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Michigan Basketball: 2018-19 keys for the Wolverines at Rutgers

By Adam Childs

ANN ARBOR, MICHIGAN - JANUARY 29: Jordan Poole #2 of the Michigan Wolverines reacts after taking a second half charge while playing the Ohio State Buckeyes at Crisler Arena on January 29, 2019 in Ann Arbor, Michigan. (Photo by Gregory Shamus/Getty Images)
ANN ARBOR, MICHIGAN - JANUARY 29: Jordan Poole #2 of the Michigan Wolverines reacts after taking a second half charge while playing the Ohio State Buckeyes at Crisler Arena on January 29, 2019 in Ann Arbor, Michigan. (Photo by Gregory Shamus/Getty Images) /
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IOWA CITY, IOWA- FEBRUARY 01: Guard Jordan Bohannon #3 of the Iowa Hawkeyes chases a loos ball in the second half with forward Ignas Brazdeikis #13 of the Michigan Wolverines, on February 1, 2019 at Carver-Hawkeye Arena, in Iowa City, Iowa. (Photo by Matthew Holst/Getty Images)
IOWA CITY, IOWA- FEBRUARY 01: Guard Jordan Bohannon #3 of the Iowa Hawkeyes chases a loos ball in the second half with forward Ignas Brazdeikis #13 of the Michigan Wolverines, on February 1, 2019 at Carver-Hawkeye Arena, in Iowa City, Iowa. (Photo by Matthew Holst/Getty Images) /

2. Get back to defense

Michigan’s defense has carried this team this year, even when the offense has struggled. Against Iowa it was the first time this year that they looked just average on the defensive side of the ball. Iowa is a very good offensive team, but Michigan had made other teams like that look bad this year, see North Carolina. As mentioned earlier the Wolverines looked a step slow throughout the game and it hurt them.

Iowa was able to get easy inside shots and found open guys on the perimeter also to hit some big three pointers. They also gave up too many offensive rebounds. They were caught sleeping a lot on shots and Iowa looked tougher than the Wolverines.

Rutgers is not a good offensive team as they are averaging just over 66 points per game. This is a team Michigan should be able to lock down if they play defense like they have most of the year. If Michigan gets back to playing their type of defense they should be able to frustrate the Scarlet Knights.

Rutgers has just two guys scoring in double figures this year and they should not be match up problems for the Wolverines. They just need to find that intensity that was lacking at Iowa. My guess is that Coach Beilein is hammering that into their head over the weekend and the Wolverines will come out fired up. This team is too good defensively to have what happened on Friday happen again. Get back to their defense and they should be able to shut down Rutgers.

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