Evan Turner Ends Michigan’s Season with 37-Footer at the Buzzer

Let’s cut right to the chase: 2.2 seconds were on the clock after Manny Harris made a shot to give Michigan a 68-66 lead.  Ohio State called a timeout to draw up a play that would allow it to either tie or win the game despite having to go the length of the court in only 2.2 seconds.

As OSU got ready to pass in the ball, immediately it was pointed out by the announcers that nobody was guarding the inbounder.  Personally that worried me, but the more concerning thing was the fact that only Stu Douglass was even on that side of the court for Michigan.  Everybody else was on the other side, which gave Evan Turner a clear path to get up the court after the inbounder passed him the ball.  Thanks to a screen on Douglass just as the play was developing, Turner had lots of room to run and was able to fire up a relatively uncontested shot from 37 feet out.  In what was sadly a fitting end to a tumultuous season, the shot was dead on and gave Ohio State a 69-68 win.

”Honestly I thought they were going to press or something like that,” Turner said. ”The whole game, they were swarming me. They gave me one good look. Being open felt a little bit free. I felt like I was in the gym by myself.”

That quote from Turner perfectly sums up Michigan’s defense on the final play.  Why Michigan opted to go to a 1-3-1 defense and not put anybody on the inbounder is beyond me.  In that situation, it’s key to make the other team struggle to even get a shot off, or at the very least make sure that shot is a prayer at best.  Although Turner’s shot wasn’t the easiest thing in the world, it was far from a prayer considering Stu Douglass barely managed to get a hand in his face.  The other four players on the court for Michigan basically just stood there and watched the shot fall.  It really seemed like Michigan’s defense on that final play was about the best thing Ohio State could hope for.  Instead of pressuring the inbounder and putting somebody right on Turner, Michigan allowed him to run right down the court and fire up an uncontested shot.  I know John Beilein didn’t want Michigan to foul him, but that fear should not force your defense to disappear.

John Beilein knows a lot more about basketball than me, but just based on similar situations to this one in the past, it seems like it would have made the most sense to put Zack Gibson right in the inbounder’s face, at least one and maybe two players right on Evan Turner, and the other players back near half/the other side of the court in case OSU tries to throw a Hail Mary.  Hell, simply playing man-to-man defense would have made more sense than what actually happened.  I know a lot of times teams just get lucky on some ridiculous shot and that’s that, but Michigan could have prevented this from happening and advanced to the semifinals of the Big Ten tournament.  Instead Evan Turner ripped out the hearts of Michigan fans everywhere and ended the Wolverines’ season.

As for the rest of the game, it was interesting to watch how quickly the momentum would change.  Early on Michigan went on a run and took a 19-10 lead, for example, but Ohio State quickly came back and went on a big run of its own to eventually lead 35-25 at halftime.  At this point it looked like Michigan would be lucky to simply keep things close after a great start turned into another awful stretch of basketball.

In the second half, Michigan’s struggles continued early on before Stu Douglass caught fire and cut down the lead considerably thanks to back-to-back-to-back threes.  Just like that Michigan was only down by 4 points and seemed to have momentum on its side.  OSU made it obvious that it still had the momentum just as quickly, however, going on a 9-0 run to take a 51-38 lead.

Manny Harris took over the game at this point and helped Michigan cut the lead down to 6 points after a 7-0 run.  Ohio State tried to stave off the comeback, but Michigan slowly but surely kept chipping away at the lead and eventually tied the game with 1:06 left when Stu Douglass hit another three from way behind the arc.  That three came right after Manny made one to cut the lead down to 1 point and Evan Turner made a pair of free throws to extend the lead back to 3 points.

With the game now tied, Turner tried to make something happen and missed a layup.  Michigan went down the floor and Manny made a jumper to give the Wolverines a 2-point lead with 30 seconds left to play.  Ohio State’s David Lighty made a runner in the lane to tie the game up on the next possession with 14 seconds left, and Michigan called a timeout to draw up a play.  Whatever that play was, the key was to get Manny the ball, and that is exactly what happened.  Manny made a nice fade-away jumper with only 2.2 seconds left on the clock, and suddenly Michigan appeared to be in position to pull off the shocking upset.  What happened next?  Well, as described above, Evan Turner happened and gave Ohio State a 69-68 victory.

