Three days earlier, the 2022-23 Michigan Men's Basketball team provided us with a play that seemed to symbolize the ineptitude in late games and the general feeling that most fans got watching this team, Joey Baker's airball on a perfect look from three that would've tied the game and sent it to another OT. All you could do is chuckle sardonically at the agony of the moment and perhaps feel a little bad for the players, hopeless in crunch time yet again. It seemed like the rollercoaster experience in Champaign on Thursday was as perfect as it would get to sum up this team. 

Then we got today. After Indiana had improbably missed a fourth straight free throw across two possessions with a chance to put the game away in OT, Michigan had one more chance to tie, down two, with just four seconds left. Kobe Bufkin snagged the rebound, zig-zagged through traffic as he approached half-court, and went to pass the ball to Hunter Dickinson. The problem was, Hunter's back was to Bufkin. The ball hit Dickinson square in the back and dropped like a stone to the floor. Indiana's Tamar Bates scooped it up and time expired. Michigan didn't even attempt a tying shot. Instead they threw a pass into a guy's back. Somehow, it sums it up even better than the Baker airball. 

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For most of the first half, it didn't seem like Michigan would even have the spark to create a game with the potential to end in such upsetting fashion. Over the first ~16 minutes, the visiting Wolverines were a carcass. They scored just 13 points over that span, and scored just three over an eight minute stretch lasting over the middle of the half. The Wolverines battled turnovers and mental errors early on and couldn't hit a three point shot to save their lives. They opened the game 1/10 from beyond the arc and on defense, they were getting killed in the paint. Indiana had as many points in the paint as Michigan had points total at one point, and Assembly Hall was rocking. With almost four minutes left, Indiana led 27-13. 

Michigan got it together rapidly in the closing minutes though, finishing the half of a 14-2 run which dramatically changed the feel of the first twenty minutes of play. Kobe Bufkin slammed a dunk down and then hit a jumper before Dickinson engineered a personal 8-0 run, the last of which was an and-one off a beautiful pass from Dug McDaniel, one of his best out of the PNR this season. Indiana then turned the ball over, Michigan ran the floor, and Jett Howard made a dunk and Michigan went into the break down just 29-27, a stunning sea change in the game. 

[Marc-Gregor Campredon]

The momentum they accumulated in the back half of the opening twenty carried over into the first minutes of the second half, which is when the outside shooting came on-line. Bufkin hit a fadeaway two-point jumper to tie the game on the opening possession and the next time down the floor Jett Howard swished a three to give Michigan their first lead in ages. They just kept raining threes and after a Dickinson dunk made it 42-34 Michigan, Mike Woodson called timeout and Assembly Hall was silenced. Indiana made a strong charge out of the timeout initially but the Wolverines built their lead up even further, stretching it to 52-40 with 13:42 remaining. 

The next few minutes ticked away with the Wolverines retaining breathing room, even if the unfavorable road whistle was rearing its head, with Will Tschetter picking up a foul for being elbowed in the face and the officiating crew missing several out of bounds calls, giving the ball to the Hoosiers. Dug McDaniel connected on a three to put Michigan back up double digits, 59-49, at almost exactly the halfway point of the second half, and the lead was 60-51 after he went 1/2 at the line with nine minutes to go, which is when Indiana began their hard charge. 

Indiana got a three from Miller Kopp to trim the lead to six and then Tarris Reed Jr. missed the front-end of a one-and-one. The ball was rebounded down by Race Thompson, who would eventually knock down a hook shot to make it a four point game and then a brilliant pass from Trayce Jackson-Davis to Thompson for an and-one dunk left the score at 60-59. In the meantime, Michigan's offense had gone cold, poor ball movement leading to low percentage shots being jacked up. One such was a late shot clock heave by Kobe Bufkin on a long two, which Dickinson rebounded down and put back for an and-one (that was completed), finally snapping the funk. 63-59 Wolverines, 6:11 left. 

