With a little over five minutes remaining in the first half, Xavier reached its season average on a statistic. But it probably wasn’t a bench mark it was hoping to reach, let alone that quickly.
Off of an errant pass, the Musketeers committed their 10th turnover of the night. Before their game against the Michigan men’s basketball team, they averaged just 9.7 turnovers per game.
The championship game of the Fort Myers Tip-Off was a clash of two teams that live and breath fast-paced, transition offenses. However, the Wolverines settled into the pace of the game much quicker and forced Xavier to play a half-court offense that it wasn’t used to. Ultimately, Michigan’s lock-down defense drove it to the tournament hardware in a resounding victory.
“I thought it was an extremely gritty performance, especially defensively,” Michigan coach Dusty May said. “ … This wasn’t (Xavier’s) best game, but a lot had to do with our size and our tenacity on the defensive end. We were as active as we’ve been, we were as physical as we’ve been.”
The Wolverines’ defense was active and switched quickly and often. Their switching allowed them to be physical, get in the passing lanes and disrupt the Musketeers’ flow. Xavier struggled to facilitate a half-court offense because it couldn’t run the transition offense it was comfortable with but also because Michigan’s defense forced shots late in the shot clock while playing at a half-court tempo the Musketeers’ weren’t comfortable with either. But many times, they didn’t even get to that point in the shot clock.
Michigan’s defense reeled in 10 steals and forced 19 turnovers throughout the game, 14 of which were first-half turnovers. The Wolverines’ disruption of Xavier’s half-court offense allowed them to push in transition and run the offense they were used to — unlike the Musketeers.
“The number one thing we’ve done well this season, through six games, is we’re able to play up tempo and really take care of the ball,” Xavier coach Sean Miller said. “We’ve been a single digit turnover team. We played with 10 or fewer, and we had 14 turnovers at the half. … Some of it was Michigan’s defense and pressure. Some of it was self-inflicted on our end.”
And those first-half turnovers were crucial for Michigan. At the under 12 minute timeout in the first half, the Wolverines held a slim one-point lead. But over the next eight minutes, they spearheaded a 21-5 run that was sparked by causing those turnovers in the half-court.
In that same eight minute period, Michigan forced six turnovers: two quick-succession offensive fouls, a shot clock violation, a travel and two bad passes.
While all were dead ball turnovers after which the Wolverines couldn’t immediately push into their transition offense, each proved the different ways Michigan’s defense switched effectively to throw the Musketeers off their rhythm.
That late first-half run was one of two major runs by the Wolverines that ultimately made the difference — and it was their defense that set the tone for each of them.
“You have to be really sound on both sides of basketball,” May said. “Certain nights, your defense has to carry and on other nights, your offense can maybe carry the load. The way we played defense in the first half, I thought even the score wasn’t indicative of how well we were playing defensively.”
Although Xavier had some offensive runs of its own at different points of the game, none of them amounted to much because of the chaos and disruption Michigan’s defense could cause immediately when recognizing its opponents’ energy.
After the Fort Myers Tip-Off, the Wolverines will take home the hardware. But almost more importantly, they will take home a newfound confidence in how they defend. Because even against a quality team that is known for ball security, Michigan used its quick switching offense to find a way to disrupt it and take control of the game.
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