Purdue 70, Michigan 69
[Marc-Gregor Campredon]
Thirty-nine minutes and fifty-four seconds of exquisite basketball ruined by replay.
Michigan and Purdue played an absolute classic tonight. Twice the fifth-ranked Boilermakers stretched their lead to double digits; twice Michigan clawed their way back, finally taking their first lead of the game with under five minutes remaining.
Moe Wagner went toe-to-toe with Isaac Haas in the post. Zavier Simpson hit multiple floaters over seven-footers, including one to beat the first-half buzzer. Charles Matthews hit a couple cold-blooded jab-step threes. Jordan Poole scored eight points in seven minutes. Isaiah Livers was everywhere. Regardless of outcome, it was a game that showed Michigan's present and (especially) future are both bright.
But about that outcome. With under ten seconds on the clock in a 69-69 tie, Matthews came off a Wagner screen, got a step on Dakota Mathias, and drove hard to the basket. Mathias reached through Matthews and poked the ball out from behind, no foul, Michigan ball—as with countless plays before it, the gentleman's agreement to give that play to the offense applied.
Then the refs went to the scorer's table and spent five minutes Zaprudering the play, killing much of the considerable excitement from the wild back-and-forth affair before eventually determining the ball lingered on Matthews's hand for a frame or two after the Mathias poke. Purdue got the ball, Wagner committed a (legitimate) foul on Haas, who made the first of two free throws. A buzzer-beating heave by Matthews took a painful journey around the rim and out.
It's hard not to feel robbed. While it's also hard not to be excited about this team, that rings hollow when a call that's never made in the first 38 minutes of a game costs them a much-needed signature win. The future is bright. The present, for the moment, is stupid.
[Hit THE JUMP for the box score.]
January 9th, 2018 at 11:50 PM ^
there's a worse overturned call in all of basketball. Since Dr. James Naismith invented the game, defense forces the ball out of bounds, offense ball.
Horrible way to lose. Our young men deserved better.
Wow, they played a great game.
January 10th, 2018 at 12:22 PM ^
Classic case of refs asserting complete control and deflating and ruining the flow of a marvelous basketball game. Dudes, IT'S NOT ABOUT YOU!
January 10th, 2018 at 1:21 PM ^
+1 Ricky
Not enough driveway hash in Sunnyvale to get me over this one.
January 9th, 2018 at 11:55 PM ^
The out of bounds call off Matthews was one of the worst pieces of basketball officiating I've ever seen.
If you're holding a ball and I hit it out of your hand, you will be the one to touch it last every single time under close examination. Why? Because you were holding the fucking ball.
The interpretation of the rule we saw tonight makes absolutely zero sense. What a disgrace to the game.
January 10th, 2018 at 6:13 AM ^
January 10th, 2018 at 7:34 AM ^
Who thinks the calls would go against Izzo? No chance in Hell that MSU gets raped like that.
January 10th, 2018 at 10:40 AM ^
I missed the game, so don't know if this applies here, but the replay rule on out of bounds plays is at it's worst when there really is a ticky-tack foul that could legitmately have been called but the official in real time made the justified decision to just reward an out of bounds to the offense. Then on review, it shows that the ball hit the offense last, which they have to overturn, but can't go back and then award the ticky-tack foul the official would have called to provide an equitable outcome.
Basketball is a fast game with many, many close calls over the course of the game, and several calls a game where an official reaches for an equitable result without having to enforce each rule to the letter. While I wouldn't argue that reviews shouldn't exist in basketball, I think they should be limited to 30 seconds and not show slow-motion reviews. If you can clearly tell the call was wrong at real speed in a short amount of time, overturn the call. If you can't, let it stand.
January 10th, 2018 at 11:24 AM ^
I get that they don't want to have foul calls made on replay (god, I can't imagine how much worse replay would be if they could do that too), but they ought to allow the refs to consider it in determining who gets the ball out of bounds. If it's technically off the offensive team but the guy was fouled, don't call it an actual foul, just award the ball to the offensive team out of bounds (like a foul when a team isn't in the bonus anyway). That they have to be blind to the contact in determining who gets the ball is a replay problem in both the NBA and college.
They also should limit replay to no more than 1/2 speed or something, and time-limit it. This frame-by-frame business (1) makes the replay drag out even longer and (2) results in goofy calls like this where the ball is contacting the offensive player's hand slightly longer than the guy who poked it away due to basic shit like friction/physics.
