Orion Sang Detroit Free Press Published 11:03 PM EST Nov 10, 2018 Michigan basketball coach John Beilein will describe certain players as “hunters.” It’s a title Trey Burke, Tim Hardaway Jr., Nik Stauskas, Caris Levert and Muhammad-Ali Abdur-Rahkman all earned. A hunter is a player who can get buckets when their team needs them to. A player who can take over the game at any point. In a 56-37 win over Holy Cross on Saturday night, the Wolverines turned to two of the hunters on this year’s team: freshman forward Ignas Brazdeikis and redshirt junior wing Charles Matthews. The duo combined for 39 of Michigan’s 56 points. “They’re hunters, and they’ve just got to continue being guys that shoot straight,” Beilein said. “Charles was 3-for-9 at one time, and he’s going to be better than that. Iggy is similar. Those two are going to hunt.” With the Wolverines trailing 24-18 at halftime, Beilein decided to change the team’s approach against the Crusaders’ matchup zone defense. His new directive: Attack off the bounce and get two feet in the paint. There are no two players better suited to doing so than Brazdeikis, who had 19 points, and Matthews, who had a game-high 20. Brazdeikis poured in 15 points in the first 4:49 of the second half. Brazdeikis scored mostly by attacking and finishing at the rim or at the free-throw line. “I felt like in the first half we were more hesitant, we weren’t aggressive enough,” Brazdeikis said. “And they were playing a matchup zone,… [Read full story]
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