Michigan Men's Basketball's 2023-24 season, the worst in four decades (or longer), met its merciful conclusion tonight at the Big Ten Tournament. The team trailed a 15-16 Penn State team for nearly the entire contest, falling behind by 11 at halftime, making a small push in the early second half, before falling apart and then going out with its tail between its legs. Michigan made one of its final 10 field goals and did not score a point over a four minute stretch in the game's waning moments, not scoring again until the walk-ons were in. The game that unfolded on the court from both teams was sloppy, disorganized, and fitting of two bad teams. Michigan finishes the season 8-24. 

The first 13 minutes of the game were arguably the worst combined sequence of basketball between the two teams of Michigan's season, a year where there have been plenty of candidates. Michigan's offense was turning the ball over with machine-like efficiency, committing three in the first 2.5 minutes and they had seven turnovers on their first 15 possessions(!!!). Michigan couldn't hang onto the ball and it's not like Penn State was playing a whole lot better, the shooting quite cold and too many turnovers themselves. At the under eight media timeout the score sat at 16-10 in favor of the Nittany Lions, with the two teams combining for 12 turnovers against nine made field goals.

It was a game that certainly looked like the 14 seed vs. the 11 seed in the B1G Tournament (mostly because it was). Nimari Burnett was Michigan's only positive offensive contributor early on, making three triples in the first half while Dug McDaniel, the team's usual offensive engine, was ice cold (0 points, 0/5 in the first half). Burnett's third three cut the lead to 18-16 PSU and Michigan would end up tying it at 20 with just under 4.5 minutes to play. It felt like Michigan was playing poorly, but their opponent wasn't doing much better and the Maize & Blue were hanging around. 

 

[Marc-Gregor Campredon]

Penn State tacked on a 10-0 run, though, that gave them full control of the game going into halftime. They got it started with a three from the wing by Zach Hicks, added a neat little layup from Qudus Wahab, and then McDaniel was stripped by Ace Baldwin Jr., fouling in response. PSU made both free throws in the bonus to lead by seven and the lead hit double figures a half-minute later when Hicks drilled a corner trey. Hicks added one more three in the final minute and Jaelin Llewellyn's tough runner was off the mark as the horn sounded and Penn State led 33-22 at the break, using that strong spurt late to grab command. Michigan shot 7/29 from the floor and turned it over eleven times in the first half. 

They also were dealing with foul trouble, a theme that would continue in the second half. McDaniel, Tarris Reed Jr., and Will Tschetter all accrued two fouls in the first half, leaving them vulnerable. However, the early stages of the second half were good for Michigan, the only good string of basketball they played all game. Burnett stayed hot with a driving layup on the team's first offensive possession and Reed made a spectacular block from behind on Wahab on the team's first defensive possession. The tone was set and Michigan then got McDaniel into the game with a three (his first FG of the contest), followed by a Terrance Williams II jumper. Quick 7-0 run and Michigan was only down 33-29. 

Michigan was hanging in there down only 40-35 about four minutes into the second half and that was more or less where the fun ended. They couldn't get consistent stops, which dampened their ability to make a major run even as their two primary problems offensively in the first half (turnovers and McDaniel's struggles) improved. Michigan turned it over only once in the first 10 minutes of the second half, while McDaniel began to look more like himself, still not at his best but a drive and layup to trim the lead to 50-46 Nittany Lions was a sign that Dug was more alive. That McDaniel layup came just over the midway point of the half, while Reed was on the bench after picking up his fourth foul and just before the wheels began to come off.

 

[Marc-Gregor Campredon]

Michigan scored just five points over a nine minute span thereafter, bricking shots from all over the court while their defense was of course unable to muzzle Penn State enough to stomach that atrocious effort from the offense. Even the best defenses in college hoops wouldn't do well trying to support an offense that scores five points in nine minutes, but Michigan's is uniquely ill-equipped for that situation. PSU didn't run away with it, but they chipped in points to continue stretching the lead, going up by nine on a Wahab hook with 7.5 minutes left and then restoring a double digit lead with under 6 minutes left on a desperation heave three from Hicks. 

You didn't get the sense, given the way the game had gone, that Michigan had much of a run up their sleeve to get back in the game. But even considering those low expectations, the way Michigan's offense went out in this game was shambolic. There was an 0/2 trip to the line for Williams. There was Reed fouling out. There was a possession where Michigan got three open looks for jumpers around the court and missed all three. There was Jace Howard missing the front end of a one-and-one, Michigan getting the offensive rebound, and Howard missing a point-blank layup. They could not facilitate coherent offense and their shooters could not hit the broad side of the barn. 

The final minutes of the game didn't have any intensity to speak of and Michigan didn't begin intentionally fouling until Burnett did so with 1:08 left. The score was 64-51 Penn State and frankly, there didn't seem to be much point in doing so. Like so many Michigan games in the second half of this season, the game ended with an array of walk-ons in the game. Jackson Selvala's three was the last score of the game- and of Michigan's season- cutting the deficit to nine. The final score was 66-57 in favor of Penn State, Selvala's three to cut it to single digits thereby ensuring that this game would be only Michigan's second loss by <10 points in the past two months. In the words of a PSU fan watching: 

haven't watched michigan play much this year so this is my first real extended watch and my thoughts are as follows: jesus christ

— Bill DiFilippo (@billdifilippo) March 14, 2024

[AFTER THE JUMP: Thoughts on the season]

 

[Marc-Gregor Campredon]

At 8-24, Michigan will not be invited to a postseason tournament, as they were last season. In other words, the season is over. The list of ignominious stats one can conjure up about this season from hell are seemingly endless. Michigan ends the season on a nine game losing streak, winning just one of their final fifteen games. After starting the year 6-5, Michigan finished 2-19 in their last 21 games. They finished 5-21 after beating St. John's in Madison Square Garden, a notion that seems almost impossible to have believed at the time. Even crazier: the men's basketball team won as many games in calendar 2024 as the football team did (2). 