January 10th, 2018 at 10:47 AM ^
January 10th, 2018 at 11:26 AM ^
January 9th, 2018 at 11:51 PM ^
January 9th, 2018 at 11:51 PM ^
there is a moment in basically every slide into a bag where the runner's foot comes of the bag for an instant before his leg hits. If you slow it down to a frame-by-frame you can call the guy out according to the letter of the rule. But at that point you're just punishing a player for unavoidable physics.
Unless a defender rips completely through the ball, the ball is virtually always going to be in the ballhandler's hand for an instant or two after the defender knocks it away. It's basically unavoidable. You're punishing a guy because frame by frame replay reveals a physical reality we had all just previously agreed to ignore and could never catch in real time.
It's beyond me how that accomplishes anything useful for the game or is in the spirit of the rule.
January 9th, 2018 at 11:58 PM ^
That call is going to go the same way live EVERY time -- offense keeps the ball. Only replay screws it up, and completely reverses the eminently proper call that would always be made every other time. Oh, and completely ruins the flow of the game in the process. Maybe Dakich is right -- end replay.
January 10th, 2018 at 5:37 AM ^
I side with the "end replay" camp myself. I'm not sure what size the camp is, but I am tired of the super slow replays with incredible resolution that are changing the way the games have been called forever. This goes for football and baseball too. Not to mention the momentum and game flow killing stoppages in play to look at a play for 5 minutes.
You see it in baseball with guys sliding over the base or being 1/100 of an inch away from the base on turning a double play. You see it every week it seems in football with some ridiculous overturn of a TD by a WR for "not surviving the ground" or some other silly reason to say what we all know is a TD is not a TD.
Mike Mayock who I think is one of the best analysts out there was calling an NFL game on the radio this past weekend and he said he would like to see replay go away. Ian Eagle who was doing the play by play agreed with him.
I don't know what the answer is as officiating seems to be going downhill in all sports, but replay is getting out of control with the literal interpretation of plays and with the amount of plays that get reviewed.
January 10th, 2018 at 9:46 AM ^
There is a lot that is hidden from a ref in football with catches and guys running down the sideline and getting their foot down, or crossing the plane. There are also more stoppages between plays
In basketball, either the ball goes in or not. Shot clock checks at end of game seem to be the most important and are easy to check. Toes on lines and such seem like they are not worth it to tear up the flow of the basketball game. This was a rediculous review. Between the reversal of the call and the time it took to "get it right" it took the wind out of an exciting end.
January 10th, 2018 at 10:32 AM ^
January 10th, 2018 at 12:05 AM ^
January 10th, 2018 at 1:12 AM ^
January 10th, 2018 at 11:07 AM ^
Well said. Excellent analogy. Slide calls have been way over-litigated since they added replay and plays that NEVER would've been caught by the naked eye take runners off the bases. What bothers me is if the manager calls to see if the runner beat the tag and then replay shows that he did in fact beat. But he came off for a split second when the glove is still applied and he's called out. So infuriating.
January 9th, 2018 at 11:52 PM ^
This team is fun to watch. There's no reason we can't go 12-6 in the BIG and make another Sweet 16 appearance. If it happens, that would have to be Beilein's best coaching job ever.
And next year . . . Whoa, Nellie!
January 10th, 2018 at 10:07 AM ^
January 10th, 2018 at 10:30 AM ^
It seems to be the consensus that we will lose one or both of Matthews and Wagner, but neither looks ready to go pro to me. I realize the NBA frequently drafts on potential and Matthews has a metric fuck ton of it, but his game just doesn't look ready to me. I haven't seen all the games this year, so maybe it's showing up when I'm not watching.
January 10th, 2018 at 11:18 AM ^
Agree. Mattews' game isn't very polished yet and Wagner seems weak on D. Wagner is def long and athletic enough to be a good defender but I think its mental with him. Also Matthews' shot needs a little work, esp. at the line. If I'm an NBA exec I don't know if I want to take a chance on a dude who is a straight up bad foul shooter. Stay another year and fix what you need to.
January 10th, 2018 at 12:00 PM ^
by improvements and increases in minutes from the underclassmen and incoming freshmen.
5: Teske is already not a dropoff from Wagner (and statistically is an improvement). If Davis or Castleton can be decent as backups, the 5 will be just fine next year. If Teske gets some touch around the rim and improves even a fraction of the amount he improved from last year to this year, the position could be better off.
4: Full Livers/Johns/Iggy at the 4 will be a huge improvement over minutes split with Robinson (which is already being realized).
3: Matthews is the real wildcard, both from his own uncertainty (would he go?) and uncertainty behind him. If he goes, it's possible Iggy/Johns are not only capable replacements but possible improvements by the end of the year. If Matthews goes, we still should be as good as this year, but may not be better. If he stays, competing for the conf title and making the sweet 16 should be the expectation and then some.
