A few statistical bullet points that can hopefully muster up some discussion as well as an update on Eric Puls.
- Michigan’s guards (Morris, Douglass, Lucas-Perry, and Vogrich) have made just 17 of their measly 51 two point attempts this year. That’s 33% compared to the 32% that they’ve shot on their 81 three point attempts.
- Michigan’s 74.6% defensive rebounding percentage against Kansas was their 2nd best of the year, only the NMU game was better. Hopefully this is a trend and not a flash in the pan.
- The 58.3% eFG% that they allowed Kansas to shoot was just as bad, the second worst field goal defensive performance only to Marquette’s 58.5% eFG.
- Kansas shot an astronomical number of free throws, with a free throw rate above 50%. Oklahoma and Ohio State were the only teams to post a free throw rate that high versus Michigan last year.
- Kansas’ defense stifled Michigan’s offense to a meager .934 points per possession.
- If it wasn’t clear, three point shooting is painfully important for this offense. Last year, Michigan was 13-5 when they shot over 33% from three point range and only 7-9 under that mark. This year, a similar trend follows, Michigan is 4-0 over the 33% mark and 1-5 under.
- In John Beilein’s tenure, Michigan has beaten just three major conference teams when Michigan shoots under 30% from long range: UCLA (55-52), Northwestern (70-67 OT), and Illinois (49-43).
- DeShawn Sims (28.7%) and Manny Harris (29.1%) take 57.1% of Michigan’s shots when they are on the floor.
- While Darius Morris’ assist rate of 18% nearly matches Stu Douglass’ 18.6% (neither are close to Harris’ 33%), he has been extremely careless with the basketball, posting a turnover rate of 32.7 which ranks last among Big Ten players. For comparison’s sake, Stu Douglass ranks near the top of the conference with a meager 11.1% turnover percentage.
- Finally, according to tweets from Mike Rothstein and Tim from MGoBlog, Eric Puls is leaving the Michigan basketball program to focus on his engineering degree.
