Indiana 74, Michigan 69
There are not many teams in recent college basketball that I can remember having the ability to bounce from looking like a dangerous tournament team to "should not even be in the conversation for the NIT" the way 2021-22 Michigan Basketball can. For most of the calendar year 2022, that bounce happened between games. Michigan would hammer a decent team, or beat a good team, and then look abject the next night. But today the switch turned in the middle of the contest, from a dominant first 27 minutes to the Hindenburg going down in a ball of flames over the last 13 minutes. Michigan led 60-43 with 12:52 to play in the game. They lost by five. A collapse of epic proportions in the second round of the Big Ten Basketball Tournament in Indianapolis eliminated Michigan from contention and leaves them on the bubble heading into Selection Sunday.
Michigan took control of the game early on and seemed to retain that vice grip well into the second half. The first twenty minutes represented one of the Wolverines' best defensive halves of the season, holding Indiana to under 40% from the field, scoring just 28 points (buoyed by four made threes) and forcing five turnovers. Michigan wasn't great offensively in that half, but they did score 41, riding the tandem of Hunter Dickinson and DeVante' Jones, who combined for 25. They also kept the turnovers down, got great effort from Moussa Diabate (even if it didn't show up on the stat sheet), and went 11/13 at the line. Michigan led 41-28 at the break.
The second half began with a bit of a seesaw. Indiana cut the lead inside 10 on one occasion, but Michigan wrested control right back. Each minute that passed without Indiana making a more serious dent in the margin raised the Michigan win probability another point or two, and hope for the Hoosiers seemed to fade. Caleb Houstan, who was mostly anonymous in the first half, knocked down a trio of threes in the first seven minutes of the second half, which helped build Michigan's lead up. Not much had changed in the narrative of the game from halftime to the 12:52 mark, when Eli Brooks made a layup to nudge Michigan's lead up to 17. It's what immediately followed that was the sea change.
DeVante' was great in the first half. About the second half.... [Campredon]
In a few summarizing words, Michigan's offense locked up like an elderly man's joints. They would not make another shot from the field for eleven minutes (!!!!), and only sprinkled in a few free throws along the way. To Indiana's credit, they sensed that their season was on the line and responded. The Hoosiers were likely going to be on the wrong side of the bubble picture with a loss, and they played those final 13 minutes like a team on their last gasp. The energy level from IU picked up on the defensive end dramatically. Michigan's guards suddenly couldn't get an ounce of separation, they couldn't make an entry pass to Dickinson in the post, and any attempts at the rack were being swatted by Trayce Jackson-Davis. But Michigan also made far too many mistakes, missing the occasional open shot they got, throwing the ball out of bounds, and enduring a several minute stretch where it seemed like one Michigan player was falling over on each offensive possession.
Indiana suddenly began executing on offense as well. They capitalized on Michigan's turnovers as a chance to run out in transition, but also were getting free dunks and layups, and a few threes rattled home as well. Michigan took timeouts and tinkered with the lineups, but nothing could stem the tide. The partisan Hoosier crowd in Indianapolis seemed to play a role too, with IU feeding off the energy inside the arena, and it helped to further Michigan's emotional troubles. Jackson-Davis made a pair of free throws with 5:39 to go which put Indiana up one. In just over seven minutes, the Hoosiers had erased the 17 point lead.
Michigan got a couple points off free throws immediately thereafter, but then the problems started again. Indiana went on an 8-0 run and held a lead of 71-64 with only 1:54 to go. Michigan called another timeout and began to mount a last ditch effort. DeVante' Jones knocked down a shot that finally ended the Wolverine drought from the field and after a couple stops, Eli Brooks canned a transition three with 0:44 on the clock, leaving the score at 71-69. Michigan needed one stop and they got it, a terrific defensive possession that produced a half-hearted, desperation heave as the shot clock was expiring from Miller Kopp. It was nowhere close to on the mark, and Moussa Diabate grabbed a loose ball rebound off the floor.
Then disaster struck.
Never a good sign when your coach is making the "politician has a sex scandal" face [Campredon]
Diabate had two Hoosiers standing near him, but neither were threatening to rip the ball away. Still, the freshman's internal clock sped up. He panicked and tried to immediately rid himself of the ball, throwing it towards Eli Brooks, who was not ready for the pass. It glanced off Brooks and went out of bounds. Turnover, Indiana ball, with just nine seconds left. Michigan was forced to foul, and Xavier Johnson swished both at the line. After that turnover, Michigan would never again have the ball with a chance to tie. Game over. Final score: Indiana 74, Michigan 69.
