Michigan State 75, Michigan 63
For the second time this season, Michigan State overpowered Michigan in the second half, and Cassius Winston led the Spartans to a victory. Even though Michigan got off to a hot start, State hung around during a weird first half, then went on a huge run to lock up a share of the Big Ten championship. Over a eight minute span in the second half, the Spartans didn’t miss a shot: during that stretch, State made ten shots in a row and went on a 28-7 run. As Michigan’s offense bogged down again against the State defense, the Spartans scored 1.39 points per possession after the break.
Winston was the engine for State, as he’s been all season. The likely Big Ten Player of the Year had a rough first half by his standards — 1-5 shooting (but seven points, mostly due to free throws) and sat for much of the half after committing his second foul on Zavier Simpson with 7:34 left. State survived in their minutes without him; they trailed by eight when he went out and trailed by six at halftime. Michigan’s two starting wings each picked up two fouls of their own in that first half, necessitating substantial minutes from Eli Brooks and Brandon Johns, as well as Colin Castleton, who stepped in after an early Jon Teske foul.
Michigan played well in that first half. Jordan Poole and Ignas Brazdeikis were active early — they each knocked down a three and each got out in transition for a bucket — and State was sloppy with the ball after not turning it over much in the first matchup. With an Eli Brooks three late in the shot clock to push the lead to 25-16, Michigan had made five of their first eight three-point attempts. Over the rest of the game, the Wolverines shot just 3-14 from behind the arc. The second foul on Iggy, who had scored a quick 12 points without missing a shot, was a particularly consequential one — Winston drew contact on the shot and Iggy was banished to the bench.
Without Winston, State finds it very difficult to generate offense, and Michigan had an opportunity to extend what had grown to a 33-23 lead with a little over six minutes left in the half, but only scored two more points before halftime. Xavier Tillman was an essential presence defensively for State: he emphatically rejected several Simpson layups and held up in their switching defensive scheme against smaller and quicker players. Tillman would go on to finish with 17 points, 6 rebound, and 5 blocks, and he outplayed Teske for the second consecutive game. In a preview of what was to come in the second half, Michigan’s unusual lineups couldn’t generate many easy looks, settling for (and missing) tough shots.
State’s second half run didn’t come right away. Teske had tip-ins on each of Michigan’s first two possessions, but State countered with a Kenny Goins three (after losing Iggy) and an old-fashioned three by Matt McQuaid (after Poole fell asleep on the defensive glass). Those breakdowns — normally few and far between for the Wolverines — came with increasing frequency over the course of the game, and eventually the Spartans were able to score at will. Iggy knocked down a three off the dribble over a sinking Goins to extend Michigan’s lead to 48-40, but State was just beginning its big run.
Winston looked uncomfortable for much of the game to that point, but he started things off with an and-one layup over Colin Castleton. A defensive scramble led to a McQuaid three; Kyle Ahrens made a nice cut and scored off a Tillman post up; Michigan’s defense was unsettled to start a possession and Winston set up Goins for a wide open three; Simpson had to give a foul to prevent a Winston dunk. Tillman made both free throws to tie the game. By that point, Michigan was imploding: they surely had prepped for State’s defense, but looked indecisive against the mismatches, rarely fed Teske in the post, and their offensive sets looked far more simple and stale than usual.
After Tillman tied the game with those free throws, Teske airballed a decent look from three, and Winston banked one in late in the shot clock on the next possession. He then beat Simpson off the dribble for a floater off glass. Aaron Henry hit a floater after a broken-up alley-oop pass fell to him; Winston charged over Poole in transition; Winston rejected a screen and snuck past Teske for a layup to put State up 7. On Michigan’s next trip, Michigan was able to get Teske the ball in the post on Winston and scored through contact — but was called for a phantom travel. It was one of a handful of questionable calls, and an important one. Winston threw an alley-oop to Tillman for a dunk on the next possession; Tillman was fouled and made both free throws after a defensive rebound; Winston made a tough shot over Simpson to cap the run.
