Not a First Half Team

I guess it's better than the other way around?

...?

I am looking forward to watching a game played by the University of Michigan men's basketball team where they don't start in the hole.

It's as if they need to play a half of basketball in their practice gym before they begin the real game! Their warmup routine needs a real makeover. I don't know if the team isn't mentally prepared for the first half, or if they just work better from behind.

It even seemed like the second half was much more of a Michigan style today. They started running up and down the floor better, their passes were sharper, and they were getting rebounds and avoiding blocked shots.Their shooting percentage improved from 48% in the first half to 54%. Three point percentage improved from 28% to 36%. Trey Burke got back on track, even becoming the seventh player in Michigan basketball history to get to 1,000 points as a sophomore with his game high 26 points.

But what is taking them so long? Is it too much to ask for a wire-to-wire beatdown of an opposing team? As we've seen, coming back from behind doesn't work against the high ranked teams, like Indiana and Michigan State. Both of which, by the way, Michigan still needs to play a second time. Top notch teams know that they need to start strong and finish strong. Most of the time, just "finish strong" won't win games. Even a bottom feeding team will pounce on that.

In other news...

The Tigers are back in business! The period of mourning is over. It feels good to have a solid DH back in business. Welcome back, Victor Martinez! (And Little Victor!) Bruce Rondon - future (or present) closer - provided a solid inning of pitching on Saturday. The big bats are back to hitting home runs. And if we could get all of our injuries out of the way now (Boesch, Santiago) that would prove useful during the season.

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Posted by: Tukiyooo Not a First Half Team Updated at : 1:44 PM

Sunday, February 24, 2013