[Ben Ludeman]

Michigan 69, Minnesota 60 Comment Count

Alex Cook February 21st, 2019 at 10:33 PM

It was a big night for Minnesota: as a bubble team hosting a squad that has spent most of the season in the top five, they had an opportunity to get a win that might have came close to locking up an NCAA Tournament bid. Michigan’s defense dominated the Gophers in the first half — they barely got to over half a point per possession — and the Wolverines opened up a big lead in the second. Despite some sloppy play down the stretch and standout performances from Minnesota big men Jordan Murphy and Daniel Oturu (who scored 18 points each and recorded double-doubles), it was a comfortable win for the Wolverines.

Michigan’s three-point shooting had been poor in Big Ten play (32%, 9th in the league entering the game), but they shot 13-28 from deep tonight and actually shot a higher percentage on threes (46%) than twos (41%). Jordan Poole missed his first look from behind the arc, but got hot after Gabe Kalscheur doubled off of him and he knocked down a wide open look. Poole made five threes, scored a couple of pretty buckets, and finished with a game-high 22 points. Jon Teske missed a few early looks but hit three from long range, including on back-to-back possessions in the second half — he had 17 points. Michigan’s entire six man core made at least one three.

The game was even to start. Murphy was aggressive on the glass and had two put backs before the first TV timeout, and Michigan and Minnesota were tied. With Poole’s first three, Michigan embarked on a slow-motion 11-0 run, holding Minnesota scoreless for over five minutes. The Wolverines — namely Teske and Ignas Brazdeikis — held up against Minnesota’s big men, switching 4-5 screens and defending without help, for the most part. Oturu was the only Gopher to play well offensively in the first half: his put-back to just barely beat the buzzer got him to 10 points and 10 rebounds. Murphy eventually got going, but had more offensive rebounds (5) than points (4) before the break. Minnesota’s leading scorer, Amir Coffey, was held scoreless and missed ten shots; freshman sharpshooter Gabe Kalscheur didn’t score until after halftime either.

_RL_9717_0.jpg

[Ludeman]

With a Zavier Simpson three to cap that run and prompt a Richard Pitino timeout, Michigan led 17-6 with just under 12 minutes left in the first half — and the Wolverines wouldn’t lead by less than eight points again in the game. There was a long stretch of ugly basketball that embodied most negative Big Ten stereotypes: the teams had a five and a half minute span with just two combined points towards the end of the half, and Michigan led 28-18 at halftime. It was a poor offensive half for Michigan, but they played fantastic defense and really made it tough for Minnesota to score. The Wolverines gave up 42 points in the second half, but many of those came after the outcome was decided and the Gophers still finished with just 0.90 points per possession.

Coffey opened the second half scoring with a layup after a strong drive past Iggy, but Iggy took over the game for a couple minutes right after that. He drove it at Murphy on the next possession for an and-one bucket (but missed the free throw), then knocked down a wing three from a Simpson-Teske pick-and-roll. Iggy blocked a Murphy shot in the post for the second time, which led to a Poole layup in transition. On the next possession, Iggy attacked an overly aggressive Murphy closeout in the corner, drove baseline, and scored over Oturu. A Teske three finished off a 12-2 run, and the Wolverines were up by 18. With ten minutes left in the game, Michigan had a commanding 53-33 lead.

Minnesota didn’t quit. Murphy, who went with the same move all game (facing up from the mid-post, driving, spinning left, and then shooting with his right hand), finally started drawing some contact and hitting those shots in the second half. A quick 7-0 run featuring Minnesota’s only made three of the game (which came with 8:24 left) and a Dupree McBrayer steal and dunk ate up a little bit of that lead and forced a timeout. A side ball screen and alley-oop layup from Simpson to Teske out of that timeout quieted the crowd. An impressive sequence from Charles Matthews — stopping Coffey at the rim in transition and knocking down a corner three — pushed the lead back to fifteen, and the consecutive Teske threes were daggers that effectively sealed the game.