By that point, State had built a comfortable lead and Michigan’s offense had grown dysfunctional enough to make the prospects of a comeback bleak. That foul on Tillman was a needless one — Iggy’s fourth — and Iggy got his fifth a short while later after a Tillman offensive rebound, one of many for State. Winston’s big second half got him to an impressive 23 points and 7 assists on the game, and State’s role players — particularly Tillman — played well enough. In many ways, this was a repeat of the first matchup: Michigan played well up until a few minutes into the second half when they fell apart on both ends of the floor, State went on a huge run, and Winston was the best player on the floor.
Michigan finishes an excellent regular season with a 26-5 record, but will be the third seed in the Big Ten Tournament after losing out on a share of the conference title with the defeat tonight. The Wolverines will play in the late Friday night game of the Big Ten Tournament. Hopefully Charles Matthews (who was sorely missed as Michigan’s lack of wing depth was exposed) will be healthy by then. A strong postseason would certainly mitigate much of the disappointment from the result in this huge game.
[Box score after the JUMP]
Oh, for Pete's sake, this couldn't be further from the truth.
Did you watch last year's NCAA Tournament? They won 5 games. The offense was awful in four of them. They scored less than 1 ppp against Montana (!), Houston, and FSU, and just squeaked by that mark against Loyola. The only good offensive game they had was the A&M game.
They won with defense last year, and this year's defense is much better than last year's defense.
Furthermore, Michigan is a 35.1% three-point shooting team on the season (virtually identical to last year's 35.2%). If they get 26 threes, the odds that they'll make 3 or fewer are 0.68%: about one chance in 150. So, yeah, I'll take those odds.
I watch the game. Then I use the statistics to help me understand what I've watched, rather than reveling in my ignorance.
There's no question that the team is better with Matthews playing at full strength; I thought it was a very good sign that he was out of the boot, and I hope he's able to work his way back into game shape during the BTT in order to have a dominant run in the NCAAs.
But, your preference for a less-effective strategy is asinine. This year's team is demonstrably better than any of the teams you mention. Did you forget the 2013 team's loss at PSU, or getting run off of the floor by Wisconsin in the Big Ten semis? You'd prefer the 2014 team that lost to Charlotte, squeaked by a bad Purdue team in overtime, and got demolished by the Spartans in the Big Ten title game? The 2017 team, that finished the season 26-12, got punked by Maverick Morgan, and led to calls for Beilein to be fired?
The team is 26-5, and some of you are talking like they're 5-26.
Lede. Just sayin
Re-post: I still think slowing down the pace with 5-6 minutes left in the 1st half with a 10-point lead completely took the team out of attack mode that helped build a lead and as a result, allowed MSU to cut in to the lead and gain momentum/confidence.
JB's a great coach but "auto-bench" and slowing down the pace at inopportune times are two strategies I wish he'd think twice about.
March 10th, 2019 at 12:02 AM ^
Without the auto bench, Michigan is playing a Brooks / DeJulius / Poole / Johns / Davis lineup at the end of the game.
And it's easy to second-guess the pace decision in the aftermath of a loss, but I thought it made sense at the time -- get to halftime with the lead and regroup.
March 10th, 2019 at 12:13 AM ^
Livers finshed with 2 fouls and Teske with 3. You are sure thry pick up 5 more fouls if they played more huh?
March 10th, 2019 at 12:15 AM ^
The way the game was being called, and the way that the game would have been played if they were in there in foul trouble? Yes.
Anyway, Taske got the one-foul auto-bench but came back; he didn't pick up his second until the start of the second half. His time on the bench at the end of the first half wasn't foul-related.
March 10th, 2019 at 12:52 AM ^
Brooks played 20 minutes anyway!! Who gives a shit about the end of the game when you're already down by 12 with a minute to go because you've sat your best players. Sitting Iggy did nothing because he still fouled out with six minutes to go. So instead of riding the hot hand for as long as possible, we voluntarily benched him until we put him back in for a few minutes in the second half before he was involuntarily benched. Izzo trains the refs, Beilein gives into them
Pretty sure Beilein didn't even follow the auto bench strictly. I could be wrong but I thought Teske, Castleton, and Simpson all played in the 1st half with 2 fouls. Only Iggy and Livers sat and it kind of made sense with the way Iggy plays and the fact that he fouled out..
March 11th, 2019 at 12:27 AM ^
Teske picked up his second foul early in the second half, so it didn't apply to him. Castleton did play with two. Simpson did not, to the best of my recollection.
