Illinois Eliminates Michigan with 60-50 Win

By Sean · Saturday, March 14, 2009 · 9:13 AM |  Share | Leave a Comment 

Unlike Thursday’s game against Iowa, Michigan did not come out firing on Friday when playing the Illini. The game against Illinois was very similar to the second meeting of the season between the two teams and followed the usual poor shooting night script. Michigan kept it close in the first half and only trailed by 1 point at halftime. Neither team was playing lights out basketball, meaning the second half would decide the game.

In the second half, Illinois had an easy time making mid-range shots. Michigan couldn’t say the same thing about any kind of shot, as nothing seemed like it was going in. In a matter of minutes, Michigan let Illinois take over the game and go on a big run, and the lead was suddenly 20 points. Michigan didn’t go down without a fight, though, and finally found its shot with just under seven minutes left in the game. The 20-point lead quickly shrunk and was only 7 points with 3:30 remaining on the clock. Michigan actually put itself in position to pull off a shocking comeback before Illinois’ Mike Davis made another off-balance shot from just outside the paint. The Illini were back in control, and in the final three minutes of the game Michigan had trouble scoring again and couldn’t cut the lead down anymore than it already had. Because of that, the score ended up being 60-50 in favor of Illinois when the game ended.

Michigan’s performance in the second half was pretty disappointing except for the three-minute or so long run. Shots simply weren’t falling for Michigan, which usually is something this team can’t overcome. Michigan can sometimes win games with average shooting performances, but going 33.3% from the field isn’t going to cut it against a team that shoots 46% and has little trouble scoring inside. The inside game is a big reason why Illinois pulled away from Michigan with ease in the second half in Champaign this season. Michigan struggled to score and Illinois didn’t.

Zack Novak probably had the best game of any player, scoring 10 points (4-8 FG) and grabbing 7 rebounds. DeShawn Sims had more points (15) and 1 more rebound but shot 6-19. He had trouble making shots from outside the paint and was not able to dominate like he did against Iowa. That mainly is because Illinois is nowhere near as bad as Iowa, but Sims’ shot just wasn’t there regardless. The same goes for Manny Harris, who scored only 9 points and went 3-11 from the field. Despite Chester Frazier not playing, Harris was still covered pretty tightly by Calvin Brock, leading to a tough game for Manny. He didn’t have very many open shots and started forcing up contested shots in the second half. Stu Douglass, on the other hand, had quite a few open looks. Problem is he missed most of them, going 2-7 from three-point land (2-8 FG), including shooting a couple air balls.

Michigan now has to wait until 6 p.m. tomorrow when the brackets are announced on CBS to find out what is next for this team. I would be pretty surprised if Michigan wasn’t in the big dance, even with so many teams making runs in their conference tournaments, decreasing the amount of open spots for bubble teams. The win against Iowa was very important for this reason. I don’t think Michigan would be in the tournament had they lost, so the fact that it was a blowout victory means the Wolverines should still be in good shape come Selection Sunday.