Well the 2011-2012 home finale was a bit of a disappointment. Must be all of AA had no energy Saturday night because the crowd was quiet and late getting to the game, and so were the players (they may have never arrived). The result was a 75-61 loss to the Boilermakers.
It might have been one of the Wolverines worst performances of the year. It was disheartening to watch. I fully expected to win, and I almost forgot to consider that they had a chance to actually lose. Well it seemed like most of the team felt the same way. Purdue started out on a 12-2 run, after Novak missed an easy 10 foot jumper and Hardaway missed THREE open looks from deep. The last one didn’t even hit the rim from straight away. It was a mess. For the next 20 minutes or so of the game, Michigan began to whittle away at the deficit eventually taking the lead 42-40 midway through the 2nd half. Things were looking up, even though it would be an ugly win, it seemed like Michigan was finally in a place to complete their dream undefeated home schedule. Then Michigan went back to the lazy basketball they showed during the first 8 minutes of the ball game.
Defensively, Michigan was pretty terrible. They continued its strategy from the Northwestern game to switch on every ball screen. This left Burke on Hummel a few times along with Morgan to cover wing players. The Purdue wings had career days, especially Johnson. He finished with a career high 22 points, on what seemed like nothing but layups. Michigan just did not adjust. Purdue went away from the inside out game for stretches and relied on Johnson and Jackson just attacking the rim. Burke continued to struggle against Jackson, and Novak had his hands full trying to cover a bigger, quicker guard. Purdue also only turned the ball over 5 times the entire game. Michigan is the 2nd best team in the B1G at forcing turnovers, but they had no opportunities to convert mistakes into transition buckets.
Offensively, Burke continued to struggle with a quicker, aggressive, guard on him. I would imagine that Illinois and PSU, along with any possible B1G tourney teams will be looking at this game film to figure out how to slow him down. The refs let the game get physical, which they should, it’s a B1G game. Burke seemed to wither away. Hummel would hedge out hard and Burke would try to draw the foul which resulted in multiple turnovers or just offensive disruption. Burke could not get into the lane at will, and our offense seemed handcuffed for most of the night. It is amazing to see the efficiency go up when they use Morgan in the middle, but for long stretches of Saturday’s game it looked like we were playing 4 vs 5 on the offensive end. Hardaway continued to struggle, and continued to get in his own head from the beginning. This resulted in multiple defensive lapses by the sophomore, along with forced shots and turnovers. Most of us thought he was slowly breaking out of his slump, but this game put him back a long ways in that progression. Novak couldn’t make anything for a 2nd straight game, and Douglass didn’t get many open looks.
After the game, I will admit, I was upset. Not by losing, but by the way they lost. This program has modeled itself about being a smart, passionate, high energy program with Novak and Douglass leading the way. But on Saturday there was no emotion, there was no passion, and there not too many smart plays. It is one thing to get beat by a better team, even if you keep your identity, but its another to just ignore what has made you successful in the first place. The basketball team did not appear to be mentally prepared for that game, which is absurd because of all they had to play for. They are fighting for a B1G championship, an undefeated home schedule, a win for Zack and Stu, a high 3 seed in the NCAA tourney, the list can go on. After the game the chances of the B1G championship and a 3 seed seemed very improbable. Now, looking at the situation on Thursday it seems Michigan is still fit for a 3 seed if they can win their next 3 games, and after an MSU beat down at IU, Michigan has another shot at a 3-way conference title. Hopefully the loss will light a fire under these guys so they can finish this week strong and have it carryover into the post season, where this season can be defined.
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