You're assuming that would've been the line-up at the end of the game, you don't know and I'd like to believe that at this stage of the season, your starters should know how to play smarter with two fouls.
It's also easy to second-guess the "pace decision" in real time when you see the lead dwindling and the make-up of the game changing... like the second half of the Minnesota game at Crisler when the "pace decision" with 5-6 minutes left in the game nearly cost UofM the game.
i still don't know why JB, and other coaches, don't do more offense-defense substitutions when players are in a bit of foul trouble. this gets them more opportunities on offense while helping to minimize the foul risk on D. the final 5-7 min of the first half would have been the perfect game to do this. it's possible one of the guys would have picked up a 3rd foul but i bet we would have had a double digit lead at the break.
Because it's almost impossible to do offense-defense substitutions in basketball.
You only get four timeouts, and you can only substitute on a dead ball. You see them at the end of the game, because the trailing team is likely to foul on every possession, and the leading team can use those timeouts.
In order to do any offense-defense substitutions in the first half, Beilein would have had to use all of his timeouts, and he could only have made a couple of additional substitutions beyond what he was able to do anyway.
the clock is stopped on every foul, violation or out of bounds. you're looking at about 40 this game. that's a stoppage on avg every minute. one could likely manufacture about 2 offensive possessions for every defensive possession for certain players by doing this w/o timeouts.
March 10th, 2019 at 12:00 AM ^
Beilein decided to hedge and recover every ball screen in the 2nd half on defense (just like he did in the first game) and got thoroughly destroyed (again). It was a layup line to basket. Why he stopped switching everything like he did in the first half will be this season's biggest mystery. Couple that with the ref show and the pathetic effort rebounding the ball and another offensive lull and we blew a great shot at a title. Hate to say it but Beilein better deliver in the tournament because this has not been his best year x and o's wise at all. Was badly outcoached by Izzo twice.
March 10th, 2019 at 12:03 AM ^
Well, there are two competing hypotheses:
Beilein is a moron who decided to switch away from an obviously better strategy because he hates winning.
Beilein saw something you didn't.
March 10th, 2019 at 12:14 AM ^
Whatever he saw resulted in MSU scoring 46 points in the 2nd half. Getting away from switching everything to the hedge and recover was moronic. No other way to say it.
March 10th, 2019 at 12:18 AM ^
Credit MSU for exploiting something that caused them to change the defense. Also, credit MSU for having ridiculous shots fall in during the decisive stretch of the game, while Michigan's similar or slightly-better shots rolled off.
Seriously: I promise you there was a reason.
c'mon. JB had a week to prepare for this. and we saw the same shit as game 1. having teske 20 feet away from the rim on D for most of the game is just plain dumb. the fact that JB and crew could not come up with a counter with almost a week to prepare is 100% on the coaches. the 2nd half of this game was likely the worst coaching effort from this staff in years.
March 10th, 2019 at 12:28 AM ^
Do the players own any part of the loss ...or just the refs and coach?
Please tell me what offense State was running in the second half.
When Teske got caught on Winston on switches, Winston drove right around him for lay-ups.
March 11th, 2019 at 12:31 AM ^
Winston was 6/11 from 2, including at least two absolute miracle shots. I doubt your premise.
Now, if you wanted to say that Winston drove and then passed it to Tillman for a dunk, you might be on to something.
March 10th, 2019 at 12:09 AM ^
Let's re-create 1989 and beat MSU in the Final Four (like IL that year).
March 10th, 2019 at 12:12 AM ^
Eh, let's just get revenge in the BTT, if at all, and let MSU flame out early. It's much more enjoyable when Michigan fans are preparing for the Sweet 16 and MSU fans are parsing the latest Izzo excuse.
March 10th, 2019 at 12:32 AM ^
Beating them in the Final Four would be the ultimate dong punch. I'd much prefer that to the BTT.
The concern is that what will this team do differently against state that they did not do already? The only differences in personnel could be having Matthews back (and possibly better refs), but the challenge is the same.
That should be sufficient.
March 10th, 2019 at 12:14 AM ^
I’d like to subscribe to your newsletter.
