Iowa 82, Michigan 71
Senior Night at Crisler Center provided Michigan with an opportunity to secure their position on the NCAA bubble heading into the Big Ten Tournament in Indianapolis, if they could beat #24 Iowa at home. They could not. A hot Iowa shooting night combined with poor Michigan finishing in the paint early on and a wretched energy level in the first half to doom the Wolverines to a 82-71 loss to the Hawkeyes Thursday night. Eli Brooks shone in his final appearance at Crisler, scoring 17 points, but he did not get nearly enough help from his teammates on either end of the court until it was too late. The Wolverines will now head to Columbus in a still-precarious bubble position on Sunday, getting ready for the postseason.
The first half was the central problem for Michigan. Iowa got off to a hot start out of the gate and never slowed down during the full twenty minute period, posting a searing 72% eFG%. The Hawkeyes were 7/10 from three in the first half and the defensive effort from Michigan was exceptionally poor. Iowa got everything they wanted inside and knocked down their shots outside and in the process, hung a near half-century on the Wolverines to build a massive halftime edge. Keegan Murray led Iowa in the first half with 15 points on 5/6 from the floor and was perfect on his three triples, and the visitors had only two turnovers total in the first twenty minutes. They scored at 1.52 PPP in the first half... Fran McCaffery Basketball at its finest, ladies and gents.
Michigan's offense found themselves having to keep pace with the Iowa onslaught that their defense helped enable and struggled to do so. The big men were dreadful offensively for Michigan in the first half, as the Wolverines managed to shoot 2/6 on dunks/layups and 7/17 on other twos. As a team, their FG% in the first half sat at 37.5%. Dickinson and Diabate combined to go 2/11 from the floor and posted just six points total. It was a stark comedown from Dickinson's exceptional performance on Tuesday against the Spartans. Eli Brooks' 13 points led Michigan, but the central problem was that the rest of the team couldn't score inside and bricked open threes. Non-Eli Michigan shot under 30% in the first half, all while getting spanked defensively. As you can guess, the halftime margin was ugly: 47-30 Iowa.
Eli had a nice showing on Senior Night [Campredon]
The Wolverines did win the second half, but it's pretty hard to dig out of a hole that big without a dominant offensive display and/or suffocating defense. Michigan's defense improved and their offense started to connect on a few more shots, but neither were devastating enough to get the win you'd need in those circumstances. Iowa led by 16 with 8:19 to play in the game before Michigan made the only run of sorts that they'd embark on in the second half, going on a 11-2 stretch over about five minutes to get the lead down to 7. Unfortunately, taking five minutes to trim the lead by nine points didn't leave them much time to finish the deal. Even when they were getting stops in that period to hold Iowa off the board, Michigan still wasn't exploding offensively to the point that was necessary. Turnovers dented the offensive flow and the Wolverines simply ran out of time.
The other Murray, Kris, led Iowa in points in the second half after going 5/5 from the floor. He was followed closely by Jordan Bohannon, who had a special night from three point range (5/7), including two low-percentage looks that went down in that half. Michigan finally got Dickinson going in the second half, scoring 15 points on a perfect 7/7 from the floor, while Brooks cooled off. Problem was that Diabate remained dreadful, committing a couple fouls in that half and turning the ball over three times. His best collegiate game against the Hawkeyes in Iowa City and one of his worst came tonight against the Hawkeyes in Ann Arbor. Michigan was an excellent 64.3% from the field in the second half, yet committed 10 turnovers and made only four threes in the half, which was the main reason why they couldn't chop down the Iowa lead more quickly.
Hunter got it going in the second half [Campredon]
In all, the FG% numbers, rebounds, and turnover numbers look similar between the two teams, and the final margin was only 11, but it was a game that didn't feel all that close. Iowa went up 15-6 early on and never looked back. Michigan, despite its improvement in the second half, could never bring it within a couple possessions. The crowd tried to will the Wolverines forward in the late stages of the second half, but it was not to be. Iowa made more threes and were nearly perfect on more free throw attempts, a well-oiled offense that clicked inside and out, and Michigan's defense didn't do enough to stop it early on, while having an off-shooting night at the other end.
The Wolverines are now 16-13 on the season and 10-9 in the conference. They head to Ohio State on Sunday afternoon, who bested Michigan in Ann Arbor back in February. A win there would do wonders to shore up Michigan's bubble position heading into Indy, but it will not be easy. The Buckeyes defeated Michigan State tonight, though they have not been playing great as of late. That game is scheduled for 12:30 pm EST and will be televised on FOX.
[Click the JUMP for the box score]
Despite/in spite of all of that, I’m optimistic. Two more wins this season…at least! Go Blue
Good write-up Alex, as aways.
Dante Moore, near us, seemed to enjoy his time. As did Semaj Morgan. At least seemingly.
For me, mostly just painful.
I don't believe I've seen Iowa play a better half than they did tonight. Sure, we didn't have our best defensive effort, but even if we did, they'd still have dominated the half. Tip of the hat to Iowa, they came to Ann Arbor and played a great game. Michigan, on the other hand, didn't have it and looked pretty sluggish. We could have won that game had we showed up with our 'A' game, hopefully we can do that against the Buckeyes Sunday.
