[dropcap]H[/dropcap]e got one 3 to drop, then another and another. And then another –just following the instruction of his head coach was all it took.
Duncan Robinson sparked a offensive flame for the No. 24 Michigan men’s basketball team, going 4-4 in the first half and helped set fire to the Elon Phoenix defense in a 88-68 victory at the Crisler Arena in a Battle 4 Atlantis Mainland Game on Monday.
“I mean, any night it could be anyone else, which is a great quality to have in a team,” Robinson said. “We all know that. Last Friday, everyone was excited for those two, and tonight, everyone’s excited for us. It’s whoever can get it done on a given night.”
That could be the difference maker for the Wolverines (2-0) this season, after having 58 total games taken away from players due to injury or illness and using nine different starting lineups last season.
Robinson and Derrick Walton Jr. combined for 43 points to pace U-M) in a offensive explosion on the way to a 51.7 shooting percentage for the contest.
After scoring just four points in the season opener against Northern Michigan, Walton, who missed the final 12 games a year ago, finally got his groove back against Elon.
The junior guard set a career-high with 24 points to go along with six rebounds and seven assists, whie Robinson finished with 19 points, going 6-for-6 from the field and making all five of his 3-point attempts.
“I just really, really thank my teammates for giving me the extra pass to get myself set up to make the shot,” Walton said. “With the mentality of this team, it’s so selfless and it’s the next man up.”
“Really I’m just happy to be back,” he said. “My teammates are really encouraging me to be really aggressive, I really just took their advice tonight.”
The contest against Elon (1-1) displayed what could be a showcase of U-M’s versatility. After Caris LeVert and Aubrey Dawkins led the way in the season opener against Northern Michigan, Walton Jr. and Robinson took center stage against the Phoenix.
“It’s going to be different people that are going to have those type of nights,” U-M coach John Beilein said. “In some of our shooting drills, Derrick is exceptional. But he’s got to want to shoot it and have that type of swag that I’m a really good shooter.”
After starting off slow scoring 12 points in the first 10:37 of the first half and going scoreless for six-minutes with Elon tying the game at 12, Redshirt freshman D.J Wilson ended the drought with a tip-in to go up 14-12.
Michigan finally created some space, as they ran off 31 points in the final 9:23 of the period to take a 43-33 lead into halftime.
From there, the rout was on. U of M opened the second half on a 12-3 run to go up 53-36, extinguishing any hope Elon had for an upset. That spurt was part of a 33-10 onslaught that dated back to about three minutes before the half.
After shooting 45% and committing six turnovers in the first half, Beilein credits the improvement in the flow of the offense from the first half into the second as the catalyst to the second half surge.
“We had issues earlier in practice with the ball sticking at different spots,” he said. “If one guy would take that extra minute, it’s really important that we look for each other. There was not much sticking today, everybody just kept the ball moving to the open man.”
Dainan Swoope would hit a mid-range jumper to close the gap to 15 to make it 71-56 with 7:24 to go, but U-M would stretch the lead back to as many as 22 with a triple from Walton Jr. to go up 86-64 with less than three minutes remaining to play.
Swoope led the way for the Phoenix with 15 points.
Fellow starting senior guard Caris LeVert also contributed with a nice all-around performance, finishing with 11 points and seven assists.
There’s no doubt that the Wolverines will get plenty of offense from LeVert and Walton in backcourt looking forward, but it’s the value they bring on the other end that will be the x-factor as the season kicks into full swing.
“We missed them a lot last year,” Beilein said. “What I like best about both of them is their defense, they had a great plan and their guards they played double point guards and they have shooters”
“They’re growing everyday and that was good for us,” he said. “They’re not taking many reps off in practice and that’s a concern. But in our practices they are competitive, they just got to continue to just really eat right, sleep right, get their rest—because they are going to play a lot of minutes this year.”
Michigan closes the week with a Friday night matchup against Xavier in the inaugural Gavitt Games, which is an eight-game series of games between the Big Ten and the Big East. The game is scheduled to tip at 9 p.m. and be shown on BTN.
