Ann Arbor, Mich. — To be fair to Indiana, the final score was not reflective of the closeness of the game through the first 35 minutes. To be fair to Michigan, it still wasn’t that far off after the last five.

On this night, it was the familiar blend of turnovers, poor shot selection and an overall lack of offensive rhythm that doomed Indiana in a 69-45 loss. The Hoosiers were just 1-of-15 from behind the arc, shot 36.5 percent from the floor for the game and committed 19 turnovers, leading to 21 Michigan points.

“We got a lot of good looks, but they just wouldn’t fall,” Verdell Jones said afterward, referring in particular to the 3-point shooting.

Indiana fans can take heart in the Hoosiers’ defensive effort, which the final score probably doesn’t do justice. The visitors forced 16 turnovers and never let Michigan find its 3-point shot, one of the Wolverines’ preferred scoring methods. And it wasn’t until late in the second half that Michigan truly pulled away — cued, unsurprisingly, by Manny Harris’ 17 second-half points, most of which came in the final minutes.

“Credit Indiana, they did a wonderful job,” Michigan coach John Beilein said after the game. “I was really impressed with how they played defense today.”

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Tom Crean:

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After six seasons under Tommy Amaker with no NCAA Tournament appearances, the early results this season suggest the John Beilein era is progressing well in Ann Arbor.

The Wolverines finished just 10-22 a year ago, but are 11-3 this season and own wins over a pair of top ten teams in UCLA and Duke.

The key to the turnaround: a balanced attack with 10 guys playing over 14 minutes per game and the play of sophomore guard Manny Harris and junior forward DeShawn Sims.

Harris is leading the Big Ten in scoring at 18.8 ppg and is making a living from the foul line. He’s connected on 83 of 95 free throw attempts (87%). The key to stopping Harris may be letting him shoot the three as he’s hitting just 30 percent.

Sims ranks third in the Big Ten in scoring with 16.6 ppg and is the conference leader with 8.8 rebounds per game.

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Courtesy of the Big Ten Network, here is the audio from this morning’s teleconference with Tom Crean:

Related:

• John Beilein teleconference audio
• Bruce Weber teleconference audio

The All-Big Ten preview is ITH’s look at our picks for the top players in the Big Ten this season. Today: Manny Harris of Michigan.

If second year coach John Beilein hopes to improve on his debut season in Ann Arbor, much of his success will be a direct result of the maturation process of sophomore guard Manny Harris.

The Detroit native averaged 16.1 points last season and was a second team All-Big Ten selection for a Wolverine club that managed just ten wins. If Michigan hopes to reverse the trend, they’ll need leadership out of their go-to-guy.

“The biggest thing that I slacked on last year that I can do better this year is being a vocal leader, making sure that I get through to the team with what we need to do,” Harris said at Michigan’s media day. “How I’m going to do that is by working hard myself everyday and in every practice so that it will be easier for them to listen to me.”

With the offensive freedom afforded by Beilein to his back court players, Harris should have no problem building on last year’s scoring totals. If he can cut down the turnovers (3.6 per game) and improve on his three-point shooting (31 percent), he’ll find himself on the All-Big Ten team.

Perhaps I’m just used to last year’s struggles on the road, but I have to admit I didn’t expect anything approaching the blowout last night in Crisler Arena. But when you combine an absolutely dreadful — I mean, just totally horrendous — Michigan team with an IU squad firing on all cylinders offensively, you get what you got last night: a Big Ten road blowout. Weird.

The random assortment of observations that is this column starts … now:

– There were times I watched last night, and I felt like I was watching Memphis or North Carolina. In that, I mean that it was so clear one team was more talented than the other, that it became obvious that the more talented team didn’t need to do much strategically besides run down the floor and let their talent take over. The Michigan 1-3-1 zone was entirely ineffective against the half court, and the man-to-man was even worse. It was obvious: No matter what the Wolverines did, no matter what their players tried individually or as a group, they weren’t going to keep IU from scoring when it wanted to. As an IU fan, that was a tremendous feeling, and a totally alien one.

It also speaks, I think, to what we’ve been complaining about a little in the early stages of this season. Many of us have begged for more offensive structure. Many of us want to see Gordon running off screens all night. Whatever it is we want, Kelvin Sampson is clearly trying to strike a delicate balance between letting his talent do its walking, and letting his strategy rein it in. So far, it seems to be working.

– Poor John Beilein. Every missed three, every shanked layup, looks like it’s already taking years off the man’s life. At the very least, it’s robbing him of his few remaining hairs. It’s not his fault: This talent isn’t his, and with the exception of Manny Harris, Beilein has very little to work with in his first year. Surely he knew what he was getting into, so sympathy is probably wasted on him. Still, you can’t help but think he longs for the heady days of Kevin Pittsnogle and Mike Gansey, when the three pointers flowed like wine and the women flocked instinctively like the salmon of Capistrano.

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While he might not show up on the countless lists of the best freshmen in the country, Michigan freshman Manny Harris is quietly establishing himself as one of the Big Ten’s best players on perhaps the league’s worst team.

The 6-5 freshman guard from Redford High in Detroit enters tonight’s game against the Hoosiers averaging 16.5 ppg, good for fifth in the conference. He’s also among the league leaders in free throw percentage (83.2 percent, 4th), steals (1.57, 7th) and minutes played (31.7, 9th).

Harris scored 25 points in Saturday’s 65-58 loss to Purdue and was able to find a few positives from as the Wolverines fell to 4-10.

“Our best is still to come, and we’re still getting better,” Harris told Jeff Arnold of the Ann Arbor News. “You can pull a lot of positives out of this game, but it’s still a negative because we lost. We’re trying to learn what it takes to win every game we play. We just still have to get over the hump.”

While there are sure to be comparisons with Hoosier freshman Eric Gordon tonight by the ESPN announcing crew of Brent Musberger, Steve Lavin and Erin Andrews, Michigan coach John Beilein is not interested in comparing Harris with anyone.

“I don’t get into those things at all. That’s my biggest beef with the announcers, how they make such a big deal about the outstanding freshmen in the country,” Beilein said. There won’t be any talk of how they stack up against each other. Both of them are just trying to get better and play. They are good, but over four years there are going to be a lot of good players if they’re patient.”

(Photo credit: Rise Magazine)

The Hoosiers are finishing up their cupcakes and the New Year is nearly upon us, which can mean only one thing: It’s Big Ten Preview Time! Here’s a look at the teams that will challenge the Hoosiers for the conference crown … or fall under the weighty boot of crimson dominance. Probably the latter. Today: Michigan.

There are two things you need to know about Michigan in 2007-08. The first: They have a new coach in John Beilein, a system-oriented coach known for maximizing his overmatched teams’ potential. The second: His new team has very little potential to maximize.

The Wolverines are almost entirely new this season. Not only do they have a new coach, but their starting five is 80 percent new; only Ron Coleman returns. That means no Courtney Sims, no Lester Abram, no Dion Harris, and none of Brent Petway’s occasionally brilliant highlights. That also means no Tommy Amaker, whose inability to turn last year’s senior-laden lineup into anything better than a marginal bubble team sent him packing to Harvard before he had the chance to coach this year’s rebuilding effort.

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