COLLEGE PARK, Md. — They were missing their best defense player and late-game shot-maker, and their best athlete, too. And while their coach didn’t want to make excuses for Charles Matthews’ diminished state a week ago back home in Ann Arbor, when the Michigan Wolverines lost to Michigan State, it wasn’t hard to see what coach John Beilein can do when he knows what’s coming.
Not that U-M is better without Matthews. They are not. Get it straight.
But they’re still relatively formidable, a collection of pieces Beilein is trying to figure out how to make fit.