[Campredon]

The Hoosiers had an answer, a three for Tamar Bates following a sweet feed from TJD out of a double team, but Michigan had a response with a Tarris Reed putback. Will Tschetter had free throws at 65-62 out of the under four media timeout, but missed the front-end of a one-and-one. Michigan snagged the OREB but were completely unaware of the state of the shot clock, ending in a turnover where they were not even close to getting a shot away. Indiana took it down the floor and a nifty Jackson-Davis layup cut the lead to one. On the other end, TJD forced a turnover and then back on offense, Jackson-Davis hit another layup to give the Hoosiers the lead. 66-65 IU, 2:49 to play. 

Michigan wasn't done. Kobe Bufkin's three popped out, but Hunter Dickinson swatted Jackson-Davis and Bufkin would be fouled going to the bucket. He made them both and Michigan led 67-66 with 1:46. TJD would be fouled in a rather questionable call on Indiana's next possession, but the ball didn't lie and he missed the front-end free throw. Michigan fed Dickinson in the post, who rattled a hook shot home to put the Wolverines ahead 69-66 with 1:15 to go. Perhaps the biggest shot of the game came on the next possession, a Jalen Hood-Schifino stepback three that sent Assembly Hall into a frenzy.

The game was now tied with 44 seconds to play after Juwan Howard called a timeout. Out of the timeout, the Wolverines turned it over to Race Thompson in the paint, who then ran the floor, but terrific transition defense from Bufkin produced a miss. The Maize & Blue rebounded it down and now with 23 seconds left and the shotclock off, they had a chance to hold for the final shot. Howard took his last timeout to draw up a play, which seemed to be a plan to enter the post with Dickinson, but IU sold out to take that option away. Without a plan, the Michigan players ran out of ideas, dribbling it around before frantically asking Dickinson to jack up a three, who clanged it off the iron. Indiana rebounded it and called timeout with less than a second to go. Amazingly, they drew up a perfect play to get TJD a chance at the buzzer, but his half-court shot was just off the mark and Michigan would be headed to OT for the third straight game. 

[Campredon]

Overtime got off to a very poor start for the Wolverines on offense, Bufkin missing a floater, a McDaniel layup being blocked, and several horrible possessions in between. Thompson's hook shot got the scoring started for the Hoosiers and when Miller Kopp hit a two (initially called a three) to stretch the lead to 6 with 2:21 left, the home crowd was rocking. Michigan didn't make their first bucket until three minutes of OT had elapsed, but it was a big one: Dickinson knocked down a three to draw the Wolverines closer. Indiana's next shot that went up ricocheted out of bounds, but Michigan wasted the possession, which ended on Dickinson getting stuffed and Reed missing the awkward second-chance heave. 

The score was then 75-72 with a minute to go. Michigan played defense and got the stop, but tried to enter the post out of the timeout again (strange with so little time left and taking into account the score) and turned it over. They fouled Indiana, but Race Thompson missed both free throws with 14 seconds left, giving the Wolverines more life. Indiana would foul strategically with six seconds left, sending Dug McDaniel to the line. He made the first and then, in a decision presumably made by Juwan Howard during a timeout, missed the second on purpose, looking for an offensive rebound and igniting conversation online. Regardless of merits, the play was unsuccessful, as Thompson rebounded it down and was fouled again with four seconds left. This then leads us to the sequence in the opening, as Thompson improbably missed both again, gifting the Wolverines one last chance. Which Bufkin of course threw into Dickinson's back, ending the game. 

Good riddance. 

[Click the JUMP for the stats, a brief rant, and the box score]

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[Campredon]

Before I talk about what it all means, I will quickly run through the statistical summary. Dickinson was the star for Michigan today, 24 points on 10/17 from the floor, 2/4 from three, perfect on his free throws, managing his fouls well enough and playing a whopping 41 minutes. Pitted in a great matchup with Jackson-Davis, who had 27 of his own, they locked horns and came close to canceling each other out. Bufkin was the other star, final blunder be damned. Kobe scored 19 points on 7/16 from the field, but the 1/7 from three does sting.

