They’ll return to practice Wednesday with a pair of damaging home losses fresh in their minds: Saturday’s debacle against NJIT and Tuesday’s 45-42 loss to Eastern Michigan at Crisler Center in which they shot 32.6 percent against the Eagles’ 2-3 zone.
MORE: Remaining unbeaten teams | NJIT popular among Michigan’s biggest foes
One positive for 6-3 UM: It has three days to get ready for its next game, at No. 3 Arizona on Saturday.
“(Our players) are really down now,” Michigan coach John Beilein said, according to The Associated Press. “It’s a local team. But we can’t stay down. We have a long trip to Arizona. We’re playing a tremendous team. We’ll just bounce back, just keep trying to do it.”
Effort shouldn’t be a problem in Tucson. The Wolverines can’t/won’t take the Wildcats for granted the way they did NJIT.
They had no reason to take EMU (8-1) lightly, either, even though the program was 27-2 all time against the Eagles before Tuesday. Yet they struggled to dent Eastern’s zone, one that had to look very similar to Syracuse’s 2-3, which UM handled in the ACC/Big Ten Challenge
Beilein praised EMU’s effort, but that doesn’t fully explain why the Wolverines posted 42 points at home against a non-conference foe. Was it a case of again playing down to an opponent? We’ll have a better answer to that after Saturday.
