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As a general rule in college basketball, it's never a good sign when reporters are tweeting about what the worst defensive performance in the KenPom era from your team is, with the implication that the game unfolding has a chance to statistically set the new record. That's what happened today for Michigan Men's Basketball in State College against Penn State, as a barrage of Nittany Lion three pointers had UMHoops' Dylan Burkhardt reminding us that Michigan's defensive results were currently worse than the previous record for the KenPom era, a 1.59 PPP against defeat at UCLA years ago. It was that sort of game. Despite being close for ~16 minutes, Penn State unleashed a nuclear arsenal of perimeter shooting to blow Michigan right out of the water over a ~10 minute stretch from the late first half to the early second. The lead stretched above 30 and it was never close again. Despite the disastrous final score, the game didn't start terribly for the Maize & Blue. They welcomed Jett Howard back to the lineup and he showed he wasn't feeling any worse for wear on the offensive end. Jett had 13 of Michigan's first 17 points on 5/5 shooting, helping Michigan keep pace with a hot PSU team, whose early offensive performance foreshadowed later results. Early on it was matchup nightmare Jalen Pickett, who did damage against Michigan the first time these two teams played, driving offense for the home squad. When Pickett converted on an and-one, he had 17 of PSU's 26 points, doing so on a sizzling 7/8 shooting. The score at that point was 26-19, a lead that would grow to eight (29-21) a few moments later when a Myles Dread shot clock heave went down from beyond the arc. Yet that wasn't the moment that the game spiraled. Joey Baker's jumper went down, Hunter Dickinson connected on a hook shot, and a Jett Howard jumper trimmed the lead back down. When Howard made another three, he was up to 18 points on the afternoon, and the score sat at 31-30 in favor of the Nittany Lions. There was 4:34 left in the first half and that's the moment when a seemingly competitive game turned into a potentially historic blowout in the history of head-to-head matchups between these two squads. [David Wilcomes] What happened? To start, Penn State went through one of those "can't-miss" periods on offense. They held Michigan scoreless on offense for a couple minutes and during that period, they hit a three pointer on five straight possessions. It was simple: get a stop, go up the court, get a decent look from three, swish. Repeat 5x. Before you could blink, it was a 15-0 PSU run and the crowd inside the Bryce Jordan Center was raucous. Hunter Dickinson turned it over, and it led to an and-one on the fast-break for PSU's Andrew Funk. Kobe Bufkin's jumper just before the expiration of the first half mercifully ended an 18-0 Penn State run over ~four minutes of game time, but the damage was long since done. The score sat 49-32 PSU at the half. At halftime, Penn State was scoring at a scalding 1.68 PPP clip, which is what conjured discussions about the all-time worst Michigan defensive efforts. They shot 19/31 from the floor (61.3%) and 9/17 from three (52.9%), while Pickett was their leading scorer with 17 (Funk had 14). They had just two turnovers and with four OREBs, that represented a 42% OREB percentage. There is no way to describe this other than disaster for the Wolverines. Michigan was adequate on offense, 45% from the field and 31% from three, but it was really a one-man show: Jett's 18 towered over everyone else (Bufkin was second with 6). Not good enough to keep pace with what was going on at the other end. Michigan was not totally out of it at halftime, though it was going to take a hell of an effort in the second half to make it truly competitive. However, very quickly into the second half it became clear that said hell of an effort was not going to materialize and the Wolverines were indeed totally out of it. In an ominous sign, PSU swished their first three point attempt of the half, followed by a Michigan miss. Fast forward a couple minutes and the Nittany Lions nailed another triple and Juwan Howard called a timeout, less than three minutes into the second half. The margin was now 57-34 and the timeout did little to stop the bleeding. PSU stripped Michigan of the ball out of the timeout and Seth Lundy drilled a three. 