BRL_5151.jpg

[Ludeman]

The Gophers extended it, fouling often despite the score; they were rewarded with a couple of missed free throws by Poole and a couple of Michigan fouls on three-point attempts. It would have required a miraculous comeback though, and Minnesota didn't come close. The home crowd cheered a meaningless Brock Stull jumper shortly before the clock expired, and the 9-point margin of victory understates the comprehensiveness of Michigan’s win. So do the stat lines from Murphy and Oturu: both played well but didn’t score efficiently (Michigan eventually left Oturu wide open in Minnesota’s high-low looks and he kept bricking jumpers) and the Wolverines were content to try to let those two beat them with difficult two-pointers. Coffey had a nightmare game (six points on 18 shot equivalents) mostly thanks to the efforts of Matthews.

Minnesota played Michigan close in Ann Arbor — it was the Wolverines’ worst three-point shooting performance of the season, but they still won. Tonight, in a game that meant a lot to the Gophers and to their NCAA Tournament chances, the Gophers were ice cold from outside (their only good shooter was held to three attempts), Michigan was hot, and it was a blowout. A potential letdown ahead of a highly-anticipated matchup with Michigan State on Sunday was averted, and Michigan kept pace with the other co-leaders in the conference title race.

[Box score after the JUMP]

Screen Shot 2019-02-21 at 10.58.36 PM.png

Comments

TrueBlue2003

February 22nd, 2019 at 12:22 AM ^

I'm still trying to wrap my brain around Michigan shooting 47% on 28 threes - good for 39 points on 28 shots while leaving 15 misses to potentially be OREB'd - and still only scored 1.03 ppp overall.

41% from two is bad but doesn't seem that bad.  Five missed FTs doesn't move the needle much. 10 TOs isn't bad.

Weird stat line.

Also, is it time to make Z the primary end of game FT shooter?  I think it might be, as crazy as that seems.

J.

February 22nd, 2019 at 12:38 AM ^

On the made shots, 47% on 28 threes is a solid 1.41 ppp -- but 41% on 28 twos is a much less solid 0.82 ppp.  Michigan only got 6 OREBs, and the free throw numbers are actually misleading.  6/11 is bad, but for these purposes, it was closer to 6/13, because two of the misses were front ends (I would have bet good money that Jordan Poole wouldn't miss two front ends in a game all year).

Average those together and they got about 1.2 ppp on possessions that ended with a shot, and then the turnovers take it down from there.

stephenrjking

February 22nd, 2019 at 12:39 AM ^

The scuffling in the first half and again at the end of the second affected this significantly, I think. Poole missing two front ends cost him two extra free throws that in a normal day he probably makes. 

Make three of those missed twos and you're over 50% shooting from inside the arc. You've also scored 75 points and you hit 1.12 ppp. Convert Poole's two front end misses into, let's say, 2 out of 3, and you have 77 points and 1.15. 

These are the margins in these kinds of stats. I think we wound up with 6 OREBs for the entire game, which probably hurt things a bit.

EDIT: J basically said the same thing before I did. 

The OREB issue might be team-specific, given the guys we're playing. The rest of it comes down to making shots, which Michigan has struggled at most of the year. 

J.

February 21st, 2019 at 11:36 PM ^

Speaking of referees, I just pulled up the list on KenPom.  (I don't know a reliable place to get the list when the game is still going on).

Bo Boroski (highly regarded, has now done six Michigan games this year, including Saturday's Maryland game), Chris Beaver (lower-rated on KenPom; doesn't get a lot of high-profile games; has now worked three Michigan games), and... Paul Szlec.  Of the "Michigan at Penn State" Szlecs.  Of the "one of the guys who was involved in Beilein's ejection" Szelcs.

So now the Big Ten office thinks it has to stand up to John Beilein when it comes to referee assignments!?  "How dare he suggest, obliquely, that our objectively terrible officials are terrible?  We'll show him!"

J.

February 22nd, 2019 at 12:10 AM ^

Yes, that was my point.

Somehow, the person who handles referee assignments didn't think, "Golly, I'd better not put any of these three clowns on another Michigan game."  Instead, it seems to have been, "Let's show Beilein who's boss and make sure to put one of them on their next road game."

The refereeing was mostly fine until Michigan got out to a 20-point lead, at which point the referees started inventing contact.

That doesn't excuse it, though.  Suppose (insert your favorite tenured Big Ten coach here) got the weakest ejection in basketball history in a game that was as poorly officiated as the PSU game.  Do you think any of those referees would work that team's next road game?

MGlobules

February 22nd, 2019 at 7:53 AM ^

It's the "let's show him" part I object to; that's too much to infer, especially from idiots. I only said it worked out. Agree that the B1G needs to exercise a little more diplomacy, including in such assignment of officials, and said as much at umhoops after PSU.

