Michigan 74, Purdue 70 (OT)
Now for a cheer they are here, triumphant. [Paul Sherman]
I'm still not sure how that happened.
Almost everything that went right for Michigan in their regular-season win over Purdue went wrong today. Moe Wagner didn't make a shot from the field and spent most of the game on the bench with foul trouble. John Beilein got so frustrated with the officiating that he picked up a rare technical. Derrick Walton had his worst game of the last month or so. The Wolverines had more than twice as many turnovers (13) as assists (six) or made three-pointers (also six, on 25 attempts). Isaac Haas brutalized Michigan's big men. The clock operator Spartan Bob'd Muhammad-Ali Abdur-Rahkman out of a potential game-winning steal and layup at the end of regulation. Purdue even hit a buzzer-beating halfcourt heave, because after all, this is the Big Ten Tournament.
Somehow, they persevered. DJ Wilson made up for Wagner's extended absence by scoring 18 of his game-high 26 in the first half, taking advantage of Purdue's big men defending in space like Wagner did the first time around. Zak Irvin alternated great and awful possessions but came up huge down the stretch, tying the game on a layup with 4.2 seconds remaining in regulation. He got to the basket twice more for the only field goals either team made in the overtime session until a desperate Purdue heave with two seconds remaining. Irvin finished with 13 points and seven rebounds, and his defense was once again a huge positive.
DJ Wilson was on his game. The arena was on brand. [Sherman]
Haas and Swanigan feasted on the interior, especially the former, who went 8-for-10 from the field to net 17 points in just 15 minutes. Swanigan made 5-of-10 twos, dished out five assists, and pulled down 13 rebounds; he also missed all three shots from beyond the arc and committed four turnovers before fouling out in overtime. Michigan overcame their struggles in the paint with excellent perimeter defense. While Purdue shot 42% on threes, they could only get 19 looks, and their primary sharpshooters were shut down; Ryan Cline was 1-for-2 while Dakota Mathias had a rough 1-for-8 performance.
Free throws ended up as the deciding factor. The Boilermakers were 6-for-13; Michigan went 18-for-23. PJ Thompson's miss on the front end of a one-and-one led to Irvin's tying layup at the end of regulation. In overtime, Walton and Duncan Robinson were able to keep the game just out of reach with perfect trips to the line.
With that, Michigan's incredible, unlikely, bizarre week continued. Despite being the eight-seed, they may very well be the Big Ten Tournament favorite from here on out; they're the only team to beat Purdue over the last ten games and they've done it twice. The Wolverines await the winner of Michigan State and Minnesota in the game currently being played on ESPN. They'll have plenty of motivation in the semifinal either way. Getting off the 8/9 seed line would be huge for their hopes of making a deep run in the NCAA Tournament; if they didn't accomplish that today, another win might do it.
We showed rare toughness today. There was a stretch in the second half where we had 3 tough calls go against us in a row. I'm certain that this team would've imploded earlier in the season. They battled through a got a hard fought W. Go Blue!
I would say DJ's toughness from today has been rare, but this type of toughness hasn't been that rare team wide since the late season run started. In many ways this team doesn't resemble the team "earlier in the season." I expect this team to continue to look like this far more than the early-mid Jan. version.
I'm certain that this team would've imploded earlier in the season
Has that really happened much this season? Other than the game at Illinois, we really haven't had too many implosions.
Our much bigger problem IMO has been finishing close games. Aside from that Illinois game, our other seven Big Ten losses were by a total of 33 points.
Va Tech was a collapse. Iowa/Wisconsin were more tough luck IMO - Iowa just shot the lights out and Wisconsin got a nice dish of home cooking (capped off by a blown out-of-bounds call in the final minute).
Picture on twittersphere of Wagner with pad on his back. Fox Sports reported he tangled up with ref and both tumbled in 2nd half - they said both unscathed.
Apparently he had it all game. Not sure why or when the injury happened.
Guy sitting behind the bench said he had it on his back all game, even before the ref collision.
hmmm - doesn't mean he is ok.
They also showed him get tangled up with the ref live during the game. Wagner put his hand on the ref while they were both lying down to make sure he was ok. Neither looked like they were in pain fwiw
Purdue looked really tired in the OT, missing many of their shots. We were tired too. But, the made FT's by Michigan sealed the game. Michigan will need to shoot better from the 3 point line in coming games. But as long as we can keep up the defensive effort, the sky may be the limit.
