Michigan basketball put together an impressive opening week, but acting coach Phil Martelli wasn’t ready to sing his team’s praises just yet.
The Wolverines had yet to get “got blood in their mouth” in his words, as they led wire to wire in both of their season-opening wins. Even in their (or not-so-secret) scrimmage against preseason top five Marquette, Martelli confirmed the reports that U-M only trailed twice and ended up with a four-point win.
So the first road game, at Madison Square Garden against Hall of Fame coach Rick Pitino and a popular NCAA tournament pick St. John’s figured to provide a good chance for U-M to taste that blood.
Nimari Burnett wouldn’t let that happen.
The Alabama transfer made his first seven shots from the field and a had career-high before the half, as he finished with 21 points to propel Michigan (3-0) to an 89-73 victory on Monday night.
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The game went back-and-forth much of the first half with eight lead changes and four ties in the first 14 minutes, but the Wolverines finished the half on a 19-7 run as they made their final five shots to go into the break leading, 48-38.
From there, Dug McDaniel took over.
He scored a career-high 26 points, 16 of which came in the second half, to go with seven assists and six rebounds, while Terrance Williams II scored 12, Will Tschetter had 10 and Tarris Reed Jr. added five and a game-high 11 rebounds as the Wolverines won their 11th straight game at MSG.
Track meet opens up
U-M started the game scorching hot, making 8 of its first 10 shots from the floor as a team, the vast majority of which was Burnett.
He nailed a long ball to open the scoring, then after St. John’s ripped off seven straight, he got going again. The former McDonalds All-American made a slashing layup, and followed a Reed free throw with the next four U-M buckets: a layup, a long ball, a transition dunk and another 3-pointer — the last of which cut Michigan’s deficit to 18-16.
Despite his perfect shooting, U-M had to play a little bit of catch up early because the Red Storm opened the game red hot. Pitino’s team made seven of its first 12 shots, that includes 4-for-8 3-pointers, last of which came from Daniss Jenkins off of his own miss.
The Red Storm had a 16-4 edge in second-chance points late in the fist half, and despite the fact they were losing the turnover battle by one, had a 10-4 edge in points off of those miscues, a large reason the game was just a 37-35 U-M lead with 2:44 to play in the first half.
On the other side of the media timeout, Burnett buried a mid-range jumper to give him a career-high 21, before Olivier Nkamhoua added a 3-pointer, McDaniel finished baseline with a left-handed layup, Tschetter added a mid-range bucket and Williams put in a transition layup to finish the half on an 11-3 push.
Put it all together
Unlike the first half, the second began slowly with both teams making just one of their first five shots.
St. John’s looked like it may make one more push, when Joel Soriano (team-high 15 points) converted a three-point play with 16:21 to play to cut the deficit to nine.
The Wolverines responded with an 8-0 run in less than two minutes, which started when McDaniel scored a transition layup then made a pair of free throws. Up by 13, Reed swatted a Glenn Taylor layup attempt, then threw the outlet pass to McDaniel who found Tray Jackson for the fast-break slam.
Williams came away with a steal, then a spinning coast-to-coast layup on the next possession, forcing a St. John’s timeout with U-M up 60-43, but it was all for not.
Williams would grab an offensive bound, kick it out to McDaniel and get it right back and drill a 3-pointer. Moments later, Nkamhoua threw a no-look pass down low to Tschetter to get the lead up to 20.
It was the second straight year U-M moved to 3-0 after a win in New York — last year it was a 91-60 win over Pittsburgh in Brooklyn — and both times head coach Juwan Howard was on hand, only this time his presence meant just a bit more.
Howard underwent heart surgery on Sept. 15 and has been away from the program as he’s undergone rehabilitation, however he traveled with the team to New York and was present during shootarounds according to the broadcast.
“I continue to attend cardio rehab three times per week,” Howard said in a statement shared via FS1. “I feel myself getting stronger week by week. Can’t wait to return to the sidelines.”
Contact Tony Garcia: [email protected]. Follow him at @realtonygarcia.
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