Michigan 61, Montana 47
(Left) Charles Matthews' dunks were a (the?) bright spot.
(Right) That game, the feeling. [Photos: J.D. Scott/MGoBlog]
Queme los game film.
Make sure the audio track burns, too.
Jane i'm so tired and there may be a living mythological siren in Wichita of all places, what happens if this game ends and I turn off the speakers but the screams still reach me
— Ryan (@kurogane) March 16, 2018
In the Before Time, when I could still hear pitches above a high B-flat, Montana jumped out to a 10-0 lead over a Michigan squad that very much looked like it'd had an extended layoff. The Wolverines adjusted to the aggressive trapping Grizzlies defense and held a three-point lead at halftime. A woman screamed as if she, also, was trapped by grizzlies.
Hopeless. [Scott]
The second half barely got started before the scorer's table lost power, causing a long delay. Just after the clocks returned to working order, TBS went to a media timeout. The screaming continued. Someone help her, please.
Montana went 34 minutes of real time—and ten minutes of game time—without a basket. In the interim, we all moved one day closer to death.
While Michigan didn't look a whole lot better on offense, they were at least capable of occasionally putting the ball in the basket. Charles Matthews mostly dunked his way to 20 points to lead all scorers. Muhammad-Ali Abdur-Rahkman chipped in 11 as the only other Wolverine in double figures. Others contributed. The screaming grew louder as the arena emptied. Both teams, haunted by visions of murder, failed to crack a point per possession.
The Wolverines face Houston, winners over San Diego State, at approximately 9:50 pm on Saturday. May the wailing of cursed souls cease by then.
[Hit THE JUMP for the box score.]
is it over [Scott]
Jaaron Simmons made a significant contribution with Zavier Simpson in foul trouble. [Scott]
March 16th, 2018 at 12:36 PM ^
The time was not used at all. Michigan basically ran a play while the clock was not moving, making that entire play void. Having the ball and driving the lane at 7 seconds is a much more advantagous position that getting the ball from an inbounds in the backcourt with 7 seconds. He used the time to get to that position. You cannot take away that position and still charge them the time spent to get that position.
[edit]: Imagine this happening on the last possession. 5 seconds left, drive and a kick to Duncan Robinson. He is about rise and shoot an open three with what would be 2 seconds left on the clock. The ref blows the whistle because the play clock is messed up, totally ending Michigan's chance to hit that three. Now the clock is fixed and wound down, and Michigan has to inbounds from half court with 2 seconds left. That would be utter bullshit.
Our defense held them to under 50. That's solid.
Move on, don't look back. Nothing to see here.
I expected us to be rusty.
The transition game was blah. Any time they tried going up tempo, they'd be out of control at the basket or would throw passes that were picked off. Let's just hope they got the suck out of their system moving forward.
And f*ck TBS for going to a media timeout after the shot clock's power was finally restored. Going to tons of commerical breaks is common. But these were longer commercial breaks. The technical difficulties holdup would have been better suited for the first half when the eye cancer was stronger. I kind of felt like we were finally getting some rhythm going when this happened.
Time to move on and hopefully play better. Beat Houston!
My son could barely watch the game, with the incessant wailing of the banshee in the crowd.
I'd be curious to hear if someone was there in person who can comment . . . was she just near the microphones? Did her wail fill the entire arena? Were the coaches and players cognizant of her cries? Was she mourning the death and disembowlment of the Grizzlies?
This was not a very pleasant game to watch. And a less pleasant game to listen to. (I also didn't much care for the announcing team.) And as unpleasant as the game was, it was made worse by the clock malfunction, and the ridiculous comments from the crew. ("They should go to Costco and buy a clock." Really?) I'm a Michigan fan, and that's about the only thing that kept me there through the end. I really hope that this knocks the so-called rust off the Wolverines. They won't go very far with this kind of play.
March 16th, 2018 at 10:04 AM ^
March 16th, 2018 at 10:32 AM ^
I didn't hear her from my seats in the Aztecs section (across from the Michigan bench). I've seen people suggest she's a band member; that would put her next to the microphone.
The place was nearly empty by the end. A couple of thousand Michigan fans, a few hundred Montana fans, and nobody else.
I feel like it's a fairly big story (in these parts anyways) that Simmons got 14 minutes. He was helpful in getting us out of the rut in the first half, but it definitely felt like Beilein was trying to send a message to the team and specifically Z. In any event, Seeing Simmons be effective bodes well for this team's ability to hang.
March 16th, 2018 at 10:04 AM ^
Second half starts, Z comes back in, we go up 10. Z gets two more fouls with like 5 minutes left and returns to the bench for bit. Foul trouble is the only reason he didn’t play 35 minutes.
Early foul on Z, so that makes more sense. I saw Beilein bench MAAR after his quick foul in the first minute and thought he had done the same to Z. Regardless, I still think it's a positive development potentially worthy of more discussion that Simmons played well in extended minutes and really served as a catalyst to the offense while it was anemic.
doing that pffftt sound. not sure what it is called. i searched the internet some and best description seems to be a "lip trill." Some refernced motorboating but that has a different meaning to me after wedding crashers
anyway that slo-mo version they aired a couple of times before commerical breaks perfectly sums up this game
March 16th, 2018 at 10:32 AM ^
a raspberry has a similar sound perhaps, but has a more tightly pursed lips and usually involves the tongue
I didn't plan to watch the game either, but while checking the ESPN app on my phone, I was curious to see why it stopped updating around the 17:00 mark. Of course I cussed my phone, internet connection and everything else, forcing me to turn on the TV. Dear God was I punished.
