Before the game if you would have told me that Michigan was only going to lose by 2 points at Indiana I would have been happy with it, but after watching the game only losing by two is frustrating because there are a lot of what if scenarios. Indiana was pretty much the team I expected them to be, they are very similar in talent to us, but extremely tough to beat on their home court. We had many chances to take leads at the end of the game, but we just couldn’t get over the hump in the end.
In order to beat IU I thought we would need to keep Zeller and Watford under 40 points combined, but that didn’t happen. They ended with 43 combined. There just really is no good matchups for either of those guys. Morgan is too slow to keep up with Watford, but too short to contain Zeller. McLimans came in and got abused by Watford, but he actually played decent defense. In the end though, he is just a little too weak to be able to slow down either of those guys. Smot played well when he was on the floor, but was called with too many touch fouls. It was the first game that we really missed having Horford on the floor. Instead of having another big body to battle down low, we had to use Hardaway, Novak, and even Douglass at times to guard Watford. None of those match ups are favorable for Michigan. Zeller was able to get into an offensive rhythm without much effort since most of his baskets were layups and dunks. We were able to contain their guards reasonably well for most of the game, but we lost a man once in a while. We have been doing this all year, but so far we haven’t played a team that made us pay for the defensive lapses. IU did. They are the number 3 team in the country at 3 point percentage, and when they play at home they are even better.
Also, last night was a perfect example of why it is so tough to win on the road in the B1G. Not only do you have to beat the home team, you have to beat their fans, and most importantly the refs. I am not going to spend too much time on this because it goes both ways, and at some point this year Michigan will benefit from some “homer” calls, but last night was ridiculous at times. There were at least 5 calls last night that were just flat wrong, and several more that were questionable. The calls that come to mind were: 2 times the ball clearly went off Zeller’s hands and out of bounds, yet the ball stayed with IU. They even reviewed one of them to see if the ball hit the rim first. So not only did IU get the ball back but they got a full 35 seconds to score (they made a 3). The foul on Stu at the end of the first half. It was a terrible inbounds pass, and Douglss anticipated it and got in the passing lane for a steal. Except he didn’t fully control it, just knock it in front of him to start a fast break. Hulls slides right in front of him stopping his path to the ball (which is a foul all day long on him), and some how Stu gets called. The traveling call at the end of the game on Novak was questionable at best. His head fake and drive is a play he has been using all season to get open shots, and he has not been called on a travel yet… probably because it isn’t a travel. Tim Hardaway had a steal and a fast break chance in the first half, and Hulls slid in front of him and lowered his left shoulder to induce contact. Hardaway put up the tough shot and it went in, and the whistle blew. They called an offensive foul on a guy not set or even square to the ball handler. So not only do we not get the bucket and a chance for a 3 point play, it is a foul on us, basket doesn’t count. Earlier in the first half Novak came across the lane to take a charge. He had time to make a sandwich and probably do some knitting, he gets ran over and the call is a blocking foul. It was the most animated I have seen Novak after a foul call. There are many more I can think of, but this list is already getting long enough. It is one thing if refs are just terrible, and they make bad calls for both teams, but last night the amount of bad calls going against us greatly outweighed those against the Hoosiers.
I said that Hardaway and Burke were going to have to play lights out and carry this team offensively. They did last night in terms of the amount of shots the two took. The only problem is that neither of them shot well for most of the game (11-34 combined). Hardaway came on for most of the 2nd half, while Burke had a good last 5 minutes. Burke wasn’t prepared for IU’s long hedge after the high screen from Morgan, in the first half Burke continued to want to drive after the screen. When the big man hedges out so far it stops the dribble penetration from the point guard, but it allows the center to slip down the lane for an open dunk. It is why Morgan had so many open looks in the 2nd half. Burke didn’t look for it once in the first. When we came out in the 2nd half and passed it to Morgan on 3 straight possessions, IU stopped hedging so far which allowed Burke to attack the paint more. Burke did not do a good job of controlling tempo last night, as many times he seemed rattled by the noise and would rush the ball with no help and a lot of times take an ill advised shot in a 1 on 3 fast break, no chance for an offensive rebound. Burke did do a good job in neutralizing Hulls scoring. I said Burke needs to be +12 over Hulls in scoring, and he finished only +7 (10 points for, 3 against). Burke was also pretty bad from the line, missing the front end of a one and one late in the first half as we were chipping the lead under single digits, and then missed both attempts in the 2nd half. Those 4 free throws would have made him +11, pretty important when we only needed 3 more points. Our defense did not force IU to take too many difficult shots, as they finished the game shooting well over 50% for the entire game. Any team will be tough to beat if they shoot that well for 40 minutes. Too many times our guys were late on the help side double team, did not get their hands up in the face of a shooter or in the passing lanes. Indiana is a very good team of making the one extra pass to get an even more open look. Even though Watford ended up with 25 points, he made quite a few extra passes which resulted in layups. Michigan’s defense needs to continue to improve in order to force more missed shots which can lead to transition points.
Michigan did do a good job of forcing turnovers, and then converting the turnovers into points. This is one of IU’s weaknesses, as it is with any team that plays at such a fast tempo, they turn the ball over too much. When they do, they need to be converted into easy buckets. Michigan was able to hang around last night because of the 15 Hoosier turnovers. We also rebounding reasonably well for the entire game, there were a few possessions that IU got offensive rebounds and easy put backs. They only finished with 5 compared to our 7 Orebounds.
Last night’s game did make me encouraged that this Michigan team should easily make the NCAA tourney this year, and have the opportunity to finish with an over .500 conference record for the first time in over 10 years. Even though Indiana seems to be America’s team early in the 2011-12 season, last night showed me that we are just as good as IU. We now need to continue to show that by taking care of our opportunities at home, and stealing a few games on the road. Last night was a missed opportunity to have an inside track at a very special season, but there is a long ways to go until March Madness and anything can happen (like PSU beating Purdue by 20 last night). \
Go blue!
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