Michigan State 70, Michigan 64
This wasn't how I wanted to be reminded of the 2013 Final Four team.
Michigan's loss to end the regular season at Michigan State didn't cost them a Big Ten title, unlike 2013's finale, but there are some parallels. This team has now dropped two of their last three and is suddenly dealing with injury scares; Eli Brooks returned to the bench in a walking boot after rolling his right ankle while landing on Marcus Bingham and Franz Wagner reportedly limped off the floor after an awkward landing on his shot attempt just after the final buzzer.
The 2013 squad had the order the other way around. They started 20-1 but lost starting center Jordan Morgan to a badly sprained ankle that either kept him out or limited his effectiveness for much of the rest of the season. That team lost five of their last ten regular season games, one to a bad Penn State team, before falling apart in the Big Ten Tournament quarterfinals against Wisconsin.
Those parallels feel less comforting given the 2013 team had Mitch McGary ready to be unleashed in the NCAA Tournament, while the 2021 edition will lean on Zeb Jackson to fill in as the third guard for however long Brooks is absent. John Beilein's team had proven they could win without McGary. Juwan Howard's has fallen flat both times Brooks has been out, looking stagnant on offense both this afternoon and when he missed the blowout loss at Minnesota.
Any absence of Wagner long-term, meanwhile, would be a massive blow to this team's chances of making postseason noise.
not what you want to see [Campredon]
As for the game, Brooks exited after only four minutes, leaving a hole in Michigan's rotation that Jackson plugged for eight minutes in which he kept the ball moving around fine. On the occasions when the team created shots, which were less often than one would hope, they didn't fall. The Wolverines required assists on 17 of their 25 made field goals, a rate that surpasses "good passing" and gets into "nobody could finish plays" territory.
For the second time in three games, Wagner, Isaiah Livers, and Hunter Dickinson combined to shoot well below 50% (11/31 today), and Wagner didn't find his playmaking touch until Michigan was desperately digging out of a late 11-point hole. The Wagner-Dickinson pick-and-roll duo created two and-ones sandwiched around a Wagner steal to get M as close as two points with 1:13 to play, only for Josh Langford to hit a dagger three to answer.
Michigan got one more chance to make it a hair-raiser when Wagner made another three and then combined with Chaundee Brown to trap Rocket Watts on the sideline, where the MSU point guard stepped out for a turnover in a four-point game with 26 seconds remaining. Livers couldn't connect on a good look from three, however, and State iced the game at the line.
Rocket Watts hit some five-star shots [Campredon]
The Wolverines will want a few other chances back from this game. The team went 7/11 at the line and that understates the impact of missed free throws; both Mike Smith and Austin Davis missed front ends of one-and-ones when M got into the bonus midway through the second half and Dickinson couldn't cap off one of those and-ones.
Ultimately, though, this came down to shot-making. Watts had his best game of a tumultuous sophomore season, scoring 21 points—his highest output by eight points since December 4th against Detroit (23)—on a seemingly endless series of contested pull-up jumpers. Aaron Henry arrived at his 18 points in similar fashion, though he was able to craft his way to the rim a few more times. Joey Hauser needed only seven attempts to score 11.
Whether this week or next, Michigan needs to pull themselves together to deliver on the promise of this remarkable regular season. Barring the unforeseen, they'll still be afforded a one-seed in the NCAA Tournament. Which players are available, and how close they are to full health, will play a bigger role in this postseason than anyone would've hoped.
[Hit THE JUMP for the box score]
Injuries to two key players in a meaningless game heading into the tournament, man that is so Michigan.
Rocket Watts had the game of his life and Michigan just couldn't get it going today. That was painful to watch.
The decision to leave Smith on him for that long was a head-scratcher. Go zone and guard Brown beyond the line.
It’s incredible how Izzo’s mind games pay off. He has jerked Watts around all season, putting him in and out of the lineup and throwing him under the bus in press conferences. Thursday he benched Watts almost the entire second half. Then Watts comes up with this game.
It helps when the other team's best defender goes down. I'm sure Izzo planned for that, too.
This game looked exactly like the wins MSU got against Illinois and OSU. Just ugly games where someone important didn't play or was hurt (Ayo, Young, Brooks), the offenses ground to a halt, and the defense have you just enough space for MSU to pull it off.
I'm not as worried about this end of the year as others provided Brooks and Wagner come back. I've been to a number of other fan pages these past couple of weeks and all of them bemoan teams playing too many games in too short a timeframe. This was UM's 7th in 16 days, and that includes games against 3 top-10 teams. They beat MSU badly in their last game and, honestly, seemed to shut off a bit once Brooks went down. Too much of college basketball seems based on the last game or two when it should be slightly more holistic. Could UM get bounced early from the tourney? Sure. Virginia, MSU, Xavier, etc. have all in recent years bowed out early when they ran into a good team on a hot night. But UM rested and prepared is still one of the best teams in the country, and I don't think that fundamentally changes with the past couple of games.
