After surviving an upset bid at Northwestern on Wednesday night, the No. 2 Michigan Wolverines returned to Crisler Center to take on another feisty basketball team in UCLA. The Bruins gave it all they could, especially in the first half, but Michigan was able to flex its muscles in the second half and win handily, 86-56.
The Bruins, led by head coach Mick Cronin, are on the bubble of the NCAA Tournament heading into the final few weeks of the regular season. BracketMatrix has UCLA as an 11-seed as of this writing, with many projections having the Bruins as a play-in team. Needless to say, UCLA desperately needs to start stacking some quality wins — and to avoid bad losses — to make the tournament.
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But Michigan got hot from the field in the second half, and there was no shot at the Bruins pulling off the upset after that. Michigan has now won 10 straight games to further distance itself in the Big Ten championship race.
Here are four takeaways from today’s win.
The Yax Man Cometh
On a team filled with great players, Yaxel Lendeborg is the straw that stirs the drink on both ends of the floor for the Wolverines. He made his presence felt early on, driving to the hoop time after time and drawing numerous fouls to get to the free throw line. Lendeborg co-lead the team in scoring at halftime with nine points — with seven of those points coming from the charity stripe — while also collecting five rebounds and one block.
Lendeborg’s stellar play continued in the second half, hitting two three-pointers and a layup to provide the Wolverines with a 14-point lead with about 12 minutes remaining. He ended the afternoon with a team-high 17 points to go along with eight rebounds, two blocks and a steal. He truly did it all for Michigan on Saturday.
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This might be a “no duh” thing to say, but if Lendeborg keeps playing like that, this team can beat anyone on any given night and will have a phenomenal chance to win the whole dang thing.
The bench, led by L.J. Cason, steps up again
Michigan was up 10-5 at the first media timeout when head coach Dusty May inserted Roddy Gayle Jr. and L.J. Cason into the lineup, and that move paid immediate dividends. Gayle hit the first three-pointer of the game for the Wolverines — they started 0-for-4 — and Cason hit one on the next possession to put Michigan up 19-8. Cason made another shot beyond the arc, breaking a dude’s ankles in the process, not long after to give Michigan its first double-digit lead of the game, 22-12.
Cason also had a pretty wild and-one, and then following a Lendeborg block, Cason took it to the rim and laid it in to put the Wolverines up by a game-high 21 points. That forced the Crisler Center white-out crowd to go bonkers and for UCLA to call a timeout with about eight minutes left.
The bench put up 11 points — Cason had eight of those — in the first half and 24 points in the entire game.
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Between today’s performance and his 18-point outing on Wednesday at Northwestern, Cason has clearly built some confidence over the last week or so. He and the rest of the bench will continue to be crucial in Michigan’s pursuit of championships — plural — this season.
2 problems for Michigan in this game
It was a struggle to hit shots beyond the arc on Saturday, particularly in the first 20 minutes of action. The Wolverines were 3-for-13 from three in the first half — with the starting five being a combined 0-for-8 — and 7-for-19 throughout the contest. Thankfully, UCLA wasn’t much better (6-for-21), but three-point shooting is quietly becoming a consistent issue for the Wolverines after they only hit 28 percent from deep on Wednesday.
Additionally, the Bruins dominated the Wolverines on the glass in the first half, 21-11. Michigan won the rebounding battle on the day, but jus barely (30-29). Regardless, the Bruins did a really nice job cleaning up the boards and giving themselves more opportunities to put points on the board. I don’t think this is a major problem moving forward like the three-point shooting, but certainly something to monitor, especially with tough physical teams like Purdue, Duke and Illinois coming up soon.
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Good news, bad news on defense
The Wolverines played some great defense in the first half, especially in the first 10 minutes or so. They were suffocating UCLA’s offensive attack and, more often than not, forcing tough shots.
The bad news — Michigan was also giving up a ton of offensive rebounds, leading to second-chance opportunities for UCLA. The Bruins collected eight offensive boards in the first half, leading to 11 second-chance points. UCLA finished with 18 second-chance points and 13 offensive rebounds, and that was able to keep the game relatively close for the first half and a few minutes into the second half.
Up Next
The Wolverines will be back on the road Tuesday to take on Purdue. Tip-off is scheduled for 6:30 p.m. and the game can only be viewed on Peacock.
