2023-24 indiana

With its conference opener against Indiana at Crisler Arena, Michigan had a chance to reset its season and leave the uneven start of the first eight games behind. Instead, the Wolverines authored what's become a similar story: Sloppy execution on both ends of the court down the stretch leads to a close loss. Michigan's 78-75 defeat to the Hoosiers was its second straight that slipped away in the final minutes after the Wolverines' overtime loss at Oregon over the weekend. Michigan's close game woes go beyond the last two heartbreakers. This was the fifth straight loss for Michigan in a one possession game. The Wolverines are now 2-12 in games decided by five points or less since the beginning of last season. It was also the fourth loss in a row to Indiana, by a combined 9 points. Regression to the mean, where art thou?

This game had plenty of typical hallmarks of a painful basketball loss. Did the defense collapse? Yep. Indiana scored on 13 of its final 17 possessions after Michigan forged its biggest lead of the game at 59-53 with less than nine minutes to play. Five different Hoosiers scored baskets with Indiana averaging 1.6 points per possession down the stretch. How about heartbreaking free throw misses? Those were present. Michigan split three different trips to the free throw line in the final minutes, all from Dug McDaniel including one that would have tied it with 35 seconds left. What about a goofy loose ball situation that doesn't go the local heroes way? We had one of those too. Michigan appeared to have finally got a key stop in the waning seconds to possibly set up a game winning possession, but the loose ball rebound grazed off Taris Reed's fingertips, replay review gave possession back to Indiana, and the Hoosiers eventually swished a pair of free throws to extend its lead to 3 with less than five seconds to go. Indiana played #FoulToWin from there and Michigan never got a chance at a game tying trey.

Looking through the final team box score, one thing stands out. Michigan was only +3 points in three point offense. The Hoosiers are one of the worst shooting teams in the country and were playing without their top perimeter threat in Xavier Johnson. But even with Johnson, the triple isn't a big part of the offense. Michigan should have made more hay in this department, but the Wolverines shot just 4-for-17 from behind the arc, clanking plenty of open looks off the rim. Indiana's guards had made only two triples combined in the previous four games. But they drilled two (of the team's three) against Michigan, both by CG Gunn who had not made a trey all season. But his second make, a bold contested dagger from 22 feet gave the Hoosiers a 60-59 lead with 7:30 to go.

[After THE JUMP: At least we got some Tschetter Time]

THE ESSENTIALS

THE OVERVIEW

I guarantee in twelve weeks from now somebody looking at the Big Ten standings is going to turn to his friend and ask "When do we play Indiana" and she's going to be like "Did we already?" and someone will finally seek the Enlightenment of the Great and Powerful Internet and declare "I guess we did?"

Yes, dear people of the future, Michigan and Indiana did (do) meet once this year. It is at 9 o'clock at night on a Tuesday with half the town still comatose from three months of football punctuated by aggressive bullshit whack-a-mole on the internet. Michigan's basketball team has also shown signs of arguing with Twitter trolls into the wee hours. Dug McDaniel's hot afternoon beyond the arc kept them alive for a golden opportunity to steal what would have looked like an impressive victory in Oregon. Alas, the late out-of-bounds review gods were wroth, as were the free throw gods in the single-bonus, and Oregon managed to tie and win in overtime. Michigan limps home to begin the tiny December portion of Big Ten play at 4-4, still desperately seeking a defense and scoring options other than Dug Go Zoom.

Indiana's record looks comparatively pristine, but their Kenpom rating is down in the mid-major tier thanks to an early season schedule of Gulf Coast (243), Army (352), Wright State (129), Louisville (161), Harvard (147) and Maryland (70). There's also a loss in there to #4 UConn that wasn't remotely competitive. The FGC, Army, and Wright State games, on the other hand, were actually contested. This will be their first road game of the season, and their only meeting with Michigan unless we see them in the BTT again.

[After THE JUMP: New team, still no spacing]