Jett Howard had a hot shooting spurt in the middle period of the game to propel himself to 16 but he was invisible when it mattered and was 2/4 from the free throw line. Will Tschetter finally scored for the first time in over 40 minutes of game action, but two free throws was all he could muster. Dug McDaniel was 2/4 from three and a grisly 1/6 inside the arc. Off the bench, Michigan got a grand total of *two points*, a single bucket by Reed, who was 1/5 from the field as a whole and 0/2 at the charity stripe. Joey Baker, Terrance Williams II, and Jace Howard were ghosts in their combined 12 minutes, attempting three FGs and hitting none of them. Four of five starters logged 40+ minutes(!) and it was Dickinson that put the team on his back. 

As for Indiana, Race Thompson was the second fiddle to TJD this time, with 16 points on a hyper-efficient 7/10 from the field. Jalen Hood-Schifino, who was on fire when these two teams played at Crisler, scored 13 points in 40 minutes but was not a big factor beyond the monumental three late in regulation. No other Hoosier scored more than six points. 

Shooting was similar across the two sides, 41% for Michigan and 45% for Indiana from the floor, and the numbers were also nearly even from three, 35% for Michigan and 33% for Indiana. Oh, and FT shooting was nearly identical, 67% for IU and 63% for M. If there was one difference that loomed large, it was the 13 turnovers for the Wolverines to 8 for Indiana. Points off of turnovers was a 12-8 edge for IU, and in a game decided by three, that was the difference. Michigan's turnover bug buried them early, then they cleaned it up, only to see it re-emerge and rip the game away from them late.  

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[Campredon]

As someone who has done ~85% of the men's basketball recaps this season, I'm not sure what else to say. I feel like a Nebraska blogger recapping the games of the Scott Frost era, once per week trying to explain why the rug got pulled out from the under the team this time, or who was the culprit for another late-game meltdown. Typically we say that a number of close losses piling up without a similar number of wins to balance it out is indicative of poor luck, but you cannot watch this team play game-in and game-out and conclude anything other than this is who they are.

With the loss today, Michigan falls to 4-12 in games decided by six points of fewer/games that ended in OT. They have lost every single game this season, except for the ASU and PSU blowouts, in that fashion. Of their four wins, three were against rancid teams, either middling to bad in the MAC (EMU/Ohio) or atrocious in the B1G (Minnesota). Against nearly every team with a pulse this season, if they find themselves in a close game, this Michigan team has found a way to lose it. 

They were up four on Iowa with a half-minute left and lost it. They were up seven on Illinois in OT with 1:40 left and lost. They were in down-to-the-wire games with UVA and Kentucky and couldn't get it done. They played with their food against an atrocious CMU team and then fumbled the bag when it was time to avoid disaster late. They had chances to win the game today and couldn't finish it off. Michigan couldn't score for the last five minutes against Indiana the last time, when a bucket or two would've won it, and couldn't beat Wisconsin despite stopping them from hitting a shot for a long stretch to close the game of the meeting in Madison.

[Campredon]

You could say they are snakebitten, or you could watch the games and see that it is rarely luck, instead a mix of mental errors and failed execution amounting to a never ending string of deer-in-the-headlights moments from players in big moments. When there were nine minutes to go in regulation, your author tweeted "surely this will not end in pain", a nod towards the seeming inevitability of which this ending would occur based on prior results. And what happened? Exactly what we all saw coming happened... a maximum pain choke yet again. 

What really sucks about today is it was a chance to break out of that. Before the frustrating meltdown against Illinois on Thursday, this team had been playing better in February, starting to give those in the fanbase hope. Hope that the team could get hot, sneak into the big dance, and win a couple games in the NCAAs to salvage the season like last year. A win today would've locked up the #2 seed in the B1G Tournament and gotten Michigan on the verge of a tourney berth. Instead, they go to the BTT as the 8th seed, likely needing to win at least two games (Rutgers and then Purdue) to make the NCAAs. Not impossible, but a whole lot tougher. 

The win over Wisconsin last Sunday yanked much of the fanbase back in and then this week they followed it up with two more excruciating kicks to the groin. There is one last chance in Chicago this week to re-write the story of the season, but after everything we've seen this year, what evidence is there that it will be different this time? Of course, they don't need to show us evidence beforehand. Juwan Howard's group needs to just go do it. But until it happens, there won't be many in this fanbase believing it will happen. Prove us wrong, boys. 

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