Blog

The (#6) University of Michigan men’s basketball team had a disappointingly short run in the Big Ten Tournament in Chicago this week. They won their first game, then lost their second. They were the #5 seed, so that’s what they were expected to do, but it was still disappointing. On Thursday (03/14/2013), they beat the #12 seed, Penn State, 83-66, then on Friday (03/15/2013), they lost to the #4 seed, Wisconsin, 68-59. The win and the loss leave UM with a record of 26-7.

The win over Penn State may not look impressive or important, but it was both. Remember that Penn State embarrassed Michigan just a couple weeks ago (02/27/2013) in State College, and they were the scariest #12 seed in recent memory. Michigan started off where they left off in their last game against PSU, and promptly fell behind 14-3 in the first 5:30. They finally woke up, took the lead, and never gave it up. They pushed the lead as high as 9 (35-26) with 3:23 left in the 1^st half, but let it shrink down to 2 (35-33) at halftime. It took another 7 minutes after halftime, but Michigan finally pulled away. They got the lead up to 15 points (62-47) with 10:22 left, which was exactly the situation they had in the Debacle at State College 2 weeks ago. This time, instead of folding, Michigan increased their lead up to 19 (71-52) with 7:10 left, and won by 17. It was encouraging to see them play well at the end of a game.

Unfortunately, Michigan didn’t play well at the end of the Wisconsin game. In fact, they didn’t play particularly well at the beginning of the game either. Wisconsin played terribly to start the game, but UM didn’t take advantage of the chance to blow the game wide open. Time after time, Wisconsin misfired on a shot or turned the ball over, and UM didn’t value the possession and took a wild shot or missed an easy layup. Michigan managed to build a 10-point lead (16-6) early, and they should have had a 20-point lead at halftime, but instead they were clinging to a shaky 3-point lead (20-17). Wisconsin tied the game up (24-24) with 17:21 left, then took the lead (26-24) with 16:24 left. They never gave it up. They pushed the lead as high as 11 points (56-45) with 6:01 left, but Michigan came storming back. They got the deficit down to 2 points (56-54) with 3:35 left, but only scored 3 more points the rest of the way. It was pretty sad.

So, what happened? How did Michigan fall apart? Turnovers and poor defense. They built their early lead based on poor play by Wisconsin, not good defense. Once Wisconsin stopped playing stupid, Michigan couldn’t stop them. Against any other team, Michigan might have hung in and answered them point-for-point, but not against Wisconsin. Their defense is just too good. Michigan couldn’t score on them, and they couldn’t stop them. It was ugly.

Time to look at the stats to see how ugly. First, the Penn State game, which wasn’t ugly at all. Overall, Michigan shot pretty well (29-for-63 = 46.0%), and they shot fairly well from 3-point range (6-for-18 = 33.3%). They got to the free-throw line often, and shot a nice percentage (19-for-23 = 82.6%). They won the rebounding battle (36-32) and the turnover battle (4-8). No problems here. The stats for the Wisconsin game are ugly: overall shooting was pretty bad (23-for-57 = 40.4%), and 3-point shooting was even worse (3-for-13 = 23.1%). They shot a reasonable number of free throws, but didn’t make many (10-for-17 = 58.8%). They actually managed to win the rebounding battle (38-37), but they lost the turnover battle (11-9). Many of those turnovers were early in the game, when Wisconsin was missing everything, and many of them were unforced. Basketball is a game of momentum, and Michigan missed their big chance to seize the momentum early and put the game out of reach. When Wisconsin snapped out of their funk, they were still in the game, and they came back and won.

Individually, only 2 players hit double figures in both games last week:

• Trey Burke – 21 points vs. Penn State and 19 points vs. Wisconsin. Trey ended the season scoring at least 15 points in every Big Ten game.
  
• Tim Hardaway Jr. – 15 and 14 points.

3 players hit double figures in only one game last week:

• Jon Horford – 11 and 5 points.
  
• Mitch McGary – 10 and 9 points. Mitch also had 11 rebounds vs. Penn State, 10 of them in the 1^st half. He had a double-double (10 points, 10 rebounds) at halftime.
  
• Nik Stauskas – 15 and 4 points. The Wisconsin game was one of the rate times Nik failed to hit double figures.

The remaining 2 starters didn’t hit double figures in either game:

• Glenn Robinson III – 5 and 8 points.
  
• Jordan Morgan – 4 and 0 points.

Besides Horford and McGary, the other bench players had a mixed week at scoring:

• Eso Akunne – 0 and DNP points.
  
• Spike Albrecht – 2 and 0 points.
  
• Max Bielfeldt – 0 and 0 points.
  
• Caris LeVert – 0 and 0 points.
  
• Blake McLimans – 0 and DNP points.
  
• Corey Person – 0 and DNP points.
  
• Matt Vogrich – 0 and 0 points.
  

Besides Horford (16) and McGary (19), that’s 2 points of bench scoring, which isn’t very good.

This Week

The NCAA Tournament (bracket) starts this week, and Michigan is in it. They are a #4 seed in the South (Arlington, TX) Region, and they play their first game against the #13 seed, South Dakota State on Thursday (03/21/2013) in the Palace of Auburn Hills (MI), time and TV info TBD. If they win that game, they play again on Saturday (03/23/2013) against the winner of the (#5 seed) VCU (Virginia Commonwealth) vs. (#12) Akron game. Both of these games are winnable, and it would be gratifying to see UM make it to the Sweet Sixteen for the first time in a long time. It was pretty depressing to see Michigan drop from a #1 seed at the end of January to a #4 seed in mid-March, but they can still prove that they can be as good as they looked at the end of January.

