Minnesota 75, Michigan 67
"Stick with it" is an approach that has by and large worked for Juwan Howard this year. Letting his young charges play through their struggles has allowed a few to emerge as valuable pieces while gaining confidence. When faced with ball-dominant big men, Howard has let his centers go one-on-one in the paint, allowing huge individual stat lines to one player (see: Purdue's Trevion Williams, Iowa's Luka Garza) while shutting down the rest (see: everyone else on Purdue, Iowa).
This afternoon, however, that approach didn't pay off, and Michigan gacked away a winnable conference road game. Daniel Oturu, single-covered all day, went off for a career-high 30 points on 21 shooting possessions as the Gophers cleared out and let him operate in the post. Despite Oturu holding a clear athletic advantage over Jon Teske, not to mention Michigan's backup bigs, help didn't come. Only a brief absence due to an arm injury slowed Oturu.
The Gophers held a 46-32 advantage in the paint. When giving up that many twos, you have to answer with threes, and Michigan's shooting gave out at the worst time. The Wolverines started the game a scorching 6-for-8 from beyond the arc; they went 4-for-20 the rest of the way. Outside of Franz Wagner, who finished with 17 points, nobody could consistently produce as a shooter.
The usual heroics from Zavier Simpson (19 points on 17 shots, 6 rebounds, 9 assists, 2 turnovers) weren't enough for the team to grasp full control of the game. After the early three-point flurry by Michigan, Oturu worked the Gophers back, and his layup gave them their first lead on the first possession of the second half. The two squads passed the lead back and forth until enigmatic Minnesota guard Marcus Carr hit a hot streak; he scored 16 of his 21 in the second half. Forward Alihan Demir also repeatedly took Wagner to the basket on his way to 13 points, all in the second half.
Michigan couldn't hit a series of good looks from beyond the arc; outside of Simpson, nobody threatened much inside of it. There may not be too many adjustments to make on offense—shoot through it and hope Isaiah Livers returns sooner than later. It might be time to change up the defense, however.
With the loss, Michigan falls to 11-5 overall and 2-3 in the Big Ten. They'll face another tough road test on Friday when they travel to Iowa. Luka Garza looms.
[Hit THE JUMP for the box score.]
January 12th, 2020 at 3:33 PM ^
I'm not even bothering a mental preview of Iowa. Just have to assume we will be 11-6 (2-4) and we have to hold serve at home against PSU and Illinois before finally getting a road win @Nebraska and pushing our B1G record over .500.
This whole season is destined to be a Bataan Death March with our roster deficiencies, injury to Livers, league-wide road woes, etc. We just have to make the dance with a reasonable seed, hope for a first weekend highlight, and wait for the five-star reinforcements. Finding that sense of peace will be easier said than done after the tantalizing start in Atlantis.
January 12th, 2020 at 3:41 PM ^
We just have to make the dance with a reasonable seed,
We should just be hoping that they make the tournament, period. W/ Howard’s ability to turn should-wins to losses, that’s not a guarantee. This season could turn south quickly.
January 12th, 2020 at 3:47 PM ^
Can always count on Ham and Bluegary having shit takes.
January 12th, 2020 at 4:00 PM ^
Says the guy who said Castleton should be forced to transfer after 1.5 years here.
January 12th, 2020 at 4:57 PM ^
He shouldn’t be forced to, but he will get no PT next year.. book it. I have yet to hear “wow! Great play by Castleton”
January 12th, 2020 at 5:01 PM ^
I guess I wonder who the backup 5 is if he leaves then, especially if Davis leaves, too.
Todd is 6-10, but he’s too good to have coming off the bench to play out of position. And that’s if he comes in the first place.
January 13th, 2020 at 9:17 AM ^
Hunter Dickinson
January 13th, 2020 at 11:41 AM ^
would be the only center on the team, yes.
January 12th, 2020 at 4:53 PM ^
Says the guy who had a football season full of ? takes.