I was surprised at how tired Purdue looked in the OT. They were playing their first game in five days. Somehow we had more energy than they did.
Everybody could see our guys were exhausted in the end, but they grinded it out. It's a game of heart and will. So proud of our guys after a bizarre week. Go Blue!
Imagine if we were playin like this at the begining of the season. We'd have 4-6 less loses and be a 2-4 seed in the big toruney. I hope they don' t get tired out before the real dance. I don't think any team wants to play us right now.
All you Beilein haters can shut it, he is a damn good coach.
imagine if Beilein had coached them up to play like....oh, wait.
You can't cherry pick what you want to credit to the coach. Stfu.
If there were any true "Beilein haters" out there - which I doubt - then you can run your suck. All the fire Beilein crowd wanted was what they thought was best for UM. I didn't see you in here extolling his virtues when the team was playing like shit the past 2-1/2 years.
I'm extremely happy with how this team - and Beilein - have turned this season around. I would love nothing more than Beilein to be the best UM coach ever. Just like I wanted Ellerbe and Amaker to be the best UM coaches ever. The truth of the matter is before 6 weeks ago this team was playing and coaching like garbage.
They have a couple of ugly dobule digit losses but for the most part have lost in close games. They have handed 6 or 7 teams their most lopsided losses of the season. What's changed is that this team has developed, the Wilson and Wagner of today are not who they were to start the season. The offense has become even more dynamic. Robinson's defense has improved, in some games you might even say significantly. Overall the entire defense has improved with experience in the Donlon influenced approach.
I didn't see you in here extolling his virtues when the team was playing like shit the past 2-1/2 years.
Does it matter at all that we had an unusually large number of injuries the past two seasons? Losing LeVert and Walton two years ago and then losing LeVert and Albrecht last year (with Irvin also playing gimpy following his surgery) is pretty crummy luck. (While I'm happy to see Caris playing well in the NBA, it's frustrating to think what could have been the last two years.)
just doesn't understand college basketball and you don't seem to either. The team wasn't "playing like shit the past 2-1/2 years." Two years ago, the team was literally decimated by injuries. Last year, the team lost its best player, a first round NBA pick, for the year but still made the NCAA tourney and almost won two games once there. This year, they had a winning record and were on the bubble at their worst after losing some close games. Then they finally started to put it together and are now a solid tourney team. If you recall, Michigan under Beilein was struggling at about the same time many years ago before going on similar tear and reaching a championship level over several years.
The Fire Beilein crowd just needs to STFU. He has his weaknesses and there may be a time to consider whether he's the best man for the job but only after it's absolutely clear that he's no longer elite or wishes to retire.
I love Beilen but I do sometimes get frustrated. He's a great offensive coach (both from an x and o standpoint and for development of players), definitely needs some help on the defensive end. His teams sometimes appear to play soft and I have been disappointed in his recruiting.
That said, maybe his recruiting isn't all that subpar. Each of MAAR, Wagner and Wilson (and maybe Robinson) have significantly exceeded expectations and pretty much achieved their best-case scenarios. So some of these 3/4 star "disappointments" may turn out to be very good players.
And if Michigan turns into an average defensive team (which we seem to be right now), then it's a very fun and exciting team to watch.
and elite judge of talent but a subpar recruiter overall. He does have some misses talent wise such as Chapman, Donnal, Doyle, Brundridge, to name a few, but his hits far outweigh these misses. He consistently finds underrated talent and then develops that talent. But he does have trouble landing the most talented highly rated recruits. I suspect that is mostly due to his ethics. Recruiting the superstar McDonald All-Americans is a dirty game that Beilein refuses to play. So I'm not knocking his recruiting. I prefer a clean coach rather than say a Pitino or Calipari.