As I said before the Big Ten Tournament, Michigan has the talent to win the whole tournament, and the youth and inexperience to lose in the Thursday game to South Dakota State. We’ll just have to watch the games to see how they do.

Check back next week to see what happened, and why.

Go Blue!

The (#7) University of Michigan men’s basketball team came THIS CLOSE to earning a share of the Big Ten title on Sunday, but the last second game-winning shot hung on the rim then fell off, and with it went UM’s title hopes. After a long, brutal campaign, it all came down to one final chance, and Michigan came up an inch short. It was so sad and frustrating.

Michigan played two games last week, and they won one and lost one. On Wednesday (03/06/2013), they beat Purdue 80-75 in West Lafayette, then on Sunday (03/10/2013), they lost to (#2) Indiana 72-71 in Crisler Arena. The win and the loss leave Michigan with a final regular season record of 25-6 overall, 12-6 in Big Ten play. They ended up tied for 4^th place in the Big Ten.

The win at Purdue wasn’t particularly pretty, but it was important. It kept alive Michigan’s chance to share the title with a win over Indiana on Sunday. Michigan started strong in the Purdue game, and had a nice 12-point lead (21-9) with 9:30 left in the 1^st half. Then, the roof fell in. Michigan couldn’t buy a basket, and Purdue couldn’t miss, and the whole 12-point lead disappeared in 7 minutes: Purdue led 29-28 with 2:30 left in the half. They led 34-30 at halftime, and pushed the lead up to 12 points (52-40) with 12 minutes to go in the game. Things looked grim for Michigan, then they started clicking. They cut the deficit down to 3 points (55-52) with 7:43 to go, and finally got the lead back (59-58) with 5:22 to go. The lead swung back and forth for the next couple minutes, until UM went ahead for good (65-64) with 3:04 left. Michigan shot their free throws well (spoiler alert: big problem in the Indiana game) down the stretch, and hung on for the big road win.

The Indiana game was very intense. Crisler was packed and loud, and the two teams played hard and pretty well. The officials were weak, but that’s not surprising in the Big Ten. Did the officials affect the final outcome? Maybe, but it was too close to say for sure. In any case, it was an exciting game, with an exciting finish. IU opened up a quick 10-3 lead with 16:05 to play in the 1^st half. Michigan roared back, and went up 15-10 with 11:39 to play in the half. UM pushed the lead up to 11 points (27-16) with 5:03 left, but IU managed to claw their way back to within 3 points (33-30) by halftime. Michigan maintained a slim lead for the first 8 minutes of the 2^nd half, then IU got the lead back (48-46) with 12:07 left in the game. The lead see-sawed back and forth the rest of the way, but Michigan managed to grab a sudden 5-point lead (71-66) with 52 seconds left in the game. IU fouled, Michigan missed their free throws, IU made their shots, and it all came down to one final possession for Michigan, down one point (72-71) with the ball and 13 seconds left. Michigan missed a shot with 2 seconds left, got the rebound, put up another shot, and watched it roll off the rim for the loss. It was a tough loss, and it was no fun watching IU celebrate their outright championship on the Crisler floor.

How did UM manage to lose a 5-point lead in the last 52 seconds? Poor free throw shooting. Michigan missed the front end of two 1-and-1 situations. If they had made either of them, they probably would have won the game.

Time to look at the stats for some answers. In the Purdue game, Michigan didn’t shoot very well overall (25-for-59 = 42.4%), and they didn’t shoot 3-pointers very well (7-for-18 = 38.9%). They got to the free throw line a lot, and they shot free throws well (23-for-29 = 79.3%), which won them the game. They got hammered on the boards again (42-30), but they won the turnover battle handily (5-13). In the Indiana game, Michigan shot pretty poorly overall (27-for-65 = 41.5%), but they shot well from 3-point range (10-for-22 = 45.5%). They shot terribly from the free-throw line (7-for-13 = 53.8%), which cost them the game. They really got hammered on the boards (53-30), but they won the turnover battle big-time (6-14).

Individually, 3 players hit double figures in both games last week:

• Trey Burke – 26 points vs. Purdue and 20 points vs. Indiana.
  
• Tim Hardaway Jr. – 16 and 11 points.
  
• Nik Stauskas – 17 and 12 points.

One player hit double figures in only one game last week: Glenn Robinson III had 6 and 13 points.

The remaining starter, Jordan Morgan, had 2 and 8 points last week.

The bench players had a mixed week at scoring:

• Spike Albrecht – 2 and 3 points.
  
• Max Bielfeldt – 0 and 0 points.
  
• Jon Horford – 2 and 2 points.
  
• Caris LeVert – 0 and 0 points.
  
• Mitch McGary – 6 and 2 points.
  
• Blake McLimans – DNP and 0 points.
  
• Matt Vogrich – 3 and 0 points.
  

That’s 20 points of bench scoring, which isn’t very good.

This Week

Well, the regular season is over, and it was something of a disappointment. On to the Big Ten Tournament, which is being held in Chicago this week. Michigan is the #5 seed, which means that they just missed getting a bye on Thursday. Instead, they play the #12 seed, Penn State, on Thursday (03/14/2013) at about 2:30 p.m. EDT (25 minutes after the end of the first game, which starts at noon EDT). The game will be on BTN. If they beat Penn State, they will play the #4 seed, Wisconsin, at about 2:30 p.m. EDT on Friday (03/15/2013). That game will be on ESPN. Next would be the winner of the Indiana/(Illinois/Minnesota) game, presumably Indiana, at 1:40 p.m. EDT on Saturday, and then the championship game on Sunday. The full bracket is here.

Michigan has the talent to win the whole tournament, and the youth and inexperience to lose in the Thursday game to Penn State. We’ll just have to watch the games to see how they do.

Check back next week to see what happened, and why.

Go Blue!