Pull the beam out of your own eye before removing the speck out of the other guy's eye.
January 12th, 2020 at 5:09 PM ^
Football team and staff perpetually suck it up. Why the fuck would I have sunshine blower takes on that program? Basketball deserves the benefit of the doubt.
January 12th, 2020 at 3:56 PM ^
This trend on here where people retype a line from someone's post in their reply and comment on it is getting old.
January 12th, 2020 at 4:12 PM ^
Did you see msu lose by 29 or osu drop 4 in a row? This exact same thing is happening to every team outside of about 2-3.
January 12th, 2020 at 4:27 PM ^
“Every team” is not 2-5 in their last 7. “Every team” is not losing games they should be winning b/c the coach refuses to make an adjustment to a player killing them.
January 12th, 2020 at 5:08 PM ^
For one thing they aren't 2-5 in their last 7; they're 3-4 with losses to the #5, 18, 28, and 34th teams in the country, only one of those at home. OSU has lost 4 in a row. MSU just got blown out by their largest margin even as a ranked top-10 team. Purdue is 4-3, It's hard in the conference, and getting too worked up over it seems unnecessary.
January 12th, 2020 at 6:51 PM ^
They're 2-5 in their last seven against top-200 ranked teams. And why should I care that OSU is collapsing? That doesn't mean anything about what Michigan is/isn't doing.
January 12th, 2020 at 8:41 PM ^
Okay, so by another arbitrary breakdown they are 2-5. For the season they are 6-5 against top-100 teams, which is about what should be expected especially for a team down probably it's most complete player.
As for "why should I care about OSU collapsing", I'm using it to illustrate that (a) even good teams can hit rough patches especially in probably the best conference in America, and (b) that again, this is a tough conference and games "you should win" is always a bit subjective and, in fact, might not be expected wins even if at some point said team had a healthy lead.
Michigan is not an elite program, doubly so without Livers. But you are railing against Howard and calling him a choke artist who can't coach after 15 games and I'm simply pushing back.
January 12th, 2020 at 5:03 PM ^
Howard needs to reassess his defensive system; I assume he will. But good lord it's a special brand of Michigan hyperbole to believe he's gacking away should-be wins. Per KenPom and Torvik Michigan was supposed to lose this came close; the final score is a bit misleading as Michigan was within a score until the final minute.
January 12th, 2020 at 5:10 PM ^
You’re pretending “should win” meant I thought Michigan “should win” coming into the game.
“Should win,” of course, means that Michigan was up 11 w/ 5 minutes left in the first half and had a 79.3% chance of winning. They should win those games. And yet they didn’t b/c Howard let another guy single-handily beat them. Just like he let Pritchard in a game Michigan should have won. Just like he almost let Williams do in a game Michigan barely won.
January 12th, 2020 at 6:17 PM ^
Michigan held Pritchard to something like 4 points well into the second half. And if you send a double team against Oregon they have shooters who can kill you. It's generally safe to assume your all-defense PG will hold up like he had to that point.
Talking toe about win expectancy when there are 25+ minutes left to go in a game is silly. Michigan was also shooting something like 60% from 3 at that point, which was equally unsustainable.
Howard needs to address how he defends the post; I assume he will. But Michigan also got roasted by Winston and I don't honestly know how you defend that as well.
January 12th, 2020 at 6:58 PM ^
What Howard probably should have done against Pritchard was switch to zone, not double team. By the time he scored 7-9 points in a row, he should not have assumed that Simpson was going to be able to hold up anymore. Michigan wins that game if Howard does something that stops Pritchard from scoring at will at the end of regulation/overtime. Instead, he didn't try anything.
January 12th, 2020 at 8:45 PM ^
Sure, in hindsight Howard could have tried going zone, though who the hell knows if Michigan would have executed that properly and won. And if they hadn't, people would have railed against him "panicking" after a couple of buckets.