Fair enough, that's why he hired Donovan. It's taken him a whole year, but the team has shown definite improvement on the defensive end. Are they perfect? No, far from it, but they show more active hands, better ball denial, and better defensive/offensive rebounding. Donovan has even taught D. Robinson how to anticipate better and therefore get off the worst ever 6 foot eight defender in history. As far as recruiting, Beilein came here with the reputation of finding diamonds in the rough, and he has proved it over and over again. Can he win a national championship with that recruiting philsophy. Maybe, he's almost done it already, and DJ Wilson? What can be said about his transformation other than amazing. He deserves the most credit, but Beilein and Donovan and strength coach played roles too.
we did play this way at the beginning of the season. That's how we blew out two tournament teams in NYC. It was the middle of the season when we slumped.
Even though everyone has apparently forgotten it, Michigan had hilariously bad opponent three point luck for the first 8 games of the Big 10 season. Opponents shot like 55%.
It's not really a coincidence that the defense improved when threes started going in at a more normal rate (though as Ace has noted, Michigan's been a lot better at preventing opponents from taking 3s in the first place).
We've got to stop arguing over how good, or not good, Beilein is.
Just enjoy the rest of the season.
on the Walton photo caption... very nice
#iseewhatyoudidthere
They might as well win that one too. That'd be 10-2 over the last 12 games with the two losses on the road, one in OT with ol TV Ted and the other a loss on a perfect pass/ layup play as time ran out. That'd be a hell of a statement to put them as a much better seed.
Hopefully Wagner is healthy, the team look gassed and if he is able to recover and be fresh tomorrow that could be huge. Xavier and Duncan will need to be big too, going to need the bench tomorrow.
Close games can come down to luck, and certainly we've had our share on the bad side this year.
That said, it's no accident that this is the one we pulled out - we're playing with tremendous confidence right now, and our seniors are willing us to victory.
Anything's possible in the NCAAT with the heart we're showing.
Great re cap Ace. Maybe Beilein will get some credit now that he got a T.
Great game DJ. Rest up boys, we ain't done yet.
Hey Ace, I've seen a couple of news reports that Wagner had his back wrapped and his status for Saturday was up in the air. Any word?
If the committee watched this team down the stretch and looked at advanced stats, I would think you would already put them as a 6 seed. Also 4-0 on a neutral court, 3 against tourney teams.
Now 71st in defensive efficiency on KenPom, 23rd overall. Passed Wisconsin so we are in the KenPom favorite to win this tournament all of a sudden.
Weren't we like 140th defensively like a month ago?
after the first Nebraska game which was after starting the first 9 or so games 30th or so. Which means we basically went:
First 9 games: Top 40
Next 9 games: 250-300th
Last 15: Top 40th again.
All to average out to 70th. Bizarre to say the least. Part of it was opponent three point percent which is widely regarded as random.
There was also a three game stretch in the "dark" times in which MAAR wasn't playing much (averaged 16 min a game - half his average in other games) and the defense suffered because Duncan and X played more.
We were listed as the third 8 seed on Jerry Palms bracket/seed line this morning. Of the 5 teams ahead of us, 2, Miami and Dayton, both lost. Seton Hall plays Villanova, Northwestern plays Maryland, and South Carolina plays Alabama.
Only two teams within 5 spots of us have a realistic chance of passing us, as Arkansas and Michigan State could probably pass us with a conference championship if we lost our next game.
Depending on the Seton Hall/Nova game, and the Northwestern/Maryland game, we could go into tomorrow as the first 8 seed/fourth 7th seed. I think we would pass USCe with a loss by them, but I'm not 100% sure on that.
Any Wagner injury can be taken into account for seeding - I'm just saying
If he were out for the season, yes. Not for having an ice pack on his back.
think that will have any impact on seeding, unless Michigan announces in the next two days that he's done.
South Carolina lost to Alabama.
Would be willing to bet most brackets will have Michigan safely on the 7 line tomorrow, and depending on tomorrow's game, as well as the results of Wisconsin-Indiana and Iowa St-TCU, Michigan could hop up to a 6 seed.
...May be brewing. Consider the second half of the B1G season followed by the teams incredible reaction to near catastrophe. May be a run for the ages. Wouldn't that be something to see? I don't think anyone wants to play Michigan right now.
and we have a 6 seed
No - would have to win it to sniff a 6 seed.
if we beat Minnesota and Wisconsin loses today or tomorrow latest, good chance we move ahead of both. Should already be ahead of Dayton. South Carolina and Vtech are wild cards because they beat us. A six seed is not out of the realm of possibility if we lose the title game to Maryland and other things fall our way.
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