Michigan Has Big Problems in 2014-15; Will John Beilein Figure out a Solution?

Every college basketball team goes through some rough patches throughout the course of the season, but losing home games to NJIT and Eastern Michigan is more than just a pair of bad games for the Michigan Wolverines.

It could be what keeps them from competing in the 2015 NCAA tournament.

Thanks to last Saturday's shocking upset, everyone is suddenly an expert on the NJIT Highlanders. As noted multiple times during the Big Ten Network's broadcast of the game, though, this wasn't just the first time NJIT has beaten a ranked opponent.

It was the first time the Highlanders had even played against one.

Michigan fans will be quick to note that any team could have lost to that team on that day, as NJIT—led by Damon Lynn's 20 points—shot 11 of 17 from three-point range. A good number of those were wide-open looks, but by the end of the game even contested 27-footers were hitting nothing but net.

However, that's a red herring. This loss was about way more than an underdog catching fire.

Michigan is an inexperienced team—particularly in the post—relying too heavily on the offensive firepower of a couple of guys to carry the load.

USA TODAY Sports

NJIT only played one player taller than 6'5" in this game—6'8" Daquan Holiday. Against most teams, that would put the Highlanders at a severe size disadvantage. On the opening day of the season, St. John's made 22 of its 24 field goals against the Highlanders from two-point range and attempted 36 free throws in a 19-point win.

Even undersized Marquette did most of its damage from inside the arc against NJIT, earning 34 free throws while scoring 15 of its 18 field goals from two-point range.

Michigan, on the other hand, attempted 44.4 percent of its shots from three-point range and was only awarded 14 free throws. And it's not like most of those three-pointers came while the Wolverines were desperately trying to stage a comeback. They never trailed by more than seven.

Despite the aforementioned lack of height for NJIT, both teams grabbed 26 rebounds on Saturday, and the Highlanders even blocked seven Michigan shots.

Moreover, NJIT had open layups whenever it wanted, as noted by Sam Vecenie of CBS Sports.

The TL;DR lesson to be learned from the NJIT game is one that gravely concerned us all offseason: Michigan has no reliable interior presence on either end of the court.

Ricky Doyle was a stud in previous games against Oregon and Syracuse, but he played 25 minutes on Saturday, attempting (and missing) just one field goal. He and Mark Donnal combined for just six rebounds in 40 minutes of action.

How's that going to work out in less than a month when Michigan is facing Purdue's A.J. Hammons and Isaac Haas? Heck, how is Michigan going to grab a single rebound this Saturday against Arizona's front line?

Max Bielfeldt is the only player in Michigan's frontcourt who played a college game before this season, and the fact that 6'0" Derrick Walton Jr. is currently second on the team in rebounds per game should tell you about all you need to know about how well the inexperienced bigs are doing.

Had the NJIT loss not happened, we wouldn't be that concerned about Tuesday night's loss to Eastern Michigan. The Eagles are a quality team with just one loss on the season, and they gave Dayton about all it could handle in that game.

But what does it say about Michigan's sense of pride and urgency that it couldn't find a way to win this game?

Do you know how North Carolina responded to its disappointing loss to Iowa? The Tar Heels went out and thrashed East Carolina by a 44-point margin. After Kansas was embarrassed by Kentucky, the Jayhawks responded with a 27-point win over Rider. Two days after Miami was embarrassed by Green Bay, the Hurricanes held Savannah State to 39 points in a 31-point rout.

That's just what quality teams do.

Instead, Michigan lost while scoring just 42 points. The Wolverines grabbed a grand total of two offensive rebounds and committed 13 turnovers—though it felt like more than that, as each one seemed to come at the worst possible time.

As ESPN's Eamonn Brennan questioned/accused in his attempt to figure out what's the matter with Michigan:

"

Just four days after being torched by a program that lost 51 straight games as recently as 2008-09, you put up 42 points in a home loss to Eastern Michigan? In your big bounce-back confidence-builder before a weekend road trip to Arizona, you go without a field goal for 14 minutes of the first half? In the final three minutes of the second half, when high-major home teams in nonconference scares typically stack enough good possessions to see out a win, you go scoreless? You hold an opponent to 45 points on 59 possessions, and you lose?! At home?! Really?

