Michigan Basketball: 2019-20 keys for victory against Creighton
By Adam Childs
2. Avoid long scoring drought
During every game, most teams will have a period where they struggle to score. How quickly they can snap out of that is usually a good indicator if they win the game or not. Michigan went through a massive drought against Appalachian State and about blew a 30 point lead.
The Wolverines have in the past been prone to these droughts because of their reliance on the three-point shot. But they were able to get over that because of their defense and when they got hot they could roll off a lot of points very quickly.
Like we mentioned in the last key they lost a lot of scoring from last year. With that, they may struggle to find guys to score and it will be harder to make up points they gave up during a drought. They have guys that can get hot, but in the past few years, they had numerous options that could snap them out of it.
This year they don’t have that go-to scorer quite yet. Livers has gotten hot before and Brooks showed he can score last game, but they haven’t been consistent enough to be that guy. Teske can even get going and score points in bunches, but again not a for sure go-to guy yet. This all leads to the Wolverines needing to avoid long stretches of not scoring.
They just don’t have the team yet to overcome those droughts. On top of that, they can’t afford it to affect their defense as it did against Appalachian State on Tuesday. That has been their strength and if that falters then they are in big-time trouble.
Stay steady through the game and avoid those droughts and their defense can keep them in most games. But if they continue to experience the bouts of not scoring they are going to be in trouble.