phil martelli

On November 16, 2021, the University of Michigan gave a five-year extension to Men's Basketball Head Coach Juwan Howard, something your author called "a no brainer". At the time, Michigan was #4 in the country, 2-0 on the young season after knocking off Buffalo and Prairie View A&M. To that point, Howard's record as Michigan's head coach was 44-17, coming off a Big Ten regular title and an Elite Eight appearance. The team he was coaching was hyped, with sky high expectations following 2020-21's roaring success and adding a recruiting class that public scouting services loved. It all made sense. After all, Michigan Men's Basketball had established itself as a giant of the B1G over the preceding decade, winning three regular season titles and two conference tournament titles, making the Sweet 16 six times, the Elite Eight four times, and the Final Four twice. 

That night, after the extension was announced, Michigan played host to a so-so Seton Hall team that would make the NCAAs as an eight seed. They lost that game, the first sign that the 2021-22 team was perhaps not going to be what the expectations have conveyed. In hindsight, it was the beginning of a larger slide into despair for the Michigan program. Beginning with that game, the men's basketball team is 43-47 in their past 90 games, leading up to the present. They slipped into the NCAA Tournament as an 11 seed, then missed the tournament the following season, culminating in this year, when Michigan is 8-16 and has a chance to be the first Michigan team to win only single digit games in four decades.

How did it all collapse so quickly? Today we will look back through the journey and perhaps glean some overarching lessons on where and how it all went wrong: 

[AFTER THE JUMP: How it all went wrong]

On a night when Michigan desperately needed a win at home against a bitter rival to bolster their NCAA Tournament case, the Wolverines got it in resounding fashion. Hunter Dickinson posted a career high 33 points to lead a seemingly unstoppable Michigan offense that drowned Michigan State with outside shooting and pounded them inside via slicing passes and thumping dunks. The Crisler Center crowd was loud on Tuesday night and Michigan scored a massive victory, staying on the right side of the tournament bubble, downing Michigan State by a score of 87-70. 

The first half started fast right out of the gate. Each team had 11 points on the board less than 3.5 minutes into the game, as neither defense seemed capable of making a stop. During that juncture, a seemingly foreboding development occurred: DeVante' Jones picked up two quick fouls and went straight to the bench. The collective Michigan Twitter existence said "oh no, we can't survive an extended run from Frankie Collins".

Turns out, "we" could. Collins would log 12 minutes in the first half and although didn't score, he dished out four assists and led an offense that functioned surprisingly well with a modified lineup on the floor. He also snagged two boards, and it was during the stretch with Collins in the lineup that Michigan began to clamp down on Michigan State defensively, while continuing to torch the Spartans on offense. 

Michigan thrived in the Frankie minutes [Marc-Gregor Campredon]

In totality, Michigan shot 61% from the field in the first twenty minutes. Their team eFG% was even higher, at 70%. Hunter Dickinson played a big role, at 6/8 from the field for 12 points, but he got plenty of help from his friends. Terrance Williams II was the surprise hero, nailing all three of the three-point attempts he attempted, while Brandon Johns Jr. and Caleb Houstan were 1/1 from beyond the arc. Michigan was 5/8 from three, but they also found buckets inside with ease thanks to Collins' passing and simply poor defense from MSU. On the other end, Michigan State shot under 40% from the field and made only a lone three pointer. Malik Hall led the Spartans in the first half with a measly 5 points and MSU scored just 4 points total in the final 7:30 of the first half. The Wolverines led 44-28 at the break. 

The primary objective for Michigan out of halftime was finding a way to maintain the lead and avoid any of those extended Spartan runs that could make this a competitive game. To accomplish the mission, they turned to Dickinson. MSU never opted to double team the Wolverine big man and against a variety of Spartan defenders, Dickinson feasted. He scored 21 points in the second half on 7/11 from the field. His most famous moments came matched up against Julius Marble II, who he tossed on the grill and char-broiled with silky spin moves towards the basket. 

