Fab Five: Takeaways from Michigan’s win over UNC Asheville

Michigan Wolverines basketball put together a strong performance in a 99-74 season-opening win over UNC Asheville. Here are our five biggest takeaways from the game.

1. The Dug McDaniel and Olivier Nkamhoua show

This offseason, two players that wound up being voted Michigan’s captains — fourth-year junior guard Jace Howard and graduate forward Olivier Nkamhoua — came to sophomore point guard Dug McDaniel. They implored him to step up his leadership and told him he’s “the head of the snake.”

“They said the team goes as I go,” McDaniel recalled.

The team went as he did Tuesday night in making a strong first impression. McDaniel looked comfortable, quick and decisive with a career-high 22 points on 9-of-15 shooting from the field and 4-of-9 from deep with 8 assists and 2 rebounds. He was enjoying jawing with the opponent and its bench, playing free and having fun.

The ball didn’t stick. It was whipped all over the floor, and Michigan posted 20 assists on 38 made buckets. Four scored in double figures.

McDaniel is the “engine,” Nkamhoua said after the game, and that was apparent on a number of plays but none more than one late in the first half. The highlight of the night was a McDaniel lob from half court to Nkamhoua, who finished with an emphatic slam and brought the house down, forcing a UNC Asheville timeout as U-M took a 48-27 lead with 2:18 left in the first half.

Those two fed off each other, using the two-man game to create scoring opportunities. Half of McDaniel’s assists came on Nkamhoua buckets. Nkamhoua is big, strong, athletic — and perhaps most importantly, tough. He’s a tone-setter and can do the dirty work on both ends. He’s fun to watch.

2. Athleticism on display

The players that surround McDaniel are nicely suited for his style of play, including Nkamhoua. Back to the alley-oop … we asked McDaniel after the game how many successful lobs he remembers converting last season, and he said “one.”

One.

There are many more to come this season, we’d predict. Nkamhoua, graduate forward Tray Jackson, sophomore forward Tarris Reed Jr., freshman guard George Washington III and others are capable of being on the receiving end of those. And it’s not that those plays are such difference-makers, but the fact that Michigan can make them shows how the difference in athleticism between last year and this season.

Nkamhoua had 5 dunks for the game. As a team, the Wolverines averaged 1.5 dunks per contest last season.

Michigan played faster, as expected, in a 72-possession game. It’ll be harder to do that in Big Ten play, but McDaniel said even when they’re playing the Wisconsins, the Wolverines will look to push the pace.

3. Drew Pember was a non-factor when it mattered

UNC Asheville forward Drew Pember is a walking bucket. A 6-foot-11 big with a slender frame, he averaged 20.9 points per game and shot 37.3 percent from three-point range last season. He’s tough to guard, as we saw in the second half tonight. He also impacts the game defensively — he wasn’t just the Big South Player of the Year last season, but also the Defensive Player of the year, registering 2.3 blocks per contest.

Pember was essentially a non-factor due to foul trouble. He drew 8.1 fouls per 40 minutes last season, ranking second nationally, but Michigan flipped the script. The Wolverines went right at him, which was in assistant Howard Eisley‘s offensive game plan, racking up 2 defensive fouls and 1 offensive foul on Pember in the first half. He sat the final 9:53 of the stanza, and Asheville really struggled to score with him on the bench. The team went 5-for-14 shooting from the field from the time he exited until halftime.

Pember then picked up his fourth less than a minute and a half into the second half. His team was already down big, and his absence made it incredibly difficult for the team to climb out of the big hole Michigan dug for it.

The standout did wind up scoring 15 second-half points, making 2 threes, a two and 7 free throws, but it was too little, too late.

4. Shots were falling

Michigan played crisp with the great ball movement and pace we already discussed. The shots just so happened to be falling, too. The Wolverines connected on 57 percent of their looks from the field, including 12 of their 26 triple tries (46 percent), with five players that made threes.

The Maize and Blue will be tough to beat when senior forward Terrance Williams II and redshirt sophomore forward Will Tschetter go a combined 5-for-7 from deep.

McDaniel was letting it fly from long range (4-of-9), as was graduate guard Nimari Burnett (2-of-3).

What a pleasant site it was to see Williams playing with confidence and making his shots. He had a tough year last season — there’s no way to sugarcoat it, even if some of the issues had to do with a late-season knee injury. He’ll have to have some sort of positive role for this team. Right now, he’s starting, and 15 points out of him was more than enough.

The Wolverines put up 1.38 points per possession against a team that made the NCAA Tournament last season and returned four of five starters (though one of those starters, guard Caleb Burgess, missed the game). They didn’t post 1.38 points per possession in any game last season. The last time they hit a higher mark offensively came in a 103-91 win over Iowa Dec. 6, 2019.

It’s great that Michigan achieved that Tuesday. It’s also pretty clear it won’t score at that kind of clip consistently. Interim head coach Phil Martelli even admitted after the game that it’s important to push the pace because the team’s Achilles heel might be its outside shooting.

The depth is also an issue, particularly in the backcourt until graduate Jaelin Llewellyn returns. At one point, Michigan went with McDaniel and four forwards, Williams, Jackson, Nkamhoua and Reed. Martelli said he couldn’t answer the question when he was asked by someone on the bench who the shooting guard was. U-M was in foul trouble, with Burnett (2) and Washington (3) picking up first-half penalties. McDaniel also had a pair of fouls before halftime.

5. Paint defense solid, transition defense needs work

UNC Asheville turned the ball over on the interior and started out making 4 of its first 10 two-point shot attempts. The Bulldogs ended up shooting 40 percent from inside the arc, a stellar number for Michigan defensively. The length and quickness were tough for the Bulldogs to handle. They shot just 7-of-18 on layups and dunks.

Michigan did get sloppy and have some miscommunications at times, both in the half court and transition, though. It might be nitpicking, considering the Wolverines won by 25, but McDaniel said transition defense will be an emphasis in practice before Friday’s tilt against Youngstown State. Even after some makes, Michigan wasn’t getting back quickly enough. There were also a few times where they just left shooters, and UNC Asheville was good enough to make them pay — particularly Pember and guards Josh Banks and Evan Johnson.

On the ball, Michigan was very good, even after switching and in some ‘mismatches.’ Burnett was especially impressive.

We came away less than impressed after watching an hour of practice in mid-October. Perhaps watching drills aren’t the optimum way to judge this team. It’s a competitive group, an athletic team, and one that looks like it can exceed expectations this season.

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