The Wolverine: Covering University of Michigan Football and Sports
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MAY 2019 THE WOLVERINE 65 O n April 17, 2019, redshirt junior wing Charles Matthews announced that he would keep his name in the 2019 NBA Draft as expected. Matthews' college career didn't begin at Michigan — a factoid that viewers were reminded of during nearly every U-M basketball telecast the past two seasons — but it ended in Ann Arbor, where he indubitably made an impact. Matthews was a major con- tributor during his two eligible seasons at Michigan, during which the Wolverines compiled a 63-15 overall record, a Big Ten Tournament champion- ship, a national runner-up finish and another Sweet 16 appearance. He played in and started 75 of those 78 games. Few Wolverines have had a better two-year stretch of team suc- cess than Matthews. However, measuring the mark that Matthews left at Michigan is chal- lenging. It's a conundrum, one that the numbers most likely will have a difficult time conveying in hindsight. This is because the current set of bas- ketball statistics that are easily acces- sible evaluate a player's performance on the offensive end of the court more than the defensive end. And that could be detrimental to Matthews' legacy. Though Matthews was a top-three scorer at Michigan each of the past two seasons — averaging 13.0 and 12.2 points per game in 2017-18 and 2018-19, respectively — he was not a symbol of efficiency. His offensive rating, an efficiency- based metric from KenPom.com, was 101.6 in 2017-18 and 98.0 in 2018-19. Those were the worst offensive rat- ings among all Wolverines that played at least one-third of the team's available minutes. He struggled to shoot from the perimeter (30.9 three- point percentage at Michigan) and the free-throw line (59.6 percent at U-M), and posted a higher turnover than as- sist rate in each of his two seasons. What compounded Matthews' offensive troubles was that his offen- sive efficiency decreased substantially as the competition increased. His of- fensive rating dropped 4.3 points to 97.3 in Tier A games (versus KenPom top-50 opponents, adjusted for game location) in 2017-18 and 8.7 points to 89.3 in Tier A games in 2018-19. Matthews tended to feast on weaker opponents that didn't have players with the size or athleticism to prevent him from working his way to the rim for easy points. However, when opponents could cut off those lanes and force him to take jumpers, he typically had a difficult time hit- ting them, especially as his midrange game suffered last season. Matthews ultimately played a criti- cal role in why Michigan's offense — which had a reputation for being one of the best under the tutelage of John Beilein and was fourth in adjusted offensive efficiency the season that Matthews sat out — became much more inconsistent in his two seasons. However, notwithstanding what Matthews lacked offensively, he more than made up for it by proving himself to be an excellent defender. He had a habit of locking down the opponent's best perimeter scorers and strangling their ability to produce from the wing. As a result, Michigan's defense improved dramatically. After spending four straight seasons far outside the top 50 in adjusted defensive efficiency, the Wolver- ines were in the top three nation- ally in that category in both of Matthews' years on the court — by far the best in Beilein's tenure. Only Texas Tech could contend with Michigan as being the best defensive outfit in the country the past two seasons. It's clear that Matthews had an incredible influence on this shift in the Michigan basketball pro- gram. For years, Beilein and the Wolverines had been criticized for being too offensive-oriented and for being, for lack of a better term, soft. Then, as soon as Mat- thews arrived, Michigan became defensively dominant and devel- oped a reputation for being more physical and tougher. However, how much Mat- thews had such an influence is not as clear. Matthews' time on the court coincided with the hire of defen- sive specialist Luke Yaklich and the emergence of junior point guard and defensive pit bull Zavier Simpson, each of whom have been praised significantly for their contributions. There is also no individual stat that cleanly encapsulates how well a player defends. Stats such as defen- sive rating and defensive win shares look more at how well a defense performs when a particular player is on the floor, not how well that player is executing his own defen- sive assignments. Matthews' precise defensive impact can thus get lost. Hopefully, it won't, though. His legacy shouldn't suffer because of it. He may have never had the offensive numbers of a Trey Burke, Nik Staus- kas or Derrick Walton Jr., but his impact on defense, making it such a surprising strength for Michigan, was nearly, if not fully, as significant. And his offensive flaws shouldn't overshadow that, even if the num- bers can't tell the full tale. ❑ INSIDE THE NUMBERS DREW HALLETT Matthews Made His Mark At Michigan During his two-year career at U-M, Charles Matthews helped the Wolverines go 63-15 overall and 13-3 in the postseason, win a Big Ten Tournament championship, advance to the national title game once and reach the Sweet 16 the other time. PHOTO BY PER KJELDSEN Staff writer Drew Hallett has covered Michigan athletics since 2013. Contact him at drew.c.hallett@gmail.com and follow him on Twitter @DrewCHallett.