Takeaways from Michigan basketball's win over Wake Forest

Michigan held on for an overtime win against Wake Forest in their second game of the season by a score of 85 to 84. The Wolverines shot 45.2% from the floor and only 16% from 3. They were largely led by Aday Mara in who finished with 18 points, 14 rebounds, 6 assists, and 5 blocks in a career night for the former UCLA transfer. They looked like a very different team with him on the court as he excelled at both ends all night long. Here are a few other takeaways from the win below.

This team is still figuring out how to play with each other

Dusty May rolled out a different lineup off the jump in this game with Elliot Cadeau, Nimari Burnett Yaxel Lendeborg, Morez Johnson Jr., and Aday Mara. Three of those players are over 6'9" so it's a huge starting lineup and features only two guards with the three forwards. It took a while for Michigan to get going offensively as the two teams were tied at 18 at the 10-minute mark of the first half. Michigan would start to pull away later on in the first half and ended up leading 47-34 at the break. They also had a length dry spell in the second half that allowed Wake Forest to climb back into it.

It was clear throughout the game that Dusty May was trying to figure out which lineups he likes the best, doing a lot of mixing and matching all game long. It shouldn't be that big of a surprise given that Michigan started four new transfers in just the starting lineup alone and should also be something they get better with as the season continues.

The lack of perimeter shooting appears to be a real problem

The Wolverines shot just 16% from three as they hit only 4 of 25 attempts. It was not a good night from the free throw line either as they made only 67.6% of those attempts on 37 tries. It is early in the season so maybe they just need to get into the flow of the season but you won't win many games shooting the ball that poorly from 3 point land and the charity stripe. Michigan needs to get better at both aspects of shooting in order to be a more complete team.

Michigan still has defensive rebounding issues to address

Michigan ended up winning the rebounding battle overall but they also gave up 18 offensive rebounds. It was something last year's team struggled with and it appears that at least early on this season it's still an issue. With how much size Michigan has, they have got to be better about limiting second chance points and I'm sure Dusty May why try his best to correct that issue moving forward.

Michigan has a lot of balance offensively

While Aday Mara led Michigan in scoring with 18 points, Elliot Cadeau was right behind him with 17. Roddy Gayle also had 13 and Morez Johnson Jr. had 10. In total, seven different Wolverines had more than 8 points in what was a very balanced scoring night. That doesn't appear to be something that will change a lot as the season goes on because there's so many different guys who could lead Michigan in scoring on any given night. I think the balance offensively is fun to watch and is likely here to stay as the season goes on.

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