Some people travel to the Bahamas to go on vacation. So, if Michigan puts the Huskies on the line, the Wolverines will pay for it. Why Michigan Will Win Losing to Xavier was a fluke.
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Charlotte shot just 27 percent in the half and struggled in the half court offensively, committing seven turnovers. MI was right with CT for the opening segment of the game and was actually able to cut the lead late before the Huskies hit a few pivotal buckets to close out the game. MI finished the half shooting just 6-of-25 (24 percent) from the field and 3-of-14 (21.4 percent) from behind the arc. However, he missed extensive time in the first half with foul trouble as CT pulled away.
The Orange got back in the game with a 7-0 run, and eventually tied it in Tyler Lydon’s jumper with 3:22 left in the half. Saturday’s trampling of Furman was, in part, due to 18 points and 7 rebounds from Shonn Miller and another 13 points from Rodney Purvis.
Malachi Richardson opened the run by stepping into a three-pointer, then Trevor Cooney scooped up a loose ball and pushed it upcourt.
Unfortunately, it’s hard to think that the sitting of LeVert for the final eight minutes of the first half didn’t have some type of impact on the result of the game.
The score is nearly deceiving because for much of the second half, the Huskies were content to go through the motions, always seeming to hit timely shots whenever the lead threatened to dip back to single digits.
MI is 2-1 on the season and 1-1 against the spread while CT is 3-0 overall and 1-0 against the spread.
The Huskies (4-1), after beating MI and losing to Syracuse, can’t come home with a trophy, but this would be a successful trip on the NCAA resume-building level if they could knock off Gonzaga in a classic battle of speed (UConn) vs. size (Zags).
Syracuse will make it three games in three days on Friday when they meet up with #25 Texas A&M for the Battle 4 Atlantis title.
Michael Gbinije had 26 points, Trevor Cooney finished with 19 points and the Orange ran past Charlotte 83-70 in the opening round on Wednesday. Another freshman, Tyler Lyndon, has solid averages of 7 points and 8 rebounds per game. It’s also life for UConn in the American Athletic Conference, which makes this such an important game. Kaleb Joseph, Franklin Howard and Chinonso Obokoh will all play, but none have averages of more than 3 points per game.
The Wolverines notched new benchmarks for points by one team and for margin of victory.
However, Beilein has not lost hope in his squad, especially since it is only November, per Snyder: “I trust these guys but I wish our learning curve was faster”. That’s just tough. We didn’t do a good job playing without fouling.
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Syracuse was forced into a wild shot with the shot clock winding down. “We’ve just got to bounce back and recover, like Coach said”. “They’ve got some great players, and a great defensive team”.
