Michigan 72, Northwestern 70 (OT)
It wasn't easy. It was, in fact, excruciatingly difficult to watch. In the end, however, Michigan survived a borderline-comedic series of late-game issues to eke past Northwestern, and they'll play for their NCAA Tournament lives tomorrow at noon against top-seeded Indiana.
In a tight game late in the second half, Michigan twice split a pair of free throws that could've helped seal the deal, first by Zak Irvin then Duncan Robinson. On the first occasion, Northwestern capitalized with an Alex Olah three-pointer. On the second, which kept the Wildcats within two points after the shot clock was turned off, Olah put back a Tre Demps miss with 0.1 seconds remaining to force overtime. Robinson shouldn't even have had the chance to extend M's lead in the first place; after Michigan burned two timeouts trying to get the ball inbounds, Northwestern trapped Robinson in the corner on M's third attempt, and before they fouled him the officials missed an obvious travel.
Robinson went off for 14 first-half points then was silent in the second half before his ill-fated trip to the line; his miss there was just his third of the season. That didn't shake the shooter's confidence, however. Robinson opened the scoring in overtime with a triple from above the break, and after Tre Demps and Nathan Taphorn put the Wildcats ahead by three, he knotted the ballgame at 70 with 46 seconds to go with another bomb off a well-designed sideline inbounds play.
After Bryant McIntosh missed a shot on Northwestern's ensuing possession and the ball grazed Taphorn on its way out of bounds to give Michigan the rock, Irvin rose above McIntosh for a long two and the lead with only three seconds left. The game appeared to be over when Irvin tipped Northwestern's desperation inbounds pass to Derrick Walton, who seemingly dribbled out the clock. Since nothing can be easy, though, an official review revealed Walton stepped on the baseline with 0.6 seconds left.
Mercifully, Walton was spared an ignominous fate when Taphorn's three-point attempt at the buzzer clanged harmlessly off the front of the rim.
Robinson finished with a team-high 21 points, Irvin added 16 points and 8 rebounds, and Abdur-Rahkman had 14 and 8. Walton had seven boards and five assists but couldn't get his shot to fall, scoring his only two points at the line while going 0/7 from the field. Michigan's big men were once again dominated by Olah, who put up 20 and 13 despite a quiet first half; Mark Donnal and Ricky Doyle combined for just 8 and 6.
Michigan's postseason dreams are still alive for now. If they turn in a similar performance against Indiana, however, the NIT beckons.
...is Spanish for No Seniors...(or defense, or in-bounds plays -making me nervous out there)
Please play hard and beat Indiana tomorrow. Even if they dont make the tournament, just make that happen and put a bright spot on this season.
Sent from MGoBlog HD for iPhone & iPad
Still waiting for that title game recruiting bump...
Look at it this way: Next season, if Walton hurts his ankle again, Simpson will be our only PG. Meanwhile we'll have 5 or 6 centers. Now would that be bad luck or bad roster management?
Sent from MGoBlog HD for iPhone & iPad
This team doesnt truly have a pg either if you ask me. Walton plays it but in my amateur opinion hes a sg. So we have a ton of wings and 4/5 tweeners who all basically suck. Poor roster management is killing them. Simpson better be the second coming of Trey Burke or we wont make the tourney next year either.
March 10th, 2016 at 11:39 PM ^
Sent from MGoBlog HD for iPhone & iPad
Injuries are an excuse. We have 2 years worth of games where we sucked whether those guys were playing or not. Levert is as flawed as the others and in no way would have been the savior.
It isn't the coaching. And the talent can always improve, but it isn't that either. It is the injuries to LeVert and to Spike. Losing your two seniors, your two best guards, the team's best NBA talent, is too much to overcome. Ask yourself where MSU would be without Valentine. Where Indiana would be without Ferrell. It drives me crazy when so many people question Beilein, considering the injuries and the losses to the NBA he has had.
Sent from MGoBlog HD for iPhone & iPad
March 10th, 2016 at 11:36 PM ^
Sent from MGoBlog HD for iPhone & iPad
March 11th, 2016 at 12:27 AM ^
Indiana lost its top scorer and got better. Yes, it is possible. At no point in the past 2 seasons did we look better with Levert than without. Stats bear that out. But keep making baseless assumptions.