Michigan played very inconsistent and allowed Ohio State to go on runs far too often, but this team fought and fought until the very end.  Manny Harris showed just how good he can be and absolutely took over this game in the final 10 minutes.  If it weren’t for Evan Turner and his buzzer beater, the story of this game would have been Manny’s clutch play at the end of the game along with Stu Douglass’ great shooting from three-point land.  Stu went 5-8 from behind the arc, and Manny put up good numbers as well, going 3-5 from three-point land.  The rest of the team didn’t hit a single three-pointer, but Stu and Manny made up for everybody else and helped Michigan to a three-point percentage of 38.1, a number that could have been a lot worse.

Scoring-wise, Manny led the team with 26 points.  Stu scored 16 points, as did DeShawn Sims, who shot the ball pretty well (7-13 from the field).  Zack Novak scored 8 points even though he went 0-2 from behind the arc, and Zack Gibson was the only other player to score, netting 2 points on 1-2 shooting in 10 minutes.  Darius Morris played 18 minutes and missed the only shot he took, and Laval Lucas-Perry went 0-3 in 19 minutes of action.  Anthony Wright got in for less than a minute and turned the ball over and committed a foul.  After that he went back to the bench and didn’t see the floor again.

Unless the NIT selection committee gives Michigan a bid solely based on the goodness of their hearts, the Wolverines’ season is over.  It’s a tough way to go out, especially when you consider that an upset of Ohio State would have put Michigan only two wins away from a Big Ten tournament title and a berth to the NCAA tournament.  Not only that, but Ohio State beat Illinois in double overtime on Saturday and gets to face Minnesota in the finals today.  Yes, the team that Michigan just destroyed earlier this month is one win away from a Big Ten tournament title.

Just like the final play of the Ohio State game, looking back on the entire season brings out a lot of ifs.  Michigan lost quite a few close games, but it also underachieved far too often.  There were occasional glimpses of greatness like against Minnesota earlier this month, but the usual feeling after a game was something along the lines of if Michigan would have done this or if Michigan would have done that.  Really this season was one of missed opportunities.  Michigan probably wasn’t going to live up to its preseason ranking no matter what, but to miss the tournament and the NIT is just embarrassing and disappointing.  More than anything, it’s tough to see the program take a step back after such a great 2008-09 season.

Going forward, the key storyline in the next few months will be what Manny Harris decides to do.  I don’t see how he could go pro just based on how much his stock has dropped, but him coming back is far from a guarantee.  Considering that, it probably is way too early to look ahead to next season.  Even so, what we do know is that DeShawn Sims, Zack Gibson, and Anthony Wright are gone.  Sims is obviously the biggest loss considering he was Michigan’s best player more often than not this season, but losing a bench player like Gibson and his height will be tough with the lack of height left on the roster as it is.

Michigan currently has two recruits — Evan Smotrycz and Tim Hardaway Jr. — set to join the team next season.  The hope is for that number to grow with Trey Zeigler and/or Jon Horford, but neither has made a decision yet.  Adding Horford would help Michigan’s lack of height, and adding Zeigler would give the Wolverines a playmaker and a potential replacement for Manny Harris for whenever he leaves.

For me, it’s tough to even place expectations on next season.  Like the football team, there are so many question marks that nothing would really be too surprising.  For example, the loss of a player like DeShawn Sims leaves a big void in the lineup, but perhaps another year in John Beilein’s system will offset that with the development of other players.  I just don’t really know what will happen at this point, but more than anything I hope this team shows improvement and at least gets back to being over .500.  It sucks that that is the hope when a year ago we were all gearing up for Selection Sunday, but then again, the 2008-09 team came out of nowhere and surprised everybody.  Maybe something similar will happen next season.  Although expectations won’t be very high, at the very least we can hope for a better season in 2010-11.