The Michigan basketball team can’t even make it to a meal without getting another reminder.
Phil Martelli and the Wolverines (3-1) had just landed in the Bahamas and were heading to dinner on the team bus when U-M’s acting coach was scrolling on his phone, stopped, and rolled his eyes. Sure enough, Long Beach State, the lower-level Division I school that had just upset his team 94-86 in Ann Arbor on Friday, fell 61-52 to Illinois State in its next game.
Martelli specifically pointed out how Marcus Tsohonis, who dropped 35 points on his squad, was held to five.
Michigan acting head coach Phil Martelli signals from the sideline during the first half against Northwood at Crisler Center in Ann Arbor on Friday, Nov. 3, 2023.
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“We are not over (what happened) Friday, we did not put our best foot forward,” Martelli said Tuesday via Zoom. “It really does irk you that they lost. The challenge here is Memphis. What’s the lesson learned? When the ball goes in the air we’ll find out.”
Memphis (3-0) is the first of three games in three days for the Wolverines (5 p.m., ESPN2), who return to the Battle 4 Atlantis for the first time since 2019.
That was Juwan Howard’s first season with U-M and things got off to a pretty decent start. The unranked Wolverines picked up an 83-76 win over Iowa State, then got back-to-back top 10 wins; first over No. 6 North Carolina (73-64), then No. 8 Gonzaga (82-64) to win the championship.
For Terrance Williams Jr, then a senior in high school, it was all he needed to see at the time.
“That tournament that year, I feel like it was the biggest thing that made me commit,” Williams recalled. “Coach Howard was a new coach at the time, didn’t really have any experience to look at him in a college setting vs. good teams, then he went into the tournament and blew each team out of the water.
“It made it clear he was…
Source link : https://sports.yahoo.com/well-michigan-basketball-learned-lesson-222759595.html
Author : Detroit Free Press
Publish date : 2023-11-21 22:27:59
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