defensive rebounding

2/1/2020 – Michigan 69, Rutgers 63 – 13-8, 4-6 Big Ten

This space has been complaining about the repetitive scripts of this season's basketball games, so it was nice to get a different one even if it was a script recycled from previous years: the Rutgers brick factory. The emblematic Cable Subscribers possession ended after an interminable period of backboard volleyball that saw six different point-blank attempts get up. None went down.

Michigan got pounded on the boards and had six more turnovers than Rutgers for a whopping –26 possession differential. The only way to win that game is by watching the opponent heave up waves, nay, oceans of bricks. Rutgers provided, in the Rutgers way.

This was not weird at all in the context of watching Rutgers play Michigan. It's what happens. Rutgers paid fair tribute to that game a few years back by acquiring all of six assists. Not quite the one from back in the day. Not too far off.

The familiarity of the game made the context of the game downright bizarre: Rutgers is ranked. Michigan is playing them in a packed, partisan Madison Square Garden. Michigan is 12th in league play and in desperate need of some quality wins to keep them off the bubble. The situation entering the game is the exact opposite of even the recent, feisty Pikiell Rutgers teams. And then the game is the same way.

Rutgers has gotten good by turning the feistiness up to 11. They still can't shoot: they're 311th in 3P%, 324th in FT%. And while the 2020 Michigan three point curse gave it a run, not even it was up to the task of guiding Rutgers mortars into the net. For the first time in a month Michigan finished a game with a significant advantage from beyond the arc. It is possible.

[After THE JUMP: Johns emerges]

12/11/2019 – Michigan 62, Illinois 71 – 8-2, 1-1 Big Ten

A metaphor only because of the target. Reggae Godzilla done kilt a man:

Kofi Cockburn delivers the knockout blow to Michigan and then unfortunately the referee as well. I've never seen anything like it! Video courtesy of BTN pic.twitter.com/iGxu6xlzig

— Matt Randazzo (@MattRandazzo) December 12, 2019

Lewis Garrison was lying on the court for a full two minutes after that. Because obviously.

It is important to signal your presence when you are in the vicinity of Kofi Cockburn, because if he does not know you are there he may atomize you on accident. This a lesson my one-year-old could also learn. It does no good to babble constantly if she's just going to go dead silent when she is standing directly behind me. It's like she wants to be kneed in the face, but then when you do it she is very upset. I have explained this to her multiple times, and she goes "ba ba ba" like she understands, and then I turn around and I've atomized a baby. I turn to this Onion article for solace. I'd put a bell on her but that would drive me nuts all the time and kneeing the baby in the face is a short-term problem, because babies forget everything instantly.

What was I talking about? Right. Kofi Cockburn : Lewis Garrison :: Normal Adult : Baby That Refuses To Signal Presence. When Illinois comes to Crisler I'd recommend all attendees advertise their location constantly just in case, preferably by making robot noises. BOOP BEEP... PLZ NOT TO KILT ME KOFI ...BOOP BEEP

[After THE JUMP: marginally less silly content]

Bracket Watch: The Other Bracket Looms

it us. [Marc-Gregor Campredon]

The outlook is grim. After everyone but Derrick Walton sleepwalked their way to a loss against a mediocre Ohio State team, Michigan is 14-9 (4-6 B1G) and out of the projected NCAA tournament field. The Wolverines have to climb out of an increasingly big hole and they may have already missed their chance; KenPom says they've played the easiest conference schedule of any Big Ten team so far, and that's about to change in a major way:

Michigan only has three home games left; of those, a more confident and rested Michigan State squad is by far the most beatable. The Wolverines have yet to win a road game this season; they'll need to take at least two, and quite possibly as many as all five left on the docket, to have a realistic shot at an at-large bid. They're 79th in RPI. I had to edit the second sentence of this post multiple times before it was family-friendly.

If they lose tomorrow night, NIT bracket-watching begins in earnest.

[After THE JUMP: Some good news! Really! Also some bad news.]