Happy Valentine’s Day! 

8A — Wednesday, February 11, 2015
Sports
The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com

By LEV FACHER

Managing Editor

Muhammad-Ali 
Abdur-

Rahkman’s missed attempt at a 
buzzer-beating 3-pointer Sunday 
afternoon at Indiana was emblem-
atic of the Michigan men’s basket-
ball team’s midseason malaise in 
more ways than one.

Had the freshman guard’s shot 

found its way in, the Wolverines 
would have forced overtime. The 
game continued Michigan’s trend 
— with an ugly 72-54 loss to Iowa 
on Feb. 5 serving as the excep-
tion — of taking high-profile Big 
Ten opponents down to the wire 
before faltering when it matters 
most.

On Jan. 24, sophomore guard 

Derrick Walton Jr., currently 
confined to the bench with a foot 
injury, hit a game-tying 3-pointer 
to force overtime against Wiscon-
sin. The Badgers used the final 
five minutes to take a five-point 
lead, eventually pulling away for a 
69-64 win.

On Feb. 1 in East Lansing, senior 

forward Max Bielfeldt’s tip-in 
forced overtime against Michigan 
State. But Michigan couldn’t get 
anything going in overtime and 
lost, 76-66.

The 2014-15 Wolverines aren’t 

as good as the 2013-14 squad for 
many reasons, some more appar-
ent than others. On the surface, 
the biggest issues stem from 
the loss of Michigan’s two most 
productive players this season: 
Walton and junior guard Caris 

LeVert. Losing three players to 
the NBA — Glenn Robinson III, 
Mitch McGary and Nik Stauskas 
— hasn’t helped, either.

The Wolverines also suffer 

from a general lack of size at the 
forward spots, with 6-foot-6 soph-
omore Zak Irvin often forced to 
play power forward and 6-foot-7 
Max Bielfeldt getting substantial 
minutes at the ‘5’ spot.

Below, the Daily breaks down 

how those changes have manifest-
ed themselves numerically (many 
of the numbers were calculated 
by college basketball statistician 
Ken Pomeroy), discussing five 
key statistical categories in which 
the Wolverines have improved, 
regressed or maintained their 
level of play from last season.

SHOOTING: As simple as it 

seems, Michigan is losing games 
it would have won in 2013-14 
because the Wolverines aren’t 
shooting the ball the way they 
used to.

Last year, Michigan ranked 

fourth nationally in 3-point shoot-
ing percentage, at 40.2 percent. 
This season, the Wolverines are 
ranked 155th in the category at 
just 34.5 percent.

The drop-off from inside the 

arc has been just as substantial. 
The Wolverines’ 52.7 percent 
field-goal shooting ranked 26th 
nationally last season, but this 
year, Michigan is converting on 
just 46.3 of its attempts, good for 
227th nationally out of 351 Divi-
sion I teams.

Given that the Wolverines rank 

33rd in the country in 
3-point attempts per 
field goals attempted 
(41.7 percent), it’s no 
wonder the six-point 
drop-off in conversion 
rate from beyond the 
arc is leading to severe 
consequences.

That’s what losing 

Stauskas did — now 
playing for the NBA’s 
Sacramento 
Kings, 

the Canadian stand-
out 
attempted 
208 

3-pointers for Michi-
gan last season and 
converted 
on 
44.2 

percent of them.

TURNOVERS: 

As much as Michigan 
coach John Beilein’s squad has 
seen offensive drop-off from last 
year to the current one, turnovers 
haven’t been the issue.

The 2013-14 Wolverines turned 

the ball over on 14.8 percent of their 
possessions, giving them the coun-
try’s 16th-lowest turnover rate. 
This year’s team is lagging behind 
slightly at 16.2 percent, but that fig-
ure still puts them at 26th nation-
ally. That’s impressive, especially 
in light of the fact that Michigan is 
currently starting two guards who 
hadn’t had substantial experience 
in college basketball prior to Janu-
ary: Abdur-Rahkman and fellow 
freshman Aubrey Dawkins.

Defensively, 
the 
Wolverines 

are actually forcing more turn-
overs than they did last season — 
Michigan’s opponents are turning 

the ball over on 20.6 percent of 
their possessions, higher than the 
national average of 19.5 percent. 
Last year, the Wolverines ranked 
245th nationally in forced-turn-
over rate, forcing their opponents 
to cough the ball up on just 17.1 
percent of possessions, compared 
to the national average of 18.3.

BLOCKS: 
The 
Wolverines, 

likely due to their smaller ros-
ter, are getting shots blocked at a 
higher clip than they did last sea-
son. Michigan is getting stuffed 
on 9.2 percent of its 2-point shot 
attempts, compared to 8.4 percent 
last season.

Worse, on defense, the Wolver-

ines rank 332nd in block percent-
age, making contact with just 5.3 
percent of opponents’ attempts 
from inside the arc. It wasn’t pret-
ty last year, either, but the 2013-14 

team’s 6.3 percent block rate put it 
substantially closer to the national 
average.

Beyond the roster’s smaller size 

is its inexperience — while last 
year, the bulk of Michigan’s min-
utes at the ‘5’ came from veterans 
like Jordan Morgan and Jon Hor-
ford, inexperienced players have 
accounted for most of the playing 
time in the low post this season.

PACE: Beilein’s teams are noto-

rious for taking their time on the 
offensive end — the Wolverines 
currently have an average offen-
sive possession length of 20.4 
seconds. That’s seven-tenths of 
a second higher than last year’s 
figure, which isn’t a substantial 
difference. Both this year and last, 
Michigan spent roughly two more 
seconds on each possession than 
the national average.

BENCH MINUTES: Perhaps 

least surprising of all, Michigan is 
asking for roughly one-third more 
minutes from its bench this year as 
compared to 2013-14. The Wolver-
ine bench currently accounts for 
33.3 percent of Michigan’s total 
minutes played — last season, it 
made up for just 25 percent. That 
brings Michigan in line with the 
national average of 32.5 percent.

That figure is also deceptively 

low, as Abdur-Rahkman, Dawkins 
and even junior guard Spike 
Albrecht — who leads Michigan’s 
active scorers — might not be fix-
tures in the starting lineup were 
it not for the injuries to LeVert 
and Walton. Effectively, the vast 
majority of the Wolverines’ min-
utes are going to players who were 
expected to come off the bench as 
of early January.

52.7%
46.3%

14.8%
16.2%
17.1%
20.6%

8.4%
9.2%

6.3%
5.3%

25%
33.3%

SHOOTING
SHOOTING

TURNOVERS

BLOCKED SHOTS

PACE

BENCH MINUTES

TURNOVERS

2013-14 
SEASON
2014-15 
SEASON

BLOCKED SHOTS

PACE

BENCH MINUTES

3-POINT

FIELD-GOAL

COMMITTED (% POSS.)

FORCED (% POSS.)

‘M’ SHOT ATTEMPTS

OPPONENT SHOT ATTEMPTS

 % OF TEAM MINUTES PLAYED

19.7 SEC

40.2%
34.5%

20.4 SEC
AVERAGE OFFENSIVE POSSESION LENGTH

infographic by Emily Schumer

‘M’ by the numbers

MEN’S BASKETBALL

