WICHITA, Kan. _ OK. That was just ugly as heck.
Coming off an 11-day break after winning the Big Ten tournament _ and after waiting all day long to play _ Michigan came out and struggled something awful in its first game of the NCAA tournament.
But the Wolverines survived with a 61-47 victory over Montana.
After the opening tip, Moe Wagner traveled. Muhammad-Ali Abdur-Rahkman picked up a foul. Montana hit a 3-pointer. Wagner missed a shot. Zavier Simpson was called for a foul. The Wolverines had a time shot violation, missed their first four shots and Montana had a 10-0 lead.
Ugly? It was beyond that.
Simpson is Michigan's spark plug.
Simpson picked up his second foul and had to go to the bench.
It was about as bad a start as you could draw up.
But despite the horrible start, despite another delay from a power outage, despite an ugly game and yawning fans in the stands, the Wolverines survived. Nothing more.
With Simpson on the bench, Michigan coach John Beilein turned to Jaaron Simmons, who gave Michigan a spark.
Simmons, a 6-foot-1, 185-pounder who came to U-M from Ohio University, played fantastic, hitting a couple of ridiculous layups while Simpson sat on the bench. Simmons played 11 minutes in the first half, scoring six points and didn't have a turnover. Simmons came into this game averaging 7.4 minutes per game, while scoring just 2.4 points per game.
When Simmons got tired, Beilein put in Eli Brooks and he promptly had a fine assist.
Then, he hit a running baseline floater.
The Wolverines spent 16 minutes trying to dig out of that hole, but they finally did and held a 31-28 halftime lead.
Simmons averaged just 6.3 minutes per game during the Big Ten Tournament and didn't score a point. Brooks played just 1 minute and didn't score, either. But those two guards played a critical role in helping Michigan climb out of that hole.
The Wolverines will now have a quick turn-around to get ready for Houston, which beat San Diego State, 67-65.
For Houston, everything revolves around Rob Gray, a 6-foot-1, drive-happy, man-bun wearing guard who has never met a shot he didn't like. He can pull up and hit the three-point shot (he was 4-for-6 on Thursday against San Diego State). But he will also drive into lane. That's what he did on Thursday night, hitting a driving, scooping layup with under 2 seconds left to give Houston the lead.
Simpson will be assigned to stop him _ and least part of the time _ and it's imperative that he doesn't get into foul trouble again.