"

Between fouls and turnovers, there were only five field goals attempted in the final three minutes of this game. Eastern Michigan was 1 of 1. Michigan was 0 of 4—all three-point attempts.

For the game, the Wolverines shot 4 of 21 behind the arc, and that's their other big problem.

Michigan has been extremely reliant on three-pointers since the moment John Beilein took over for Tommy Amaker. Including this year, the Wolverines have attempted at least 40 percent of their shots from three-point range in seven of Beilein's eight seasons, according to KenPom.com (subscription required).

However, without a Mitch McGary, Jordan Morgan or DeShawn Sims to worry about in the paint, teams are more aggressively defending the arc against Michigan, forcing shooters who aren't as good as Nik Stauskas or Trey Burke to take shots that are more contested than either of those NBA lottery picks had to deal with.

For much of the second half on Tuesday night, Eastern Michigan ran a 2-3 zone that looked more like a 4-1 umbrella defense, as the corner men were playing all the way out at the three-point line of the extended elbow. The Eagles were practically daring the Wolverines to go inside, and still they refused.

Right when they're struggling the most, they have a huge game coming up on Saturday against Arizona that will likely move them to 6-4 on the season without any truly quality wins.

Whoa.

Did anyone else just get a serious case of déjà vu?

No interior presence, over-reliance on three-pointers from the two guards trying to replace crucial guys who left early for the NBA and a 6-3 record before a mid-December Saturday game against Arizona.

Pretty sure we've seen this before.

Michigan was in the exact same position last season before rattling off wins in 19 of its next 22 games, winning the outright Big Ten regular-season title and darn near earning a No. 1 seed in the NCAA tournament.

However, this roster isn't as talented, the bad losses are so much worse and—as we'll really dive into early next week—the Big Ten isn't as strong as it usually is.

As far as the roster goes, we may have been concerned about Michigan sans Mitch McGary last season, but Beilein had some other frontcourt gems in his pocket. In his career before the 2013-14 season, Jordan Morgan was averaging 13.1 points and 10.2 rebounds per 40 minutes. In fewer minutes, Jon Horford was similarly productive, good for 11.8 points and 11.2 rebounds per 40 minutes.

Frank Franklin II/Associated Press

But this year, it's Doyle, Donnal, Bielfeldt or bust—and it's been option D more often than not.

Michigan's guards are fantastic. Zak Irvin has struggled mightily in the last two games (3-of-16 from three-point range), but he and Caris LeVert are capable of shooting this team to a lot of victories. Having a guy like Spike Albrecht come off the bench is a luxury that almost no coaches are afforded.

Whether the Wolverines are able to turn things around, though, depends on how much Beilein can get out of his big men.

It's not hard to draw comparisons between this year's Michigan team and last year's Duke team—the 26-9 squad that won plenty of games by getting hot from three-point range but was absolutely destroyed in the paint on a regular basis en route to a tournament upset at the hands of Mercer.

And at least those Blue Devils had Amile Jefferson and Jabari Parker in the paint.

Michigan's big men have a lot of improving to do and fast.

It's still too early to legitimately start asking if they'll miss the tournament altogether, but what if the Wolverines do lose to Arizona on Saturday?

What if they lose to SMU next Saturday?

Then we're talking about a five-loss team with "quality" wins over Syracuse and Oregon—both of which may miss the tournament—and a pair of terrible home losses.

At that point, they would need to go at least 11-7 in the Big Ten to feel remotely safe about their bid.

If Michigan keeps playing like it has in the past week against NJIT and Eastern Michigan, it would take more than a miracle to win 11 Big Ten games.

It might not be time to start hitting the panic button quite yet, but it might be wise to at least locate it for future reference.

Kerry Miller covers college basketball for Bleacher Report. You can follow him on Twitter @kerrancejames.