Five takeaways from Michigan’s narrow win at TCU

It wasn’t pretty. The No. 6 Michigan men’s basketball team struggled for almost the entire game with errant passes and miscues that led to turnovers and fast-break points for TCU. 

But the Wolverines found a way to get it done, namely through domination on the glass and strong dribble drives into the lane to either put up a shot through contact, draw a foul, or find another open player. 

Through the good, the bad, and the alright, here are five takeaways from the Wolverines’ 67-63 win over the Horned Frogs.

Michigan turnovers reach new low

In just over the first 11 minutes of the game, Michigan had nine turnovers. At the 8:59 mark, graduate guard Nimari Burnett turned the ball over as it went out of bounds with the Horned Frogs leading 20-13. Momentarily in the first half, the Wolverines put things together and didn’t have another turnover until 3:32, when TCU was only up by one, 24-23.

The improvements could have foreshadowed a better second half in which the Wolverines turned the ball over less—but that didn’t happen. Michigan finished with 22 total turnovers and had three in the first 1:33 of the second half.

“The ones we had. I mean, the pass is going through our hands. Yeah, we got to do a better job,” Dusty May said in his post-game radio interview. “And obviously, extremely disappointed in that side of the game, especially when you’re getting four in the first four minutes of games. It just sets a terrible precedent. But we’ve got to adjust to how physical these games are going to be played, and we’ve got to work harder for catches. We’ve got to stay stronger with the ball.”