According to many, Crisler had never been louder than it was
on Sunday afternoon as the Wolverines prepared to take on Indiana with a share
of the Big Ten title on the line. Michigan
again looked like a different team in front of the home crowd. They managed to absorb every punch the
Hoosiers threw, and responded with devastating blows of their own. But, in the end the Wolverines delivered the
knock out to themselves, and were not able to close the game and hang another
banner.
Michigan played extremely well on the offensive end of the
floor; despite struggling to finish around the hoop. In the first half the Wolverines used good
ball movement to attack the hoop with Burke, Hardaway, Stauskas, and even
Robinson. The second half mostly
involved Burke breaking down the on ball defense to find open teammates for
jump shots. The Wolverines used the
three point line to attack Indiana. Tom
Crean switched Oladipo onto Burke for a large portion of the game, and it
seemed that Trey struggled to get his usual space at times. However, the Big
Ten player of the year still managed to hit enough tough shots to score 20
points. It was really encouraging to see Stauskas and Robinson take some
confident shots against a top tier opponent.
Michigan felt their presence, which is a major improvement from the
first meeting.
The Wolverines struggled on the defensive end of the floor,
which was expected against the best offense in the conference. I was actually impressed with the perimeter
defense for most of the game. Hulls was
able to get free a few times, but other than that Indiana was mostly forced to
take contested jump shots. The most
discouraging area was defensive rebounding.
The Hoosiers managed to rebound 57% of their own misses. This was a season worst for Michigan. Tim Hardaway Jr did an outstanding job
staying in front of Victor Oladipo all game, but then forgot to box him
out. Oladipo collected 7 offensive
rebounds by himself. The Wolverines used
5 players at the center position, and they combined for 3 defensive
rebounds. Looking at these two stats, it
is amazing Michigan was even in the game.
The maize and blue entered B1G play as the 2nd best defensive
rebounding team in the country, but over the last two months they have now
fallen to 80th (8th in conference). If the Wolverines can regain their success on
the glass for the NCAA tournament, they will be primed to make a deep run.
Of course, even with the terrible defensive rebounding, Michigan
should have won the game. As Glenn
Robinson III escaped for a breakaway dunk from a sideline inbounds play the
outcome seemed guaranteed. Then
Christian Watford somehow convinced the officials his push was an attempt at
the ball, and a 2 shot foul was called instead of an intentional. GRIII then went 1-2 from the line. Indiana then rushed the ball up the court,
and the Michigan defense offered as much resistance as wet toilet paper in the
last minute. After the first made
basket, LeVert chose to inbound the ball to Tim Hardaway instead of Trey
Burke. Since the Hoosiers were in desperation
mode, and just trying to extend the game, they fouled immediately. The junior then stepped to the line to clang
the front end of a one and one. Indiana
scored quickly again, and Michigan got the ball to their best player. Burke then followed suit and missed his first
attempt. On the other end, Zeller had
one of the easiest looks you can get from a half court set with time running
down. That’s all it took for Michigan to
be behind. The frustration continues to
grow because Zeller scored with 13 seconds still left. The ball was in Burke’s hand and the final
play was executed perfectly. Jordan
Morgan screened Oladipo at the top of the key, and just like that Burke was in
the lane against Zeller. Indiana responded
exactly the way you would expect on a final possession; all 5 guys sucked in to
the middle towards the ball handler.
Burke went into the conference’s best center, and attempted a difficult
layup. Throughout this season I have
seen number 3 make some incredible shots, so I wouldn’t have been surprised to
see that one fall. However, I thought
the actual goal was to just get the ball on the rim. It would have been a bonus if the layup fell. Instead the ball screener, Jordan Morgan,
rolled hard to the front of the rim. As
all 5 Hoosiers were focused on Burke, the Michigan center was in perfect
position for an uncontested put back. It
was executed perfectly, until Morgan couldn’t complete the second chance
opportunity. And just like that the number 7 team in the nation dropped to a 5
seed in their own conference tournament.
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