Wisconsin 68, Michigan 57
Michigan went 0-for-2 on these shots. [Patrick Barron/MGoBlog]
For the first 30 minutes or so, Michigan engaged in a back-and-forth battle against Wisconsin. When all-too-familiar issues plagued the Wolverines late, however, the Badgers pulled away, and Michigan's NCAA Tournament fate remains in serious question.
Zak Irvin tallied 14 points and eight rebounds to lead Michigan in both categories. He did the bulk of his damage in the first half, however, and his missed transition layup—on the heels of Derrick Walton leaving a fast break lay-in achingly short—was a lowlight among a series of backbreaking errors by the Wolverines down the stretch.
Irvin also got bullied by Nigel Hayes down the stretch, but he was far from alone in his struggles on that end. Duncan Robinson and Aubrey Dawkins were each victimized way too easily off the dribble. Mark Donnal couldn't avoid foul trouble for the second straight game. Half-hearted doubling in the post opened up the perimeter for a parade of threes by Bronson Koenig (19 points, 3/6 3P) and Vitto Brown (14, 4/6) and didn't do much to slow Wisconsin's bigs; Hayes and Ethan Happ combined for 28 points and made 10/18 two-pointers.
When Michigan's defensive shortcomings caught up to them, the offense faded, too. Irvin had just four points and two turnovers in the second half. Walton went 3/13 from the field, 0/6 in the second half. Muhammad-Ali Abdur-Rahkman, the team's most reliable player of late, had only two points on 1/5 shooting. Robinson and Dawkins made 3/6 three-pointers but struggled to find open looks. Only Ricky Doyle, who made all five of his field goal attempts for ten points, had a notably good offensive performance.
The Wolverines played like a bubble team facing a clear-cut tourney team. They've got a week to practice before welcoming an Iowa squad to the Crisler Center on Saturday that's lost four of their last five and must face Indiana on Tuesday. With a victory, Michigan can still feel confident about their tourney chances. A loss would make for a stressful Big Ten Tournament.
February 28th, 2016 at 8:56 PM ^
I didn't watch the entire game but he must have had 4 turnovers in the time I watched the game, most just really bad. Then he misses a layup at a critical juncture in the game. I thought Irvin was supposed to be heading to the NBA after two years in college but at this point I don't see him playing in the NBA...too inconsistent.
February 28th, 2016 at 9:47 PM ^
February 28th, 2016 at 9:59 PM ^
February 28th, 2016 at 8:59 PM ^
February 28th, 2016 at 9:39 PM ^
Yeah, Purdue is probably going to get an 11th conference win and Michigan is probably going to lose to Iowa. Might as well embrace the 8th seed. The good news is we should beat whoever the 9th seed is, but yeah we'll probably lose to IU after that.
February 28th, 2016 at 11:34 PM ^
February 29th, 2016 at 12:40 AM ^
I’ve read this opinion before. I disagree. While Michigan had LeVert in the pre-conference, Donnal was still finding his way, and Irvin was getting back into game shape after back surgery. With LeVert at full strength this team would be looking pretty good given the much improve play of Donnal and Irvin. I believe it is foolish to think that Michigan would not be much better with its pre-season All-Big Ten selection in the rotation.
February 29th, 2016 at 12:49 AM ^
February 29th, 2016 at 7:15 AM ^
5 minute dry spells much less likely with someone who can create their own shot
February 29th, 2016 at 8:14 AM ^
OSU would have been a win, same with the 3 point Maryland loss. There is no telling what would have happened. Adding in an extra 18pts and 5assists can change a whole game, not to mention an extra 8ish points and 4ish assists from Spike.
February 29th, 2016 at 10:46 AM ^
February 28th, 2016 at 9:16 PM ^
February 28th, 2016 at 9:20 PM ^
February 29th, 2016 at 2:02 PM ^
retarded.........thank god our A.D. doesn't think like this.