2: MAAR is a nice player but Poole is already a better shooter and more athletic. He's on a trajectory to be better than MAAR by next year.
1: Obviously, junior Z, sophomore Brooks and DeJulius project to be better than the current versions of themselves.
January 9th, 2018 at 11:52 PM ^
January 10th, 2018 at 12:03 AM ^
can go against the spirit of the game.
And any rule can be twisted by a corrupt ass determined enough to twist either its interpretation or the selectivity of its implementation towards a particular end.
Such bullshit.
January 10th, 2018 at 12:11 AM ^
January 10th, 2018 at 8:23 AM ^
Replay is being overused right now to the point where it's detracting from the sport (whichever you're talking about - football, baseball, etc.). I think instead of eliminating it, that somehow limiting its use to only certain situations would be the right approach. Of course, how to do it is the issue.
January 10th, 2018 at 9:04 AM ^
Give these guys 30 seconds (short timeout) to review and make a decision. If what you see within 30 seconds doesn't change the call then move on and get on with the damn game.
It almost left like in this case they were looking and reviewing and examining and reviewing and reviewing until they saw something that would overturn the call...it's like they wouldn't stop until they saw what they needed to overturn it.
January 10th, 2018 at 8:55 AM ^
The problem is it's really hard to limit replay. Say you only use it for the "obvious calls," people are going to see things during those replays that they want overturned. A good example is the baseball sliding thing mentioned above. That seems like an obious use of replay. Just see if the ball or runner got there first. But then that evolves into a frame-by-frame analysis of the physics of motion. It's hard to draw those lines.
January 10th, 2018 at 9:06 AM ^
Seems like such an easy fix and I think would keep the spirit of the game. 15 seconds to review. If its not obvious (no frame by frame, enhance, enhance, enhance stuff), then it stands. Can't believe they haven't implemented something like that in basketball. I believe they have in baseball right?
January 9th, 2018 at 11:52 PM ^
drop the mike Ace!
January 9th, 2018 at 11:53 PM ^
January 9th, 2018 at 11:54 PM ^
January 10th, 2018 at 6:31 AM ^
Well, Mo stayed.
January 9th, 2018 at 11:54 PM ^
January 10th, 2018 at 12:55 AM ^
He will be an NBA player sooner than we all want. Sometime soon he will be a tall Trey Burke type offensive player. By that I mean the best offensive player on the floor. Him and Livers ooh boy.
January 10th, 2018 at 9:56 AM ^
with the exception of Robinson. I missed almost all of the first half, but when he came in for a minute or two in second half, Purdue immeadiately attacked him. Since he isn't hitting on the other end, and other guys are, his defense is too much of an issue to be on the floor much. I was glad to see Michigan pull him pretty quick.
Also, that move by Zavier on the baseline against Haus (I think) with the little shake and reverse scoop was so pretty. Like a combo of Trey Burke and Spike.
January 10th, 2018 at 10:23 AM ^
Agreed. I'm really enjoying watching him play and really like his enthusiasm.
January 9th, 2018 at 11:56 PM ^
January 10th, 2018 at 12:02 AM ^
January 10th, 2018 at 12:09 AM ^
January 10th, 2018 at 1:36 AM ^
until the last FT. The game was tied with 2:30 remaining and both teams came up empty on a couple possessions before the Matthews TO. I did think our offense was awful the two possessions before the TO, but our defense also came up with big stops to keep it tied.
January 10th, 2018 at 6:59 AM ^
Mathews played hero ball at the end and it didn't work out too well.
January 10th, 2018 at 9:41 AM ^
I was ticked when out of that timeout with like 1:15 left , somebody immediately mishandled the ball and then the motion/pick or whatever wasn't there and Rahkman ended up hurling up a shot as the shot clock expired. Golden opportunity. Also don't know whay Beilein didn't call a timeout when Matthews pushed it into the frontcourt after the missed FT - Michigan still had a timeout right?
January 10th, 2018 at 12:13 AM ^
January 10th, 2018 at 6:34 AM ^
Agree that Matthews went too early, but the reason he couldn't handle his dribble was that he was hit on the arm.
January 10th, 2018 at 12:05 AM ^
marred by awful officiating at the end.
Still, that was fun.
John Beilein basketball is fun.
Young stalwarts Poole and Livers are fun.
Vastly improved Simpson and Teske are fun.
Upperclass leadership of MAAR and Wagner is fun.
Early season mess turning into late season surge is fun.
Next season's prospects really fun.
Michigan basketball = Fun!
Comments