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Good grief. 

The basketball game that unfolded on Wednesday night at Crisler Center was a deeply unpleasant viewing experience, even if the Michigan Wolverines were able to notch their third consecutive victory, 72-70, over the Northwestern Wildcats. The win is crucial for keeping Michigan's tournament hopes alive, but very little else will be remembered fondly by the Michigan faithful. Though the home team didn't play particularly well, most of the memory of this one will hinge on it being a foul-fest. There were 46 fouls called between the two teams, forcing both squads into rolling with unfamiliar lineups in a choppy game that lacked any flow due to the fact there was a whistle less than every sixty seconds. 

Shooting fouls, blocking fouls, charges, moving screens, anything and everything in the rule book was getting called tonight and whistles were blown so much you'd have mistaken it for a practice, not a regulation conference game. A deeply strange game that was upsetting to watch, not just when it seemed that Michigan was on the ropes, but even during the stretches when the home team was winning. Nevertheless, more stellar play from Caleb Houstan and a surprise late cameo from Jaron Faulds helped get it done. In a season where Michigan needs all the help they can get to make it into March Madness, a win is a win. And a win it was. 

The first half was a pretty tight back-and-forth affair. Neither team led by more than five at any juncture in the first twenty minutes and all that felt notable at the time was the crazy number of whistles being called, though we came to learn in the second half that that's how the entire game would be. Houstan led Michigan with 12 in the first half, getting to the line for eight free throw attempts, while no other player had more than six points, and they closed the half with Jace Howard at center due to foul trouble affecting Hunter Dickinson and Moussa Diabate. 

DeVante' Jones was a positive steadying force [Fuller]

The second half saw Michigan start hot, with a 12-2 run within the first three minutes of the frame putting the Wolverines up 11. That spurt was catapulted by nine points from Eli Brooks, who was quiet in the first half and who Michigan absolutely needs more from down the stretch of the season. Northwestern quickly called a timeout and for a brief moment, it seemed as if the Wolverines were asserting their control of the contest.

Unfortunately, after a DeVante' Jones jumper put Michigan up 10 with 15:08 to play, the Maize & Blue would notch just five points in the next ten minutes of game play. Over that span, the Wildcats added 22 of their own and flipped a 10 point deficit to a 7 point lead. After Robbie Beran made it 62-55 Northwestern with 5:09 to play, Juwan Howard called timeout. A loss in this game would have very possibly bumped Michigan back off the bubble, and so it was then that the team needed to rise to the occasion. They dug deep and did. 

Over three straight offensive possessions, Diabate made a pair of free throws, then DeVante' Jones nailed a massive three from the corner, and Diabate slammed home a dunk. With two stops sandwiched in between, it was tied just like that. Michigan forced another miss from Ryan Greer and had the ball with a chance to take the lead when yet another sloppy turnover gave it right back to NU. 15 seconds later, Hunter Dickinson was called for what appeared to be a rather marginal foul while guarding the post and that was it for his night. Ryan Young hit both free throws (Northwestern was in the double bonus by now) and the Wildcats were back up two. 

Faulds! [Fuller]

Without their best player on the floor, Michigan needed an answer, and Terrance Williams II delivered one, knocking down a huge three pointer to push Michigan back up one, 65-64, with 2:08 left. But just seconds after that, foul trouble struck again, as Moussa Diabate was whistled for his fifth on a shooting foul. This forced seldom-used backup center Jaron Faulds into the lineup and after Pete Nance went 1/2 at the line, it was tied at 65-65. Faulds made his impact quickly known: he dished out a sweet assist to Caleb Houstan in the corner, who swished a trey, and then he helped force a stop at the other end. DeVante' Jones drew a foul on the ensuing offensive possession, made both free throws, and Michigan led 70-65 with under a minute left.

It seemed at this moment that Michigan might be putting the game away, but the 'Cats had an answer of their own. Guard Boo Buie knocked down a triple to cut it to a two point game. Jones drove to the lane on Michigan's next possession and drew a foul, hitting both free throws again, making it 72-68 with 27 seconds left. 