March 10th, 2019 at 12:29 AM ^
The BTT championship game would also be acceptable.
March 10th, 2019 at 12:14 AM ^
Not that it mattered, but lineups with Brooks and Johns are an embarrassment. A guy who has been passed by a freshman and a freshman who has shown in almost every appearance that he's not ready played a ton of minutes with a championship on the line. Why is Beilein so insistent on playing Brooks but has thrown Davis completely away? Davis could at least play defense and finish a bunny, Johns cannot do either right now. Benching Iggy was dumb, they were going to foul him out if it was the only thing they did tonight, but that's a whole other complaint. Overall sad night, not just cause we lost, but because it was the same shit again: a ref show exacerbated by passive offense and an inability to stop MSU on defense (GUARD KENNY GOINS PLEASE!!!!)
OK, so officiating never decides any game, it just changes how they are played, which results in how they are decided, If Michigan doesn't go to the basket, then there is little chance for foul calls to be made on the offensive end. Except in this game, McQuaid went to the line three times while John Teske went to the line once for two free throws. Do you think after watching that game, that McQuaid should have gotten more free throw attempts than Teske?
Michigan played its entire bench, 11 players. Their non-starters played 50 minutes in this game, 50 compared to MSU's even shorter bench which played 20 minutes fewer. Every MSU starter played three quarters of the game. Michigan had two starters with over 30 minutes by contrast. Why? Because of foul issues. Which team fouls more on a per game basis?
If Michigan played more aggressively and fouled more, how come the rebound stats showed that their seemingly aggressive play didn't lead to more offensive or defensive rebounds. How come two starters on MSU went to the line 21 times and Michigan's starting center went once for two shots. Is Michigan really that more
Want to talk about great usage and fucking offensive efficiency, let's talk about Iggy Brazdeikis who scored 20 points in 22 minutes. And then was fouled out on three consecutive 50-50 advantage-disadvantage rebound foul calls. Michigan lost its top scorer with 7 minutes left in the game. Imagine Sparty losing Winston and then suggesting that, yeah, Michigan's defense and offensive flow wasn't up to the task after he left the game.
Tillman played 33 minutes, was 4-5 from the field and went to the line for 12 shots, making 9. That was the game's difference right there. Was Tillman less aggressive than Brazdeikis? How many times did he foul out this year? Was Tillman a more influential presence around the basket than Teske?
on my rewatch, I counted 6 clear, uncalled fouls on Tillman, including a blatant hook and hold. UM was plenty aggressive tonight, it just didn't get rewarded.
on a related note, DD had a bad night . Almost every time he made a commment about the refs, he was wrong. The play wherenhe said Winston was a human pinball, he never got fouled at all, not even close, but he did have a clear double dribble on that play right in front of DD. I usually think DD is on point, but he way off tonight . And he never came back and said that Teske did not travel.
I thought Brooks played well on defense, and there was not much dropoff on the offensive end with Castleton. Many of the bench minutes were when several were in there during a stretch in the first half, when Michigan maintained its lead. It was the starters (including their foul trouble) especially in the second half that are responsible for this loss. Simpson, Teske, and Poole needed to come up big in this game, and they did not do so.
why did johns get the minutes over castleton in the second half? did he get hurt? i was at the bar w/o sound. i kept wondering where the hell castleton was.
Brooks actually played ok tonight. Probably his best game of the season, even though it still wasn't a good performance. Completely agree about Johns though. Kid is completely lost on both sides of the ball. Hopefully he's better at the 4 next year
March 10th, 2019 at 12:26 AM ^
I love Beilien but man, did he make a lot of strategic and tactical errors in this game. I thought it was really weird that he seemed to lose track of Iggy's foul count, especially for a guy who is so wedded to the autobench. I mean, I'm sure he realized he had 4 fouls but risked leaving him in because they desperately needed offense? I thought it was a mistake. Iggy was the only dude who could produce points in this game and they needed him on the floor. But I feel like he was getting frustrated and picking up dumb fouls (a lot of them due to horseshit officiating, of course). Beilein left him in after he got his 4th and then got another one soon afterwards. That was with an astonishing 5 minutes left. Also, a somewhat rested Iggy would've been nice to have down the stretch.
