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It was safe to wonder if there would be somewhat of a letdown for Michigan basketball after coming home from an NCAA Tournament-like atmosphere playing Duke on Saturday. And with a pesky Minnesota team coming to Ann Arbor, that's precisely what transpired.

The Wolverines went up 5-0 to start the game, but it didn't take long before the Gophers tied it. The first half ended up being a back-and-forth affair, with the maize and blue eventually asserting themselves, jumping out to a late-first-half 10-point lead, on the heels of Minnesota going scoreless for six minutes. However, as Minnesota stopped trying to slow things down and went quickly to the rim, the Wolverines ended up going into the locker room at halftime with just a four-point lead.

The second half saw both teams essentially trade baskets for the first six minutes, but Michigan was one point better than before the half, with a five-point lead. The Wolverines started to push in the middle of the second half, with a Yaxel Lendeborg 3 (his first points of the game), a Morez Johnson Jr. layup, an LJ Cason 3, an Aday Mara dunk, and a Cason layup leading into a Minnesota timeout just before the under-12. The Michigan lead was nine.

But the Gophers kept at it, and the two-three zone frustrated the Wolverine offense. Isaac Asuma hit a 3 to cut the Michigan lead back to six.

A 12-2 run, most of which came from a barrage of 3s, helped the maize and blue to pull away and accumulate a 14-point lead with 7:43 remaining. In the coming minutes, Minnesota erased a bit of Michigan's eventual 18-point lead, taking an 11-point deficit into the under-four media timeout with 2:47 remaining in the game. But it wasn't enough, and the Wolverines won, 77-67.

Here are our five takeaways.

A slow start for Michigan

Minnesota wanted to slow the game down on offense and make things difficult for the Wolverines on the other. Well, mission accomplished.

The Gophers were plodding on the offensive side of the court, and the zone defense clearly bothered Michigan at the other end. Minnesota actually outshot the maize and blue in the first half, and held star forward Yaxel Lendeborg scoreless in the process.

It took until halfway through the second half before the Wolverines started looking like themselves, with hot shooting (59.3% in the second half) to make the lead insurmountable.

The bench was the difference

Michigan has one of the best, if not the best, benches in college basketball (though Duke would like to have a word), but usually the bench plays second fiddle to the starters. Not so in this one.

While the starters did play more minutes in the first half, it was marginal. We saw heavy doses of Trey McKenney, Roddy Gayle Jr., LJ Cason, and Will Tschetter right out of the gates, playing nearly as much as the starters in the opening 20 minutes. Of Michigan's 32 first-half points, the bench accounted for half, 16 points, led by Gayle's seven.

The second half saw LJ Cason and Trey McKenney have the hot hands, as both were hitting at-will from 3 to stretch the lead. Cason had 14 points (second on the team) while McKenney had 12 and Gayle had nine.

Ultimately, Michigan had 35 points from its bench while Minnesota had zero.

Perimeter defense was an issue

The stats say that Michigan should have destroyed and decimated the Gophers, except for one place -- 3-point shooting. Led by forward Cade Tyson (who made five 3s, 50% of his attempts), Minnesota kept things relatively even by hitting the long ball -- despite being relatively equal in turnovers (though the Gophers were better at getting points off turnovers) and absolutely on the wrong side of rebounds, second-chance points, and bench points.

Even after the Wolverines took a commanding lead, Minnesota kept shooting and kept hitting from deep, keeping the game relatively interesting. The Gophers managed to score 12-of-34 3-point attempts (35.3%).

Perimeter offense was not

Michigan was certainly annoyed by the two-three zone, and that meant that the Wolverines didn't push the ball inside as much as they would have liked. But the result? An aerial assault from outside.

Despite the issues keeping the Gophers from scoring outside the arc, the maize and blue were red hot from 3 in the second half, managing 9-of-18 from deep in the final 20 minutes. As mentioned in the lead, four-straight 3s helped push the advantage to a point where Minnesota just could not recover.

