18-19 big ten tournament

For the third time this season, Michigan fell apart in the second half against Michigan State. For the second time, they handed a banner to their rival. This one was closer down the stretch, but State scored the last ten points of the game after erasing a 13-point second half deficit. With the game tied at 60 with less than a minute left, Zavier Simpson missed a wide open three, Cassius Winston muscled a layup past Jon Teske to take the lead, Ignas Brazdeikis missed a floater badly, and Aaron Henry missed the back end of a one-and-one. With the Wolverines trailing by three, Winston tried to give a foul on Jordan Poole, Poole put up a shot, and the refs swallowed their whistle on a clear three-point foul to effectively end the game.

Michigan State started the game up 17-11, but Xavier Tillman’s second foul with about nine minutes left in the first half swung the game. With Nick Ward and Thomas Kithier at the five, Michigan found easy looks in the ball screen game and locked up the Michigan State offense. Two threes by Matt McQuaid were the only Spartan points for the rest of the half, and Michigan took a solid 31-23 lead into halftime. Despite another McQuaid three to open the scoring after the break, Michigan extended the lead: an off-balance Poole three, an Iggy three over Kenny Goins, and a pair of Iggy free throws put the score at 39-26. By that point, Iggy had scored 17 points — he was Michigan’s only source of offense early on and had made a few threes. Michigan State shut him down from there.

Much like in Michigan’s previous losses to State, the Spartans went on an inexorable run over much of the second half to get the win. In those first two wins, the hero was Winston; in this game, it was McQuaid. The senior wing went off for 27 points, including 7-13 from three point range (State’s other players were just 2-10). Winston read Michigan cheating off McQuaid in the weakside corner on the pick and roll, and the sharpshooter made the Wolverines pay. McQuaid was essential in State’s comeback, and came up big late by twice getting State to within two points after they’d fallen down five, baiting Poole into a three-point foul with two minutes left, and hitting a three over Zavier Simpson. Goins had a rough game and Winston took a while to get going, but McQuaid was there to pick up the slack and take advantage of every poor tag and recover.

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The Wolverine offense again bogged down in the second half. In the first half, Michigan scored a respectable 1.15 points per possession, and in the second, they scored just 0.88. Michigan settled and went one-on-one against State’s switch-heavy defense, Tillman was an important presence inside, and Michigan couldn’t feed the ball to Teske when they managed to switch Winston onto him. The Wolverines’ shot selection was about as bad as it’s been all season. Tillman was impressive once again: State was clearly more vulnerable defensively as he sat on the bench in the first half, and Tillman was active on the offensive glass to generate a few extra possessions in the second. Tom Izzo realized that his backup bigs couldn’t handle this game, and played Tillman 18 minutes after halftime.

Michigan defended Cassius Winston well for most of the game, but it was his work in the ball screen game with Xavier Tillman that propelled Michigan State in the second half. Winston, who had just 3 points and 4 assists in the first half, had 11 and 7 in the second — finding McQuaid on the kick and Tillman on the roll, and eventually getting a couple buckets himself. It was a tough Winston layup past Isaiah Livers to beat the shot clock that completed the Spartan comeback and tie the game at 48, and Winston’s ability to power a shot up through a strong Teske contest gave State what would prove to be the game-winner with a little over 30 seconds left. Simpson had a decent game — 10 assists to just 1 turnover — but missed all of his shots from three, including one late in the game. For the third time this season, Winston won that battle.

After State tied the game at 48, Michigan got out in transition for an Iggy dunk and Simpson found Teske for a quick turn and lay-up alley-oop. Winston hit both free throws after a Teske reach in, Poole made 1-2 free throws after getting fouled on a fastbreak, then Winston got around Poole for another late clock layup. After the last TV timeout — Michigan was up one — a nice set play got Poole two free throws (he made both), and Simpson blew past Winston for a layup. Livers responded to McQuaid’s three free throws with a big three, but Michigan didn’t score on their final four possessions. Starting with that McQuaid three over Simpson, State scored on each of their final four possessions.

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Had the foul on Poole’s final shot been called correctly (Winston was clearly trying to give a foul and grabbed Poole’s arm with both hands), Michigan would have needed an 82% free throw shooter to knock down all three free throws and would have needed to get a stop on a State possession with a couple of seconds to work with to even force overtime. None of the refs blew the whistle, Goins caught the airball, and the game was over. Michigan played poorly on both ends in the second half and State’s comeback — outscoring the Wolverines by 18 over the last 17 minutes of the game — didn’t hinge on one play… but it was a tough no-call for Michigan.

