After a sluggish first half, DeShawn Sims urged his teammates to refocus at halftime. He responded with 15 first-half points.

Melanie Maxwell | AnnArbor.com

ANN ARBOR - In Michigan's plush locker room halfway up the Michigan tunnel, desperation started to seep in. Michigan trailed for the fourth time this year at halftime and something, anything, needed to change.

Senior forward DeShawn Sims looked around and picked that moment to refocus himself. This wasn’t how his final year at Michigan was going to go. He didn’t come back for this, to struggle both personally and as a team. So he responded, showing for a half the player he can be as he led the Wolverines to a come-from-behind 75-64 win over the University of Detroit.

“He knew we needed him,” junior guard Manny Harris said. “Not just this game, but period.”

Sims hit 3 three-pointers in the second half, including one from the top of the key to give Michigan a 50-48 lead - the final time the lead would switch Sunday.

This game, though, was about more than just a player and a team refocusing. For Sims and Harris, it was about pride.

It was about pride for their team, one that had maybe believed too much in preseason expectations that put them in the Top 15 in the polls and in Len Elmore’s preseason Final Four.

It was about pride for their city, because both Detroit natives grew up around the University of Detroit - heck, Sims watched games there as a kid and figured that was where he was going to attend college.

“That’s right up the street,” Sims said. “There’s a lot of critics, a lot of people out there, you lose to U of D, and there’s nothing wrong with the team, but they get to have the
upper hand in the city.”

Sims instead ensured Michigan (5-4) would remain the team to talk about. He scored 15 of his 23 points in the second half after giving a speech about having to refocus both the team and himself.

He was efficient, making 10 of his 12 shots. He grabbed 12 rebounds, good enough for his third double-double of the season. And he played inspired defense, stealing two balls, blocking a shot.

Defense - U-M held Detroit (6-4) to just 28 points in the second half - was as critical to Michigan’s win as Sims. Beilein eschewed his usual rotation to go with a more veteran lineup and played more man-to-man and a little bit of 2-3 zone because Detroit’s slashers cut through the 1-3-1 zone in the first half.

The result led to tough shots for Detroit and longer offensive possessions. And once Sims got going offensively, it seemed like the entire Michigan team fed off his play defensively.

Guys were more aggressive. They dove on the floor for loose balls. They rebounded better - outrebounding an opponent for just the third time this season.

This all showed Michigan is a better team when Sims in involved in the game instead of disappearing for stretches- something that has happened throughout this season.

When he can be an equal to Harris - who had an all-too-typical 27-point, 9-rebound, 6-assist game - Michigan can look like it did a season ago when it made a run to the second round of the NCAA tournament.

So while Michigan coach John Beilein doesn’t want to say this team will go as far as Sims will allow them to - he tries to avoid that because he doesn’t want to put too much pressure on players - it is becoming clear the play of Sims has a critical role to Michigan’s success.

“Putting things like that together is probably something he is understanding right now,” Beilein said. “I would very rarely say that to someone just to the point that it is putting too much on them but at the same time, there are some games that are very true that how well he plays, we have a better chance of winning.”

Michael Rothstein covers University of Michigan basketball for AnnArbor.com. He can be reached at (734) 623-2558, by e-mail at michaelrothstein@annarbor.com or follow along on Twitter @mikerothstein