Sunday, 17 January @ Carver-Hawkeye Arena
(№ 16) Iowa 82-71 Michigan
13-5, B1G 3-2
The tenacious Hawkeyes opened the contest with an 11-0 run against the valiant Wolverines, & won the game by that many points, but what happened in between was not so simple. Michigan fought back to take a 21-20 lead with just under eight minutes left in the first half, though Iowa would lead 38-33 at the break. The Maize & Blue opened the second half strong & took a 49-47 lead at the 15:34 mark. Then, the sky fell: aided by terrible defensive breakdowns, the tenacious Hawkeyes went on a 12-0 run over the course of three minutes, from which we never recovered. This was a tough road loss, made all the more bitter in that we might have won had it not been for giving up those two runs, the first to start the game & the second in the middle of the second stanza. Drat!
I'm not making excuses, but the tenacious Hawkeyes have proven to be the best club in the Big Ten, the win over Michigan coming in a stretch that saw Iowa defeat twice apiece both the dastardly Spartans (№ 12) & the ill-starred Boilermakers (№ 21). As of this writing, the tenacious Hawkeyes are ranked № 3.
Go Blue!
Wednesday, 20 January / Crisler Center
Michigan 74-69 Minnesota
14-5, B1G 4-2
The scrappy Golden Gophers came to the Crisler Center winless in Big Ten play, but not due to a lack of talent or effort; the league is simply a buzz saw, with able clubs from top to bottom. The valiant Wolverines obliged Minnesota's efforts with a poor shooting night & suspect defense. Michigan lead 35-20 with three minutes left in the first half, but gave up a 10-2 run to carry a 37-30 margin into the break. Poor shooting allowed the scrappy Golden Gophers not just to hang around but to draw within three. The Leaders & Best led only 52-49 when the power of the three-point shot to gap opponents was displayed, suddenly leading 58-49 on the strength of back-to-back threes by Aubrey Dawkins (sophomore, guard/forward) & Derrick Walton Jr. (junior, guard). The valiant Wolverines held on to win, but the scrappy Golden Gophers never gave up. The positive take away is that even on a night when the valiant Wolverines shooting was nearly as cold as winter temperatures—an unbelievable thirty-five per cent (35%) for the night—they still found a way to triumph over a desperate opponent.
'Twas the valiant Wolverines' tenth straight game scoring seventy-plus points, the longest streak since 1998.
Go Blue!
Saturday, 23 January @ P. B. Arena
Michigan 81-68 Nebraska
15-5, B1G 5-2
The valiant Wolverines were hot right out of the gate, leading 18-6 at the 14:41 mark, when all of a sudden the three-point shooting went cold. Michigan's snipers were four of five from three-point land to start but finished the half six of eleven. The Maize & Blue endured a four-minute scoreless stretch, ended only by free throws, to lead 27-23 with 3:45 left, a lead that shrank to 33-30 by the half. The second half started as had the first, including a 13-0 run that saw the Michigan men lead 54-36 at the 13:30 mark. The conniving Cornhuskers fought back, including having their own 10-0 run, eventually drawing to within two, 66-64 at 3:10. Nebraska turned fourteen Michigan turnovers into nineteen points (Coach Beilein's club averages only ten turnovers per game). In the waning minutes, the valiant Wolverines made their free throws, thwarting the conniving Cornhuskers bid to win by extending the game; Michigan finished twenty of twenty-three from the charity stripe, which inflated the margin of victory at the end. That said, there are no easy games in the Big Ten, & certainly no easy road wins.
Take the win.
Go Blue!
Wednesday, 27 January / Crisler Center
Michigan 68-57 Rutgers
16-5, B1G 6-2
The valiant Wolverines were held scoreless for the first three-plus minutes of Wednesday's game against the antediluvian Scarlet Knights, who like the scrappy Golden Gophers came to the Crisler Center in search of their first Big Ten victory of the season. The struggle continued throughout the first half, more due to poor shooting than superb defense, leaving Michigan trailing 16-12 with 7:45 remaining in the half. The spark was finally provided when Dawkins came off the bench to score eight straight points for the Maize & Blue (though not eight unanswered). The valiant Wolverines claimed the lead, 22-20 with 5:15 remaining, & never again trailed. A 12-0 run helped to build the halftime lead to 34-27. In the second half, Rutgers draw to within five points, 46-41 with 11:14 remaining, but came no closer; by 8:14, the lead had doubled to ten, 55-45. The largest lead of the game was twelve, & the valiant Wolverines eventually prevailed by eleven. Much like the Minnesota game, the valiant Wolverines displayed the troubling habit of playing down to their competition; by that I mean to insult neither of our opponents, but the sad case is that Michigan's mighty offense was stymied more by poor shooting than by stout defending.
This was the valiant Wolverines' seventh game without leading scorer Caris LeVert (senior, guard); in that span, Team 100 is 5-2, with both losses coming in road games against Top 25 clubs & including a win over (№ 8) Maryland. The rest of the valiant Wolverines have improved in LeVert's absence, so the squad should be all the stronger once their leader is back in the lineup & gets his sea legs back. In twenty-one games, Team 100 has equaled Team 99's victories (Team 99 finished the year 16-16), even with LeVert missing time due to injury, Zak Irvin (junior, forward) recovering from off-season back surgery, & the end of the career of "Spike" Albrecht (senior, guard). LeVert & Albrecht are the last two players from the 2013 appearance in the national championship game, the high water mark of Coach John Beilein's nine seasons in Ann Arbor. Our champions are a good-looking club, & they are improving as the season progresses. Every Wolverine should hold her or his head high at the thought of how we are represented by the young men of Team 100.
Go Blue!
Next: The ferocious Nittany Lions of Penn State at Madison Square Garden, in New York City. This is, I suppose, the whole point of admitting Rutgers, the State University of New Jersey into the previously Midwestern Big Ten Conference, to conquer the lucrative New York media market. In an intriguing bit of marketing, Michigan's & Penn State's men's ice hockey teams are also playing at Madison Square Garden, only hours after the aforementioned men's basketball game.
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