Michigan 87, Wisconsin 79
Michigan's season was hanging in the balance. There were under three seconds remaining and Wisconsin, who had owned the preceding thirty seconds, led 68-65. Michigan was in-bounding from the baseline under Wisconsin's basket following a swatted three pointer, with no timeouts to draw anything up. Terrance Williams II struggled to find an open outlet, instead leaping to hurl a ball that only 7'1" Hunter Dickinson could snatch out on the perimeter. Dickinson barely snared possession over the contest from a Badger, dribbled it once, turned his body towards the basket, and hurled a shot around a potential block from Wisconsin's Max Klesmit. 12,707 fans inside Crisler Center in Ann Arbor stood on their feet as the desperate prayer arced in the air on a rainbow trajectory. A Michigan win, only possible in OT if the shot went down, would keep Michigan's NCAA Tournament hopes alive one more week. Miss that shot and those tournament hopes would likely be buried ten feet under.
The ball hurtled towards the basket. The horn signifying the expiration of regulation time blared and the backboard lit up in red. And then in the blink of an eye, a collective prayer answered from the Wolverine faithful, Dickinson's heave swished through the hoop. Crisler Center exploded into utter pandemonium, though the game wasn't over. Michigan had tied it, and overtime would be needed. After a seesaw first three minutes of overtime, Michigan put the clamps on Wisconsin defensively and hit shots with ruthless efficiency, building a lead and salting the game away at the free throw line. When it was all said and done, Dickinson's shot for the ages had saved Michigan's season, or at least let it live another week. The Wolverines won a must-win game over Wisconsin 87-79, moved into a tie for 2nd in the conference, and inched slightly closer to the NCAA Tournament picture. It's not quite March, but the madness is well underway.
-----
[Marc-Gregor Campredon]
The first half of the game did not adequately foreshadow what was to follow. Wisconsin started hot, scoring 17 points in the first 7.5 minutes of action as the Wolverines got off to their second consecutive sleepy start. The offensive rebounding issues that did Michigan in against Wisconsin in Madison a couple weeks back reared their head early on, as the Badgers extended possessions and did damage. Around the halfway mark, trailing at one point 17-9, the Maize & Blue picked it up. They went on a 26-10 run to close and the central story was Hunter Dickinson, who had one of his best halves of basketball all season. He engineered a personal 6-0 run at one point to give Michigan the lead and scored 12 points in the first half, 5/7 from the floor, four rebounds, two assists (one of which a beautiful pass to set up a Dug McDaniel three), and just one turnover.
The dominance of Dickinson was much needed for the Wolverines, who were missing Jett Howard yet again, his second consecutive missed game and third consequential one of the season. They also started Will Tschetter at the four again, though Terrance Williams II came off the bench and logged more minutes than Tschetter. Kobe Bufkin was the other strong performer in the first half, with 10 points of his own to boost Michigan into the break with a 35-27 lead. They'd held Wisconsin to just 10 points over the final 12.5 minutes of play, including a nearly nine minute stretch where the Badgers made one bucket(!) and were clearly the stronger team in the opening twenty.
Unfortunately, much of the recipe that led to the dominance of Michigan in the first half went off the rails for a large stretch of the second half. Wisconsin was able to take Dickinson out of the picture for the majority of the half, holding him to just two points over the first 17.5 minutes of play, forcing the Wolverines to lean even more heavily on Bufkin. Which, to Bufkin's credit, resulted in #2 rising to the occasion and playing one of the best halves of his Michigan career. But it wasn't enough to put Wisconsin away, with turnovers bogging down the offense outside of Bufkin, and the Badgers clawed their way back thanks to the efforts of Connor Essegian. The freshman was unconscious in the second half, 16 points on 7/11 from the floor, a childhood Wolverines fan playing in Crisler Center for he first time. Essgian was out for blood and Steven Crowl's layup with 7:30 left gave Wisconsin their first lead since midway through the first half, 53-52.