Bill22

February 22nd, 2019 at 12:03 AM ^

Fans at the Barn were angry tonight.  Felt bad for them.  Thought everything was a foul.  Beilein was masterful, as was Simpson.  Castleton got some minutes, so was B Johns injured?  If so, I didn’t catch that.

njvictor

February 22nd, 2019 at 12:19 AM ^

I thought Castleton looked good out there. Seemed to have pretty good awareness on both sides of the ball (better than Johns on both sides imo) and had nice lateral quickness on defense. That missed layup took a bad roll imo. He seems like more of a gamer than Johns. A summer of Camp Sanderson will do him well and I'm excited for him next year

remdog

February 22nd, 2019 at 12:00 PM ^

I think they both seem to have loads of potential.  I hope they both get some decent game minutes.  Castleton looked very good today and seems a little more comfortable out there but both may be needed for depth in the tourney.  And both are likely to develop into solid starters or even stars for this team over the next couple years.

SDCran

February 22nd, 2019 at 12:31 AM ^

Yeah, the fans seemed pretty upset, but I rewatched a lot of plays and I think Minnesota got a pretty favorable whistle all night.   Of the plays the fans were most upset about, I didn’t see any of them as bad calls, UFR.   

OTOH, both of the 3 point shot fouls late in the game were bad (Livers’ especially), and the play where the Minnesota guy stepped fully OOB and it wasn’t called was a joke, as was the foul on Teske on the missed dunk by Murphy.  

Blue In NC

February 22nd, 2019 at 9:14 AM ^

How bad is the officiating when Michigan is up 20 points and yet I'm upset at all of the horrible calls?  I mean it's just so frustrating to watch.  That said, I thought it was great that the team just played over it and went about their business (mostly watching Minny lay brick after brick).

Bill22

February 22nd, 2019 at 6:02 PM ^

No question.  It was a desperate anger, but anger nonetheless.  The play they were most pissed about was the Jordan Poole “off the leg” out of bounds play, that was not actually off his leg.  One of the Club hosts was bitching to me about it at halftime.

Thanks ? for the info on Johns.  I don’t do the Twitters.

TrueBlue2003

February 22nd, 2019 at 12:34 AM ^

Would have liked to see the starters get more rest in what was a pretty comfortable game.

Teske going the entire second half, Poole only sitting two minutes, Z and Matthews logging 37 each.

Beilein was talking about how he wanted to get some guys more rest.  Seemed like a good time to do that with Sunday's game less than three days away.

I'm sure they'll be fine but seemed like a good chance to get them more time if he thought they needed it.

ST3

February 22nd, 2019 at 9:51 AM ^

And we play at a slow pace. It’s not like we’re running up and down the court every possession. The way we play, it’s more like playing four rounds of golf in four days. It’s doable.

 I am more surprised by the apparent lack of scouting. The token 1-2-2 press completely took us out of our offense a few games ago, but I haven’t seen it used against us again. Minny pressed us a little late in the game, but it was too little too late.

Dorothy_ Mantooth

February 22nd, 2019 at 8:23 AM ^

adequate props to any and all Big10 road wins

...conference road games also provide great training for the NCAA tourney 

MH20

February 22nd, 2019 at 9:17 AM ^

The home crowd cheered a meaningless Brock Stull jumper shortly before the clock expired, and the 9-point margin of victory understates the comprehensiveness of Michigan’s win.

Wouldn't be surprised if Pitino told his team to score that meaningless basket in order to cut the deficit to single digits. Earlier this season he essentially admitted that he kept his starters in a game against Illinois to specifically ensure the margin of victory was 10 points or greater:

Pitino admitted after the 11-point victory over Illinois on Wednesday that he kept his starters in the game to make sure the final margin was at least 10 points. The NET caps point differential at 10, but the efficiency numbers can look better the more you distance yourself in points.

“I’m never trying to show up another coach,” Pitino said. “But if they’re going to tell me a win by more than 10 points means more, then if we can get it, I’m going to get it. It’s hard to win games in this league by double digits.”

Arb lover

February 22nd, 2019 at 10:31 AM ^

Was it Matthews who drove from beyond the arc and caught an elbow to the face so significant it snapped his head back, but no foul called? JB's reaction was spot on.