First of all, Michigan was a consensus preseason top 25. Some of noteworthy reasons were that they had athletes, a couple of stud players, and Beilein's offense. They were assuming that Michigan would improve 3 pt shooting. If realized, Michigan would have been a very good team. But, it did not. They have struggled greatly even knocking down wide open 3's all season long. Without the success from the perimeter, their real weapon, penetration, cannot be effective. Hence, their half-court offense has been no show most of times. That is their downfall.
However, due to the fact that they have athletes and star players, they have a good transition game and offer some match-up problems. It happens to be us and our style of ball that are rather vulnerable to their games. Because of our half-court offense, we tend to up the tempo to their liking. I'll say, Michigan is better off from it.
And, our offense has had problems against 1-3-1 because we are not good at backdoor cuts and low post game with which you beat 1-3-1 without dribble drive offense. Michigan's 1-3-1 was effective against us this season.
And, there is the luck factor. We don't have personnel to defend Beilein's offense effectively. Hence, one logical option is to crowd out the inside and dare them to shoot from the perimeter. It worked for other teams. But, somehow, Michigan made a few shots early against us from the perimeter, which, believe me, is not very normal for them. There are some more things about this. But, it would suffice to say, the few shots they made really opened up their game.
Bad match-up and some luck.