Michigan's outside shooting started to cool off, but they continued to get easy makes all across the floor. With Collins on the bench and the starter DeVante' Jones back in the game, Michigan played calm and steady basketball protecting that lead. Throughout the first 10 minutes of the second half, the lead oscillated between 15 and 22 points but never got closer. Michigan State finally mounted a surge around the midway point of the half, embarking on a 10-2 run to cut it to 64-51 with just over 9 minutes remaining. Jones followed it up with a three and the two teams played more or less to a draw over the next five minutes. 

[Marc-Gregor Campredon]

The last chance for MSU to get back in the game came around the 4.5 minute remaining mark, when an ugly Jones turnover led to an easy dunk to cut the lead to 75-63. Dickinson came to the rescue, with another spin move bucket toasting Marble. Michigan State missed the front end of a one-and-one, Caleb Houstan added a layup, and then a Michigan State offensive foul gave Michigan the ball up 79-63 with only 3:20 to go. An Eli Brooks floater dropped on the ensuing Michigan possession and that more or less wrapped things up. Interim head coach Phil Martelli was able to deploy the garbage time squad in the last minute and the final score read 87-70 Michigan. 

This was a complete and comprehensive offensive performance from Michigan. They shot a scorching 58% from the field, with an identical percentage from three as well. There was never a juncture where offense was difficult, and the reason the Spartans could never mount a run was because the Michigan offense didn't stop scoring. Dickinson will be the story, marvelous (and superb in the taunting department), but nearly every player was checked in offensively. Houstan scored 16 on 4/7 from the field and got to the line on several occasions. Jones and Williams both scored 9 and Eli Brooks added 8, while Moussa Diabate had 6 in semi-limited minutes due to foul trouble. 

[Campredon]

Michigan State had a number of scorers get involved but found no one to be the lead dog. Their leading scorer was Gabe Brown with only 12 and though they shot 46% as a team from the field, it wasn't nearly enough to keep up. Three Spartans ended the game with four fouls, including big men Julius Marble and Mady Sissoko, who struggled to bang around with the Michigan bigs without hacking. 

With the win, the Wolverines move to 16-12 overall, and 10-8 in the conference. Just two regular season games remain, a home game against Iowa on Thursday, and a road game @Ohio State on Sunday afternoon. One more win in the regular season would go a long way towards securing the Michigan tournament resume heading in to next week's B1G Tournament in Indianapolis. The Thursday game against Iowa is scheduled for 9:00 pm EST and is scheduled to be on FS1. 

[Click the JUMP for the box score]

In a game without their head coach, one starter, and one bench player, Michigan needed a hero or two to rise. Tonight, the Wolverines got just that from three of the youngest pieces on their team: Caleb Houstan, Kobe Bufkin, and Frankie Collins. The three freshmen turned in some of their better performances of the season, particularly in the second half, shooting Michigan by the Rutgers Scarlett Knights tonight at Crisler Center in Ann Arbor by a score of 71-62. For a team that needs to perform well in the final two weeks to qualify for the NCAA Basketball Tournament, tonight was a big start. 

The first half was rather evenly matched. Michigan came out hot shooting the three, getting a couple quick makes from Caleb Houstan, before going 0-fer the rest of the half from beyond the long line. Michigan's offense shot 43% from the field but dealt with eight turnovers that brought their offensive flow to a halt at some points. Hunter Dickinson scored 12, and the team got just two total points in the first stanza by someone other than Dickinson, Eli Brooks, Houstan, or DeVante' Jones (Johns Jr. had a tip-in). Defensively, Michigan saw some tough makes go down from the likes of Caleb McConnell and Ron Harper Jr., but did collect five blocks and didn't allow a made three pointer. Michigan led 32-30 at the break. 