February 28th, 2016 at 9:42 PM ^
UofM really hasn't improved from last year to this or from the start of the season to now, IMO. Other teams have. Just compare our team to what an interim Wisconsin coach has accomplished during their last 11 games. Don't know if it's our coaches, players, or both, but in any case, I have found it to be very disappointing. The excuses are starting to sound like Hoke during the last couple of years he was here.
February 28th, 2016 at 9:54 PM ^
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February 28th, 2016 at 10:02 PM ^
I think having Caris and Spike easily adds two wins onto this team. Don't forget how much that means. We're 20-10 without them, 22-8 with them and that is a solid record. I see OSU and Wisky as wins with Caris and Spike, maybe even that second maryland game too. We have the record we have with two juniors and a bunch of scrubs. I thought we'd be better than we are this year too but given the circumstances what more did you want?
February 28th, 2016 at 10:18 PM ^
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February 29th, 2016 at 12:28 AM ^
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February 29th, 2016 at 8:17 AM ^
I'm not sure anything is worth relating to this year. As for this year, you can't really rate a team based on the first eight games, you rate them by there conference play. At the begining of this year Irvin had back surgey and noone knew where this team was going. Clearly this year the team didn't really go anywhere but I think it is foolish to say we would have been the exact same with Caris and Spike as without. A first-round draft pick completely changes a team.
February 28th, 2016 at 9:58 PM ^
February 29th, 2016 at 7:17 AM ^
gonna troll, I guess
February 28th, 2016 at 9:58 PM ^
How many of the players on our roster have a realistic shot of making the NBA? Levert is the only one and isn't playing right now. I don't think another player on this roster has a future in the NBA....not from what I'm seeing. Given the talent level our record is probably appropriate.
February 29th, 2016 at 2:32 AM ^
It's like when people said under RR/Hoke that the program just needed more NFL talent. Well, how about coaching the team to be good? Then, you obviously have good players that make it to the league. Bad teams have weak talent, by definition.
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February 28th, 2016 at 10:12 PM ^
Our coaching is fine, but you can't recruit when your coach is on the ethics committee. We need to find more rich sons of nba players, but more in the hardaway mold than the dawkins one.
February 29th, 2016 at 12:57 AM ^
What the hell does that mean? That Michigan can't recruit competitive athletes if we're not dirty?
Jim Harbaugh isn't on any ethics committee. Does that mean his recruiting success is due to unethical behavior?
February 29th, 2016 at 1:57 AM ^
basketbal <> football
February 28th, 2016 at 10:36 PM ^
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February 28th, 2016 at 10:53 PM ^
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February 28th, 2016 at 11:01 PM ^
enough of if we had spike etc. come on. bunch a division II players. little athelticism. can't recruit athletes. the wisconsin guys were blowing by michigan guys. how can this be allowed to happen repeatedly. how can one of your big guys not grab a rebound in 16 minutes? how can we witness excellence on the football field, and utter failure on the hardwood?
February 28th, 2016 at 11:44 PM ^
Mentally, their mind is too soft and can't compete to win tough games. Every time when there is a close game, the toughness of mentality is more important than skillset.
February 29th, 2016 at 12:03 AM ^
These 2 pictures are worth 2 thousand words. Great work.
Donnel only played 21 minutes and didn't foul out. The goal isn't to not foul out, the goal is to play as much as possible your best guys. Sitting guys automatically with 2 fouls in the first half and more is the biggest game management problem I have with coaching. Take a chance and trust in your smart players to be cool when they have fouls.
Roster management is a problem. There have been a few times when we call a timeout and the only thing I feel he can say is, "I need to recruit better."
Let's just start playing with guns blazing, nothing to lose, win Iowa and a tourney game, beat the 7 seed, and bang down a million 3s to make the sweet 16. A man can dream..
February 29th, 2016 at 6:32 AM ^
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February 29th, 2016 at 1:34 AM ^
February 29th, 2016 at 2:26 AM ^
February 29th, 2016 at 2:45 AM ^
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February 29th, 2016 at 3:18 AM ^
Basketball built up a lot of goodwill with the fans.
While our football program was pussing out under Hoke, basketball was the bright spot.