[Marc-Gregor Campredon]
From that point forward it was an entertaining, back and forth affair. Bufkin made a driving layup and swished a three to put Michigan up 57-55, but Wisconsin had an answer every time. Tarris Reed had free throws coming but a shoulder injury on the play forced Joey Baker to shoot them, a tradeoff Michigan was very content with. Baker made them both to put Michigan ahead 59-57, but Essegian tied it only a couple possessions later, leaving the score tied with 3:15 left. Wisconsin took the lead on a Klesmit driving layup before Hunter Dickinson finally got himself back in rhythm with a hook shot to even it up at 61 all. Wisconsin was out of answers on their next offensive possession when Klesmit heaved up a three at the shot clock expiration and it banked in off the backboard while the Crisler faithful all looked skyward in disbelief.
Michigan kept plugging away, eventually getting Dickinson to the line where he made both free throws to trim the lead to 64-63 with 1:19 remaining. Reed's good defense on a Tyler Wahl drive to the rack gave Michigan possession with a chance to take the lead and a perfect baseline jumper by Bufkin gave them that lead, 65-64 with only 30.3 remaining. A perfect floater from Essegian gave Wisconsin the lead and Bufkin's layup attempt was blocked (there was some debate if a foul should've been called) by Klesmit, rebounded down and Kamari McGee was fouled. McGee made them both to put Wisconsin ahead by three, 68-65. Michigan, now out of timeouts, came up the floor and found Bufkin in the corner. He was open at first, but Klesmit closed out in excellent fashion and swatted the ball out of bounds. That's when the story of the game begins to intersect with the moment discussed in the opening, with Dickinson's miracle shot at the horn being the next play sequentially.
With the game now tied and headed to OT at 68-68, momentum was squarely on Michigan's side. Crisler Center was bubbling with an energy seldom seen this season, but Wisconsin wasn't quite ready to go away. They got the opening points of the OT session and it remained a back-and-forth contest. Every score by one team was answered by the other, a Joey Baker three being followed by a Klesmit three, which in turn was followed by a Bufkin converted and-one. The score sat 76-75 with 2:14 to go and it seemed as if we were headed for another high pressure sequence, but that's when Michigan decided the game was over.
Wisconsin missed a three, Michigan rebounded it down, came up the floor, and fed Dickinson. HD's hook went down to make it 78-75, forcing Greg Gard to call timeout. An out-of-rhythm Wisconsin possession ended with an off-balance Essegian three that glanced off the iron and Michigan followed it up with a Dug McDaniel floater, giving Michigan the first two possession lead of OT for either team. Wisconsin would end up getting two three point attempts on the next possession, enabled by an OREB, but neither went down and you could see the energy draining from the Badger bench. Michigan snared the rebound after the second miss and Dug McDaniel was fouled with 39.2 left. He made them both, putting the lead at 82-75, and once Wisconsin turned it over on their next possession, that was game. The Wolverines had survived and the trajectory of their season was altered too.
----
[Marc Gregor Campredon]
The final box score indicates a game that was a pure coinflip, one that Michigan was able to win. The Wolverines shot 49% from the floor compared to 43% from Wisconsin, while the teams were close to even from three (Wisconsin 8/23, Michigan 7/21). Both teams were highly efficient on their free throws but Michigan made 22 to Wisconsin's 11, obviously exacerbated by score effects in overtime. Michigan committed twelve turnovers to Wisconsin's eight, which was a factor in the second half, while offensive rebounds were close to even. Michigan fixed the DREB problem compared to the first five minutes, but nine allowed to a dreadful OREB team in Wisconsin was still probably more than Juwan Howard would've liked.
The heroes for Michigan were pretty obvious, the three player trio of Dickinson, Bufkin, and McDaniel. Dickinson has the defining moment of the game and he was sharp with 23 points, but most of his damage was in the first half. The MVP for Michigan was no doubt Bufkin, whose 28 points on 10/21 from the floor was vital to victory. He took the offense by the horns in the second half, the go-to guy without question and also added eight boards while logging an exhausting 42 minutes. As for McDaniel, he didn't have a major on-ball passing role (zero assists!), but Dug shot 2/4 from three and was an acceptable 4/8 from two. Michigan didn't get a ton outside of these three but a couple triples from Baker and strong defense around the rim from Reed deserve mention.
