Category: Basketball

Standings

Here are the final Big Ten standings, after Week #10, the end of the regular season:

 

 

Results

Here are the results from last week’s games (Week #10):

 

Tuesday (03/04/2014)

Michigan won at Illinois, 84-53. This win clinched the outright Big Ten title for Michigan.

 

Wednesday (03/05/2014)

Nebraska won at Indiana, 70-60

Purdue lost at Wisconsin, 76-70

 

Thursday (03/06/2014)

Penn State won at Northwestern, 59-32

Iowa lost at Michigan State, 86-76

 

Saturday (03/08/2014)

Indiana lost at Michigan, 84-80

Illinois won at Iowa, 66-63

 

Sunday (03/09/2014)

Northwestern won at Purdue, 74-65

Michigan State lost at Ohio State, 69-67

Penn State lost at Minnesota, 81-63

Wisconsin lost at Nebraska, 77-68

 

The home teams didn’t do very well this week, going 6-5. There were 3 surprises this week:

 

• Illinois won at Iowa on Saturday. Iowa is ranked, and trying to get a first-round bye in the Big Ten Tournament. Illinois is a lower-division team, but they managed to beat Iowa in Iowa City.
  
• Michigan State lost at Ohio State on Sunday. Michigan State was playing for the #2 seed in the Big Ten Tournament, but they lost 7 of their last 11 games.
  
• Wisconsin lost at Nebraska on Sunday. Wisconsin was playing for sole possession of 2^nd place. Nebraska only lost one home game this season, to Michigan.
  

 

The Upcoming Week

Here are the games scheduled for the upcoming week (Week #11), the Big Ten Tournament, in Indianapolis:

 

Thursday (03/13/2014) – 1^st Round

Game #01: (#08) Indiana vs. (#09) Illinois

Game #02: (#05) Ohio State vs. (#12) Purdue

Game #03: (#07) Minnesota vs. (#10) Penn State

Game #04: (#06) Iowa vs. (#11) Northwestern

 

Friday (03/14/2014) – Quarterfinals

Game #05: (#01) Michigan vs. Game #01 winner

Game #06: (#04) Nebraska vs. Game #02 winner

Game #07: (#02) Wisconsin vs. Game #03 winner

Game #08: (#03) Michigan State vs. Game #04 winner

 

Saturday (03/15/2014) – Semifinals

Game #09: Game #05 winner vs. Game #06 winner

Game #10: Game #07 winner vs. Game #08 winner

 

Sunday (03/16/2014) – Championship

Game #11: Game #09 winner vs. Game #10 winner

 

Full Schedule

Here’s the entire Big Ten schedule, with the teams in alphabetical order. Final regular season results:

 

The (#16) University of Michigan men’s basketball team played two games this week, and they won both of them. On Wednesday (02/26/2014), they beat Purdue 77-76 (overtime) in West Lafayette, then on Saturday (03/01/2014), they beat Minnesota 66-56 in Crisler Arena. The wins raise Michigan’s record to 21-7 (13-3 in the Big Ten). Michigan has clinched at least a tie for the Big Ten championship, and they can win it outright with one more victory in their last two regular season games.

Coming into the Minnesota game, UM had a one-game lead on 2^nd place Michigan State, and Michigan knew that they controlled their own destiny in the Big Ten race. If they could win their last 3 games, they couldn’t be caught by MSU or Wisconsin. However, MSU was just one game back, and that put a lot of pressure on Michigan. Two hours before the UM/Minnesota game, MSU played at home against last-place Illinois, who they had already beaten handily on the road. No one expected Illinois to stand a chance, so of course they beat MSU 53-46. That opened the door for Michigan to clinch at least a share of the title. All they had to do was beat Minnesota, and they did.

As important as the Minnesota win is, the win at Purdue is just as important. After Michigan’s emotional home victory over Michigan State last weekend, the Purdue game was the ideal “trap” game. Michigan started the game cold again, and quickly fell into a double-digit deficit (14-4) with 13:56 left in the 1^st half. It got worse: Purdue led by 19 points (27-8) with 7:43 to go in the half. Michigan finally woke up, and got within 9 points (33-24) with 1:21 left, but they couldn’t stop Purdue in the last 81 seconds, and trailed by 13 (37-24) at halftime. Things looked pretty grim, and it was still an 11-point lead for Purdue (45-34) with 14:15 left in the game. That’s when good things finally started happening. Michigan went on a 12-2 run to get within 1 point (47-46) with 9:51 to go, and it looked like UM would finally take the lead. Nope. Purdue managed to get their lead back up to 6 points (63-57) with 3:20 to go. UM went on a 6-0 run to tie the game up (63-63) with 1:10 left, and the teams each scored 2 more points in regulation. UM had the ball with the score tied and the shot clock off, but they missed their last-second shot to win it in regulation.