When the complete joke that was 2014 Michigan Football, we all turned our hopes to Basketball.
We turned our hopes to a Levert, Irvin, and Walton led team, they proceeded to get injuries that took months to heal with neither returning to play, and we are left watching a team that plays guys like Dakich and Longeran.
Not to mention about the multiple other guys not available by transfer, redshirt,etc. So we are playing a season with nearly half our roster unavailable - something fans aren't interested in watching
Then we play a season in which we have a bunch of no name guys that are actually holding leads and going straight up.
Only to leave the fans with dong punch after dong punch with the closes losses.
The fans needed to rely on something, and the basketball program massively failed in keeping that momemtum.
So predictably, fans aren't going to show up. They get tired quickly of a crap product, especially the absolute garbage being put on the football field from 2008-2014.
For perspective:
We had thousands of people walking out on a Harbaugh coached team against Ohio State.
The fanbase bailed on football after 7 years of complete garbage under RR and Hoke.
Then they all came back.
And then they all walked out on the team when we had a no show against Ohio State.
I just don't think people are interested in watching a team that has key players out for the season year after year. It becomes tiring, it becomes ridiculous.
February 29th, 2016 at 6:46 AM ^
I don't know if you went to the the OSU game yourself, but it was pretty cold out there and the second half quite frankly was depressing to watch. Watching us fall behind 42-13 while my toes were going numb, I decided it was enough and left midway through the fourth quarter. If you want to vilify me for that, go ahead, but that game was over by that point and it was not comfortable physically staying out there.
February 29th, 2016 at 7:57 AM ^
My point is that fans aren't going to sit around and watch a pile of shit.
You were right to leave - the performance and coaching was a disgrace.
February 29th, 2016 at 9:11 AM ^
You're building up more of a narrative than there was. I don't think too many fans were mad at Harbaugh. Maybe Durkin, but I think most figured we just ran into a buzzsaw of an opponent. I left because the outcome was decided and it wasn't worth continuing to freeze.
February 29th, 2016 at 12:22 PM ^
Once Rudock went out we reverted back to a 'Hoke(ian) offense'. It was tough to watch.
February 29th, 2016 at 8:47 AM ^
February 29th, 2016 at 9:28 AM ^
That would explain a lot. I'd personally hate to see Bacari leave because I think he made JMo and McGary better players. If he leaves, I hope he lands an assistant coaching job at University of Detroit. It's his alma mater and he got his start in coaching under Perry Watson.
February 29th, 2016 at 9:57 AM ^
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February 29th, 2016 at 7:50 AM ^
Bottom line is until Beilin is able to recruit more physically talented and more of a score threat low post players Michigans offense can easily be defended. in order for a 3 point shooting team to be effective you need a low post threat to create space and thats something Michigan does not have. one of the big reasons we made it to the finals a few years back was Mitch Mcgary playing the high low game which created space for our shooters. take a look at Kentucky. thay are loaded with 5 star talent but they are beatable because they do not have a true low post player. you need a inside, outside game to be truely sucessful.
February 29th, 2016 at 9:52 AM ^
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February 29th, 2016 at 9:58 AM ^
It seems like we should be able to do this with Donnal. Obviously McGary is in the NBA and that's not where Donnal is projected to end up, but why can't he fill that void? In a perfect world, Donnal would provide what you're speaking of and Wagner would develop into being able to play the hi-low game next year.
February 29th, 2016 at 11:27 AM ^
McGary has size and strength over donnal and McGary played very well with his back to the basket which Donnal struggles at doing. From watching the way Beilein is running the offensive sets, Donnals primary job is to set screens for the shooters and position himself for an occasional offensive rebound. If you take a close look at every game they lost they was dominated physically. I honestly don't know if its the type of recruits Beileins pursues or he just can't get the big boys to come to AA but none the less you have to be physical to compete in the BIG and Michigan lacks that.
February 29th, 2016 at 11:12 AM ^
If the team is not elite on the offensive end of the court it will be a struggle to win.
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