State won the Big Ten Tournament, the regular season title, and all three matchups against Michigan. Both teams enter the NCAA Tournament as two-seeds, and Michigan will have to advance past Montana (again) and either Nevada or Florida to get to the Sweet 16. Potential matchups against Texas Tech, Buffalo, Gonzaga, Florida State, Marquette, and Ja Morant would stand in the way of a second straight Final Four.

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Against a shorthanded Minnesota team playing its third game in three days, Michigan took care of business and won in a blowout. The Gophers were up for it early and the game was tied at 13 midway through the first half, but the Wolverines ran away from there: they went on a 25-6 run to end the half and Isaiah Livers caught fire in the second half to turn it into a rout. It was the second time in as many days that Michigan’s suffocating defense overwhelmed their opponent, and it sets up a Big Ten Tournament championship game against Michigan State — really the only team to find sustained success against the vaunted Wolverine defense.

The decisive run in today’s win over Minnesota didn’t come in a flurry of points, but in a prolonged series of stops. Over the final 15 possessions of the first half, Minnesota only scored on three possessions, two of which came late in the half on Jordan Murphy baskets after the Wolverines had already doubled up the Gophers. Minnesota missed a couple of open shots (a Gabe Kalscheur layup was a particularly brutal miss), there were a couple Gopher turnovers, and the Wolverine defense challenged plenty of shots (like a physical Murphy take at Ignas Brazdeikis that ended in a block). It was reminiscent of the second Michigan-Minnesota matchup a couple weeks ago: the Gophers scored just 16 first half points in that game.

The difference today is that Michigan’s offense was consistently efficient, and the Wolverines didn’t settle into a funk offensively. Jordan Poole was aggressive early and scored 9 quick points: he found Iggy on a pick and pop for Michigan’s first bucket, made a couple of layups (including one where he shook Kalscheur with a beautiful series of moves), and banked in a three. Poole cooled off, but Zavier Simpson took over and controlled the game as the Wolverines went on their run. Simpson has been fantastic in the Big Ten Tournament thus far — 25 points on 10-14 shooting, 20 assists, and 1 turnover. Of course, he’s played his brand of physical defense as well.

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Today, he looked like the best player on the floor. He made the right play in Michigan’s ball screen offense and finished an assist short of a double double, but his scoring may have been even more impressive. In the first half, he scored a tough bucket over Kalscheur, flipped a layup in over Daniel Oturu, and knocked down a three after a botched switch by Minnesota; in the second, he hit two more threes, including one from way beyond the arc that beat the buzzer after a nice save by Livers. It was Michigan’s most efficient offensive output (1.25 points per possession) since early January, and the main reasons why (61% shooting on twos and just 7 turnovers) can be traced back to Simpson.

He was the one to extend Michigan’s lead to 38-19 by halftime. With Minnesota’s fatigue, inability to run good offense, and limited contributions from their top players, the game was pretty much over by that point. Minnesota’s offense finally woke up after halftime — Murphy went to work down low and Dupree McBrayer hit the Gophers’ first three — but Michigan kept pace and wouldn’t let them trim the lead. That Simpson three to beat the buzzer pushed the score to 50-30, and Michigan’s defense resumed its dominance. The lead eventually grew to 35. The reserves were in with six minutes left.

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The highlight of garbage time was Livers. Michigan’s sixth man poured in 21 points off the bench, including 17 in the second half, good for a career high for the sophomore. With the return of Charles Matthews, Livers is clearly the second choice at center behind Jon Teske, and while Colin Castleton has received spot minutes, Livers’s work as a small-ball five has been key on both ends for Michigan thus far in the Big Ten Tournament. He had maybe his best half of basketball as a Wolverine today, knocking down a couple of threes in short succession and getting out in the open floor for transition buckets against the tired Gophers.

The Wolverines have won with defense all season, and their performance thus far in the Big Ten Tournament — just 0.79 points per possession allowed over two games — has been about as solid as it’s been all year. Michigan State handled their first two BTT games comfortably as well, and Sunday’s game will be another huge matchup in this rivalry. Michigan’s been playing some fantastic basketball in Chicago this weekend, but nobody’s looked better against the Wolverines this season than the Spartans have. Either Michigan will avenge a season sweep and win its third straight BTT title, or State will capture the regular season and conference tournament titles and beat the Wolverines for the third time.