The defense was good, but my word those were some ugly shots by both teams. Not to mention the TV timeouts every 2 minutes. Basketball in general has too many stoppages, but this was brutal.
Burn the tapes and shit out all memories of this game. Maybe use that flashy thing from Men In Black (wish I could). On to Houston!
March 16th, 2018 at 10:07 AM ^
It was boring and slow. It never felt like we were completely in control even though we were up by ~10 for the majority of the game
March 16th, 2018 at 10:38 AM ^
Michigan was in control from the time the score was 10-5. At no point after that did I feel that Montana was a serious threat to win.
Frustrating? Sure. But Montana scored 2 points in the first 10 minutes of the second half.
A bunch of people went to the exits at the 10 minute mark, when the score was 44-30. Somebody near me mentioned it, and I said, "They probably don't think Montana can get to 44." And, you know what? I was half-kidding at the time, but I honestly believe that, if Michigan somehow hadn't scored another point, the final would have been like 44-41. Montana got a few of their points when Michigan relaxed a little bit in garbage time.
March 16th, 2018 at 10:18 AM ^
March 16th, 2018 at 10:27 AM ^
I'm just glad i wasn't the only one that heard the screaming
March 16th, 2018 at 11:28 AM ^
March 16th, 2018 at 12:38 PM ^
When Krakatoa erupted, they claim the pressure wave was recorded 7 times as it continued revolving around the globe. I suspect that banshee's echo may be heard at least that many times.
March 16th, 2018 at 10:37 AM ^
I think people are undersellng just how good Montanas defense was last night. Michigan didnt know what to do when Montana trapped the ball off the high screen. There was definately some rust as evidenced by the transition turnovers but most of the credit belongs to Montana. They took our high screen action away from us completely, neutralizing our drive and kick and pick and pop game. That was a masteful game plan by the Montana coaching staff similar to the Nebraska road game and I hope future opponents arent able to emulate it.
March 16th, 2018 at 10:42 AM ^
Agreed, although I thought Michigan had the trap figured out a couple of times, starting late in the first half. Montana switched up defenses a bit after that and created some more havoc.
However, the biggest problem was that Michigan decided they wanted to run. It was as if they were so afraid of the trap -- even though I maintain they'd mostly solved it -- that they tried to force the tempo at every opportunity. The problem was, the Montana defenders were excellent in transition. They intercepted several passes that looked to be easy layups. Also, Michigan fumbled at least one (and, I think, two) lobs out of bounds.
In a weird way, this is a really good win for Michigan. There's no way anybody on that team is going to be complacent. And, Houston's defense seems to be "in your shirt" the same way that Montana's is (I didn't notice as much trapping, though). I expect we'll see a different Michigan team tomorrow.
March 16th, 2018 at 10:37 AM ^
"In the interim, we all moved one day closer to death."
"Both teams, haunted by visions of murder, failed to crack a point per possession."
March 16th, 2018 at 10:53 AM ^
I'm at work having a shit day and I read this post. I am in tears from laughter, thank you for this Ace.
March 16th, 2018 at 11:09 AM ^
I'll always take a 14 point win even if it was somewhat brutal in many ways. We could've easily scored another 15 or 20 (open 3 misses plus lazy fast breaks) if not rusty and with the stoppage in my opinion and had a 30 point win.
Now in Round of 32 I can't see Gray going off for another career high so someone else will need to step up for Houston. They played a much more grueling game and I think we'll see our rested players pay off Saturday night at 9:40 (or 10:20).
March 16th, 2018 at 11:10 AM ^
Did anyone have luck finding the Matt Shepard / Terry Mills broadcast last night? I usually listed to Michigan IMG radio and mute my TV and sync up the radio with what I'm seeing on TV. It's great! But the TuneIn radio app I always use wasn't broadcasting the play by play. Anyone have any luck finding it on another channel or app??
March 16th, 2018 at 11:14 AM ^
- Go to the official mgoblue.com website.
- Find the basketball game.
- Click on the audio symbol.
- Listen.
This has always worked for me. And yes, I like the way they broadcast and comment on the game.
March 16th, 2018 at 11:20 AM ^
Terry is a little frustrating sometimes, as he steadfastly refuses to learn anything about basketball beyond what he learned during his playing days. Shepard seems to have a better understanding of analytics. I don't want every broadcast to be nothing but statistics, but I also don't need empty platitudes about "seeing the ball go through the hoop" in order to break out of a slump or "feeding the post" in order to execute highly unproductive offense just because that's how it was done in the 80s.
There are a lot of things we did in the 80s that seemed like a good idea at the time. :)
Shepard and Mills broadcast a good game.
I don't know how many times I turned down the sound...eventually I decided I could do mostly without color commentary if I didn't have to hear the screaming lady...errr...woman. But the inconsistent officiating was the most maddening thing, How you go from the ticky tack first two phanthom M fouls within the first 30 seconds; to the "I wonder how few fouls we can call in the second half" no matter how many times guys get slapped while driving the lane; I don't know.
It gave me a flashback to pickup games at the IM or CCRB (about 40 years ago) when everything was cool, then you played this team of former high school wrestlers who defended with an attempted takedown.
And curse Jim Delany and the Big Ten for taking a team on a roll and making us wait nearly two weeks to play at the most crucial time of year!
"When is Duncan Robinson going to score his 6th point?" Is that still a thing?
Comments