Notes from the scrimmage on Friday:
Michigan held a dress rehearsal intrasquad scrimmage on Friday night to prepare for the season tip-off against Bowling Green on Wednesday. The event was closed to the public but here are some key stats and takeaways from the scrimmage.
Teams appear to have been broken up evenly for the event and they are as follows:
MAIZE (71):
Starters: Mike Smith, Zeb Jackson, Chaundee Brown, Isaiah Livers, Austin Davis
Bench: Jace Howard, Jaron Faulds, Luke Wilson
BLUE (84):
Starters: Eli Brooks, Franz Wagner, Terrance Williams (update: the box score was incorrect and Williams actually started with this group, not Nunez), Brandon Johns, Hunter Dickinson
Bench: Adrien Nunez, CJ Baird, Brandon Wade
The Blue team won both halves — 47-37 and 37-34 — and had the best individual performance of the game from Franz Wagner, who finished with 26 points on 18 shots.
Both teams shot the ball well but the difference in the game was inside. The Blue team, with Dickinson and Wagner, dominated inside and outscored the Maize team 48-26 in the paint.
The other notable difference in the game was at the free-throw line where the Blue team was 12-of-18 and the Maize team was 1-of-4.
Both teams did a good job of avoiding turnovers and posted effective field goal percentages over 50% — either great signs for the offense, bad signs for the defense, or both. Both teams also clearly featured multiple playmakers as seven different Wolverines recorded at least two assists but only one recorded more than three (Isaiah Livers with six).
The Maize team stayed in the game with perimeter shooting and made 12-of-23 triples. Both teams took significantly more twos than threes. Maize attempted 36% of its shots from outside and Blue attempted 20% of its shots from outside (for comparison, U-M attempted 39% of its shots from 3-point range last year).
It’s not a perfect barometer because of game situations but here are the seven players who led Michigan in minutes played: Brown 37, Wagner 36, Livers 35, Dickinson 33, Brooks 32, Smith 32, Johns 31. A group that looks just about right when considering the 2020-21 rotation.
Here are some individual observations from the scrimmage box score:
Franz Wagner: Wagner stored 26 points on 18 shots on a roster where he presumably played almost exclusively at the two-guard and his team won the game handily. That’s not going to do anything to slow down the offseason hype for Wagner on this site. I’m told that he was most effective using his height and length to finish inside over smaller defenders, even Isaiah Livers.
Eli Brooks: Brooks started at point guard for the winning team and filled up the stat sheet. He was 7-of-11 from the floor and only attempted one three — apparently showing a new ability to attack the basket. He also drew five fouls.
Isaiah Livers: Livers led all players with six assists, presumably a benefit of playing on Austin Davis’ team. Livers has never recorded more than three assists in a college game so that’s a notable sign of improved playmaking ability. Word has it that Livers didn’t force things and looked far more comfortable as a facilitator than he has earlier in his career, especially out of ball screens.
Chaundee Brown: Brown was 4-of-7 from deep and attempted almost half of his shots from 3-point range. He was just 2-of-8 inside the arc but led the Maize team in minutes and played close to the entire game. Michigan should have great rebounding on the wing this year as Brown grabbed six defensive boards, Livres grabbed nine and Wagner grabbed eight.
Brandon Johns: Judging by the box score, Johns played primarily at the four but his team must have played at least seven minutes with either Johns or Williams at the five. He had 14 points and the best plus/minus in the game. He reportedly did a great job of taking advantage of mismatches inside when matched up with either Livers or Brown.
Hunter Dickinson: There were baskets for both bigs — they combined to go 13-of-19 from the floor — but Dickinson finished with 17 points and two assists and logged an impressive 33 minutes. It’s impressive that Dickinson stayed out of foul trouble and logged that many minutes — both encouraging signs for his ability to make an early impact. Judging by the box score, he pretty clearly outplayed Davis. He also hit a three which is something he showed a lot more of as a senior at DeMatha.
Austin Davis: Davis was efficient and reached double figures in 24 minutes but he also committed five fouls which led to Jaron Faulds logging double-digit minutes off the bench.
Mike Smith: Smith hit both 3-point attempts — one of which was off the dribble — and had 3 assists to 2 turnovers. His shooting appears as advertised but defensive concerns are probably not going away any time soon looking at Eli Brooks’ line.
Zeb Jackson: Jackson had a quiet night and didn’t record an assist. Earlier this week, Phil Martelli mentioned he had been dealing with a shoulder injury.
Terrance Williams: Williams was 1-of-5 from the floor but he grabbed 10 rebounds in just 25 minutes. He also had three assists and continues to look like a guy who will find ways to make an impact even in unique spots.
Jace Howard: Howard played the most minutes off the bench for the Maize team and hit two threes, blocked two shots and grabbed two rebounds.