In overtime, Michigan finally got their first lead of the game, 67-65, and pushed it as high at 3 points (73-70), with 2:29 to go. Purdue fought back, and went ahead by 1 (76-75) with 31 seconds left. UM missed a layup, and Purdue missed the front end of a one-and-one, so Michigan had the ball in their end of the court with 2.9 seconds left. Caris LeVert threw a perfect inbounds pass to Glenn Robinson III on the baseline, and he banked in a layup that hung on the rim forever before dropping for the game-winning basket! It was very exciting.

By comparison, the Minnesota game was much less dramatic. Of course, Michigan got down early, but not by double digits, and not for as long. In this case, Minnesota led by 6 points (15-9) with 10:53 left in the 1^st half, but Michigan came right back, and led by 1 point (16-15) with 8:16 to go. They never trailed again. It was still close (21-18) with 3:00 left in the half, when Michigan went on a 10-2 run to get to halftime up 11 points (31-20). Minnesota hung around in the 2^nd half, and managed to get within 2 points (54-52) with 4:31 left. Michigan finished the game with a 12-4 run to win by 10 points. They could have won by even more, but they wasted a lot of fast-break opportunities by getting too excited and trying for a highlight-reel play instead of holding the ball and running their offense. It’s hard to get mad at them for getting too excited, but it was frustrating to see them waste so many opportunities.

The game stats are pretty much what you’d expect: very close for the Purdue game, and a little bit more comfortable for the Minnesota game. Michigan didn’t shoot very well overall in the Purdue game (27-for-65 = 41.5%), and they sure didn’t shoot 3-pointers very well (6-for-23 = 26.1%). They didn’t even shoot free throws very well (17-for-25 = 68.0%). Fortunately, Purdue shot just a little bit worse across the board, except for free throws: Purdue hit their first 17 free throws in a row, then missed their last one. That turned out to be the break that UM needed, since they turned that rebound into the game-winning basket. Speaking of rebounds, Purdue won the rebounding battle (39-37), but UM won the turnover battle (7-11), so that balanced out.

Michigan shot much better overall in the Minnesota game (25-for-50 = 50.0%), and they also shot 3-pointers a lot better (9-for-23 = 39.1%). They didn’t shoot many free throws, but they shot them well: 7-for-9 = 77.8%. They won the rebounding battle, barely (28-27), and the turnover battle, barely (10-11). The difference in this one was 3-point shooting, since Minnesota only made five 3-pointers.

Individually, 3 Michigan players hit double figures in both games:

• Caris LeVert – 14 points vs. Purdue and 13 points vs. Minnesota. Caris led the team in assists in both games: 4 and 5.
  
• Glenn Robinson III – 17 and 12 points. Besides the game-winning shot vs. Purdue, GR3 was also the leading scorer in the game, and he had 8 rebounds.
  
• Nik Stauskas – 15 and 21 points. Nik was the difference against Minnesota, hitting 5-of-8 from 3-point range.

Jordan Morgan hit double figures (13 points) in the Purdue game, but only scored 5 points vs. Minnesota. However, he was the leading rebounder in both games (9 and 10).

3 other players scored in at least one game, just not in double figures:

• Spike Albrecht – 2 and 7 points.
  
• Zak Irvin – 8 and 0 points. The team needs more bench scoring from him.
  
• Derrick Walton Jr. – 8 and 8 points.

Jon Horford played in both games, but didn’t score in either of them. The team needs more bench scoring from him as well.

This Week

Michigan plays two games this week, their last two games of the regular season. On Tuesday (03/04/2014, 7:00 p.m. EST, ESPN), Michigan plays at Illinois, then on Saturday (03/08/2014, 6:00 p.m., ESPN) they play Indiana in Crisler Arena. These are very important games, since Michigan has to win at least one of them to claim the undisputed Big Ten title. Beyond that, they are important because Michigan is trying to regain some momentum going into the Big Ten Tournament, and then the NCAA Tournament. It is still possible for UM to get a #2 seed in the Big Dance, but they’ll have to win their last 2 regular season games and the Big Ten Tournament. Finally, there is no other way to say it: we owe Indiana. Last season, they beat Michigan in Bloomington when UM was ranked #1, then they beat Michigan in Ann Arbor on the last home game (Senior Night) when Michigan stood a chance of tying for the Big Ten title. This season, they are the only unranked Big Ten team to beat Michigan. We owe them, and it will be Senior Night again. Jordon Morgan is the only senior on the team, and he deserves to go out with a victory in his final home game.