[Box score after the JUMP]

In the late Friday night game of the Big Ten Tournament, Michigan turned in a dominant defensive performance and avenged an earlier loss to Iowa with a blowout victory. The 0.78 points per possession scored by the Hawkeyes was their second-lowest of the season, and they didn’t make a three-pointer until a banked-in heave by a walk-on with a minute left. Michigan had a balanced offense, with five players scoring in double figures; Zavier Simpson also had 11 assists to just one turnover and held Jordan Bohannon scoreless. Charles Matthews returned from injury, and while he had a rough game offensively (five points on 11 shot equivalents), his defense was up to his usual standard.

It was a very tough night for Iowa’s perimeter players. Big men Luka Garza and Tyler Cook had some success working against Ignas Brazdeikis and Jon Teske respectively, and each scored 14 points, but the Hawkeye guards and wings really struggled. Bohannon, one of the top three-point shooters in the Big Ten, was completely shut down. Joe Wieskamp, Matthews’s primary assignment, didn’t fare much better, scoring just three points — and Matthews wasn't his primary defender for any of those three points. Bohannon and Wieskamp each averaged double figure points for Iowa this season. Michigan’s defensive effort throughout the game was excellent, but the Hawkeyes also missed its share of open threes and finished just 1-16 from behind the arc.

The game started as a track meet. Simpson found Teske on the roll for two on each of Michigan’s first two trips, including one dunk, Iggy stared down Tyler Cook and hit a three, and Jordan Poole jumped a pass for an easy layup. Iowa switched to its 2-3 zone, and Poole nailed a quick wing three on Michigan’s first possession against it. A few trips later, Simpson knocked down another. Meanwhile, Cook and Garza went to work: Cook drove past the bigger Teske from the perimeter, and Garza got good position on post touches while guarded the smaller Iggy. A few Iowa turnovers were the difference early — the Wolverines converted them into transition points — and Michigan led 17-12 at the first TV timeout.

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For a little while, the 2-3 began to bother Michigan. The Wolverines had a few open looks for three and missed, but they were unable to unlock the zone with penetration or passing. After that Simpson three, Michigan went four minutes without scoring and six minutes without hitting a shot; that drought was broken by Eli Brooks, who made a wing three, then forced a jump ball with Garza. Brooks played 19 minutes off the bench and looked good on both ends of the floor. Iowa wasn’t able to regain the lead during Michigan’s struggles with the zone, as they found it hard to score as well — the middle part of the half featured some ugly basketball.

Iowa didn’t switch between their defensive looks often, and Michigan eventually solved the zone. The Wolverines started to move the ball better: one possession that ended with an Isaiah Livers floater featured some side-to-side passing, Simpson broke down the defense late in the shot clock for a hook over Garza from straight on, and Livers flashed to the free throw line for an easy after Michigan manipulated the zone. A couple times in the second half, Michigan was able to string together quick passes from the wing to Teske at the free throw line to a shooter in the strong side corner for a wide open three. Michigan’s three-point shooting eventually cooled off, but the Wolverines hit 7-16 from deep before the break. Threes late in the half from Matthews, Livers, and Simpson pushed the Michigan lead to 13 by halftime.

The Hawkeyes drew a ton of fouls right after halftime, but couldn’t cut into the Michigan lead. On the first possession of the half, a helping Matthews hacked Garza on a jumper; Iggy threw it away against Iowa’s 1-2-2 press and had to give a foul to prevent an easy basket; an Isaiah Moss drive was bailed out by a whistle on Poole. Then Matthews and Poole each picked up fouls on the same possession. Iowa only managed to cut the deficit to 11 by then, but two of Michigan’s starters had three fouls each and were subbed out. That was the Hawkeyes’ opportunity for a comeback, but they only managed to make one shot — a Moss layup — in the first eight minutes of the half. Michigan’s offense had slowed a bit, but between Iowa’s horrid outside shooting and inability to generate many easy shots, the Hawkeyes didn’t have much of a chance.

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After Matthews and Poole went to the bench, Michigan embarked on a 15-2 run to put the game away and send much of the second half into prolonged garbage time. Iggy started the run with a corner three, Brooks hit another from the wing, and Iggy scored three more the old-fashioned way after an offensive rebound. The lead grew further with an elbow jumper from Teske, a Teske dunk from the Simpson pick and roll, and a Simpson running hook off glass after Brooks pushed the ball in transition. That bucket put the score at 59-35, and even though there was more than 13 minutes left in the game, it was effectively over.

With tonight’s win, Michigan sets up a semifinal matchup with Minnesota. The Gophers beat Penn State in overtime yesterday and upset Purdue by two points today. The winner of that game will face the winner of Michigan State vs. Wisconsin — the first game in the Saturday doubleheader — in the championship game on Sunday.

[Box score after the JUMP]