Michigan State Recap... the sky is falling...

Let’s mark February 12^th as the day Michigan lost their remaining bandwagon fans.  John Beilein should be fired; Glenn Robinson III should leave for the NBA draft because I am sick of watching him disappear; this team will not win a single post season game.  These are just some of the statements that I have heard from people in the last 18 hours.  If you are in this camp today please feel free to leave a comment or continue to wait for 2012 Kentucky to walk through the door. However, the loss against Wisconsin was fare more infuriating for me.  Today I just feel embarrassed, and my expectations for this team have fallen off a bit.  But a lot of things can change between now and Selection Sunday.  Remember my post just last week explaining that Michigan was the clear favorite for the top number one seed? 

I would like to put last night’s loss into perspective.  The young Wolverines just completed their toughest 4 game stretch, all in 11 days.  These 11 days consisted of trips to the 3 toughest places to play in the conference, and maybe the country, and then a home game against a top 10 team.  Michigan plays a short bench, and yet the rotation still consists of 6 freshmen.  On top of playing the other 4 teams in the top 5 of the B1G, Ohio State, Wisconsin, and Michigan State are the most physically imposing teams in the nation.  Oh, and did I mention that Michigan went to battle without their best post defender?  While I am disappointed, like the rest of Wolverine Nation, it is actually pretty amazing that this team found a way to win any of these games. 

Everyone knows all of these prior facts, but they still don’t help with the vomit-inducing thoughts from last night.  Michigan was outplayed in every area of the game, and if it wasn’t for 3 desperation shots from Trey Burke the deficit could have been a lot worse.  Nik Stauskas was slow to rotate and unable to fight through screens, which allowed Gary Harris to take 9 unattested 3 point attempts.  Horford and McGary were not able to stop Derrick Nix from getting whatever position he wanted.  Then when Michigan State actually missed a shot, the Wolverines couldn’t keep anybody off of the glass.  Numerous times Dawsen, Valentine, and Harris crashed towards the hoop with no resistance.  There were also 4 offensive rebounds that were first touched at the 3 point line.  I believe the tired legs hit Michigan’s defensive and rebounding ability the hardest.  On the offensive end, Tim Hardaway had his worst game of the season, and possibly his career, by shooting 1-11.  There were 3 missed lay ups and 3 wide open deep attempts in those 10 misses.  Glenn Robinson continued to hide in the far corner, and McGary became an offensive liability.  Last night’s game was too big for Michigan.  They didn’t respond well to Michigan State’s first round punch, but, then again, they weren’t able to.  Each big comeback this season has been sparked by efficient offense, which has trickled down to defensive intensity.  Last night Michigan was never able to get anything going consistently.  Whether it was missed open looks, hesitation to driving because of the physical play (and no foul calls), or unforced turnovers, the Wolverines couldn’t hang with Michigan State’s hot shooting. 

It seems that Michigan can still get a one seed if they were to win out in the regular season and at least make the Big Ten Tournament Championship game.  Even with an ugly road loss, I don’t know how a 5 loss Big Ten team could be overlooked.  However, it is more likely that the Wolverines will fall to a 2 seed.  I know the schedule lightens up moving forward, but the most important thing for Michigan is to get healthy again because isn’t the ultimate goal to be playing your best basketball in March and not on February 12^th?  This is still a dangerous team with more weapons than John Beilein has ever coached, but they are flawed like every other college basketball team.  All I know is that I am going to try to enjoy the remaining games where Trey Burke puts on a jersey with Michigan across the front, because when is the last time that we can say our basketball team will fall to a 2 seed after a near 30 point blowout loss?