Michigan wins that game if stop Mathis from shooting 60% from 3. Pritchard, for all of his heroics, needed 22 shots to get his 23 points and only had 4 assists to 3 TOs. He wasn't particularly efficient.
January 12th, 2020 at 10:53 PM ^
Switching to zone would have likely been a disaster with Mathis canning 3s left and right.
January 12th, 2020 at 4:00 PM ^
i guess it’s settled, then.
January 12th, 2020 at 3:34 PM ^
The losing is annoying. BUT we are the only team losing without our best player. We are so much better with Livers as he provides things we sorely lack without him: outside shooting and excellent defense. But this is Michigan so of course we are the only team playing without our best player.
January 12th, 2020 at 4:29 PM ^
Only the last two losses are w/o Livers. Louisville, Illinois, and Oregon were w/ him.
January 12th, 2020 at 3:35 PM ^
Everyone thinks this team is OK right now and missing Livers is a huge deal, however they will be sweating out a NCAA bid late in the season. @NW and @Neb are the last remaining winnable road games IMO and they'll probably split those meaning a 1-9 conf road record is a real possibility.
January 12th, 2020 at 3:54 PM ^
We're going to see a lot of Big Ten teams with terrible road records. My big concern is that we don't drop one at home.
If we're about .500 in league play, we're not going to be sweating it out. Our OOC performance gets us in. Being the only team in the country to beat Gonzaga is nice.
January 12th, 2020 at 4:17 PM ^
I'm not so sure theyll go 9-1 at home though which brings 9-11 conf record into play. Yeah, beating Gonzaga is huge but it's just 1 win. Creighton is the only other win holding water. Unc and ISU blow, losing that heartbreaker to Oregon cost this team a bunch.
January 12th, 2020 at 4:45 PM ^
Well, we're 2-0 at home in conference. The way the league has gone, I don't expect to drop any home games. Of course getting Livers back soon would be nice.
January 12th, 2020 at 3:57 PM ^
Additionally, playing real legit patsies during the non-conference is again screwing our strength of schedule.
Looking like an 8 or 9 seed.
January 12th, 2020 at 4:14 PM ^
Playing legit patsies isn’t the issue. The problem with the non conference schedule is Iowa State and (especially) UNC falling off of a cliff.
January 12th, 2020 at 6:20 PM ^
At one point before UNC fell off a cliff UMs non-confidence schedule was one of the top 2-3 nationally of P5 programs. They played a couple of tomato cans, like everyone else. But there's no evidence the committee holds it against you for going 11-2 OOC with two losses against top-15 teams, one on the road.
January 12th, 2020 at 3:37 PM ^
The last 5 minutes of the first half and the first five minutes of the second half are just so important in college basketball. Michigan lost that 26-11.
Bringing in Davis and Nunez to close out the first half and blow the lead was inexcusable. And leaving DDJ off the court for the first 9-ish minutes of the 2nd half so Brooks could miss open 3 after open 3 was bad, too.
Aren’t big men supposed to be Howard’s specialty? Teske has regressed so, so much. I’m not looking forward to Garza scoring 60 against us on Friday. 2-4, here we come!
Also, Oturu got a cheapy foul on Minnesota’s first possession. Would have been nice had Michigan tried to put a 2nd on him in the first half.
January 12th, 2020 at 3:56 PM ^
Yeah, Nunez was on the floor for the run at the end of the first half. Not a huge fan of plus minus but when the guy contributes nothing on either end it's hard not to note his -7 in a total of 4 minutes. The minutes he was getting were maybe ok when we were playing SW Presbyterian Baptist Catholic State but now that we are in 50/50 games this is a legit gripe. If Bajema is not ready then those minutes need to go to DeJulius even if it reduces the frequency with which we play the 3 guard lineup.