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

Go Blue!

Standings

Here are the current Big Ten standings, after Week #9:

 

Results

Here are the results from last week’s games (Week #9):

 

Tuesday (02/25/2014)

Iowa lost at Minnesota, 95-89

Indiana lost at Wisconsin, 69-58

 

Wednesday (02/26/2014)

Michigan won at Purdue, 77-76 (overtime)

Nebraska lost at Illinois, 60-49

 

Thursday (02/27/2014)

Ohio State lost at Penn State, 65-63

Iowa lost at Indiana, 93-86

 

Saturday (03/01/2014)

Illinois won at Michigan State, 53-46

Northwestern lost at Nebraska, 54-47

Minnesota lost at Michigan, 66-56

 

Sunday (03/02/2014)

Ohio State lost at Indiana, 72-64

Wisconsin won at Penn State, 71-66

Purdue lost at Iowa, 83-76

 

The home teams did very well this week, going 9-3. There were 5 surprises this week:

 

• Iowa lost at Minnesota on Tuesday. Iowa stood an outside chance of tying for the Big Ten title, until they lost to a reeling Minnesota team.
  
• Ohio State lost at Penn State on Thursday. Ohio State is ranked, and Penn State is in last place. It’s tough to win on the road in the Big Ten.
  
• Iowa lost at Indiana on Thursday. Iowa is ranked, and Indiana is in the bottom half of the standings. It was a tough day for ranked Big Ten teams on the road.
  
• Illinois won at Michigan State on Saturday. MSU is ranked, and trying to win a share of the title. Illinois is in last place, but they managed to beat MSU in East Lansing.
  
• Ohio State lost at Indiana on Sunday. It was a rough week for Ohio State. They lost 2 road games to lower-division teams.
  

 

The Upcoming Week

Here are the games scheduled for the upcoming week (Week #10), the final week of the regular season:

 

Tuesday (03/04/2014)

Michigan at Illinois

 

Wednesday (03/05/2014)

Nebraska at Indiana

Purdue at Wisconsin

 

Thursday (03/06/2014)

Penn State at Northwestern

Iowa at Michigan State

 

Saturday (03/08/2014)

Northwestern at Purdue

Indiana at Michigan

Illinois at Iowa

Penn State at Minnesota

 

Sunday (03/09/2014)

Michigan State at Ohio State

Wisconsin at Nebraska

 

There are 2 big games this week:

 

• Iowa at Michigan State on Thursday – Iowa is fighting for a 1^st round bye in the Big Ten Tournament.
  
• Michigan State at Ohio State – Another battle for position in the Big Ten tournament. MSU has a tough week.
  

 

Full Schedule

Here’s the entire Big Ten schedule, with the teams in alphabetical order. I’ll include this table every week, with the wins and losses filled in:

 

The (#20) University of Michigan men’s basketball team only played one game this week, but it was a big one, and they won it! On Sunday (02/23/2014), they beat (#13) Michigan State 79-70 in Crisler Arena. The win raises Michigan’s record to 19-7 (11-3 in the Big Ten). Michigan is now all alone in 1^st place in the Big Ten. Much more about that later.

This was a HUGE game, and a huge win. Coming into this week, UM and MSU were tied for 1^st place in the Big Ten, but State played a midweek (Thursday) game at Purdue and won it, so they were in 1^st place by a half game when the two teams met on Sunday. Michigan had won the game in East Lansing earlier in the season, so they were going for the season sweep, and they got it. In fact, UM has now beaten State in 6 of the last 8 games, including 4 years in a row in Crisler, which means that this year’s senior class at MSU will use up their eligibility (“graduate”, ha!) without winning in Ann Arbor. Oh yeah, Michigan now leads the overall series with MSU 97-76.

The game itself was tense and exciting. As usual, Michigan started slowly, and fell behind by 9 points (17-8) with 13:06 to go in the 1^st half. State pushed the lead up to 11 points (22-11) with 10:50 to go, before UM woke up and started climbing back into the game. UM went on a 10-0 run to get within 1 point (22-21) with 6:08 left in the half. MSU pushed the lead back up to 7 points (31-24) with 2:18 left, but Michigan hung in there, and managed to get within 2 points (36-34) at halftime, thanks to a last-second 3-pointer by Caris LeVert. In the 2^nd half, UM finally managed to get on top again, 39-38, with 18:54 to go, but the lead didn’t last long. MSU led by 5 (48-43) with 14:40 to go, when went on a 21-4 run over the next 7 minutes. That made it 64-52 Michigan, with 7:21 left, and State never got any closer than 8 points the rest of the way. Michigan played smart and tough down the stretch, and made their free throws.

