The No. 25 Michigan Wolverines head coach John Beilein took on his son, Patrick Beilein, who is the head coach of the Le Moyne Dolphins. John cruised to a 74-52 victory over Patrick and the Dolphins in the first exhibition game for the Maize and Blue.
Le Moyne, a Division II team, hung with their Division I ranked opponent in Michigan for the first few minutes, but the Wolverines broke out into a rhythm. They quickly jumped to a 19-5 lead and never looked back.
Duncan Robinson tallied 15 points in the game. DJ Wilson showed his athleticism and freshman Moritz Wagner, the first German to play for Michigan, hit a late three. Wilson controlled the ball better than many expected. He tossed an ally-oop to LeVert after pushing the ball up the court. Last season, Wilson sat out as an injury redshirt.
Michigan owned a 28-14 lead at halftime, but still were looking for their groove. Eventually, Michigan found their groove against Le Moyne thanks to 13 second half points from Caris LeVert.
In the second half, Aubrey Dawkins left the floor with an injured ankle. While it was not anything serious, the ankle is something to keep an eye on going forward.
LeVert, a future National Basketball Association lottery pick, cashed in with 22 points, four rebounds and three assists in the victory. It was nice to see him back on the floor after a broke foot kept him out for the second half of last season.
"It felt great," LeVert said. "I had some pregame jitters coming out in the starting lineup and stuff but it felt great getting going. The crowd was really good to us today."
One issue was Mark Donnal, who could not get past a few forwards for Le Moyne inside the paint. Meanwhile, some of the young guys looked a little lost on defense. Besides that, it was a solid night for the Wolverines, who were without Zak Irvin.
A couple three-point jumpers were knocked down by point guard Derrick Walton, who is coming off a season ending injury. The junior will continue to get back in form after the foot problem to help lead the Wolverines.
Walton scored 13 points, both off the dribble and from the outside. He also did well distributing the ball inside to Donnal and Ricky Doyle.
"I loved our defensive numbers at halftime and I hated our offensive numbers," Beilein said. "The second half it flipped on us. The offenses for both teams were much better and it's because the defense probably wasn't. So we'll learn from the video today. I am so excited, more excited than anybody in this room, to be up at about 6:00 AM ET and watch a whole bunch of video so I can be ready for our 12 o'clock video session.
"We got to get better."
The Wolverines will take on the Northern Michigan Wildcats in their next exhibition game at 7:00 PM ET on Friday. The game will be played at the Crisler Center in Ann Arbor, Michigan.