Beilein was too slow to call the timeout to quell that massive run in the 2nd half. And too reluctant to use the bench. He got great minutes from Brooks, Castleton and DDJ in the 1st half (they even had a little run with those guys) but it seemed like they didn't get any time in the 2nd half. I can't remember exactly, but it seemed like the starters played every minute of the 2nd until Iggy fouled out and then when Teske finally got a rest with about 3:30 left (and for Johns no less, which I thought was weird). But as State stretched the lead Michigan looked gassed - no movement on offense, no legs in shots, listless rebounding. There was one play in which a much shorter State player challenged Teske for a board and it went out of bounds off Teske. And then they mercifully went to a TV timeout and Teske looked totally dead. That's a play he makes 90+% of the time and a play Castleton could've made.
I'm disappointed Beilien couldn't figure out a way to stop the bleeding in both games. He's a better coach than Izzo and it sucks to lose to someone like that. State played their best in both games. Michigan did not.
March 10th, 2019 at 12:31 AM ^
Yeah, it's possible he lost track of Iggy's fouls, but I think it's more likely that he left him in because he was the only person who seemed to have any life on offense.
I noticed the same thing about Teske. Of course, it's tiring being beaten on in the paint, but I also wonder if maybe he was feeling under the weather. If he's sick, it would explain the airballs on the three-point attempts too.
March 10th, 2019 at 12:31 AM ^
Michigan missed five or six layups in the 2nd half and had about as many blocked. Getting to the basket wasn't the problem. Neither was the coach.
March 10th, 2019 at 12:59 AM ^
Beilein, dude. E before I both times.
e-i-e-i-oh, Old MacDonald had a farm
Did you want to save Iggy for the OT?
Beilein is always slow to call TOs when the other team is on a run. I think he just likes to be calm and not panic and expects Simspon to step up and make the team run a working play. Just sort of his style
March 10th, 2019 at 12:44 AM ^
Johns played 13 minutes, Castleton 10. Why??
DDJ played only seven minutes. Brooks played 20 minutes. Half the game. Eli Brooks, who everyone agrees has been passed by a freshman and who refuses to shoot, played half of the available minutes in A BIG TEN CHAMPIONSHIP GAME. OPPOSITE CASSIUS WINSTON.
Stab me in the eyes.
March 10th, 2019 at 12:55 AM ^
And yet he played pretty decently for much of that time.
5 points in twenty minutes? 0 assists? That's fine against Nebraska when you're up twenty. This was a championship game. A Beilein point guard needs to do better than that
Yes Eli has been slipping but check that box score again - not a bad stat line. He hit a big 3 and got another good bucket inside (his first points in months of course). But he also had 3 boards and two steals and slammed that ball off a State player for a turnover. With Matthews out and Iggy fouling out with 5+ minutes to go, he had to play much more than he usually does. But, he's not why Michigan lost this game. Eli looked like a different player out there tonight, which is a good sign for the tournaments.
I agree- DDJ should've gotten a lot more minutes and I want to see him out there more. He brings some good energy to the floor and I hope he gets good run next week. Beilein should've used him more in the 2nd half tonight as well.
This obviously wasn't Brooks' worst performance by any stretch and the blame doesn't go on him, but with Simpson laboring so much again it really hurt not to get any scoring from that position. I would honestly rather have DDJ hoist 3s than see another possession end in a missed midrange shot which seemed to happen on repeat tonight. We needed scoring, not a game manager in Brooks
Brooks was out there because other guys were in foul trouble or to give them a rest, and he did a creditable job on defense. DDJ might be a better player, but I don't think he's ready to take the load off of Simpson should that be necessary. No Brooks won't/shouldn't shoot, but we all know that - the trouble was the other four on the court weren't getting it done offensively or on the boards.
Simpson, DDJ and Brooks all might as well be the same player in these types of games.
None of them can shoot and it has hamstrung this team.
Need shooting PGs in modern basketball. Not ones that get blocked every time they drive to the hoop
The phantom foul on Loyer was a terrible call and key point in MSU's turnaround.
Literally half of fouls on UM were bad (I had 2 bad calls on MSU) . That one was bad, but the bad calls that allowed Winston 6 foul shots in the first half were the key to keeping his head in the game
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