Next Up: Michigan, Part II

Michigan is a load for anyone, and it will be for Duke Saturday. Yet that team has lost one game and been challenged in several others, including an overtime win over Wake Forest back in November.

They also had tight games against Nebraska (75-72 win), Penn State (74-72 win), and Wisconsin (91-88 loss).

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What happened in those games?

Well, in the Wake Forest and to a lesser extent Penn State games, a big part of the problem for Michigan was turnovers.

Against Wake, a team with very little size to counter the Wolverines inside, the Demon Deacons forced 17 turnovers. Michigan also shot just 4-25 from outside. UNC transfer Elliot Cadeau had 5 turnovers in this game, incidentally.

Nebraska forced 19 turnovers, including 8 by Cadeau. And in that game, Michigan shot just 6-26 from the bonusphere (23%).

Penn State forced fewer turnovers, just 12, and allowed Michigan to shoot 8-27 from behind the line (30%). And finally, Wisconsin fit a different pattern: Michigan had just 9 turnovers and hit 8-25 on their threes (32%).

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Well, one more to look at: Northwestern dominated Michigan for a good bit of that game. The Wolverines came back, but Northwestern forced 12 turnovers and Michigan shot 8-29 from deep (28%).

Interestingly, Nebraska, Wake Forest, Northwestern and, to a lesser extent Penn State, are probably not capable of competing with Michigan’s imposing front line. Certainly Nebraska is a much smaller team, as is Wake Forest.

Cadeau has done really well since leaving UNC and Michigan would not be where it is without Cadeau.

However, he is still small at 6-1 and while he has several games with 0 turnovers, since playing against Nebraska on January 27th, where he had 8, he had 5 against Northwestern and 4 against Purdue.

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Backcourt mate Nimari Burnett has had fewer and in fact has never had more than 2 in one game.

Morez Johnson? He’s been pretty good about turnovers too.

What about the bigs, Yaxel Lendeborg and Aday Mara?

They’ve both had issues….

Source link : https://sports.yahoo.com/articles/next-michigan-part-ii-140200769.html

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Publish date : 2026-02-20 14:02:00

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