Game 3: Ball State on Michigan Recap

It’s hard to shake the feeling that Michigan’s first three games were more like acclaimed scrimmage or performances.

Simply playing inside the Chrysler Center sets the tone, but young Howard and his bench are in the early stages of discovering the whole thing. They were sharply on their way to a win at Ball State on Wednesday night at -84-6565, and Howard was still struggling, avoiding the whispers he fought against Auckland.

After a boated dead set to finish halfway through, Michigan coaches were picked up by a Big Ten network camera running through the set to Ndie Brown, before going into the locker room. Fantastic in the usual, regular-season game in Prison Scrimmage.

Howard’s management of his rotation is only added to that antecedent feeling. The Michigan head coach is trying to keep an eye on every corner, whether it’s for COVID reasons or for the general early season uncertainty. Michigan’s starting lineup hasn’t changed in three games, but Howard has leaned over more than two-dozen different lineup combinations. The five players who led the team in minutes – Mike Smith, Ally Brooks, Franz Wagner, Isaiah Livers and Hunter Dickinson – did not start as a group and did not even share the court together until the last second of overtime against Auckland. .

The second and third players, who came off the bench against Ball State – Brandon Jones and Zeb Jackson – did not see the floor in the second half until the waste came. It is clear that Howard has not found his name in this team – coaches in the country? – But Michigan is officially out of mid-major tune-ups. The Wolverines will have to move that chemistry quickly to the Chrysler Center together with UCF and NC State.