| Detroit Free Press
Michigan’s Phil Martelli: We can’t beat Iowa if we don’t play defense
Michigan assistant basketball coach Phil Martelli speaks to the media on Wednesday, February 24, 2021.
Michigan Athletics, Detroit Free Press
Hunter Dickinson was in eighth grade when he met Luka Garza.
At the time, the two players were part of Team Takeover, a prominent AAU team based in Washington. Garza played for the 17-year-old team, and Dickinson’s team trained against Garza’s a few times a week.
All eyes will be on the two former Team Takeover centers on Thursday night, when No. 3 Michigan Basketball hosts No. 12 Iowa.
Dickinson, seven times Big Ten Freshman of the Week, emerged as one of the best young centers in the country and only led the Wolverines to a top five victory at Ohio State on Sunday.
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Garza has an average of 24.7 points in his senior season and is one of the top candidates to be voted Player of the Year at Naismith College.
“I have known him for some time,” Garza told reporters on Tuesday. “We always work with each other and fight. And I played in practice and things like that. It is really impressive to see what he has done so far, I think anyone from the DMV would have told him that this would happen. He’s been very elite for a while. “
The years-long friendship between Dickinson and Garza strengthened last summer, when the two worked together in Maryland under the supervision of their AAU coach, Keith Stevens. The duo, sometimes accompanied by former Maryland star Jalen Smith, worked on their post moves and spent a lot of time combining 1 on 1.
What impact can that familiarity have on Thursday’s game?
Garza acknowledged at this point, each player knows the other “very well” based on the frequency with which they faced each other. Dickinson believes he has not yet “found what (Garza) really does in the Big Ten.” The experiences he had against Garza will be complementary to what he learned from studying cinema – and not the only basis for how he will choose to defend his old friend on Thursday.
“I’m still trying to learn from the film we have and other things,” said Dickinson on Wednesday. “I still wouldn’t say that I’m an expert at what he does.”
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Like Dickinson, the Wolverines understand how difficult it is to slow Garza down. In the two meetings between the teams last season, Garza averaged 38.5 points with 54% shots and hit 13 free throws in each contest. His 44 points in Michigan on January 12, 2020 were the most scored by a visiting player in the 53-year history of the Crisler Center.
“I remember that we didn’t play any defense against Luka Garza,” said assistant coach Phil Martelli. “… how hard he works, how creative he is with his footwork and both games, for me, were unusual for college basketball because I can remember the fluid nature of the game, the scoring that occurred for both teams. “
Garza improved his game as a senior. He is the focal point of the Iowa attack and has become more efficient. He has a low career turnover rate, is shooting 58.7% with 2s and 44.4% with 3s and drawing the best career 7.1 fouls every 40 minutes, trying just over seven free throws per game.
That last mark will test Dickinson’s defense, who committed 3.4 fouls every 40 minutes and has averaged three fouls in the last four games – but has rarely been in trouble.
“I think something he does very well is using his body,” said Dickinson. “He has a great structure that he plays very well. He’s very good at using angles if you give him any kind of angle to get him off the table or something, he’s very good at ‘whatever the defender does is wrong’ type of mindset. “
Michigan will need Dickinson to avoid problems, against Garza. It will be necessary for him to play at least an adequate 1-on-1 defense so that other defenders do not have to help Iowa pitchers (the Hawkeyes are shooting 40.3% at 3). It will be necessary for Dickinson to continue playing well in the attack so that the Wolverines can attack the defense of the 75th placed Iowa.
And to accomplish all of these things, Michigan will need Dickinson to forget his friendship with Garza for at least a few hours.
“The only thing I’m going to whisper to him tomorrow is that you need to let go of the friendship here,” said Martelli. “And you are not the youngest. He cannot come in and accept this as any kind of built-in excuse. All the notoriety, all the compliments, he took care of that. And now he has to deal with the idea that this is not Hunter against Garza, he is Michigan against Iowa.
“I am confident that Hunter will not cross into another world and it will impact his game by making it a personal rivalry.
Dickinson too.
“I really don’t think this is going to be a problem,” he said. “It is not the first time that I have played one of my friends before. I used to play Terrance (Williams) two or three times a year at (Washington Catholic Athletic Conference). I’ve played against good friends my whole life, so I don’t think it will be any different. “
Contact Orion Sang at [email protected]. Follow him on Twitter @orion_sang. Read more about Michigan Wolverines and subscribe to our Wolverines newsletter.