60-34. [David Wilcomes] Terrance Williams finally got Michigan a score but back came Penn State. Lundy made a layup and later would hit a pair of free throws to push the lead all the way up to 28. Michigan's defense started to hang in there better than they had previously, but the offense had gone ice cold. Jett Howard was starting to cool off and the same trends from the first half were there: if Jett wasn't scoring, not much was going on for the Michigan offense. They did nothing meaningful to whittle away the lead over the next 4 or 5 minutes and a quick spurt from Jalen Pickett around the halfway mark of the second half shoved the lead to an astronomical 32 points, 73-41. This was around the point when your author started writing, because the outcome was now decided. The last ten minutes were merely performative efforts, playing out the remaining time so the game would end and Michigan could start licking their wounds on the plane ride home. As is typically the case in KenPom Time, the team in a massive hole trims the margin down and Michigan did that, albeit very slowly. Isaiah Barnes, Will Tschetter, and Cooper Smith(!) got minutes in the closing stretch of the game and when the final horn sounded, Penn State had an 83-61 victory. [David Wilcomes] Michigan ended up avoiding setting the record for the school's worst PPP defensive effort (PSU ended at "only" 1.34), but they did set the record for the largest margin of defeat against Penn State, surpassing an 18 point loss in 1999. It was a game to forget in every sense of the phrase, with few bright spots besides Jett Howard's first half. The next highest scorer was Bufkin with 8. The team shot 42.4% from the floor, under 30% from three, went 5/8 at the line, turned it over eight times, and every starter clocked in with a +/- of at least -21. Oof. PSU's numbers are not as terrifying because of the cold spell to end the game, missing their last nine threes in a reversion to the mean, yet they still shot 43.3% from three on 30 attempts. Pickett led the way with a dazzling 25 points, 8 boards, and 8 assists performance, followed by Lundy with 22 and Andrew Funk with 19, both of whom were 4/9 from beyond the arc. A burn the tape sort of game for Juwan Howard's crew. Michigan is now 5-5 in conference play halfway through the B1G slate, having lost two in a row. They're also now 11-10 on the season. They kick off February with a game against Northwestern on Thursday in Evanston. Michigan defeated the Wildcats in their first meeting, but going on the road this time will not be nearly as easy. That game is scheduled for 7:00 PM EST and will be broadcast on ESPN2. [Click the JUMP for the box score]
Fresh off a defeat in Maryland on Thursday, the Michigan Men's Basketball team returned home to play the lowly Minnesota Gophers. This was a Golden Gophers squad who they pummeled in Minneapolis back in December. On paper it would be another easy win, but the realities are rarely that easy, especially with a team as up-and-down, as firmly mediocre as Michigan. It wasn't that easy today, but Michigan got the win they needed, a close and ugly game that was completely devoid of offense for a while. 60-56 is not the prettiest score in the world, but 5-3 in conference play is the only number Juwan Howard really cares about today. To say the first half was a visually unpleasant twenty minutes of basketball would be an understatement. Michigan was sleepy out of the gate, down 10-2 by the under 16 media timeout, gifting Minnesota easy looks inside and missing tough shots. When Minnesota scored to go up 16-6 with just over seven minutes gone in the first half, few would have known that they would amass a total of seven points the rest of the half. While it was Michigan who was ice cold in the opening third of the half, the script would quickly flip and the Gophers would go dark on offense. Across a stretch lasting over 17 minutes of game time from the mid-first half into the early second half, Minnesota would score ten total points. That period gave Michigan a window to get their offense going, which did pick up but not at any sort of clip to create separation. The Wolverines began digging out of their first half hole when Tarris Reed subbed in, getting a couple scores at the rim and a pretty Will Tschetter spin move trimmed the lead to eight. Michigan's scoring was concentrated around the paint in the first half due to cold perimeter shooting, starting 0/6 from beyond the arc and never really finding a rhythm in there. The hosts pieced together an 8-0 run with Dickinson back on the floor, pulling to within one score of the Gophers late in the first half when injury struck: Jett Howard rolled his ankle after he came down on the foot of a Minnesota player inside. He was instantly in severe pain and had to be helped off the floor. He would not return. [Marc-Gregor Campredon] The Jett injury was a tough blow to an already struggling offense, but they managed to finish the "comeback" and tie the game before halftime. A Dickinson hook shot went down to tie it at 23 with 39 seconds remaining in the half. Minnesota's Jamison Battle missed a three but Dug McDaniel's floater was off the mark and the score was even at the break. The box score at halftime was not safe for children to view, with the two teams shooting 36% and 33% from the field. Michigan was 1/8 from three, while Minnesota was 2/10. The teams combined for just 20 made FGs to 12 TOs. The leading scorer for either team was Dickinson with 8. Oof. Dawson Garcia of Minnesota opened the second half with a made three, but Michigan stitched together an 8-0 