With 7:50 to go in the contest, FS1 displayed a graphic that showed the following stats: "second half points: - Battle/Willis: 23 points - Michigan's entire team: 14 points" That sums up most of what you need to know about tonight's game. After a competitive first half that saw Michigan lead by four at the break, Minnesota poured in points on the backs of their two superior shotmakers, Jamison Battle and Payton Willis. Michigan had no answers defensively, and no shotmakers of the same caliber en route to a 17% shooting clip from three point range. The offense was stuck in the mud, the defense couldn't get stops, and in the process, the underdog Golden Gophers decisively beat Michigan in their home gym. After two straight wins that seemed to indicate that Michigan Basketball was steering back on course, tonight was a severe disappointment. The first half wasn't terrible for Michigan. Some of the issues that manifested in screaming fashion in the second half were present in the opening 20 minutes, including poor three point shooting, sloppy turnovers, and tough buckets made by Minnesota. But still the Wolverines led, in large part due to a dominant effort from Hunter Dickinson. The undersized Gophers had no answers for the Michigan big man, going 7/8 from the field with eight boards and knocking down a couple long twos. Moussa Diabate's return to the lineup was also big, as the Frenchman chipped in five points. Eli Brooks had 7 on 3/8 from the field. Minnesota hung tight because thanks to some tough shots being made by Stephens, Loewe, and Battle. Those three combined for 26, while the remaining five players to touch the floor totaled just six points. It was not a perfect half, but Michigan did enough to get to the break with the lead, because they had the best player on the floor in Dickinson. That changed in the second half.
Dickinson led Michigan in the first half [Campredon] Until the final four minutes, Michigan simply could not get stops against the Minnesota offense. Their ball screen defense was poor all game long, and Minnesota was able to switch their guards onto slower Michigan defenders, ending in blow bys and easy makes at the rack. When Michigan did play good defense, Battle and Willis drilled tough shots off the dribble. Juwan Howard tinkered with lineups, tried different things out, and nothing got the defensive momentum they needed. It's not like the offense did much better though. Dickinson's magic touch dissipated as the double teams came and he seemed out of rhythm on the interior. Michigan shot 20% from three and the floor spacing problems that naturally come with that inability to shoot followed it. The Wolverines didn't score for a solid four minutes between the 10:22 remaining and the 6:09 remaining mark. DeVante' Jones drives were one of the only source of offense during this window, but nearly the entire impact of that was muted when he committed a foul underneath the basket that engendered a six point Minnesota trip down the floor as the Gophers made consecutive three pointers. When Jamison Battle scored to put Minnesota up 66-50 with 6:22 to go, your author began to write a lede about how Michigan had been run out of the building. That didn't quite come to be accurate thanks to a late Wolverines charge, but it was only lipstick on a pig and further illustrated the problems that already existed. Michigan finally got a couple threes to go down and paired it with a few stops to whittle the lead down to 66-60 with 3:55 left, a quick 10-0 charge. After that point, the defense continued to clamp down, but the offense was impotent again.
Not a lot of these shots went down [Campredon] Eli Brooks clanked a three pointer off the iron and Hunter Dickinson was called for a marginal push-off foul. Minnesota's Luke Loewe missed the front end of a one-and-one but then Dickinson didn't put up a shot despite a clear lane to the bucket. Over this several minute stretch, Michigan played great full court defense and got multiple 10-second violation turnovers, yet the Wolverines did not score for over two minutes, until there was under a minute left and the score was 70-63. Just not good enough. In the end, Dickinson led Michigan with 19 points on 9/15 from the field, but his day was really a tale of two halves and the second half was a bad one. Eli Brooks had 12 points and made two of Michigan's three triples, but failed to be a go-to guy when the offense was sputtering. Jones added 14 points, but his inability to shoot from deep and lateral mobility were major negatives. Moussa Diabate and Caleb Houstan scored 7 and 8, respectively, but accounted for half of the Wolverines' turnovers. This can be contrasted with Minnesota, who had go-to shooters. Payton Willis and Jamison Battle took 31 combined shots and scored 44 combined points. With Dickinson muzzled, Michigan had no similar answer. After a couple of promising wins, this performance was another anchor on the resume and the splash of cold water to the face called reality. This Wolverines team has a long way to go still and Juwan Howard needs to continue working with this team. Consistent improvements are needed quickly, especially for when Michigan's threes don't go down, as they didn't tonight. Michigan will be back in action next Saturday at 7:00 PM EST against Southern Utah. That game will be on Big Ten Network. [Click The Jump for the box score]