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