Sent from MGoBlog HD for iPhone & iPad
Offensively, we were 7 points more efficient without Levert, and vice versa defensively. This also came against better competition without Levert. It matches the eye test. The ball moves better without Levert on the floor, there's more player movement, better shot selection. As opposed to everyone else standing around and waiting for Caris to make something happen. If you watched the games you probably noticed that as well. At the end of the day, it resulted in some big wins against awful teams (which was most of our noncon schedule), and some blowout losses against decent to good teams. We were no better and no worse without Levert, and the stats, record, and eye test backs that up. Your whole argument boils down to "we're better with Levert because", but ultimately that's just an excuse that isn't grounded in any sort of reality.
March 11th, 2016 at 10:22 AM ^
Sent from MGoBlog HD for iPhone & iPad
So much better that we got blown out by a mediocre Uconn and lost to NJIT and Eastern last year. Injuries are the excuse of the apologists.
March 10th, 2016 at 11:38 PM ^
Sent from MGoBlog HD for iPhone & iPad
I think the real answer is between blaming solely injuries and blaming solely coaching. Injuries of course have made us a worst team, but I feel like part of why we are in such rough shape is coaching or lack of player development. We look really sloppy at times to the point where it is hard to watch.
Spike should have been an expected loss.
Depending on a guy who had two hip surgeries over the summer to play significant minutes is a coaching failure.
A number of the NBA entries also should have been expected.
That those injuries and expected players leaving causes a roster issue is a recuiting problem, and recruiting problems are coaching problems.
If only Duncan could have found his stroke a couple of weeks ago . . . oh well, better late than never. Let's pull a rabbit out of a hat tomorrow.
After watching the game today, beating Indiana tomorrow will indeed be a magic trick. Maybe they will play lights out...
WIN TOMORROW!
1.) It's better to win this than lose it.
2.) I fear that this season can be summarized by saying, "They were a little bit better than Northwestern."
Well, Go Blue tomorrow! Maybe Indiana will mail it in and get picked off.
But if I had to put money on it, we will probably lose worse than the 13 points the last time we played.
What does Anonymous Coward Say About This??
For you sir.
We ended regulation with a foul to give, how does that happen?
I thought both teams were in the bonus at the end of regulation. Since we were only up 2 it made no sense to foul.
unless BTN's graphics were wrong, we were in the bonus, NW was not, at the end of regulation.
yes had one still to give. the next foul put the into the bonus (but it was a loose ball so no shots)
I'm going to have nightmares about Indiana tonight. Can we PLEASE not allow what happened last time to repeat itself?
We're, uh, not a good basketball team at all.
This game was so maddening....Not sure sometimes if it is Coach B, the Players or Both.
My two biggest issues for this game were the following:
1) We get to the Bonus with about 11 minutes left in the second half and we don't shoot a single free-throw the rest of the game. That is totally unacceptable. I understand what our offense is but damn, you get a team in foul trouble that early, you get your ass to the paint and get to the line. You adjust the style of play.
2) Final 21 seconds of the game, we are up 2 and we have 2 fouls to give before NW gets to the 1 and 1. So...Why the hell are we not fouling and forcing NW to have to readjust and call new plays from the sideline. There severl times in that last 21 seconds we could have fouled, forced NW to inbound and really change the outcome. We possibly never would have even gotten to OT, we could have won in regulation.
I was going Harbaugh crazy.... we had a foul to give for the last two NW possessions.
hey Zak .... you can run the baseline after a made FG (Zak called the first of 2 straight TO's in the fnal seconds of regulation).
The end was essentially unwatchable ... NU goes on a 7-0 run late in OT to tie the game. Sorry, but NU is not a good BB team .....
Go Blue!
called the second one.
team and will continue to get better under Collins. They are as good as us when we are playing with a 10 master roster and without Caris and Spike.
Sent from MGoBlog HD for iPhone & iPad
It's going to be ugly tomorrow and I'll have to hear about from two brothers in law and an office full of IU fans.
same for me .... casual Friday ? Wear your football jersey tomorrow !
Go Blue!
Comments