Michigan forward Jordan Morgan's career night gives him AnnArbor.com's top star
Jordan Morgan scored a career-high 27 points, had a career-high three blocks and was an overall force in Michigan's 75-66 win over Northwestern on Wednesday.
The performance was enough to earn him AnnArbor.com's top star on a night the Wolverines swept the awards. Do you agree with our selections? Let's chat about it after the jump.
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First Star: Jordan Morgan The redshirt freshman from Detroit scored a career-high 27 points, including four during a critical 6-0 run that gave Michigan its final cushion over Northwestern. He ran the pick-and-roll almost to perfection and found himself in good spots the entire night. It was his best game of the year.
Second Star: Darius Morris Morris didn’t have a huge scoring night, but he had an all-around good game, scoring 11 points, grabbing seven rebounds and making seven assists, including an alley-oop to Morgan during that 6-0 run that iced the game. Even when Northwestern went on its 14-0 run late in the second half, sophomore Matt Vogrich said he wasn’t concerned simply because Morris had the ball in his hands. That’s how much confidence Michigan has in its sophomore point guard.
Third Star: Tim Hardaway Jr. The freshman from Miami had his first career double-double with 17 points and 10 rebounds. He also had two of the bigger highlight plays Wednesday, a one-handed dunk through the right side of the lane and then a standing two-handed dunk. He has emerged as Michigan’s most athletic player and, more often than not, the most athletic player on the floor.
Three Stars Season Tally: Darius Morris, Michigan: 13 Tim Hardaway Jr., Michigan: 11 Zack Novak, Michigan: 7 Jordan Morgan, Michigan: 5 Evan Smotrycz, Michigan: 3 Stu Douglass, Michigan: 2 Talor Battle, Penn State: 2 Jon Horford, Michigan: 1 Jeff Meyer, Michigan assistant coach: 1 Matt Vogrich, Michigan: 1 Brady Hoke, Michigan football coach: 1 Rocko Holmes, Concordia: 1 Marcus Morris, Kansas: 1 Markieff Morris, Kansas: 1 Keith Wright, Harvard: 1 Jordan Hulls, Indiana: 1 Verdell Jones III, Indiana: 1 Kalin Lucas, Michigan State: 1 Blake Hoffarber, Minnesota: 1 Rodney Williams, Minnesota: 1 Landon Clement, North Carolina Central: 1 John Shurna, Northwestern: 1 Juice Thompson, Northwestern: 1 Luka Mirkovic, Northwestern: 1 David Lighty, Ohio State: 1 Jared Sullinger, Ohio State: 1 William Buford, Ohio State: 1 JaJuan Johnson, Purdue: 1 Ryne Smith, Purdue: 1 Scoop Jardine, Syracuse: 1 Kris Joseph, Syracuse: 1 Randy Culpepper, UTEP: 1 John Bohannon, UTEP: 1 Jon Leuer, Wisconsin: 1 Jordan Taylor, Wisconsin: 1 The rims at Boardwalk Hall, Atlantic City, N.J.: 1
Michael Rothstein covers 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.
Comments
cnorman
Thu, Feb 10, 2011 : 3:27 p.m.
jordan morgan does have enormous upside----but really needs another big on the floor to take some pressure away. horford WILL BE great but deserved a redshirt season. darius morris is a MAJOR talent. i'll give the coaching staff credit, but i wonder if even they knew how good he could be. finally----glad to see that stuey got back to the first five. he is a huge help handling the ball. someday steal a star for stu.
81wolverine
Thu, Feb 10, 2011 : 2:13 p.m.
I'm becoming more and more impressed with Jordan Morgan. I think he has A LOT of upside for Michigan. He shows a lot of great moves and athletic ability. I was a little baffled by the lack of rebounds, but it appears Hardaway and Morris picked up the slack. Good job Jordan! Now if Beilein can go out and recruit a couple more big guys like him, we'll be set.