Michigan 77, Iowa 71 (OT)
Moe Wagner "played" M's most critical minutes from the bench. [Marc-Gregor Campredon]
"I have no idea how we won the game," John Beilein said to BTN's Mike Hall.
Michigan didn't make a shot outside the paint until under ten minutes remained in the game. Their two best players, Moe Wagner and Muhammad-Ali Abdur-Rahkman, fouled out after playing 16 and 22 minutes, respectively. The Wolverines went 18-for-32 from the free-throw line. Players not named Duncan Robinson made zero of their ten three-point attempts while Iowa made four more shots from beyond the arc. Zavier Simpson took a late five-second call with the team clinging to a three-point lead. Jordan Bohannon sunk a dagger to send it to overtime not long thereafter.
With all that going against them, Michigan somehow found a way to pull out a 77-71 win over the pesky Hawkeyes to advance to the Big Ten Tournament quarterfinals. It was about as un-Beilein a game that the Wolverines have won in recent memory. The vast majority of their offense came from attacking the basket, going 25-for-43 (58.1%) on two-pointers. Michigan's resulting shot chart is unlike any I remember from the Beilein era (via ESPN):
Layups and, uh, more layups.
Meanwhile, the defense bounced back from an uncharacteristically bad first half to shut down Iowa's offense for the duration, highlighted by an overtime session in which the Hawkeyes didn't hit a field goal after their opening possession. That allowed Michigan to ultimately pull away despite an unnerving number of missed free throws in the deciding period.
Part of what made this game so frustrating is that Wagner and MAAR were both excellent when they were on the floor. MAAR stuffed the stat sheet with nine points on nine shot equivalents, five rebounds, three assists, and two steals; Wagner had 11 points, made four of his six two-pointers, and had a gorgeous no-look assist to Charles Matthews. An enragingly tight whistle—the two teams combined for 46 fouls—prevented either player, and Michigan, from getting into a consistent rhythm, however.
Matthews and Teske both came up big down the stretch. [Campredon]
Coming at just the right time, it was a get-right game for Charles Matthews. He led the team with 16 points, going 5-for-10 from the field and 6-for-10 from the line, and pulled down eight rebounds.
The supporting cast also picked up the slack. Robinson made three critical three-pointers, pulled down five boards, and came up with two steals while playing sturdy post defense. His counterpart at the four, Isaiah Livers, converted a few tough shots around the hoop to tally his most points (nine) since early January. Simpson converted five-of-nine two-pointers, frequently beating Bohannon off the dribble, grabbed a Waltonesque five defensive rebounds, and played his usual suffocating defense—Bohannon finished only 3-for-14 from the field. Jordan Poole had an up-and-down afternoon but did get a crucial steal and dunk in the second half. Like almost all of his teammates, he could finish at the hoop but didn't have his outside shot going.
Jon Teske's contributions were quite difficult to overlook. Iowa had a hard time converting at the rim with him patrolling the paint for 28 minutes; his two blocks and steal undersell his impact on defense. He did a lot more than come up with stops at the basket, including snatching a couple huge rebounds late and tapping another to Robinson while simultaneously sealing off Tyler Cook to effectively seal the game in overtime. While Teske struggled to actually put them back, he also grabbed a team-high four offensive rebounds. With Wagner unable to avoid whistles, Teske came up huge.
Michigan will hopefully get a few more threes to fall tomorrow afternoon in a tougher test against four-seed Nebraska. Even if they don't, though, they've found ways to win games anyway—plus, their two stars are impressively well-rested going into their second game in two days.
[Hit THE JUMP for the box score.]
THIS FRIGGIN' GUY [Campredon]
Stewart52 pointed out why, above. It was an awkward play, but Z still needed to be aware of the situation and call timeout.
"their two stars are impressively well-rested going into their second game in two days."
Now that's what I call finding the silver lining!
Is Fran McCaffrey Dylan's father?
Worse. He's his brother.
I wasn't able to watch, but 16 and 22 minutes for the two stars? Those sound like fake numbers even though they're not.
Mo or MAAR could have just donated $40 to get back in the game.
Yas.
