When the Michigan threes were raining down in buckets on Thursday, I stood there and thought "I hope we save some for Saturday". That turned out to be the correct sentiment because Michigan could've used some today, as a 24% three point performance was one of several factors that doomed the Wolverines to an eleven point loss at home against rival Ohio State. Good offensive coaching and a solid defensive effort was not enough to overcome poor offensive execution for a Wolverine team that failed to muster 60 points. 

The Crisler Center crowd tonight donned blue to match their team's blue uniforms and came juiced up, riding high after the win on Thursday over Purdue. The first half was intense as expected. Michigan used their height advantage inside as Moussa Diabate and Hunter Dickinson combined for nearly half of the team's point total on 7/11 from the field. Eli Brooks chipped in a couple triples but the rest of the offense was pretty cold, including several misses on wide open threes. Still, a strong defensive effort held Ohio State to a similar point total, forcing EJ Liddell into tough makes and limiting offensive rebounds. The Buckeyes led 33-30 at the break. 

A story of the game for Michigan offensively was an inability to get much of anything going besides dunks and layups. Entry passes to the height inside was a matchup to exploit, but otherwise the outside shooting was cold and the switch everything OSU defense stunted the Michigan offensive flow. In addition, frequent doubles came on Hunter Dickinson, as you'd expect. Meanwhile the Michigan defense continued to put pressure on the Buckeyes but Liddell was the best player on the floor tonight and made difficult, NBA-caliber shots. 

Eli Brooks had a solid night [Campredon]

Ohio State got a couple jumpers from Malaki Branham early in the second half to push the margin to seven and that established a medium-sized OSU margin that wouldn't budge much throughout the final 20 minutes. Ohio State would pull 10 ahead, then Michigan would trim it to 5, and then OSU would push it back to 10. That seesaw was pretty consistent, with Ohio State's defense doing enough to stem any extended Wolverine run needed to claw back further. And on the flip side, someone, often Liddell, would hit a tough shot for the Buckeyes to bump the lead back up further. 

Case in point: Michigan managed to hack the Ohio State lead down to 52-47 with 5:00 to go, but after Dickinson turned it over, Liddell canned a corner three to push the margin back up to eight. A few minutes later it repeated, as Eli Brooks nailed a three, but Michigan couldn't get it closer than five following two Kyle Young free throws. DeVante' Jones missed a shot, and then Branham made a jumper to make it 61-52 OSU. With barely over two minutes left, the game was more or less over at this point. 

In the end, the Wolverines simply didn't muster enough scoring in a game where it felt like the opportunities were there. 4/17 from three on a lot of open looks is suboptimal, especially when you consider that three of the makes were from Eli Brooks. The rest of the team was 1/10 from beyond the arc. Hunter Dickinson scored 14 points but that was far from the dominance you expected from the big man against a team lacking a traditional center. The team limited turnovers decently well, but three from an out of control Frankie Collins stood out. 

Hunter wasn't as dominant as you'd probably like given the height advantage [Campredon]

Liddell led OSU with 28 points on 8/17 from the field. The Buckeyes didn't shoot well from three either, but they made lots of tough shots from inside the arc, with Cedric Russell helping out in that department. Ohio State shooting 20/37 from two despite what felt like a strong defensive effort is indicative of that reality. Only four players between the two teams scored in double figures. 

Michigan is now 13-10 overall and 7-6 in the conference. They went 2-1 over this huge week, which was the reasonable goal, but there is still plenty of work to do to get back into the playoff picture. Next week is a big one, with two huge road games against Iowa and Wisconsin. It feels like splitting the two is a necessity to continue the tourney push. The next game is not until Thursday, though, a plus for a team that has now played four games in eight days. Rest is needed. That game against the Hawkeyes is at 7:00 PM EST. The box score is after the jump. 

[Click the JUMP for the box score]