With two bigs out, Michigan battles turnovers again before second-half exhibition surge

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Michigan men’s basketball coach Dusty May had to be feeling deja vu.

On the first play of the Wolverines’ exhibition game against Cincinnati, graduate forward Yaxel Lendeborg’s pass sailed wide of its target. Just like that Michigan committed its first of 21 turnovers on the night, 14 of which occurred in a disastrous first half for the Wolverines.

“I think I’ve been very clear we haven’t turned it over in practice,” May said. “And I, like you, am very disappointed in our turnovers tonight as well. So have I not been very clear that we haven’t done that practice? All right, thanks, guys. I’ll be very transparent.”

The Achilles’ heel of May’s inaugural team was turnovers. In preseason media appearances, May has reiterated over and over again that this year’s team hasn’t had the same turnover issues in practices thus far. But the new look Wolverines looked just as sloppy in their first unofficial 20 minutes of this season.

The caveat is that May didn’t have his full arsenal, taking extra precaution for junior center Aday Mara and sophomore forward Morez Johnson Jr. The starting lineup was much smaller than it would otherwise have been, with Lendeborg and graduate forward Will Tschetter playing alongside three guards to start the game and for most of the second half.

“I don’t want to speak for those guys, but Aday has been working out, doing court workouts and practicing a little bit, so he’s not far off,” May said. “Morez seems like he’s working in the right direction as well. So we’re optimistic we’ll have both of those guys in the near future.”