The No. 1 Michigan Wolverines fell short in a 68-63 loss to the No. 3 Duke Blue Devils on Saturday night in Washington D.C. There were plenty of lessons to be learned from the game, including Michigan center Aday Mara needing to stay out of foul trouble.
Mara was a non-factor for most of the first half due to collecting two quick fouls — and then a third not long after that — which allowed Duke to regain momentum after Michigan took an early lead. Mara’s inability to avoid fouls was costly as the Wolverines desperately needed his presence.
Michigan head coach Dusty May explained his thought process on putting Mara back into the game with two fouls in the first half prior to him getting his third shortly later.
“I wish, in hindsight, we wouldn’t have done that,” May said. “But when you say, ‘Can we really go the next 15 minutes without Aday, and can he play well in the second half if he sits for 15 minutes?’ So we trusted him. We trust our guys.
“We make decisions on different opponents, how they play or how we play. There are some situations that we would sit Aday for the last 14 minutes, but he’ll learn and grow from it.”
With Mara sidelined for a bulk of the first half, Michigan’s size advantage was essentially neutralized and Duke was able to find success on the glass and scoring in the paint. Both those things would have been much more difficult if Mara played more.
Mara’s second foul – which took place with Michigan up 19-14 and 13:46 left in the first half – was questionable as he appeared to record a clean block, but his third foul with 7:08 remaining in the half was simply a poor decision on his part.
In big games moving forward, Mara needs to be smarter and avoid committing unnecessary fouls. If he were on the floor for the final seven minutes of the half, who knows how the game would have played out at that point?
Mara eventually made a significant impact in the second half — finishing with 10 points, four rebounds and two blocks — but he played just 22 total minutes and could have been much more effective had he not committed those early fouls.
But he will have an opportunity to learn from these mistakes and avoid a similar fate in future games, which will be especially important in in the NCAA Tournament next month.
“It’ll be a good learning experience for him,” May said. “The thing about fouls is his first one was a missed block out, so it was legit. But if you don’t make that first mistake, then the second one is not nearly as consequential.”