Despite the roller coaster nature of the game, the box score tells a pretty coherent picture of why Michigan lost this basketball game. They shot just 37.9% from the floor and 30% from three, not nearly well enough for 19/21 at the line to redeem you. 12 turnovers aren't horrendous, but 10 in the second half says a lot. Meanwhile, Indiana shot 46% from the floor and 53% from three (8/15), while banking 14 points at the line and committing an identical number of turnovers. The Hoosiers deserved to win this game, and in the final 13 minutes, they clearly wanted it more. They out-hustled, out-competed, and out-worked the Wolverines.
Michigan falls to 17-14 on the season and now will have to wait for Selection Sunday. They entered the day being included in 122/123 brackets on the Bracket Matrix, in safe position and out of the First Four picture. A loss like this doesn't help, but it is a weak bubble this year. The Wolverines are probably still in, but they may have to head to Dayton for a play-in game. And a win over Indiana, which seemed to be well in their jaws only an hour ago, would have put a berth on ice. Michigan had a chance to wrap this up on their own terms. Now they're at the mercy of the Selection Committee on Sunday evening. Stay tuned.
[Click the JUMP for the box score]
This one was an all-timer.
Anyone still think Jones is better than Mike Smith?
I like Smith but no way would he have pulled off the OSU game.
haha, one bad quarter after getting hurt (and still an overall good game - he was heavily responsible the reason for the lead in the first place) and this fanbase loses it's minds again
Yes...no question stop bait'n please and look at the box score. Frankie will be better than both of them.
March 11th, 2022 at 10:05 AM ^
There are actual people that believe Jones is better than Smith? This can’t be real life.
Whatever. This season hasn’t been fun. I won’t be upset by it ending.
That's been my take, also. I always root for M bball, but I had a really hard time getting truly invested in this team. Just seamed to lack in so many areas, including, most critically heart. Some of that is the result of bringing in so many young guys in key spots, but something else just seems off with this team. Contrast the fire of this team with that of the (less talented) Novak-era teams.
Unfortunately I think they may put us in Dayton to get a ratings bump. Not ideal, but I don’t think most of us have any hope for a deep tournament run anyway. Consistency is the big key to the dance and this is maybe the least consistent Michigan team I think I’ve ever seen
At 17-14, I think we will be the victim of the Jerry Palm rule and don’t think we will be in. That being said, today showed this team is not ready for prime time. There are some pieces there, and future seasons could be fun, but I don’t know if Michigan gets in after a meltdown like that. Particularly after having a different kind of meltdown a couple of weeks ago. In my opinion, Michigan won’t be in.
This won't happen. There is no Jerry Palm rule (do we keep having to remind everyone that MSU was 15-12 last year with worse everything else?), and that guy needs to quit when Michigan makes it.
I very much hope I am wrong. This jacked up my whole spring plan. But I don’t think they will be in.
Jekyll and Hyde. Just fucking bizarre.
How did we not pound it to Hunter w a 17 pt lead?
What a silly season. I could better explain it in terms of a “no streaks” curse than anything specific about the players.
Yeah really one of the first times I've questioned Coach Howard's basic offensive philosophy. Even when we were ahead by 4 or 6 pts the directive should've been to go low and at least draw a foul. To go that long without a bucket is sort of unforgiveable with the big guys we have.
I agree, but Indiana had been beating the hell out of Hunter for about 5 minutes without a call. I had no feeling that the officiating was going to change at that point.
The telecast pretty well displayed they were double & even triple teaming HD.
Someone's gotta be able to make a damn shot - you'd think!
You still have to make the entry pass to run your offense. Nobody was getting open without it.
And the one time I remember they did, he had a six footer on him and he passed it. weird.
He never passes that shot up. The whole team was panicked.
yeah, I couldn't believe it. you're right, the whole team was panicked. shame. oh well, I was worried for a second that we might get a nine seed. silver linings!
We tried to some extent, but we made some bad passes and Hunter looked gassed and wasn't moving as well.
They tried. Indiana’s ball pressure was really good and they made it really hard to enter it into the post.
Counter to that is to drive hard, and Michigan just doesn’t have enough perimeter playmakers when Jones isn’t at his best. Houstan looked shook in the second half.
Wish Juwan had tried giving Terrence some more minutes. He’s capable of putting the ball on the floor and making things happen.
In a normal year I don't think a team with this type of resume winds up in Dayton (last year MSU and UCLA had NET ratings in high 40s/low 50s) but I could see them fall there just because they've been so inconsistent and their record is meh.
Can someone explain the Dayton thing - like is it known as a tougher bracket and therefore Michigan would be screwed getting placed there? Or is there something else
All-time choke job, unfortunately. This March doesn't seem like it'll be as fun as last years...
Good one.
dayton is where the 'first four' games are played every season.
March 11th, 2022 at 11:00 AM ^
Dayton, OH is certainly punishment for those fringe teams.
