There are not many teams in recent college basketball that I can remember having the ability to bounce from looking like a dangerous tournament team to "should not even be in the conversation for the NIT" the way 2021-22 Michigan Basketball can. For most of the calendar year 2022, that bounce happened between games. Michigan would hammer a decent team, or beat a good team, and then look abject the next night. But today the switch turned in the middle of the contest, from a dominant first 27 minutes to the Hindenburg going down in a ball of flames over the last 13 minutes. Michigan led 60-43 with 12:52 to play in the game. They lost by five. A collapse of epic proportions in the second round of the Big Ten Basketball Tournament in Indianapolis eliminated Michigan from contention and leaves them on the bubble heading into Selection Sunday. 

Michigan took control of the game early on and seemed to retain that vice grip well into the second half. The first twenty minutes represented one of the Wolverines' best defensive halves of the season, holding Indiana to under 40% from the field, scoring just 28 points (buoyed by four made threes) and forcing five turnovers. Michigan wasn't great offensively in that half, but they did score 41, riding the tandem of Hunter Dickinson and DeVante' Jones, who combined for 25. They also kept the turnovers down, got great effort from Moussa Diabate (even if it didn't show up on the stat sheet), and went 11/13 at the line. Michigan led 41-28 at the break. 

The second half began with a bit of a seesaw. Indiana cut the lead inside 10 on one occasion, but Michigan wrested control right back. Each minute that passed without Indiana making a more serious dent in the margin raised the Michigan win probability another point or two, and hope for the Hoosiers seemed to fade. Caleb Houstan, who was mostly anonymous in the first half, knocked down a trio of threes in the first seven minutes of the second half, which helped build Michigan's lead up. Not much had changed in the narrative of the game from halftime to the 12:52 mark, when Eli Brooks made a layup to nudge Michigan's lead up to 17. It's what immediately followed that was the sea change. 

DeVante' was great in the first half. About the second half.... [Campredon]

In a few summarizing words, Michigan's offense locked up like an elderly man's joints. They would not make another shot from the field for eleven minutes (!!!!), and only sprinkled in a few free throws along the way. To Indiana's credit, they sensed that their season was on the line and responded. The Hoosiers were likely going to be on the wrong side of the bubble picture with a loss, and they played those final 13 minutes like a team on their last gasp. The energy level from IU picked up on the defensive end dramatically. Michigan's guards suddenly couldn't get an ounce of separation, they couldn't make an entry pass to Dickinson in the post, and any attempts at the rack were being swatted by Trayce Jackson-Davis. But Michigan also made far too many mistakes, missing the occasional open shot they got, throwing the ball out of bounds, and enduring a several minute stretch where it seemed like one Michigan player was falling over on each offensive possession. 

Indiana suddenly began executing on offense as well. They capitalized on Michigan's turnovers as a chance to run out in transition, but also were getting free dunks and layups, and a few threes rattled home as well. Michigan took timeouts and tinkered with the lineups, but nothing could stem the tide. The partisan Hoosier crowd in Indianapolis seemed to play a role too, with IU feeding off the energy inside the arena, and it helped to further Michigan's emotional troubles. Jackson-Davis made a pair of free throws with 5:39 to go which put Indiana up one. In just over seven minutes, the Hoosiers had erased the 17 point lead. 

Michigan got a couple points off free throws immediately thereafter, but then the problems started again. Indiana went on an 8-0 run and held a lead of 71-64 with only 1:54 to go. Michigan called another timeout and began to mount a last ditch effort. DeVante' Jones knocked down a shot that finally ended the Wolverine drought from the field and after a couple stops, Eli Brooks canned a transition three with 0:44 on the clock, leaving the score at 71-69. Michigan needed one stop and they got it, a terrific defensive possession that produced a half-hearted, desperation heave as the shot clock was expiring from Miller Kopp. It was nowhere close to on the mark, and Moussa Diabate grabbed a loose ball rebound off the floor. 

Then disaster struck. 

Never a good sign when your coach is making the "politician has a sex scandal" face [Campredon]

Diabate had two Hoosiers standing near him, but neither were threatening to rip the ball away. Still, the freshman's internal clock sped up. He panicked and tried to immediately rid himself of the ball, throwing it towards Eli Brooks, who was not ready for the pass. It glanced off Brooks and went out of bounds. Turnover, Indiana ball, with just nine seconds left. Michigan was forced to foul, and Xavier Johnson swished both at the line. After that turnover, Michigan would never again have the ball with a chance to tie. Game over. Final score: Indiana 74, Michigan 69. 

Despite the roller coaster nature of the game, the box score tells a pretty coherent picture of why Michigan lost this basketball game. They shot just 37.9% from the floor and 30% from three, not nearly well enough for 19/21 at the line to redeem you. 12 turnovers aren't horrendous, but 10 in the second half says a lot. Meanwhile, Indiana shot 46% from the floor and 53% from three (8/15), while banking 14 points at the line and committing an identical number of turnovers. The Hoosiers deserved to win this game, and in the final 13 minutes, they clearly wanted it more. They out-hustled, out-competed, and out-worked the Wolverines. 

Michigan falls to 17-14 on the season and now will have to wait for Selection Sunday. They entered the day being included in 122/123 brackets on the Bracket Matrix, in safe position and out of the First Four picture. A loss like this doesn't help, but it is a weak bubble this year. The Wolverines are probably still in, but they may have to head to Dayton for a play-in game. And a win over Indiana, which seemed to be well in their jaws only an hour ago, would have put a berth on ice. Michigan had a chance to wrap this up on their own terms. Now they're at the mercy of the Selection Committee on Sunday evening. Stay tuned. 

[Click the JUMP for the box score]