Lights out tomorrow. Wouldnt want to be Nebraska.
Yep, flaws are what usually bite a team in the ass.
Free throw shooting is a frustrating flaw for a team, but it's better than getting killed on the offensive glass or having a seive of a defense.
Especially when there are often ways to paper over this particular flaw. If Michigan hadn't been 3 of 19 from 3, the frree throw shooting would have been an afterthought. Hit their normal percentage from behind the arc and they win by double digits in regulation.
It would not be an afterthought for me.
The free throw, but for the uncontested layup, is the easiest shot in basketball, and we are not good at it. In fact, we stink. Hard to believe that it is not mental at this point.
It will clearly be our Waterloo. It's just a question of when. Until then, I am enjoying the ride.
Very, very true.
Every gym's a little different. The NBA arenas can be an adjustment as they are so much larger and have different sightlines.
I don't think it was the rims. Iowa couldn't miss vs. Illinois, and I don't think they changed the rims overnight. But you're right; Poole, in particular, was way off. It might have been nerves, or maybe the sightlines, or playing in midafternoon, or.. not really sure. But I can't blame the rims here.
Choke on their whistles. Terribly officiated game.
Both sides.
And may they die in a grease fire.
So, in my mind, the refereeing is pretty equal to the near plane crash. A good rallying point!
I was actually pretty calm the first half, but I lost it the second half. I know basketball is hard to officiate, but this reeked. I don't know if any of the refs had money on the under, but Michigan didn't get one damn 50/50 call and many of their fouls were utter bullshit. This was made even more infuriating with the amount of physicality Iowa got away with at times, whether moving screens/picks or bodying up Michigan when they drove. It's not that that stuff doesn't get let go a lot, it's the lack of consistency from one end to the other. The thing is that when it comes to basketball I'm not sure how you fix it. I'd like to see an advantage call similar to soccer to prevent bullshit fouls that prevent easy hoops. I'd also like to see better training on what a foul is. Michigan got run over with position at least 3-4 times and didn't get one call. With balanced officiating this game wouldn't have been close.
We shouldn't be there playing the B1G tournament, but since we are, it is probably appropriate that we had such a bizarre game. Kudos to this team for continually finding new ways to win.
No Mo, MAAR, or Duncan for a late first half stretch.....down 5 at the half?
No worries, just come out with your hair on fire in a 11-0 run that makes everyone remember how good we can be.
Mo and MAAR held down all day with foul trouble.....at least they both made the most of their time on the court. Duncan wore the 6th man award proudly......
If I told you that the leading scorer would be Mathews, with Duncan and Z to follow and that we were going to miss 14 free throws, you wouldn't believe we could win. I wouldn't either.
Lots of times when a team excapes with a win in the post season, it can lead to a strong run. I'm voting for that. Mo and MAAR should be well rested.
Nebraska wanted Michigan. Well they got us (be careful what you ask for) .......
Lets win and advance again........
If I told you that the leading scorer would be Mathews, with Duncan and Z to follow and that we were going to miss 14 free throws, you wouldn't believe we could win.Matthews is the team's second-leading scorer on the season (ahead of MAAR and behind only Wagner) and Robinson is fourth, while Simpson (5th) has had a number of double-digit scoring nights. It's not that shocking that these guys filled it up. As for the FTs, well, 18-32's not too different from how we've been shooting a lot of nights.
Matthews didn't score in B1G play like he did in the non-con, but he still had a number of conference games in which he reached double figures.
Simpson was 0-4 from 3 today; it's not that he rediscovered his stroke from the perimeter. He simply continued his reliable shooting inside the arc - on the year he's shooting 56.8% (67-118) from 2.
Big 10: please pick one region to know nothing about. Thanks.
?
and yee-haw?
What yahoos.
3 were terrible calls
2 were 60-40 shouldn’t have been fouls
1 was legit.
One of the worst runs of bad calls I have seen
The 2000 Illinois football game was pretty bad in our favor.
There's always an adjustment to shooting in a new, large arena. That may have given Iowa an advantage, especially early. We could see some improved shooting today. That and some different refs could make today a good one.
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