The final 27 seconds were wild. The sequence began with Northwestern sending big man Ryan Young to the stripe with the score at that margin. Young made the first but the second popped out. Nance tipped it back, and Buie recovered it and called timeout. With Northwestern now down three, Michigan opted for the intentional foul to nullify any chance of a game-tying bucket. Nance went to the line and missed both, and Faulds drew a whistle during the scrum for the loose ball. At this point, with the score 72-69 and eight seconds left, all Faulds needed to do was make one to put the game on ice. He missed them both. 

Nance rebounded, passed it to Buie, who then was intentionally fouled just past half court by Williams. He made the first, missed the second, and again Northwestern got a second chance. Nance snagged the offensive rebound, passed to Roper, who pulled up from three for a chance to win at the horn. The shot was off target, and Michigan had survived. 

[AFTER THE JUMP: A couple thoughts and the box score]

3/4/2021 – Michigan 69, Michigan State 50 – 19-2, 14-2 Big Ten, Big Ten regular season champions

I have now watched a year of pandemic sports, and I can say that the most surreal thing to watch with nobody in the stands is college basketball. This was made plain when I turned on the Baylor-WVU game, which was about 20% full, and recoiled at the strangeness of an audio record of whether things were going well or not. People were furious at certain things. It was a sad (and unwise) echo of the Before Times, and at the same time it injected a fervor into the proceedings. It felt like a top-ten matchup, or at least the ghost of one. 

Alone amongst major sports, basketball puts fans directly adjacent to proceedings. Malices at the Palace do not transpire in other sports because there are barriers between athletes and the hoi polloi. Opportunities for portly gentlemen to confront and get absolutely wrecked by Jermaine O'Neal are limited.

This gives a basketball crowd an immediacy other sports lack. When you are close to the court the sport literally vibrates for you, each bounce of the ball resonating in your ears and feet simultaneously.

On top of that, a college basketball crowd puts several hundred dubiously sober students in prime position to mock, taunt, celebrate, wobble unsteadily, and wear varied animal costumes. The reduced number of games relative to the NBA, and the various ways in which you could succeed or fail heightens stakes. An NBA version of this MSU team is wondering whether it's worth making the playoffs just to get obliterated instead of clawing desperately to maintain a 22-year tourney streak. This turns up the volume further until a band-box arena in Vermont with maybe 3,000 people in it feels like a nuclear reactor during Championship Week.

Deleting that leaves you unsteady. The resulting season feels tangibly less real.

eight minutes to tip [Campredon]

When the confetti came down and Michigan paraded around a sign that said "2021 Big Ten Champions" I was happy, of course, but the emptiness of that building—the failure of several hundred people to appear on the court and mill around aimlessly—hit hard. A true and proper title celebration is far from the most important thing the pandemic has taken from us, but it could only be bittersweet to see Michigan be this team, to win this thing, 358 days after the 2020 Big Ten Tournament was shut down and Zavier Simpson skyhooks unceremoniously vanished into the G-League ether.

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You may have noticed that my output on this blog has dropped substantially. There have been more weekdays without a post from me in the past couple months than years-long blocks of time prior.

I have struggled. My weak connections to the people around me have been severed and the few strong ties leaned on unto their breaking point. A lack of reliance on other people has morphed from a marker of rugged individualism into a blank, gray loneliness. Existing addictions—mostly to video games, which I compulsively click at even when I am thinking about how boring this activity is—were exacerbated. Relationships strained. My personal life roiled until there was a sudden break. A look into an abyss, and a turning away from it.

I can't say the roiling has exactly stopped but at least I have a path I can see that leads forward. It is a repeated agony that it buckles and warps, cracks and shudders, rises and descends. Work gets put in and sometimes it seems like it amounts to nothing. But I suppose if Austin Davis can put Luka Garza in a blender, there is no depth that cannot be surmounted brick by brick.

This is a stupid and flimsy thing to latch onto, the actions of college players attempting to throw a ball through a hoop, but since a large part of this years-long slide was sitting on my computer staring at a football game I had no desire to comment on I'll take it and nestle it into place. Belief starts somewhere. An ability to take joy from other people starts somewhere.

Here at what feels like the end, or at least the beginning of the end, of being locked away from each other I have concluded that the only thing to do is get up in the morning and try again.

[After THE JUMP: a regular-ass bullets section! Like nothing even happened!]