‘Guard someone’: Michigan hungry to show defensive improvement at Battle 4 Atlantis

A little change in scenery never hurts after a big upset, and for the Michigan basketball team, that means leaving the country. 

Sure, it wasn’t planned out that way — the Wolverines expected their trip to the Bahamas for the Battle 4 Atlantis to come off a win against Long Beach State, but after the humbling loss on Friday, the Caribbean trip comes at an opportune time. Michigan has the chance to reset and leave that loss behind them, because with back-to-back-to-back basketball on their docket, it will quickly be in the rearview mirror. 

Whether they use the non-stop basketball to flip things around or build up a losing skid is up to them, but one of the lessons learned from Friday’s loss was one that the Monday flight down to Nassau couldn’t solve: losing a game like that sucks.

Acting head coach Phil Martelli reminded them of that when scrolling through Monday’s scores on the way to the team’s first team dinner at Atlantis. 

“I saw that Long Beach lost last night, and I also saw and made everyone aware that the young guy who put 35 on our heads, all of our heads, had five last night,” Martelli said Tuesday. “So that’s gotta irk you. It really does irk you that they lost last night.”