Eli Brooks leaving with the 6th most points 4 minutes into the game is troubling. Outside of our top 7 players we have "guys that can play defense and pass the ball a bit". We better have all 7 of those guys in every game. Im to the point that I think we could lose anyone and of our top 7 and possibly struggle. If we have all of them we are solid. Im not too worried we have 3 damn losses but if we do struggle it will be the hole we have beyond our top 7 players.
Brown doesn't have the lateral foot speed to guard guards. Forget the fact that Eli was off to a good start offensively -- he was the only guy on the team who could guard Watts. UM is very thin at guard and, while I love Smith on the offensive side, he is pretty small and can't check anyone.
UM will make a pretty early exit without Brooks.
i has a sad
I was looking at the conference statistics today. We have 4 of the top 20 players in minutes per game. The heavy reliance on the starters makes any injury tough to deal with. I keep waiting for Johns to put things together and he keeps having games like today. Decent defense, a couple WTF moments on offense, and zero spark. Down a starter, foul trouble on both bigs, and Johns only gets 8 minutes. I get it that he and Eli play vastly different positions, but they can’t play Johns and shift Franz to the 2 because he’s just not earning minutes.
Johns is a mystery. He should be so much better than he is.
He’s a bust and will be passed up next year as well. It is what it is.
My theory is Johns doesn't play enough to get into any rhythm and comes in and does some good things we see but also some awkward things we see. He just doesn't have the flow of the game as if he were to start. Some guys come off the bench well, for whatever reason. Some guys come in at odd times and are expected to fit in and be great (Johns). Well, he comes in to a difficult role at a difficult position against an array of competition night in and night out, from the bench, and I totally understand why he's so inconsistent.
Michigan will not win 3 games in 3 days in the conference tournament playing 4 guys 35+ minutes. Won't hold up
Fuck this game. I knew this wouldn't end well for whatever reason(s)*. I FUCKING KNEW IT.
*I'm not confident about Brooks returning...I know nothing so that confidence means jack shit. But it's where I'm at. I watched Joe Wieskamp go down for Iowa earlier today as well so it only amplified Brooks' injury. Both injuries in meaningless games.
If it makes you feel any better, Weiskamp's injury was apparently just a "sprain" and they don't seem to think it'll have long-term effects. And like Brooks, he was in a boot mostly as a precaution.
Watts and Langford shoot over 50% from the field? Pretty much all contested. It was a bumpy game knocking HD off his shot down low. Staee needed and wanted it a bit more. I'm find with the L.
I'm (pick: livid, heartbroken) about the injuries. Here's to not playing until Friday to get healthy. Hopefully, Brooks could have gone and they decided against it since this one "didn't matter". Maybe M wins with him, maybe not, but M definitely seems different with/without him.
Not shocking. Still, as much as one can expect the team to show cracks in the last week, the cracks shown can be worrying. Hunter has had trouble establishing himself as an offensive force in games. The offense hasn't flowed well, really, for three games. Our shooters aren't quite lights-out enough. Etc etc etc.
Injuries would be the real trouble. But we have two weeks, really, until we have to be ready for the really important games, and ankle tweaks often seem worse early than they wind up being long term (this is extensive personal experience talking).
So, we'll see.
I mean, it could be worse. They could have been in a plane crash. A 1 seed beckons. The team will be ok.
The most concerning point for me is the lack of rebounding. Dickinson is an excellent rebounder, while Davis is not. Wagner is a good rebounder, as is Livers. Where and why is the breakdown? Part of it is that Illinois and Michigan State are good rebounding teams. Another part is that we have too much Austin Davis time.
On offense, perhaps we should put up more 3s early in the clock, and look more for offensive rebounds. We've been successful going through the post and attacking the basket -- until recently.
Stay calm and let's focus on the Big Dance.
10 days, everyone heal up.
BTT whatevs. We already won a banner.
Eh, I'm chill.
At least that's what I've been told.
Am I doing it right?
Rocket's most effective shot of the game was the one he administered to Eli Brooks who was still in the air on his second basket. That pushed Eli into the ankle buster and iced the game for Sparty with 35 minutes to play. Spartans will ...
This team will be fine. Not to take away from Brooks at all, but there is enough talent on this roster to step up and fill that void.
GO BLUE
This game came down to Wagner and Dickinson being mental absent and not caring
Look at what #22 was doing to Dickenson in the bottom picture -- that sort of mauling was not called all day long.
Was there ANY reason to play any starters in this game?
Comments