It's the play-in game (UM played there some years ago where they beat Tulsa before getting booted by ND in the tourney), and the more I look at the bubble the less I expect UM to be sent there but we'll see.
NIT seems like a better fit than the big kids tourney. Might just be time to let this season die.
It doesn’t matter. NIT? NCAA? It really doesn’t matter. We win the next game and lose the next one, because. . . because.
I'm obviously very biased towards Michigan, but I question if this is an NCAA tourney worthy team. 17-14 overall, 4-5 in their last 9 games, yes they have a handful of good wins, but they also have a lot of losses. If it were any other team, I would be arguing against why they belong in the tournament.
It isn’t.
It is heartbreaking, because I was rolling with this team. But I think they lost the tourney today.
Last year Wisconsin made it in as a 9 seed despite going 17-12, 10-10 in conference, and losing 5 of their last 6 games. Maryland got in as a 10 seed despite being 15-12 with a 9-11 conference record. Rutgers got in as a 10 seed with 14-10, 10-10, and going 5-4 in their final 9 but that included a loss to 7-20 Nebraska but 21. MSU made it despite going 15-11, 9-11 in conference.
The bubble is always full of imperfect teams. But this year there are a lot of teams with far worse resumes being considered for the tourney.
I think you're looking at records pre-BTT.
MSU was 15-12 last year after losing to Maryland in their first game of BTT. Rutgers was 15-11 and Maryland was 16-13 after the BTT.
And yes, all made it.
Yeah, I wasn't considering the BTT but even with those included (as you noted) they were all mediocre teams that got into the tourney, 2 of them without even having to worry about the play-in.
A lot of losses when you played a top 5 schedule, half of which were q1 and more than a third of which were Q1A (!!!!) doesn't really matter. They have a good resume.
Barring some crazy stuff from a bunch of teams like Colorado, Vtech, etc., like an impossible level of crazy stuff, Michigan is in.
The first paragraph pretty well sums up how this season went. It is impossible to figure out a team that wins then losses and repeats the cycle 6 or 7 times. I'll let all of the pundits try to figure that one out.
There are times they've looked unstoppable and other times they don't belong on the same court with their opponent. Today's game went in both directions but then ended with the colossal loss.
I guess the win/loss cycle sped up
Orrrrr it slowed down to a three half cycle.
If so...it doesn't bode well for the next two halves.
Hoe-lee Cow. I'm at work and caught the halftime score and wasn't going to check again, deciding to surprise myself with a glorious Michigan win. Fortunate I just needed to know the final score.
Hoe-lee Cow.
Blech!
DeVante was clearly injured and Howard should have put Frankie back in. They had a chance at the end but c’est le vie we lost. If they do make the tournament I wouldn’t want to be their first round opponent first four or round of 64. If we’re fortunate enough to make it hopefully they can string some games together and not give up the huge run if they’re up.
Or where was Bufkin? I can understand Michigan being hesitant to put in turnover prone Frankie and Martelli trusted Bufkin late in the OSU game and was rewarded with a huge three, so why not him for a few minutes there when it was clear Jones was struggling? The substitutions were puzzling.
Juwan has been horrible with rotations the entire year. Its frustrating to see Martelli roll out rotations involving Frankie/Bufkin/TWill against OSU work, but today we're right back to Bufkin getting 0 minutes, Frankie has a nifty up-and-under, assist, block and TO (got pushed out of bounds) within 7 minutes. None of the young players were able to get any sort of momentum going all season.
Frankie Collins averaged 7.6 minutes per game with Martelli (and most of that was his 14 minutes against MSU) in his 5 games and averaged 5.4 minutes per game Howard in his 5 games before the suspension. Bufkin was 10 minutes (with 21 coming against Rutgers) and 8.8 minutes under Howard. And Howard was the one playing them 12-15 minutes per game to start the year even when they scuttled. I don't think Howard has been great this year but the idea he's been robbing guys like Collins and Bufkin of minutes and that Martelli was some svengali of the lineups just doesn't make sense.
March 10th, 2022 at 10:58 PM ^
I think my beef is more of the fluctuations and lack of consistency. Kobe makes a huge 3 @Ohio State and gets no minutes today? Williams drops 17 and is the savior last Sunday, but gets 9 minutes? I’m not arguing the average # of minutes, rather how do the young bench players build any sort of confidence under Juwan when it’s a roller coaster every other game. There should have at least been a role for Frankie in the 2nd half when Jones was limping around, turning it over, and getting blown past by Johnson.
I'll never understand why Zeb didn't play at the beginning of season, over the new guys. He can play.
March 10th, 2022 at 11:53 PM ^
Please - Vie is feminine - Can't you get it?
C'est la vie.
Merci.
Awful. Bufkin not seeing the floor as the meltdown occurred is laughable. Kid showed he can step up at Ohio State.
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