As for Wisconsin, they used the tandem of Essegian and Klesmit to power their offense. Essegian finished with 24 points on 10/21 from the floor, while Klesmit added 19 of his own and had several massive blocks late. Those two were the likely heroes had Dickinson's three not gone down and Wisconsin had emerged as the victors. Chucky Hepburn added only four points for Wisconsin, leaving the game in the second half with an injury.
Michigan is now 17-12 on the season and 11-7 in the B1G. That conference mark pulls them into a tie for second place with Maryland, Indiana, and Northwestern, two games back of first place Purdue. If the Big Ten Tournament started today, Michigan would be the 3rd seed, owning the second best-record (3-2) against the other tied teams in that quartet (Maryland would be 2nd with a 3-1 in-group record). Michigan finishes up the regular season this week with two road games, against Illinois on Thursday night and Indiana on Sunday afternoon. One win in those two games is likely needed to shore up Michigan's bubble position going into the BTT, as well as to give the Maize & Blue a top four seed in the BTT and thus the vaunted double bye. That Thursday game is scheduled for 7:00 PM EST and will be broadcast on ESPN.
[Click the JUMP for the box score]
February 26th, 2023 at 6:43 PM ^
Beat Illinois
February 26th, 2023 at 7:12 PM ^
Beat Indiana! Win in the BTT!
Cannot believe that M is tied for second in the B1G standings after what it's gone through this year. Just shows you that you just do the best you can and good things can result.
Stay positive!
Go Blue!
February 26th, 2023 at 6:52 PM ^
A semi miracle shot for Michigan to force OT and an all time MSU.collapse.A Weekend to remember.
February 26th, 2023 at 7:20 PM ^
Indeed it was. Especially when HD's shot barely makes the top 5 of crazy shots this weekend, I literally saw 4 other end of the game heaves that were really crazy.
February 26th, 2023 at 7:44 PM ^
ESPN's win probability was 99.7% for MSU with 1:34 remaining.
Win probability for Wisconsin was 98.6% before Dickinson's three.
The chances of both of those games breaking our way is infinitesimal!
February 26th, 2023 at 7:51 PM ^
Technically the State game broke against us because our MSU win would have been a Quad 1 win if they had held on.
February 26th, 2023 at 8:03 PM ^
Lalalalalalalallalalalallalalalla.
February 26th, 2023 at 9:59 PM ^
They had MSU game at 99.8% with 2:03 (which seems like an error in the algo cuz the margin was the same as with 1:34).
And I saw 98.8% in our game. Which also was wrong. ESPN's data had one second left and I don't think it adjusted when they added time back to 2.1. No way there was only a 1% chance Michigan hit a three there but it was low.
February 27th, 2023 at 12:35 AM ^
I noticed that. It also seems 96-86 with 39 seconds left should have had the highest win probability.
I am thinking Iowa fans won’t be leaving games early when Michigan teams visit going forward.
February 26th, 2023 at 9:35 PM ^
Of course it wasn't half the miracle that the shot clock buzzer beater Wisci banked in for 3 a couple minutes earlier was. Kind of balanced out, just the fact that HD made his with the game clock expiring vs the shot clock expiring makes it more noteworthy. But HD's shot was actually squared up and made conventionally, like he actually planned it that way.
February 26th, 2023 at 6:55 PM ^
247 says Essegian is from Albion, Indiana.
Not Michigan, though he apparently was a Michigan fan as a kid.
February 26th, 2023 at 7:04 PM ^
I’d take Essegian on this roster over at least 5 guys currently on it.
February 26th, 2023 at 9:19 PM ^
I’d take over all but 2.
February 26th, 2023 at 10:35 PM ^
Um, his team lost the game. We root for guys that play for Michigan on this board.
February 26th, 2023 at 7:08 PM ^
I thought they said he played @ a Ft Wayne HS, which would be short trip up to I-69. Michigan has a big fan base in northeast Indiana. Bars and restaurants always carry Michigan games.
Regardless, not looking forward to seeing him for 3 more years. He is a prototypical pain in the ass Wisconsin type player.
February 26th, 2023 at 9:20 PM ^
More prototype Beilein than normal Wiscy guys
February 26th, 2023 at 10:01 PM ^
We should probably pursue him hard for a transfer....wait, is that tampering?
