ANN ARBOR — That’s why you schedule a team like Cincinnati for an exhibition game.
That was Dusty May’s message after Michigan lost to the Bearcats 100-98 Friday night. The head coach would have liked the Michigan fans who showed up at Crisler Center to have seen a better performance from the home team, but he’s playing the long game.
“We know a lot more about our team than we did 2.5 hours ago,” May said after the loss. “Cincinnati was able to expose some things that we didn’t know if they were going to be weaknesses or not. And so (I’m) very happy that they came up here to play and we were able to learn probably more about our team than we thought we would going into it.”
Michigan was without Aday Mara and Morez Johnson Jr. With a fully healthy lineup, at least one of them would have started. Both will be key contributors this season. Mara is a 7-foot-3 center who played the past two seasons at UCLA. Johnson, a 6-9 forward, transferred in after a freshman season at Illinois. They’re dealing with minor injuries. Mara warmed up before the game; Johnson did not dress.
“I don’t want to speak for those guys, but Aday has been working out, doing court workouts and practicing a little bit,” May said. “So he’s not far off. Morez seems like he’s working in the right direction as well. So we’re optimistic we’ll have both of those guys in the near future.”
Michigan plays one more exhibition Oct. 25 against St. John’s in New York before opening the regular season at home against Oakland Nov. 3.
Michigan could have used Mara and Johnson Friday, though May didn’t use it as an excuse. “I was optimistic that we would simply look around and realize we’re playing a big, strong team and we were going to set the tone early. And the opposite happened. … Our vets have to do a better job of establishing that mindset early, that we’re going to get hits, we’re going to find the ball and then get out in the open floor.”
The bigger problem was turnovers. Michigan had 20, including 14 in the first half. Michigan’s repeated failure to get a shot led to an 8:16 span without a made field goal and helped Cincinnati take a 52-34 lead into halftime.
“We were being really lazy with our dribble handoffs and setting up our plays,” Michigan forward Yaxel Lendeborg said. “That was great to see how we practice it goes in fact into the game. And they made us look really bad.”
May repeated what he’s said throughout this offseason, that Michigan has not had turnover problems during practice. It was a problem throughout last season, but the roster has many new players.
Lendeborg, a transfer from UAB, was terrific in the second half, when he scored 26 of his game-high 31 points. He also grabbed a game-high 12 rebounds. He said he was intentionally more aggressive after halftime once his trainer told him he was playing soft and that he should be dominating.
“Yaxel was anxious to play in front of our fans in a Michigan uniform,” May said. “I think we saw glimpses of what he’s capable of. He’s a unique talent.”
The teams combined for 83 free-throw attempts, an incredibly high number for a 40-minute game. Michigan took advantage, making 41 of 48. May was happy with that and had no complaints about the officiating; he felt most of the foul calls were correct.
It’s another thing for the Wolverines to try and fix before the games count in the standings. Said senior guard Roddy Gayle Jr.: “I think it’s a great opportunity for us to be able to get some good film against a team that really exposed our weaknesses.”
