Michigan wins by doing all the 'little things'

After two wins at home - over Towson on Monday and Bradley last night - these Wolverines have made it clear that the 'little things' are going to decide their fate over the course of the season.

While their 74-44 blowout of the Braves was hardly as ugly as the 60-45 victory over Towson, it's clear the Wolverines' success usually comes down to the things you're not going to catch on SportsCenter. The onus of the team falls on Josh Asselin, Chris Young and Pete Vignier - all of whom are going to have to set solid screens, play tight defense and generally do everything but score.

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Sure, Louis Bullock and Robbie Reid will hit their threes, but that's probably all the highlight-reel material you're going to see with this year's squad.

And that's fine. Michigan will take the 30 or so points its senior backcourt will give it, and count on a couple of others to help carry the offensive load. It's on the other side of the court, however, that the Wolverines will have the biggest opportunity to make some noise.

Michigan isn't a team that's going to dictate the tempo of a game - but that might not be such a bad thing. Given their dearth of big-name talent, the Wolverines seem content to follow the lead set by their opponent, keep a game close and then pull it out at the end.

When the situation calls for it, the Wolverines are able to play baseline-to-baseline on offense or slow it down and run a halfcourt set. But in reality, it won't matter, because Michigan's success is all going to come down to the type of defense that it plays.

Michigan's defense is "never a given - but we'd like to feel it's going to always be there," Michigan coach Brian Ellerbe said. "You're in trouble when you have to coach effort."

Luckily for Ellerbe, he hasn't had to do that yet. In fact, the Wolverines have given all they can over the past couple of weeks, with all five starters averaging nearly 30 minutes a game.

Where the trouble starts is when Michigan's big men are forced to do a lot of moving on the defensive side of the ball. Tonight, Bradley coach Jim Molinari directly questioned Michigan's ability to defend athletic post players - despite getting little production from his starting frontcourt.

As evidenced by the score, the stamina that left Michigan during games with Syracuse and Utah in Maui wasn't a problem. But in the two losses, the close contests slipped away just as easily as did Michigan's legs. And where did it hurt the most? Just look at the 'little things' like grabbing rebounds and setting screens - the two facets of the game that have hurt the Wolverines the most in their losses this season.

"They've been in most games to the end, but haven't been able to finish," Bradley coach Jim Molinari said.

And that will be the difference between the Wolverines surprising people this season or living down to people's exceedingly low expectations - Michigan's ability to play consistently throughout a game to finish off a team. This week in practice, Ellerbe got on his players hard for their lack of aggression and inability to do the little things.

His yelling may have paid dividends last night, but the question still remains: Will it continue?

- Pranay Reddy can be reached via e-mail at pkr@umich.edu.

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12-03-98