You'll hear this from head coach Juan Howard a little bit later here on this episode of Defend the Block,

but I wanted to lead off with it. Kobe Buffkin came to Coach Howard at some point this offseason

and said, hey, coach, the game's starting to slow down for me. Coach Howard agreed. We're seeing

the result of that through Michigan's first 10 games. Of course, last year, Kobe Buffkin was young for his age as a freshman.

He turned 18 very late in the offseason.

You could tell that his body still needed to go through some growth

to transition from high school to college.

Yet, Buffkin handled things the right way.

He carved out a role for him just on the fringe of the rotation.

He hit one of the biggest shots of the season for Michigan in what proved to be an NCAA

tournament clinching win at Ohio State, and he handled things the right way off the floor.

He's not the most outgoing young man, but he works hard when he speaks, people listen, and he's got a

great work ethic about himself. Well, through 10 games, you can see in real time how much

the game is slowing down for him. How, I think still at this point, it's continuing to slow,

even from the start of the season. And against Lipscombe Saturday at Chrysler Center, we may have witnessed Bufkin's

best game to date.

Buffkin dropped in a career high 22 points.

He was 8 of 9 shooting in 33 excellent minutes.

When Michigan needed to deliver stops defensively, Buffkin was vocal, he was aggressive,

and he was willing to put the clamp down on the best player at times on the floor for either

team in Will Pruitt. Pruitt started 7 of 11. He was 5 for 6 from 3 at one point, yet he missed his final five shots.

He didn't score in the final 528, and a man in Pruitt who had a career high like Buffkin

...