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]

Sometimes it's just making shots. Michigan went 3/18 from three in a game it lost by nine. Depending on your opinion of Zavier Simpson threes about 14 of them were good to excellent looks that didn't go down at the rate they usually do.

There didn't seem to be any particular reason other than Franz Wagner's wrist injury that Michigan shot 17% from three. There were a lot of other things that went wrong; Michigan could have salvaged the game if they didn't, but the story of the game was Illinois taking advantage of its standout skill—offensive rebounding—while Michigan did not take advantage behind the arc.

Yes, Illinois was 1/11 from three themselves, but unlike Michigan's performance that was within the bounds of reason. Illinois entered as one of the least prolific three-point shooting teams in the country and Michigan entered as one of the best 3PA defenses in the country. Illinois looks were mostly ugly jacks, three of them from centers.

Michigan shot 55% from two and had a total of eight turnovers. Make your threes.

Basketball Dad never left. Man, this was right out of the Beilein road loss playbook: win turnovers solidly, get clobbered on the boards, lose because your open threes don't go down. Michigan didn't commit a foul for the first 17 minutes. They shot 6 free throws all game. If Juwan Howard had gotten ejected at halftime for saying he liked sandwiches it would have been perfect.

Simpson: 8 A, 1 TO, seems to be back to junior A:TO levels [Campredon]

Related. Michigan got killed on the boards but because they got 6 OREBs of their own and won TOs by 5 they only had a shot volume deficit of 4. Make shots. Michigan's up to 66th in TO rate and is trending such that they'll hit the top 50 in a couple more games.

Road stuff. One of the bad threes should have been a good one but Brandon Johns turned an open catch and shoot look into a catch, hesitate, pump, and shoot look. Never in the history of basketball has one of those gone down. Michigan also shot horribly at Louisville—although in that game Michigan's average quality of look was poor—and you wonder a bit about whether their decision-making is being affected.

Johns later inexplicably gave Bezhanishvili the baseline for a dunk; given his confidence struggles I wonder if he's got a home/road competence split bigger than most.

Mirror universe Wagner. This Wagner is already a good or better defender. Illinois barely challenged him, with just 2 FGAs against him per Synergy; he turned in three blocks and a steal and had a couple other deflections that could have become turnovers. Also he had a 36 ORTG because he was 0/4 from three and had 3 TOs. Right now he's the precise opposite of his brother.

I get why Michigan's trying to play through it with him, especially when Johns comes off the bench and immediately seems rattled. Just have to hope his stroke comes back.

Michigan executed its gameplan on first shots. Illinois's first 20 points came in the paint. Some of that is Cockburn and Bezhanishvili posting, and fine, whatever. Bezhanshivili hit a hook that was so low I can't believe it got over the front rim. It happens.

Andres Feliz repeatedly getting to the rack was not part of the plan:

But even with those lapses Michigan still pushed over half of Illinois's shots into the midrange, where they went 13/32. They gave up a point per possession because the gave up too many FTs in the second half and they got hammered at the rim, where their normally excellent defense got whacked. Illinois went 14/18 there. Unfortunately, hoop-math has not updated so I'm not sure how many of those makes were immediate putbacks. Chances are about half of them were since Illinois had eight second-chance buckets.

Pretty much the only problem with Michigan's defense was rebounding.

Bad rotations. Brad Underwood substituted his centers at odd times, leading to stretches in both halves when Colin Castleton had to check Kofi Cockburn. These were tenuous at best. Cockburn got a putback immediately after Castleton's insertion in the first half; in the second half Castleton fouled Cockburn on back-to-back possessions trying to deny post entries.

Cockburn did some work on Teske as well but have to think those possessions are more likely to go Michigan's way if he's on the floor.