Game 3: Ball State Michigan Recap

It’s hard to shake the feeling that Michigan’s first three games were more like scrums or glorified exhibits.

Playing inside an empty Crisler Center sets the tone, but Juwan Howard and his bench are in the early stages of figuring it all out. They came out clean on Wednesday night en route to an 84-65 victory over Ball State, avoiding the kind of disappointment that plagued them against Oakland, but Howard was still tinkering around.

After a sloppy play at the end of half-time, the Michigan coach was picked up by Big Ten Network cameras guiding Chaundee Brown through the field before heading to the locker room. Normal in a preseason scrum, odd in a regular season game.

Howard’s handling of his rotations only added to that pre-season feeling. The Michigan head coach is trying to take a look from all angles, whether it’s COVID reasons or general uncertainty at the start of the season. Michigan’s starting lineup hasn’t changed in three games, but Howard has relied on more than two dozen different line-up combinations. The five players who lead the squad in minutes – Mike Smith, Eli Brooks, Franz Wagner, Isaiah Livers and Hunter Dickinson – don’t start as a squad and they haven’t even shared the pitch together until the final seconds of overtime against Oakland. .

The second and third players who came off the bench against Ball State – Brandon Johns and Zeb Jackson – didn’t see the ground in the second half until garbage time. It’s clear Howard didn’t get this team – what is the country’s coach doing? – but Michigan is officially no longer in the development phase. The Wolverines must find that chemistry quickly with UCF and NC State then in line to head to the Crisler Center.