By Taris Young | @Taris_The_Gunna
Sports Capital Journalism Program
INDIANAPOLIS — The Michigan Wolverines, the No. 11 seed, upset the No. 6 Colorado State Rams, 75-63, in the first round of the NCAA Men’s Basketball Tournament at Gainbridge Fieldhouse.
The Wolverines trailed by 15 points in the first half and climbed their way back into the game. “Being down 15, we could have easily just said, ‘You know what? It’s time to pack it in,’” said Michigan coach Juwan Howard. “But we are not built that way. That’s not what the culture is all about. We are going to compete till the end. I respect the resilience that they showed.”
Michigan (18-14) advanced to a second-round South Region game against Tennessee on Saturday. The Wolverines reached a regional championship game last season.
Sophomore center Hunter Dickinson led all scorers with 21 points along with shooting 80 percent from the field. Dickinson averages 18.3 points per game. Michigan shot 54.2% from the field, while Colorado State shot 35.4%.
Michigan held Colorado State leading scorer David Roddy, who averages 19.4 points per game, to just 13 points. Roddy made one of six 3-point attempts. Michigan’s deficit was partly due to its 0-for-7 first-half shooting from 3-point range. In the second half, the Wolverines made four of seven 3-point shots, or 57.1%.
Freshman guard Caleb Houstan buried a huge 3-pointer in the second half swinging the momentum and putting the Wolverines up 50-49 with 10:30 to go. Houstan then hit another three-pointer 38 seconds later to put the Wolverines up 53-49. “They went on their run mostly in the first half and I think we stayed in it, got in another gear, and kind of made our run in the second half and didn’t really look back,” said Houstan.
Freshman guard Frankie Collins came up huge for the Wolverines in this game. Collins, who averages 2.9 points per game, chipped in with 14 points playing in place of injured point guard DeVante Jones. “I just saw that we were kind of struggling getting the ball in the basket, so just being aggressive will help us, whether it was getting to the line or making a basket,” said Collins.
“Frankie was just being Frankie,” Dickinson said. “He’s an aggressive guard who is able to get downtown and finish. He was doing that out there.”
In the first half both teams were tied on fast break points with four, in the second half Michigan led the fast break points with 11 to Colorado State’s seven fast break points.
Colorado State (25-6) went 8-for-20 on 3-point shots in the first half but made just four of 15 in the second half. “Give a lot of credit to Michigan,” said Colorado State coach Niko Medved. “They were the better team, clearly, in the second half. You know, it was kind of funny. Sometimes it’s a great thing when shots go down but we had so many shots go down early. Sometimes that can be a curse where we maybe were settling a little bit too much.”
With Collins replacing the injured Jones in the starting lineup, Michigan started three freshman in the first-round game, leading to a question for Howard. His response went back 30 years, to the days when Steve Fisher was the coach, and Michigan reached the first of two NCAA championship games.
“If I remember, Coach Fisher started five freshmen,” said Howard, who was one of them.
