Crisler Center
Michigan 70-67 Maryland (№ 3)
13-4, B1G 3-1
Pardon me for a moment as I cackle with glee: Bwa ha ha ha ha ha! The thrill of victory really is worth risking the agony of defeat. The valiant Wolverines' victory over the terrible Terrapins was the program's first victory over a Top 5 club in two or three years, & Team 100's first victory against a ranked opponent. It's always great to be a Michigan Wolverine, but some days are better than others. Woo hoo!
To your humble narrator's eyes the hero of the game was Derrick Walton Jr. (junior, guard), who scored twelve points but even more importantly had ten monster rebounds—monster considering Walton is a 6'1" guard amid the forest of Maryland's big men—& helped hold the terrible Terrapins' leading scorer, Melo Trimble (sophomore, guard), to a mere two points, a fraction of his nearly fifteen points-per-game average (14.8). The Maize & Blue were without leading scorer Caris LeVert (senior, guard) for the third straight game, but Zak Irvin (junior, forward) stepped into the breach with a season-high twenty-two points. Duncan Robinson (sophomore, guard) dropped threes from, as Dick Vitale said, "Ypsilanti," & Mark Donnal (sophomore, forward) had another fierce game inside, swatting the ball away aggressively, more often than not without fouling (though he still finished the game with four personals). After the game, coach John Beilein said this was "a quality win," & I could not agree more. Maryland is the real deal, a club that plays as a team, with five players averaging double-digit points per game, & the valiant Wolverines beat them, even without the considerable talents of LeVert. Very well done, gentlemen.
Next: At (№ 16) Iowa on Sunday, the third of three consecutive games against Top 25 Big Ten opponents, which to my delight has been a split so far.
Go Blue!
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