Yeah, Iowa played incredibly well in that first half. UM obviously contributed somewhat but like Illinois this past weekend it felt like they also just walked into a buzzsaw.
It's not fun to be on the receiving end of a Bohannon unconscious from 3 day.
Hunter with 20 and 11 along with 4 assists and 4 steals and hardly gets a mention. ….and that feels right.
really a strange game. UM (non Hunter) around the basket was terrible.
I had a bad feeling that Moussa was going to have a terrible game and it was worse than that.
I thought Michigan would feed him, knew Iowa would throw bodies at him and as Brian mentioned in the preview, he wasn't prepared for it. And forced it. He and Michigan should have anticipated and adjusted.
Good fight in the second half. In the end it was a very close game statistically except for Iowa making 4 more threes on the same number of attempts and that was the difference.
Feel bad for Eli.
I am not any kind of expert on this kind of thing but Diabate does not look anywhere near ready to play in the NBA. He has great athleticism but it looks like he is still learning the game. His athleticism sometimes allows him to play decent defense and he occassionally makes a spectacular block but even his defense is inconsistent. And that is the best part of his game. Of course, some team may look at that athleticism, be convinced that he can be a very good NBA player, and decide they can develop him faster than Michigan.
I totally agree....you are not an expert.
Not an expert, but still not wrong.
Who da thunk it?! 🤔
10 second half turnovers absolutely killed our chances to get back into it. Very sloppy, many were unforced.
Yup. The team seemed out of sync; communication was off. I can see losing to Illinois last Sunday when they were shooting really well, but in this game we were just throwing the ball out of bounds or to the other team. We got rattled at home.
Exactly, had two chances to cut it to a 5-point lead with like 2 minutes to go and turned it over on back-to-back passes by Jones. The first Dickinson dropped and the second was an ill-advised attempt to force it through Iowa's D, which of course Iowa stole.
The defense was bad but Iowa also was insanely hot in the first half while UM had issues finishing easy plays. Like, Iowa started the game 3/3 from 3 and UM was 0/5 and UM's looks were, on average, better. This team is wildly inconsistent but they also couldn't catch a break to start. And it's not hard to see them starting a little flat after crushing MSU - this team struggles to keep their energy level even, which makes some sense given the inexperience at a lot of spots.
Sucks that Eli had a good game on Senior night but it was for naught. Mousa looked absolutely lost in this game, and I'm not overly optimistic that gets remedied in a couple of days.
This is life of a bubble team. I still think that Seton Hall game is going to cost them a bid, bad barring an upset in Columbus this feels like a "make the BTT finals or else" season. I want to be wrong I don't see it.
Flip any loss to a win and this team is in. If they lose Sunday and end up not making it, it'll only be by one game.
I agree, though if they had that SH win I think they would be solidly in the tournament right now.
The home Minnesota loss is bad as well
Diabete was off all night yet Eisley kept calling plays for him even in the final minutes, which led to missed bunnies by him and turnovers by Jones. It was inexplicable. And Dickinson needs to have 20 FGA every single game. Feed those who got you here.
Yeah, this was a really bad job by the coaches. Diabate was making poor decisions from the get-go (e.g., two awful forced shots to begin the game) and really should have been taken out early to settle down / re-focus, but instead he stayed in and gets 30 minutes when he was floundering out there.
He does some great things, but he's still just a freshman with some significant ups & downs. A significant part of why the game got away in the first half.
I have taken flak every step of the way but have consistently held that Diabate has been thrust into a role that he is not ready for. It was a mistake, IMO, to turn so hard away from Johns early in the season. I think Johns eventually would have found a groove and that Diabate was not ready for this much floor time.
There are only two players on the team who deserves 30-plus minutes every game (assuming no big foul trouble) and that's Dickinson and Brooks. You could also argue Jones has earned that status with his play the second half of the season.
Everyone else is either too raw and/or just not *that* great to give them an automatic 30 or more minutes. Diabete is not experienced enough to work it out and figure out what to do / what not to do while on the court. If he screws up a couple times in a row, and then plays bad defense, sit him down and see if Williams or Johns can do the job, while Diabete gets coached up.
Maddening stuff.
One of the best comments I have seen on hoop talk since Forever. Nicely done.
Johns time has come and gone. He had plenty of minutes to figure it out. Williams is the one that needs minutes. He has potential and he isnt leaving for the NBA anytime soon. Let him get all the minutes he can so he can make that next step.
We should have sat Diabate more and played Williams. He had two strong takes to the basket for scores in the first half but then hardly played again. I didn't understand that.
Posted before I read this. Spot on. 3 and D potential and he isnt leaving for the NBA. Can guard those taller wings too. His breakout could be the key to getting us back to a really good team again.
Whoever designed the tunnel to be right behind the backboard deserves to lose their job. Crisler atmosphere lacking yet again. Horrible way to send off a warrior in Eli Brooks.
Considering that tunnel has been there for 65 years, I assume that person is long retired and likely dead.