February 26th, 2023 at 10:09 PM ^
Central Noble is what 247 says. That would be a quite small very nondescript little rural school in the middle of nowhere in Northern Indiana-just northwest of Ft. Wayne. It is kind of like Glen Steele coming from neighboring small, very nondescript little rural school of West Noble. Neither of these schools are known for their athletics. It is what it is-surprised he slipped by Painter.
February 26th, 2023 at 7:10 PM ^
Maybe he can transfer to Michigan and play a role on our final four team next year.
February 26th, 2023 at 10:43 PM ^
Before we get too carried away here, he did go 1 for 8 from 3 and does not qualify him as a sharpshooter yet.
February 27th, 2023 at 10:06 AM ^
Right. He's only scored 20+ vs. UM. We're not seeing all the data.
February 26th, 2023 at 8:58 PM ^
are we not gonna talk about how much he looks like Alex Drain? all i could think while watchin him go nuts in the second half
February 26th, 2023 at 11:43 PM ^
hey now, we may have both gone to college looking 11 years old but he doesn't have the glasses look down
February 26th, 2023 at 11:42 PM ^
ah thanks i shoulda fact-checked that. They said he was a Michigan fan on the broadcast and said he was from two hours away so I assumed he was a Michigander and wrote it down as such. Updated in the piece
February 26th, 2023 at 6:58 PM ^
I’m calling HD’s shot the, “NIT? NOT! (yet)” shot. Still some work to do but this team is peaking at the right time.
+20 from TWill in 30 minutes to WillT’s -7 in 10 minutes. Please, can we end this Tschetter experiment for this season. I expect him to continue developing and be a solid contributor next season, but it’s time to pull the plug and give his minutes to Tarris.
February 26th, 2023 at 7:54 PM ^
TWill actually played really well today but my man cannot hit a 3 to save his life. If he could just shoot at a 2021 it would be a life saver.
Yes, I don’t understand the Tschetter thing and have not seen anything that explains to me why he is playing.
February 26th, 2023 at 9:21 PM ^
Huh? Neither played well.
February 26th, 2023 at 10:04 PM ^
Hard to lead the team in plus minus, exceeding the final margin by 13 (!!) if you don't play well. Defense and rebounding.
plus/minus is a statistical canard, particularly in college basketball.
February 27th, 2023 at 6:47 AM ^
TW3 played a very good game. There are a lot of people who just really don’t like him so they never think he plays well.
February 27th, 2023 at 3:56 PM ^
I don't understand why they haven't corrected his free-throw process. It's so much completely unnecessary motion. Obviously you don't do that in the middle of the season, but the goal should be a short easily repeatable motion to train on.
February 27th, 2023 at 12:42 AM ^
Fully agree. Reed entered at the 13-minute mark and blocked two shots, altered one or two other shots, and grabbed a difficult offensive rebound in four minutes. For some reason, that led to getting pulled until the final minute.
I have no idea why Reed isn’t getting 25+ minutes per game. If Howard opts to do that, this team could make a nice run in March.
February 26th, 2023 at 6:59 PM ^
Nice write-up; was looking forward to it!
Tremendous, miraculous yet still gutty win. The boys turned a lost season around, and all concerned deserve a ton of credit.
Kobe Bufkin has become a force - and he's mastered the Franz Wagner spider-arm incredible reach layup.
Dickinson made the play of his career in the most essential of moments. Amazing!
They're winning key games against equally desperate, motivated teams.
I think we're in if we can split the last two.
Go Blue!
February 26th, 2023 at 7:12 PM ^
I've watched the non call against Kobe 1o times,the shot blocker swings arm down and hits Kobe's head.When blockers hand/arm goes in downward motion it's typically called..It was Schirstto's (sp) call or I should say non call...Seth mentioned Wis.win 75% of games with that ref 51% without.
February 26th, 2023 at 7:38 PM ^
Good call. I was impressed with that level of detail that Seth included in his preview for this game, then surprised today when that official was part of the trio working the game. I didn't think he was necessarily a factor in how the game was called today, though there is a tendency of officials to let more questionable contact to to go in the closing seconds of a game. I think if I'd been inside the arena, I probably would have felt that the call was missed.
