Five takeaways from Michigan’s blowout win over Auburn

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Just under eight months after Auburn knocked Michigan out of the NCAA Tournament in the Sweet Sixteen, the Tigers and Wolverines were back at it for the Player’s Era Championship in Las Vegas. But with no Johni Broome or Danny Wolf, and even Bruce Pearl on the call instead of the bench, it was hardly a rematch.

Revenge still proved a mighty motivator for Michigan’s returners — especially sophomore guard L.J. Cason, who didn’t shy away postgame yesterday from having a score to settle with Auburn. Senior guard Roddy Gayle Jr. and graduate guard Nimari Burnett may not have outwardly shared the same sentiment, but they also played with something to prove, putting up arguably both of their respective best performances of the young season.

“It’s always a part of the game, especially for us returners,” Burnett said. “But at the same time, the mindset was to come in here and play good basketball, both into the floor to make defensively and let that carry into the offense of the end, playing together, it’s just our own instincts and our standard that we want to play to, and we definitely did that tonight.”

Outside of them, many of Michigan’s newcomers continued to live up to the hype. With solid performances throughout the rotation proving why this year’s squad has higher expectations than last — and now has a championship to play for on Wednesday against Gonzaga.

Here are five takeaways from the Wolverines’ sorta-revenge game.

Michigan’s backup point guards took advantage of their opportunity

Elliot Cadeau logged a season-low 13 minutes Tuesday night. In large part, that was due to first-half foul trouble and then an insurmountable second-half lead, which forced deep bench players onto the floor early and allowed them extra time late.

“We’ve got to find a way to keep him in the rotation,” Michigan coach Dusty May said of Cadeau. “And he’s picked up some ticky-tacky fouls, but I think he’s learning to play with those. We don’t like to foul our guys out in the first half, especially. So he’s learning to play with those.”

But it was also because the point guards off the bench made it hard to justify keeping them off the floor. Cason, who took on much of the ball-handling responsibility, recorded a season-high 10 points in a season-high 25 minutes. More important than his scoring, a known asset, was everything else. Shooting from range, finding teammates, creating steals and — something May has emphasized with Cadeau — rebounding on the defensive glass, Cason looked more of a complete guard than he’s ever looked.

“L.J. Cason is a guy with a very high ceiling,” May said. “And we see growth and maturity every single day. He’s becoming, it seems like he’s becoming addicted to the process. He wanted to watch his individual clips first thing this morning. He wants to get better.”