Michigan hit 42.4 overall from deep in the game, hitting 14-of-33 attempts.

A share of the Big Ten

It's been five years since Michigan won the Big Ten regular season title (2021), but that drought is officially over. The question is now not if it will win it, but whether it will have sole possession of said title.

The win by the Wolverines, still a team-best start to a season, ensured that the maize and blue will have at least a share of the Big Ten regular season championship, and with three games remaining, including against fellow contender Illinois on Saturday, Michigan is in the driver's seat for top conference honors.

This article originally appeared on Wolverines Wire: Takeaways: Michigan beats Minnesota, secures Big Ten title share

CHICAGO (AP) — Brandon Miller scored 23 points, Kon Knueppel added 21, and the hot-shooting Charlotte Hornets won a team record eighth straight road game, routing the Chicago Bulls 131-99 on Tuesday night.

The Hornets shot 51.6% from the field and were on-target from beyond the arc, sinking 25 of 57 3-points attempts, one shy of the team record.

LaMelo Ball scored points 16 and Miles Bridges also had 16 in his return from a suspension. The Hornets outscored the Bulls 42-16 in the third quarter — including a decisive 22-2 run — and handed the Bulls a 10th straight loss, matching their longest slide since January 2019.

Matas Buzelis scored a career-high 32 points for Chicago, which was hurt by turnovers — 19 in this one. Patrick Williams and Guerschon Yabusele each had 11 points.

Knueppel finished with three 3-pointers on six attempts to up his long-range field goals total to 201. Playing in his 58th game he became the fastest player to reach 200 3s.

Knueppel hit back-to-back 3s midway through the third quarter as he scored 10 straight points to give Charlotte a 14-point lead. Miller hit his next three shots including one of his five 3-pointers to up it to 88-65 and cap the run that put the Hornets in charge.

Bridges and Moussa Diabate were both in the starting lineup after sitting out four games for their roles in a fight against Detroit on Feb. 9.

Coby White made his Hornets debut against the team that dealt him at the trade deadline earlier this month, entering midway through the first quarter, then scoring 10 points in 15:33. He was welcomed back to Chicago, where he played 6 1/2 seasons, with a short video tribute.

Charlotte led 56-55 at the half after falling behind by nine in midway through the second quarter.

Up next

Hornets: At Indiana on Thursday

Bulls: Host Portland on Thursday

INDIANAPOLIS — As Pittsburgh Steelers general manager Omar Khan prepared to address media at the NFL scouting combine on Tuesday, the flashbacks hit.

Only two years ago, as the Steelers finished their second season with a bottom-10 offense led by quarterback Kenny Pickett, a reporter asked Khan: Did he have full faith in Pickett entering Year 3?

“We have — I have full faith in Kenny,” Khan said Feb. 29, 2024. “He’s shown us some good things, and obviously there were some issues with the offense. And I’m excited about the impact that Arthur Smith’s going to have on him.

“Arthur’s very optimistic about Kenny. I know they’ve communicated and said we’ll have some strong competition there and see where it goes.”

Less than two weeks later, the Steelers signed quarterback Justin Fields. Kenny Pickett was a Philadelphia Eagle by March 15 and Russell Wilson a Steeler by March 29.

Sure, Khan had indicated the club would invite “strong competition.” Even so, the general manager’s “full faith” endorsement rang hollow in near-record time.

So as Khan fielded questions this week about the future of four-time MVP Aaron Rodgers, it was worth asking: How much should fans take his words at face value?

The Steelers signed Rodgers last season to a one-year deal after Rodgers wanted to play for longtime head coach Mike Tomlin. Rodgers completed 65.7% of his passes for 3,322 yards, 24 touchdowns and seven interceptions while leading the Steelers to a playoff berth and home wild-card loss. When Tomlin stepped down days later, team owner Art Rooney II said “Aaron came here to play for Mike, so I think it will most likely affect his decision.”