But CBS only showed the play once and then moved on to play in Wisconsin's end. The offending follow-through contact was never really shown in video replay, so the only witness reaction was the crowd responding to the apparent no-call. Michigan had a decisive edge in free throws as was the case for the Badgers when they played us at home.
From that standpoint, I thought the officiating was a non-issue, period.
February 26th, 2023 at 7:45 PM ^
Same ref called a foul on Kobe's clean block in OT.He was on far sideline behind the shootet.Ref on the other side has better view,he made no call.I agree Refs not a big factor today but I smell a Wis Ref Rat.
February 26th, 2023 at 8:16 PM ^
Frankly I thought the refs were fucking awful and that there about four phantom fouls called in Michigan in the second half and that Wisconsin got away with murder the entire second half. Dug literally got punched in the face and it took replay for them to even call it a foul.
February 26th, 2023 at 8:17 PM ^
The thing I've got a huge issue with -- and this may be the rules and not the refs -- is the out of bounds review towards the end of game when Dickinson apparently had the ball go off his hands last. The reason he couldn't corral the ball (and was visibly upset) was that he was very clearly grabbed on the forearm by another wisconsin player.
Correct me if I'm wrong -- the refs can spend 3 minutes looking at players fingernails to see if they touched the ball, but they can't incorporate what happened 1/10th of a second before to call an obvious foul and get the call correct?? If the refs are going to spend all this time doing reviews, there ought to be some concept of continuation (in reverse) so that they get the call right.
If Dickinson isn't grabbed in the end, it's an easy dunk for him. IIRC correctly, after the refs gave Michigan the ball (and maybe that was a make up for not being able to call a foul on the arm grab), Dickinson got fouled on an offensive rebound and made the free throws, so -- in this instance -- it worked out.
February 26th, 2023 at 8:27 PM ^
You can’t review a play for common fouls. The entire game would be a review. Same way you can’t review holding and pass interference in football.
February 26th, 2023 at 10:08 PM ^
Isn't PI reviewable in the NFL now?
February 26th, 2023 at 10:20 PM ^
I understand that we don't want to encourage more or longer reviews, but this is an example where the uncalled foul is a clear and direct cause of the very thing that is under review. Perhaps it is analogous to a defensive player being blocked into the punter -- I would hope that throwing a flag after having missed someone being blocked into the punter can be reversed upon review.
February 27th, 2023 at 9:26 AM ^
Great analogy.
February 26th, 2023 at 8:31 PM ^
The refs were abominable. And I don’t usually pay much heed to refs.
February 26th, 2023 at 8:14 PM ^
The offending follow-through contact was never really shown in video replay,
CBS showed a replay (probably the same one the crowd saw).
February 26th, 2023 at 11:30 PM ^
I seldom call out refs, but the second half was a complete shit show by the refs. Bufkin’s and Baker’s fourth fouls were crap and the foul that wasn’t called on Bufkin’s drive at the end was one of the worst missed calls I have seen. The guy clearly whacked Bufkin in the head as part of his attempt to block the shot. That is a foul in the first and last minute of any game, and that is not the type of call which can be missed because two of the three refs can clearly see it. Pathetic.
The hit on Dug, I can understand, as a ref, you are not expecting to see something like that on that part of the court. By the time you process what you saw, it’s too late to blow the whistle. Thankfully, they could review it, and get it right.
February 27th, 2023 at 8:38 AM ^
What I couldn't understand was that they stopped the game to review when McDaniel got smacked in the face when there hadn't been even a common foul called; why didn't they do the same on Bufkin's shot? Did they only stop it because McDaniel was hurt?
Either review them both, or review neither of them.
February 27th, 2023 at 12:02 PM ^
They review potential flagrant fouls. The foul on Bufkin should have been called but it wasn't flagrant.
February 27th, 2023 at 2:36 PM ^
Gotcha. I don't watch enough to know all the specifics of reviews in NCAABB, but I thought it was more akin to targeting, i.e., contact to the head gets a look.
February 26th, 2023 at 7:18 PM ^
Twitter reactions:
https://www.yahoo.com/sports/media-reacts-michigan-basketball-ot-214530785.html
Features a tweet from Santa Ono immediately followed by a tweet from Seth!
February 26th, 2023 at 7:23 PM ^
Oh, wow.
Go Blue.
Comments