Following Monday's win over Virginia Tech, I talked about the Wolverines balance from a game-by-game

standpoint. Roddy Gale Jr. became the first to reach 20 points in a single game this season

in that Wolverines win. The first thing I want to touch on from Wednesday's victory over Xavier,

the Wolverines balance from sequence to sequence.

And this one was circumstantial and it was required because early on,

Vlad Golden was playing better than he really ever has in his short stint in the mason blue.

He even hit his first career three on his first career attempt.

But at the 1045 mark of the first half, a questionable call saddled Vlad with his second

foul and Dusty May sent him to the bench. Now, Vlad has played with two fouls in the first half before,

but you're going to at least sit him for a little while. And at the time, Michigan was up by just a point.

Something like that can be a pivot point in a game. and it was here, but not for the expected reason.

Because Golden watched from the bench as his teammates churned out a 19-3 mega run.

Xavier made a few modest runs to stay on the periphery of this game as things went on in the second half,

but ultimately that 19 to 3 surge propelled

Michigan to really control this game. And then Vlad, along with the other primary score for Michigan,

fellow seven-footer Danny Wolf, they combined to help Michigan really pull away in the second

half. And Wolf should not be discarded as not the main topic here. He was

definitely the other big individual story in this one. And he did it all. In case and point, he was

two of 14 from three when he got into this game, hadn't hit a triple since the TCU victory. Wednesday,

four of five from deep. Wolf was in control

offensively beyond those three-point shots. He took better care of the basketball, not flawless,

but better. He rebounded and defended really well, too. It was Wolf's best game individually

...