actions, coming away with an impressive Quad 1 road win.

Even great teams go through slumps, and even great teams lose. But one loss can’t alter the course of the rest of the season, and it looks like Michigan has avoided that fate so far.