There's an exceedingly good chance this pass resulted in a bucket. [Eric Upchurch]
Entering this week, Michigan had three triple-doubles in program history. After Derrick Walton's ten-point, 11-rebound, 13-assist outing this evening, the Wolverines now have two in the last two games.
Walton did a masterful job picking apart Youngstown State's 2-3 zone, which the Penguins stuck with for most of the game despite giving up a parade of easy buckets. Walton's largesse benefited just about everyone donning white; four other Wolverines also finished with double-digit points—led by Caris LeVert and Aubrey Dawkins with 19 each—even though none cracked 30 minutes played.
One need look no further than Dawkins' performance to get an idea of how this game went. After playing only four minutes of garbage time in Tuesday's win over Northern Kentucky, he didn't check in until the 8:50 mark of the first half today, by which point Michigan had already run out to a 19-point lead. By halftime, Dawkins had 13 points and two Sportscenter-worthy dunks, including this savage and-one finish of a Walton lob:
The second half featured far more unlikely alley-oop combinations, most notably one from Kam Chatman to Ricky Doyle and, later, a lob lay-in by DJ Wilson—whose ankle was healthy enough for him to play six late minutes—from Andrew Dakich.
While YSU's insistence on playing zone makes it difficult to take too much away on that end, it's worth noting Michigan's quartet of big men held Penguins center Bobby Hain, who entered the evening averaging 14.7 points and 7.4 rebounds, to seven points on 3/10 FGs and a lone rebound.
Michigan has one more tune-up—Wednesday night against Bryant—before starting Big Ten play. If any conference opponents want to try out a zone defense, the Wolverines are quite ready.
Tonight's bad poetry:
Never 2-3 zone
Against a John Beilein team
Unless you want death