January 12th, 2020 at 4:09 PM ^
Refs made it clear they weren’t calling shit on Minn so what good would driving into a good defender do
January 12th, 2020 at 4:21 PM ^
Yeah, the difference in the game was the home court refereeing. I just don't see Michigan winning when the game is called like that. Otaru played great, and Minnesota as a team was not bad. But this was definitely a game where Michigan wins on a neutral court, or where this more balanced officiating. The announcers were pretty clear about what they thought. The hard foul on Brooks that wasn't called at the end of the first half was particularly galling. And Otaru charged into Davis, had his shot blocked cleanly, and they called a foul on Davis. You just can't win when the game is being called that way.
January 12th, 2020 at 5:44 PM ^
Except it was Johns. And that was great defense by Johns and then he get a foul called on him. Terrible call.
January 12th, 2020 at 8:17 PM ^
there was one with davis that i thought they were calling a jump ball. nope. a foul.
January 12th, 2020 at 6:29 PM ^
What drives me crazy is the reductive "team V must be passive/settling for jumpers because they only shot Y FTs, while team X must be more aggressive because they shot Z FTs" as if those occur Ina vacuum. Look no further than the fact MSU shot 6 FTs against Purdue after shooting 16 at home against Minny, or those Gophers shooting 8 FTs against MSU and then shooting 19 in this game. Home refs are awful and just because everyone okays 10 games doesn't mean it evens out.
January 12th, 2020 at 9:19 PM ^
Davis and Nunez both looked lost out there at the end of the first half. while we pissed away a 10 point lead. Not sure why Nunez is getting into games as he has been lost on both offense and defense every time he gets on the floor and has not been the sharpshooter he is supposed to be. It did not help that we had 19 fouls called on us to their 7.This made our defenders tenative. All 5 starters had 3 or more fouls.
January 12th, 2020 at 9:19 PM ^
Davis and Nunez both looked lost out there at the end of the first half. while we pissed away a 10 point lead. Not sure why Nunez is getting into games as he has been lost on both offense and defense every time he gets on the floor and has not been the sharpshooter he is supposed to be. It did not help that we had 19 fouls called on us to their 7.This made our defenders tenative. All 5 starters had 3 or more fouls.
January 12th, 2020 at 3:43 PM ^
It'd be really nice if Brooks could get out of this slump. Having Livers out is one thing but Brooks missing everything on top of it really makes things tough for our offense.
January 12th, 2020 at 4:05 PM ^
This is his pattern. Start off hot and then collapse. Started last year shooting 9-21 from 3 and ended it by going 5-28.
January 12th, 2020 at 5:03 PM ^
This. I do hate to agree with you, but this is who Brooks is. He is a streaky shooter at best and that only occurs against weak competition or when Michigan is rolling already and we don’t really need his scoring.
January 12th, 2020 at 3:47 PM ^
Oturu was 13-18 from the field and 3-7 from the line. Teske, Castleton and Davis committed 6 of their available 15 fouls. If we’re going to stick with the single-teaming nonsense, at least make the big fellows earn their points at the stripe and force the refs to use their whistles.
January 12th, 2020 at 3:54 PM ^
Howard has lost his luster
His defensive philosophy is by far the fucking stupidest one I have ever watched.
His substitution choices are ridiculously stupid.
And he isn’t learning from his mistakes or losses. He continues to do the same shit, every game, and the losses continue to pile up.
This team is going to be a last 4 in type of team and get routed in the B1G tourney and March Madness.
And for all the positivity around his recruiting, he hasn’t really actually done much - Todd hasn’t signed his LOI, Christopher probably ain’t coming, and there aren’t any shooters or playmakers in the class that I see.
January 12th, 2020 at 3:57 PM ^
Maizen? Is that you?
I thought you only shit on Football posts.
Good to see you branching out!
January 12th, 2020 at 4:03 PM ^
Account is 1 month old.
January 12th, 2020 at 4:07 PM ^
what did I say that’s wrong specifically in your opinion?
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