The first four minutes of the second half moved along at a reasonable pace, with each team answering the other's buckets. A Jones turnover created a transition chance for Rutgers and Cliff Omoruyi slammed home a basket that evened the score up at 38 apiece with 16:12 to go. At this point it became Freshman Time. After Jones missed a three pointer, Brandon Johns Jr. siphoned up a rebound, kicked it out to Houstan, and the freshman knocked down a big three pointer. A Geo Baker miss at the other end followed, and very quickly Michigan was freeing up Houstan for a look again, this time from the other end of the court. Swish. Two treys in the span of twenty five seconds had Michigan ahead six. 

Frankie Collins and Kobe Bufkin were nice off the bench [Campredon]

Rutgers responded with a couple deuces to pull within a pair, but then DeVante' Jones chipped in some nice jumpers to push it from 44-42 to 48-42. Little did we know, but this was the beginning of a 15-2 run that would cement Michigan's control of the contest. Eli Brooks made a couple of tough shots from inside the arc, and that's when Kobe Bufkin and Frankie Collins started to do their parts. Both freshman guards played some of their best defense of the season at one end, and then entered a groove at the other end. Bufkin made a three with 10:31 to go to push it to 55-45 and give Michigan their largest lead of the game. Collins provided good defense on dribble drive penetration and got Hunter Dickinson to help out at the rim. Frankie snagged it, charged down the floor, and finished a slick eurostep layup, forcing Rutgers coach Steve Pikiell to take a timeout. 

The timeout was taken to stop the bleeding, but the blood wasn't done gushing. Michigan got another stop and Bufkin made a shot, stretching the lead to 59-45. Rutgers finally drew a shooting foul after that and Geo Baker made both free throws to stem the Michigan tide with 8:43 left. Over the next 3.5 minutes, the game was fought to a draw, with Michigan doing a good job to deny any long Rutgers runs by answering with makes. Rutgers was only able to shave two points off the margin in this span and with 5 minutes to go, the score sat at 65-55. When Eli Brooks knocked down a three a minute later, Michigan had a stranglehold on the game. 

Another solid game from DeVante' Jones in the second half [Campredon]

Faced with a similar position to last Thursday's game against Iowa, Michigan didn't mess around and let the opposition back in it. Geo Baker pulled up from two on a tough shot, and Dickinson snagged the rebound, which was a good encapsulation of Michigan's defensive effort in this one: better wing defense than normal, forcing gobs of long twos, and solid defensive rebounding limited multiple shot attempt possessions. Though Ron Harper Jr. converted an alley-oop on the next trip down the floor, another Caleb Houstan three from well behind the arc made it 71-57 with exactly three minutes to go. Paul Mulcahy turned it over on the ensuing Rutgers possession, and that pretty much wrapped it up. Final score: 71-62. 

Houstan led Michigan with 21 points, shooting 5/9 from distance. The Wolverines are now 10-1 when Houstan shoots >33.3% from three point range this season. Hunter Dickinson wasn't mentioned much in this piece, because it was a rather unspectacular night, yet he still posted a typical 16 and 11 stat line playing all but one minute tonight (!!). DeVante' Jones continued his quietly great second half by scoring 14 and snagging 7 boards. Eli Brooks scored 11 and then the combination of Bufkin and Collins chipped in 7, though their contributions were greatest on the defensive end. If those two can be more usable defensive options, that very much changes the picture for Phil Martelli's crew. 

Anyway you slice it, this was a big victory. Michigan needs to win 3 of their last 5 to feel good heading into the Big Ten Tournament. Tonight was victory #1, and it's big to knock off a fellow bubble team without a key piece in Moussa Diabate. The Wolverines will get Diabate and Terrance Williams II back for Sunday's game against Illinois. It will not be an easy contest, but it is an opportunity to notch a Q1(A) victory and bolster the tournament resume. That game is scheduled for 2:00 PM EST and will be televised on CBS. 

[Click the JUMP for the box score]