That tunnel is right where Cazzie wanted it to be - it is The House that Cazzie Built, amirite?!
Students are on spring break. That had a lot to do with the lack of atmosphere.
Well that, and the fact that the atmosphere is always lacking. And this isn't a critique of the students - it's totally the environment. Lower bowl seats empty, no student section, no energy. Compare our game against MSU to Wisconsin vs Purdue on Tuesday - crowd at Wisconsin was filled, loud, standing. It felt like a college atmosphere - Crisler comes across as a standard NBA weekday venue.
Great, we suck again.
It's the legs. This is the second time since the new year that playing three games in 5 nights caught up with them.
Sadly, I think an OSU loss and a first-round B1G tournament loss are both on tap.
I'm not even sure we'll make the NIT if that happens.
We would make the NIT, Vlad. Not sure if they would want to play it but they would make it.
I think NIT is 50/50 at 16-15. Any team that wins their regular season but not their conference tournament is automatically in and there are only 32 spots. UM is now almost locked into an 8/9 BTT game against an equally desperate Indiana team. 16-15 is definitely on the table.
Michigan got within 7 a few times in the second half with plenty of time left (I think they even got within 5) but every time they had a chance to get it closer and really tighten Iowa's collar they turned it over. Sometimes 2 or 3 times in a row. Also, Michigan is very capable of shooting free throws at a high rate but didn't. Despite Iowa being red hot in the 1st half, if Michigan had done a decent job of taking care of the ball and hit their free throws they might have come back to win this game.
This team is TOAST that was the nail in the coffin for a NCAA bid u less they beat Ohio St on the road..(thats not happening) so its NIT for this disappointing team..probably one of the most disappointing teams in quite a while
Well, now we win the next one by 15 I guess.
Issues last night were:
came out super flat (which has been said), and it was compounded by the fact the Iowa couldn't miss a shot in the first 5 to 10 mins of the game and we couldn't make a basket to save our lives...
rotation D sucks, has sucked all year long. there were multiple times that if someone would have rotated a second earlier it would have more than likely ended up in stop on D. prime example was the dunk by Kris Morgan, Moussa hesitated to get over to help Hunter and by the time he did it was too late.
Devante didn't drive to the basket enough, really no one did. one of the main reason why we won in Iowa was because we got them into foul trouble. But because Iowa came out so hot, we decided to try and match them for shot for shot.
and as much as some people want to complain about the ref's, yes they might have missed some calls. but they were letting a lot go on both ends. but it was not the ref's fault that we turned the ball over 10 or 11 times in the second half... Cut that number in half and there might have been a better result in the end...
I know little about basketball strategy so take this for what it's worth, but I was there and my seats are in the section behind the south basket, which Michigan defended in the 1st half. It looked like the Bohannon rain of 3s freaked us out a bit, and we started chasing on the perimeter leaving us vulnerable drives to hoop and other easy inside baskets. I think sometimes you have stay in your base defense and hope that the shooter(s) cool off rather being overly aggressive on the outside.
This team is like watching a ten-year-old learn to slow dance: one step forward, one step back, and just when you think they're getting it, they stumble.
They drive me crazy.
I REALLY hope we can run this team back next year (minus the obvious departures of Brooks and Jones, and I guess Hunter). Most of the players on the team are simply too young, and we’ve seen enough flashes and progress from each of the freshman over the course of the season to envision them becoming high end college players. But they simply aren’t right now - most nights they are below average B1G starting players when you look at it holistically (offense, defense, decisions, knowing where to be on the court, etc).
There was once a time when the fans did not worry about bad officiating, excuses, lack of fan interest, no one at the games, complaining about perceived roster mismanagement, this guy stinks, that guy can't play defense, he turns the ball over too much....why you may ask? Well...because we used to win.....and win consistently and win a lot....winning cures all.....I sure hope this gets squared away next year.
Iowa obviously started like a house on fire and I was only hoping they wouldn't hang a hundred on us at home on senior night.
But we caught up a bit, but every time they responded with a huge shot, or we'd fuck it up with a missed layup or turnover or a brick. Speaks to experience, to fatigue, to coaching to a lesser extent. Had no answers for either Keegan or Kris Murray (combined 16 of 20 from the field, 5 of 6 from 3) or Bohannon's ability to drain difficult shots and bomb from distance. Glad to be rid of him.
Hoping for another End of Season Brandon Johns Resurgence and redemption arc. Must have sucked to only get 7 minutes on senior night, esp the way Moussa was playing.
I am pretty sure Bohanon is a freshman.
Feeling a little bit disconsolated by this one as I live with it this morning, going about the day. I had a hunch Dickinson would not be able to carry them as with MSU, not for a third time in five days. In a way this was a schedule loss--Iowa had another day of rest (though they were traveling). And also the kids just looked like. . . kids taking a whipping, at least in the first half. Especially Moussa. I know he has NBA promise, but watching him last night I just thought, "Wow, what a lot of pressure on this guy, when you know his story. I wonder if he would really just love the opportunity to relax a little, grow for one more year here."
These guys can be good next year.
I kept thinking Iowa would just HAVE to cool down at some point…
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