Michigan finishes the season ranked 128th in KenPom, 98th on offense and 183rd on defense. Their eight wins are the fewest for the program since Bill Frieder's 1981-82 team finished 7-20. They were the first Michigan team to finish last in the conference in over a half-century. Not a single player on the roster was anywhere to be found on the media's list of voting for awards this week, save for Will Tschetter winning the team's sportsmanship award, a completely meaningless distinction in the way of on-court talent. For a program that made the NCAA Tournament (or was going to make it in 2019-20's case) 11 of 12 seasons in the very recent past, a period that included two national championship game appearances, three B1G regular season crowns, and two B1G Tournament crowns, this season was an embarrassment. 

This Michigan team was a calamitous mix of poor talent and poor coaching. The problems ran deep, down to a roster that had too many wings and not nearly enough guards or big men. But the talent level was also not any good, magnified during the period of Dug McDaniel's away game suspension and Olivier Nkamhoua's late season injury. Their defense was the worst anyone in recent memory has seen a Michigan team field (even Beilein's first team finished higher in defensive efficiency), a problem that can only be partially chalked up to talent. You don't get to 183rd in defense with high major talent without profound coaching and effort problems. Their offense was better, as they were a decent shooting team contrary to expectations pre-season. But they had one offensive creator, little flow or ball movement, and were at times (like tonight) a turnover factory. 

 

[David Wilcomes]

Spoken as someone who wrote recaps for ~24 of 32 games this season, I feel qualified saying this was a terrible basketball team. They did very little good and from a fan perspective, there was almost nothing redeeming about this group. It was fitting that the newest forum on the MGoBoard when I sat down to write this was titled "It's finally, mercifully over". That's the mood of the fanbase right now and it is completely justified. If anything, people should probably be more angry rather than cynical or pessimistic. Michigan Men's Basketball is capable of so much better and we have a decade's worth of evidence for that. 

With the season reaching its conclusion, now comes the period of review for the coaching staff. For some time the belief had been that Athletic Director Warde Manuel was planning to retain head coach Juwan Howard. However, John U. Bacon tweeted this week that "(Manuel) now seems less inclined to protect Howard's job". We shall see what happens. That it is a debate of any kind is completely outrageous and an indictment of every decision-maker in charge of this choice, with Manuel of course being the most notable. Howard just finished his fifth year on the job and put together a team that went 8-24... one year after the team missed the NCAA Tournament for the first time in eight years. This year should've been the make-it-or-break-it season for Howard to assert that he is the coach of the future, with a vision for the program.  

In that effort Howard failed spectacularly. Maybe it was because of Howard's medical situation, having had a serious cardiac procedure before the season. Certainly onerous transfer rules that Michigan self-imposes made it more difficult for him to build a roster. But Northwestern also self-imposes strict transfer rules and the 'Cats are 21-10 and 41st in KenPom. There are things that have made Howard's life more difficult but I have a general rule for Michigan Basketball: if at any point Craig Ross tells me "you know, this Michigan team might be the worst since the 1959-60 team" and the coach responsible for that team is not a first year coach, that person must be shown the door. No amount of bad luck or unfortunate circumstances make that okay. There has to be a line where firing is mandatory. 

 

[Marc-Gregor Campredon]

Especially not when you factor in the off-the-court issues that have surrounded the program, most notably the altercation with Jon Sanderson this season but also including McDaniel's suspension and issues dating back to the Howard slap against Wisconsin in 2022. There have been too many shenanigans off the court to justify the dumpster fire on the court. With Howard's buyout being only $3 M, there should not be any debate about what to do. Not when you arch-rival swallowed a $13 M buyout during this season and immediately began to see their team play better under the interim. Ohio State is serious about winning basketball games. Is the University of Michigan? 

Entertaining bringing Howard back is insulting to the intelligence of every fan and alumni of the University of Michigan. Fans give their time, energy, and dollars to this team and endorsing Howard, making the implicit statement that this is okay is a slap in the face of every one of those fans. If Manuel wants to take those fans for granted, he is allowed to do so but the fans are allowed to respond as well. As we saw over the course of this season, those fans should not be taken for granted. Attendance dwindled as Crisler Center began to fill up with fans wearing opposing colors and this site has barely discussed basketball outside of Seth's lonely previews and my lonely recaps.

Michigan Men's Basketball is not the institution that football is. It needs to put a watchable product on the court for the average Wolverine to care. This season there was not a watchable product after the third week of November. Everyone deserves better and this program needs a fresh start after three consecutive years with the arrow pointing downwards. Hopefully those in charge of steering the ship will recognize that. Or else they can deal with the ire of the fanbase.