The game stats are very interesting. Usually, the winning team shoots better overall than the losing team, but not in this game. Michigan shot pretty well overall (27-for-54 = 50.0%), but MSU shot a better percentage (26-for-48 = 54.2%). That one extra basket for Michigan certainly helped, but it doesn’t explain a 9-point win. Maybe 3-point shooting? Nope. UM shot a slightly better percentage (8-for-19 = 42.1% vs. 9-for-23 = 39.1%), but MSU made 1 more 3-pointer. What’s left? Free throws: Michigan made more free throws (17-for-25 = 68.0%) than MSU attempted (9-for-15 = 60.0%). That’s where the game was won. As expected, MSU won the rebounding battle easily (31-24), but they threw away those 7 extra possessions, and 3 more besides. UM won the turnover battle decisively: 3-13.

Individually, 3 Michigan players hit double figures in the game:

• Caris LeVert – 23 points. Caris kept Michigan in the game in the 1^st half, then helped put MSU away in the 2^nd half.
  
• Glenn Robinson III – 15 points. GR3 wasn’t very efficient shooting (6-for-12, including 0-for-3 from 3-point range), but he did lead the team in rebounding (5),
  
• Nik Stauskas – 25 points. MSU tried the ball-denial defense on Nik, but he still managed to get free and hit some big shots, especially in the 2^nd half. He also led the team in assists (5).

5 other players played, and they all scored, just not in double figures:

• Spike Albrecht – 3 points. Another timely 3-pointer by Spike.
  
• Jon Horford – 2 points. Jon fouled out trying to slow down MSU’s main weapon, Adreian Payne. He had limited success.
  
• Zak Irvin – 2 points. A quiet game for Zak.
  
• Jordan Morgan – 4 points. Jordan almost fouled out trying to defend against Payne. He also had limited success.
  
• Derrick Walton Jr. – 5 points. Derrick also had a quiet game.

This Week

Michigan plays two games this week. On Wednesday (02/26/2014, 7:00 p.m. EST, BTN), Michigan plays at Purdue, then on Saturday (03/01/2014, 6:00 p.m., BTN) they play Minnesota in Crisler Arena. These are both teams that Michigan has already beaten this season, and they are in the lower half of the standings, but Michigan can’t afford to take either of them lightly. Now that UM has a one-game lead in the loss column, they need to finish strong and win their last 4 regular season games, for an undisputed Big Ten title. They can’t afford to take any team on their schedule lightly. They must focus on each game, and play as hard as they can.

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

Go Blue!

Standings

Here are the current Big Ten standings, after Week #8:

 

 

Results

Here are the results from last week’s games (Week #8):

 

Tuesday (02/18/2014)

Iowa at Indiana, postponed

 

Wednesday (02/19/2014)

Northwestern lost at Ohio State, 76-60

Illinois won at Minnesota, 62-49

 

Thursday (02/20/2014)

Michigan State won at Purdue, 94-79

Penn State lost at Nebraska, 80-67

 

Saturday (02/22/2014)

Minnesota lost at Ohio State, 64-46

Indiana won at Northwestern, 61-56

Wisconsin won at Iowa, 79-74

 

Sunday (02/23/2014)

Purdue lost at Nebraska, 75-57

Michigan State lost at Michigan, 79-70

 

The home teams did OK this week, going 5-4. There were no surprises this week.

 

The Upcoming Week

Here are the games scheduled for the upcoming week (Week #9):

 

Tuesday (02/25/2014)

Iowa at Minnesota

Indiana at Wisconsin

 

Wednesday (02/26/2014)

Michigan at Purdue

Nebraska at Illinois

 

Thursday (02/27/2014)

Ohio State at Penn State

Iowa at Indiana (rescheduled)

 

Saturday (03/01/2014)

Illinois at Michigan State

Northwestern at Nebraska

Minnesota at Michigan

Purdue at Iowa

 

Sunday (03/02/2014)

Ohio State at Indiana

Wisconsin at Penn State

 

There are no big games this week. None of the contenders play each other.

 

Full Schedule

Here’s the entire Big Ten schedule, with the teams in alphabetical order. I’ll include this table every week, with the wins and losses filled in: