jalen pickett

As a general rule in college basketball, it's never a good sign when reporters are tweeting about what the worst defensive performance in the KenPom era from your team is, with the implication that the game unfolding has a chance to statistically set the new record. That's what happened today for Michigan Men's Basketball in State College against Penn State, as a barrage of Nittany Lion three pointers had UMHoops' Dylan Burkhardt reminding us that Michigan's defensive results were currently worse than the previous record for the KenPom era, a 1.59 PPP against defeat at UCLA years ago. It was that sort of game. Despite being close for ~16 minutes, Penn State unleashed a nuclear arsenal of perimeter shooting to blow Michigan right out of the water over a ~10 minute stretch from the late first half to the early second. The lead stretched above 30 and it was never close again. 

Despite the disastrous final score, the game didn't start terribly for the Maize & Blue. They welcomed Jett Howard back to the lineup and he showed he wasn't feeling any worse for wear on the offensive end. Jett had 13 of Michigan's first 17 points on 5/5 shooting, helping Michigan keep pace with a hot PSU team, whose early offensive performance foreshadowed later results. Early on it was matchup nightmare Jalen Pickett, who did damage against Michigan the first time these two teams played, driving offense for the home squad. When Pickett converted on an and-one, he had 17 of PSU's 26 points, doing so on a sizzling 7/8 shooting. 

The score at that point was 26-19, a lead that would grow to eight (29-21) a few moments later when a Myles Dread shot clock heave went down from beyond the arc. Yet that wasn't the moment that the game spiraled. Joey Baker's jumper went down, Hunter Dickinson connected on a hook shot, and a Jett Howard jumper trimmed the lead back down. When Howard made another three, he was up to 18 points on the afternoon, and the score sat at 31-30 in favor of the Nittany Lions. There was 4:34 left in the first half and that's the moment when a seemingly competitive game turned into a potentially historic blowout in the history of head-to-head matchups between these two squads. 

[David Wilcomes]

What happened? To start, Penn State went through one of those "can't-miss" periods on offense. They held Michigan scoreless on offense for a couple minutes and during that period, they hit a three pointer on five straight possessions. It was simple: get a stop, go up the court, get a decent look from three, swish. Repeat 5x. Before you could blink, it was a 15-0 PSU run and the crowd inside the Bryce Jordan Center was raucous. Hunter Dickinson turned it over, and it led to an and-one on the fast-break for PSU's Andrew Funk. Kobe Bufkin's jumper just before the expiration of the first half mercifully ended an 18-0 Penn State run over ~four minutes of game time, but the damage was long since done. The score sat 49-32 PSU at the half. 

At halftime, Penn State was scoring at a scalding 1.68 PPP clip, which is what conjured discussions about the all-time worst Michigan defensive efforts. They shot 19/31 from the floor (61.3%) and 9/17 from three (52.9%), while Pickett was their leading scorer with 17 (Funk had 14). They had just two turnovers and with four OREBs, that represented a 42% OREB percentage. There is no way to describe this other than disaster for the Wolverines. Michigan was adequate on offense, 45% from the field and 31% from three, but it was really a one-man show: Jett's 18 towered over everyone else (Bufkin was second with 6). Not good enough to keep pace with what was going on at the other end. 

Michigan was not totally out of it at halftime, though it was going to take a hell of an effort in the second half to make it truly competitive. However, very quickly into the second half it became clear that said hell of an effort was not going to materialize and the Wolverines were indeed totally out of it. In an ominous sign, PSU swished their first three point attempt of the half, followed by a Michigan miss. Fast forward a couple minutes and the Nittany Lions nailed another triple and Juwan Howard called a timeout, less than three minutes into the second half. The margin was now 57-34 and the timeout did little to stop the bleeding. PSU stripped Michigan of the ball out of the timeout and Seth Lundy drilled a three. 60-34. 

[David Wilcomes]

Terrance Williams finally got Michigan a score but back came Penn State. Lundy made a layup and later would hit a pair of free throws to push the lead all the way up to 28. Michigan's defense started to hang in there better than they had previously, but the offense had gone ice cold. Jett Howard was starting to cool off and the same trends from the first half were there: if Jett wasn't scoring, not much was going on for the Michigan offense. They did nothing meaningful to whittle away the lead over the next 4 or 5 minutes and a quick spurt from Jalen Pickett around the halfway mark of the second half shoved the lead to an astronomical 32 points, 73-41. 

This was around the point when your author started writing, because the outcome was now decided. The last ten minutes were merely performative efforts, playing out the remaining time so the game would end and Michigan could start licking their wounds on the plane ride home. As is typically the case in KenPom Time, the team in a massive hole trims the margin down and Michigan did that, albeit very slowly. Isaiah Barnes, Will Tschetter, and Cooper Smith(!) got minutes in the closing stretch of the game and when the final horn sounded, Penn State had an 83-61 victory. 

[David Wilcomes]

Michigan ended up avoiding setting the record for the school's worst PPP defensive effort (PSU ended at "only" 1.34), but they did set the record for the largest margin of defeat against Penn State, surpassing an 18 point loss in 1999. It was a game to forget in every sense of the phrase, with few bright spots besides Jett Howard's first half. The next highest scorer was Bufkin with 8. The team shot 42.4% from the floor, under 30% from three, went 5/8 at the line, turned it over eight times, and every starter clocked in with a +/- of at least -21. Oof. 

PSU's numbers are not as terrifying because of the cold spell to end the game, missing their last nine threes in a reversion to the mean, yet they still shot 43.3% from three on 30 attempts. Pickett led the way with a dazzling 25 points, 8 boards, and 8 assists performance, followed by Lundy with 22 and Andrew Funk with 19, both of whom were 4/9 from beyond the arc. A burn the tape sort of game for Juwan Howard's crew. 

Michigan is now 5-5 in conference play halfway through the B1G slate, having lost two in a row. They're also now 11-10 on the season. They kick off February with a game against Northwestern on Thursday in Evanston. Michigan defeated the Wildcats in their first meeting, but going on the road this time will not be nearly as easy. That game is scheduled for 7:00 PM EST and will be broadcast on ESPN2. 

[Click the JUMP for the box score]

For a Michigan Basketball team that has seemed to get caught playing down to opponents this year, showcased in hairy games against Ohio and Jackson State, not to mention a loss to Central Michigan, one might've thought that a home game against Penn State just before a rivalry clash with the Spartans could be recipe for trouble. That was not the case tonight, as the Michigan Wolverines moved past the visiting Nittany Lions with a solid effort, clinging to a lead nearly wire-to-wire and finishing it off in crunch time, something that has eluded the squad at times this year. In all, a 79-69 win keeps Michigan's perfect B1G record intact and has them on a two game winning streak ahead of Saturday's battle with MSU. 

The first half was a good all-around effort for Michigan, duking it out early in the first four minutes but then pulling ahead on a 9-0 run beginning with a Jett Howard and-one and ending on a Tarris Reed turnaround jumper, a possession extended by Reed's offensive rebound. That left the score 16-8 with 13:47 remaining in the first half, and Michigan would soon bump the lead up to 10 points. PSU found its offense unsurprisingly dependent on three pointers, surrounding the ability of Jalen Pickett to get to the line and shoot from inside the arc. The teams traded scores through the middle portion of the opening half, with Michigan's offense flowing pretty consistently and they held a steady 31-22 lead with just under six minutes remaining. 

PSU made a charge thereafter, with an Evan Mahaffey dunk and a Seth Lundy triple cutting the Michigan edge to four, but in one of several inflection points, the Maize & Blue grabbed control back. Kobe Bufkin converted an and-one, PSU's Andrew Funk traveled, and Dickinson made a layup for a quick 5-0 run to put the lead back up to 9. Michigan defended their tails off in the final five minutes or so, allowing just one made FG over a prolonged stretch following the narrowing of the lead to four points. That strong defensive effort seemed poised to put Michigan up double digits into the break, leading 42-31 and the shot clock turned off, but Kobe Bufkin's shot with five seconds left was off the mark and it gave PSU one last chance. Mahaffey improbably knocked down a half-court heave off the window as time expired and the Michigan lead stood at 42-34 at halftime.

[Marc-Gregor Campredon]

Michigan shot 48% from the floor in the first half, 4/9 from three (two makes from Joey Baker), and a crisp 8/9 from the line. They held PSU to 41% from the field, but the Lions shot 6/16 from three, enough to stay within striking distance, and Pickett's 4/4 from the line represented PSU's only free throws of the first half. 

The second half personified the phrase "basketball is a game of runs". Michigan led 47-36 just over a minute into the half when Penn State stitched together an 11-0 run that presented Michigan with another inflection point early in the second frame. The run was powered by Pickett, scoring 6 of PSU's points (two from the line and four inside), as well as a made three from Seth Lundy, while the Lions held Michigan scoreless for 3.5 minutes, the driest spell of the game for the Wolverines. Michigan had an answer though, and would respond to PSU's 11-0 run with a 14-0 run of their own.

After being held scoreless for 3.5 minutes, they upped the ante by holding PSU scoreless for 4.5 minutes and in the meantime, the threes started to fall. Jett Howard's pull-up three broke the spell and started the run and Terrance Williams II made one to bump it to an 8-0 run. Jett also connected on a wild and-one in which he drove to the lane, got fouled, lost control of the ball in midair, got it back, and lofted it into the basket for a score. Despite how pretty that play was, the run's final tally was perhaps the most amazing: a Tarris Reed made free throw! He missed the second, but the make ignited the Wolverines bench, celebrating a player who has struggled on free throws this season, to say the least. 

[Marc-Gregor Campredon]

Michigan had firm possession of the game after that and led it 68-54 with 8:18 left, which is when PSU began to claw back and try to make a push. Camryn Winter made a couple jumpers, Lundy got a layup and then swished a couple free throws, and suddenly a comfortable lead was not so comfortable. It was 68-62 and PSU wasn't done. Hunter Dickinson missed a pair of free throws, which was contrasted with Andrew Funk drilling a three from a mile away and it was a one possession game, approaching four minutes left. Fans who recalled Michigan's struggles to close out Virginia may have begun to get nervous, and it didn't get too much better when Dug McDaniel continued the second half team free throw struggles by going 1/2 at the line, but then the clamps came on: after PSU cut it to 68-65, they'd score 4 points over the final 4:28 of the game. 

The Wolverines led 69-65 out of the under four media timeout and that's when Michigan began to stifle PSU's offensive momentum. Jalen Pickett connected on a tough hook shot over Hunter Dickinson to make it 70-67 but Kobe Bufkin hit a tricky floater to put Michigan back up five and they kept PSU scoreless for a minute. Camren Winter's jumper cut it back to one score with 2:17 left and while the Wolverines kept defending well, they were in search of the dagger make as the clock ticked down to one minute left. It turned out that they'd get it from McDaniel. The diminiuitive freshman PG got a ballscreen from Dickinson, cut into the lane, and swished a floater with 1:03 left, making it 74-69. Dickinson would commit a foul on Pickett, but the Lion missed the front end of the one-and-one, Michigan got the rebound, and Williams would soon be shooting free throws. TWill made them both, and Michigan's lead was now 76-69 with 41 seconds left. Once PSU was held empty on their next possession, the game was over. 

The final score sat at 79-69 and it was a diverse offensive performance from the home team. Four starters scored in double figures, and the fifth came close. Dickinson led the way with 17, Bufkin and Howard both scored 14, McDaniel had 12, and Williams chipped in 8. Williams had a strong showing on the glass with nine rebounds, while Howard led the starters with two made threes. The bench was quiet, only four players seeing the floor (two of which were Jace and Isaiah Barnes!) and only two showed up on the score sheet. Joey Baker did his job in going 3/6 from beyond the arc, while Tarris Reed scored five points, two buckets and the elusive free throw. The team shot 46.6% from the floor and 42.1% from three, a quality offensive showing all around. 

[Marc-Gregor Campredon]

Penn State was led by Pickett with a whopping 26 (he played all 40 minutes!), and he accounted for seven of their seventeen made two-pointers. As expected, PSU jacked up a ton of threes (28!), but only made nine of them. It was a respectable defensive effort from Michigan, their second straight, and crucially they continued where they left off on the defensive glass. PSU rebounded just 11% of their misses, another far cry from the embarrassing ~50% number Michigan allowed vs. CMU. The two teams entered this contest among the least turnover-prone offenses in college basketball and that continued, but Michigan won the TO battle: committing just three turnovers to PSU's eight. 

Michigan is now 9-5 on the season, but 3-0 in B1G play. Now comes a big one, a matchup against the rival Michigan State Spartans in East Lansing. MSU is 10-4 (2-1 in the conference), fresh off a winning effort last night against Nebraska. That game is Saturday at 2:30 PM EST and will be televised on Fox. The box score is after the jump. 

[Click the JUMP for the box score]