run to take their first real lead of the game. Dickinson's two layups and a score from Joey Baker put the Maize & Blue ahead 31-26 and they seemed poised to stretch the lead further when Baker picked off a pass and had an easy dunk opportunity ahead of him. Instead, Baker went for a layup, missed it, Minnesota snatched it down and fed Battle, who swished a 3. Next time up the floor, the Gophers got it back in Battle's hands and he tied it at 31. That sort of game. The teams traded scores for a few minutes, but a 10-2 Michigan run gave the home team a sizable lead back. Dug McDaniel stepped out from a ball screen and knocked down a trey, and then Dickinson cashed in an and-one on the next time on that end of the floor. The combination of McDaniel and Dickinson each got another bucket to finish off the run, but Minnesota wasn't going away. Battle and Garcia each made shots to trim the lead back to three, 45-42 with seven minutes remaining. There was a caveat for Minnesota, though, as Garcia came down awkwardly after a made three in the corner, hobbling off the floor in pain. He'd return to the game, but would not be nearly as effective as before (that three would be his final make of the day). [Marc-Gregor Campredon] After Ta'lon Cooper made a pair of free throws, the score sat 47-44 with five minutes remaining in the game, Michigan having been the better team in the second half but needing to put it away. For that they'd turn to Hunter Dickinson's dominating size inside. HD would get hacked on consecutive possessions and went a perfect 4/4 at the line on the ensuing free throws, bolstering Michigan's lead to seven. Cooper made a pretty two point jumper for the Gophers, but Terrance Williams II answered with a driving layup and after a Battle three was off the mark, Kobe Bufkin took the ball up the floor and scored. Michigan now led 55-46 with 3:02 remaining, forcing Ben Johnson to call timeout. Minnesota wasn't done fighting, but they were running out of time. No one scored for a minute after the timeout, due to another Gopher miss and Michigan running a full thirty seconds off the clock. Joshua Ola-Joseph canned a three to end the drought, but Minnesota still trailed by six with 1:49 remaining. Michigan fed Tarris Reed on the baseline, and the Gophers were eager to foul him and put the big man at the line. Reed, currently incapable of making free throws, missed them both. Battle took the ball up the court, slashed inside, flipped it to Pharrel Payne, who laid it in. 55-51 with 1:15 remaining. The visitors were content to let Michigan burn another 30 seconds off the clock on a possession that ended with Dug McDaniel missing a shot. Minnesota put the ball in Cooper's hands and he drove inside on Will Tschetter, inserted for Reed, who took the impact. Initially it was ruled a charge but upon review, referees determined that Tschetter's foot was inside the restricted area. Changed to a block, Cooper went to the line with a chance to trim the lead to a one-score game. He succeeded in that, but only went 1/2, so Michigan led 55-52 with 35 seconds left, a 6-0 Gopher run. Michigan went to inbound the ball, but before they could, Battle hip-checked Tschetter, being called for a flagrant intentional foul. Michigan would get two free throws and the ball, a crucial mental mistake. Tschetter swished them both, but Michigan turned it over on their ensuing possession. Minnesota thus had a window, but a Battle three was unsuccessful. [Marc-Gregor Campredon] That proved to be the last gasp for Minnesota, as Williams made a free throw to boost the lead to 58-52 with 20 seconds left. Minnesota wouldn't stop getting their makes, but Michigan passed through the press easily enough and Kobe Bufkin made his free throws, avoiding a truly dicey situation. The horn sounded as a meaningless Cooper layup went down, and Michigan had a 60-56 win. This was not a pretty game, but Michigan will take a win. Their defense played solidly, though offense did not have a day to remember. That is, except for Hunter Dickinson. The starting big scored 23 points on 7/14 from the floor and more importantly, a clean 9/9 from the stripe. Perimeter shooting was absent all game except for Dug McDaniel, who was responsible for Michigan's lone two triples (they were 2/14 for the game). Bufkin and McDaniel added double digits each, but no one else scored more than five points. As a team, the Wolverines shot 37% from the floor(!), but holding Minnesota to 40% was enough to get it done thanks to a huge edge in made FTs (14 to 4). Michigan is now 12-8 on the season and 5-3 in B1G play, tied for 2nd with Rutgers (well behind 8-1 Purdue). They get a chance for a signature win on Thursday at home against the league-leading Boilermakers. That game is scheduled for 9:00 pm EST and will be broadcast on FS1. [Click the JUMP for the box score]
Otto William Kalmbach, 87, of Cadillac, Michigan passed peacefully into heaven on Sunday, January 15, 2023. He was a beloved husband, father, and grandfather.