The Victors: Project OSPREY
Sunday, 13 January 2013
(№ 15) Ohio State 56-53 Michigan (№ 2)
16-1, Big Ten 3-1

Triskaidekaphobia? We suffered our first defeat of the season yesterday, & in humiliating fashion. We were caught flat by the hated Buckeyes, who surged to a 16-3 lead early in the first half, & who would eventually lead by twenty-one. We looked shell-shocked in the face of their aggressiveness. Most of their points in this mournful spell came off of an uncharacteristically high number of turnovers; we committed almost as many turnover in the first ten minutes of yesterday's game as we normally due in a game's whole forty minutes. Worse, we played lackluster defense after each of these turnovers, allowing the hated Buckeyes to score easy points. Worse yet, it took us around seven or eight minutes to even begin to mount a response, by which time we had dug ourselves a very deep hole. Battle back we did, though at no point did we look like the team that had won sixteen straight games, the last undefeated team in Division I men's basketball. But slowly, ever so slowly, we chipped away at T.O.S.U.'s lead, & with six minutes left in the game Glenn Robinson III drained a three-pointer to tie to game, 46-46. Then, inexplicably, we abandoned everything that had allowed us to claw our way back into the game. We shot three-point attempt after three-point attempt, all of them clanging off the rim or falling short as airballs, never passing the ball for position, never driving to the hoop to score points &/or draw fouls. That last, futile stretch was a sorry, unwelcome callback to the darkest moments of the John Beilein era, those times when we lived & died solely by the three.

Triskaidekaphobia? Humbug, treasured readers! Humbug! Just as the Thirteen Club was founded to fight superstition, so too do the valiant Wolverines need a latter-day Thirteen Club to avoid a repeat of 13 January '13. For all their offensive prowess (missing almost entirely yesterday), the '12-'13 valiant Wolverines are very young, Tim Hardaway Jr. & Jordan Morgan being the only regularly contributing upperclassmen. Rare indeed is the team that can complete a college basketball season undefeated, & for all our hope for & pride in these valiant Wolverines, we all knew a loss of inevitable. That the inevitable loss came against the hated Buckeyes when we were on the verge of being ranked № 1 as the last remaining undefeated stings all the worse, but Kipling's words are, as always, consoling & instructive: "If you can meet with Triumph and Disaster/And treat those two impostors just the same:". We lost, but the valiant Wolverines will profit from the experience, strengthening their mettle & honing their skills for the long season yet ahead. They have not long to dwell upon yesterday's disappointment, for the next major road test comes against (№ 8) Minnesota on Thursday. We lost a game, not a championship. The valiant Wolverines continue, & it continues to be great to be a Michigan Wolverine.

Go Blue!