The numbers may show a team playing smart with the basketball and within themselves, but don’t necessarily buy it.

Michigan had seven turnovers Friday in its 77-55 win over Houston Baptist compared with 16 assists - better than a 2-to-1 ratio - yet Wolverines coach John Beilein already seemed excited to watch tape and find errors.

“We’ll learn a lot from them,” Beilein said.

Beilein is known as someone who watches a massive amount of game film. So he’ll dissect the beginning of the game, from some moments of impatience to shot selection in the 4 of 23 start from the field.

“We usually play with poise and share the ball and find each other,” Beilein said. “We just got a little antsy.”

Junior guard Manny Harris felt the frustration, starting the first half 5 of 13 before finishing with 25 points, including missing some open shots early on.

This, of course, will come after Saturday’s main course: Michigan-Ohio State football.

“Watch us beat Ohio State and we’ll end up going in that tape room and we’ll spend an hour in there together,” Beilein said.

Ben Cronin Plays Late

Since the regular season started, redshirt freshman center Ben Cronin has suffered setbacks in his rehabilitation from a hip injury that cost him all of last season.

His goal now is to be in the rotation by the start of the Big Ten season, although he said his minutes each week are dependent by how much he practices.

When he stepped on the court with a couple minutes to go Friday, it was clear how far away he might be. His gait showed a noticeable limp.

“That’s going to get better as we go through rehab,” Cronin said. “That’s one of the things I’ve got to get better. I’m not moving like I was before. There’s a couple things I got to be ready to do for the court, a couple goals for certain things to be ready by the Big Ten season.”

A lot of that has to do with movement and jumping, which is part of the reason Beilein isn’t ready to take minutes away from Michigan’s other center off the bench, Zack Gibson, to give them to the ailing 7-footer.

Cronin missed the only shot he took Friday.

Beat On The Boards

Houston Baptist may have been outmatched in almost every area Friday but the Huskies dominated in one spot - on the glass.

Part of it came from their big man, Mario Flaherty, who had 17 points and 13 rebounds. Part of came from awkward bounces and airballs off of poorly-missed long-range shots by Houston Baptist along with the way they penetrated the lane, setting rotations off in the 1-3-1 zone.

But the Huskies out-rebounded Michigan, 52-39.

“We were going in aggressively to rebounds,” Michigan forward DeShawn Sims said. “Some balls didn’t tip our way and (Flaherty), some of their other guys got in there and did a great job of crashing offensive boards.

“…But we got a hand on a lot of those offensive rebounds. We competed. We just didn’t have it bounce our way.”

Morgan slowly coming back

Jordan Morgan tugged on the jersey this week and for the first time since he arrived at Michigan started to feel better about his game.

The reason - he actually got to play. While the freshman is a likely redshirt candidate, Beilein said Thursday he was finally cleared from off-season knee surgery to start running full court.

And in reality, he’d been practicing all week.

“It felt good,” Morgan said. “It’s a change. I haven’t ran the floor in four-and-a-half, five months so it’s a change.

“But it’s good to finally get back out there.”

This and that

Houston Baptist may have shot poorly from three-point range (3 of 14) but it was actually an improvement. The 21.4 percent clip is up from the 8.5 percent the Huskies entered the game shooting. … Showing perhaps part of being a freshman, Matt Vogrich missed all three of his shots Friday after going a perfect 5 of 5 in the opener last Saturday. … Despite its cold start (4 of 23), Michigan actually shot better in the first half (38.2 percent) than the second (35.1 percent). … As time ticked down in the second half Friday night, the Michigan student section began chanting “Beat The Buckeyes,” even though the game didn’t start for almost 15 hours.

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.