Five takeaways from Michigan’s 86-61 win over Middle Tennessee

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After two close wins over TCU and Wake Forest, No. 7 Michigan didn’t have to sweat out a third straight contest. In a comfortable 86-61 victory over Middle Tennessee, the Wolverines tinkered with lineups as they led comfortably throughout the second half.

But even in a double-digit victory over the mid-major Blue Raiders, Michigan’s vices remained the same. The Wolverines still struggled from range and turned the ball over plenty. However, some positive new developments took place as well, with graduate forward Yaxel Lendeborg looking more like the star he is expected to be and sophomore guard L.J. Cason providing a first-half jolt off the bench.

On the old and the new, here are five takeaways from Michigan’s win.

Michigan continues to miss looks from behind the arc

May admitted that he didn’t anticipate shooting would be the Wolverines’ strength. But at this point, Michigan has been poor enough from range that it’s a weakness.

The Wolverines shot an uninspiring 5-for-25 on 3-pointers, pretty in line with their 4-for-25 and 5-for-16 nights against Wake Forest and TCU, respectively.

“I feel like we were settling for a lot of threes in the first half,” Lendeborg said. “We spoke about that at halftime, a lot of guys were down.”

Freshman guard Trey McKenney has been Michigan’s best shooter so far, including Wednesday. McKenney leads the team with nine makes at a 36% clip. But that’s despite his performance against Middle Tennessee not because of it. All of McKenney’s five first-half attempts were threes. The only one that dropped was his first, giving Michigan a 16-9 lead eight minutes into the game. 

In the second half, the Wolverines remained cold, going 2-for-11. Unlike McKenney in the first 20, nobody had more than two attempts behind the arc. Instead, Michigan was deficient across the board.

“I thought we generated paint, touch threes for the most part, with good shooters,” Michigan coach Dusty May said. “And I felt like in the first half, they’re all straight hitting the back of the rim, so I think those shots are going to drop for us, but we’re just trying to be a team that on the nights that they don’t we can still find a way.”