Michigan Goes Ice Cold in Second Half, Loses to Northwestern 67-52
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Leave a CommentThe first half of last night’s game between Michigan and Northwestern was frustrating to watch from a defensive standpoint because the Wildcats were shooting absolutely lights out. There was a stretch that saw them attempt and make a three-pointer on four straight trips down the court, leading to many moments of disbelief where all I could say is, “Really!?” Offensively Michigan was able to keep up with Northwestern in the first half, but its shooting was streaky at best. Then again, as it turned out, that was much better than what happened in the second half, where Michigan’s shooting went from streaky to nothing going in no matter how hard they tried. The offense basically disappeared, and although Northwestern’s hot shooting cooled off a bit, Michigan was getting blown out of the building anyways. By the end of the game Michigan managed to go from trailing by 5 at halftime to 17 at the final buzzer thanks to the awful offensive performance. The final score was 67-52 in favor of the Wildcats, ending Michigan’s three-game winning streak in Evanston.
I felt pretty good about how things were going following the first half. Michigan didn’t play all that great, but a couple big runs kept this game close despite how well Northwestern was shooting. The start of the second half made it seem like both teams cooled off in a big way, but after a while it was evident only Michigan truly cooled off. The Wolverines couldn’t buy a basket for most of the second half, and during that time Northwestern got things going again, allowing it to pull away and win in blowout fashion. It was one of the most frustrating halves of basketball I’ve seen in a while, and that’s saying something.
For Michigan, its scoring was more balanced than usual, but that’s mainly because everybody struggled so much. Manny Harris and Darius Morris led the team in scoring with 11 points, and then next in line on the boxscore were Stu Douglass with 8 points and Laval Lucas-Perry with 6 (2 threes). Zack Novak had 5 points and Corey Person 1 in the final minutes. The one name I haven’t mentioned yet is DeShawn Sims. He had an awful game, scoring only 4 points and playing only 22 minutes because John Beilein showed him the bench. All in all it was just a terrible day offensively, which is obvious when you see that Michigan shot 32.7% from the field, whereas Northwestern went 54.3% from the field and 50% from three-point land.
Next on the docket for Michigan is a home game on Saturday against Wisconsin, which is fresh off of destroying Michigan State last night. Tip off is set for 4 p.m. on CBS.
| Did you know: Based on the lines from sports betting site BetUS, Michigan's 2009 football team went 5-6 against the spread (there was no line for the Delaware State game). According to the online betting site, Michigan was favored in 5 of the 11 games that came against FBS competition. |
Tuesday Quick Hits: Rashad Knight Commits to Rutgers
- Florida cornerback Rashad Knight has committed to Rutgers over Michigan. Michigan looked to be in pretty good shape with Knight for some time, but after his visit to Rutgers that changed. His mom apparently accompanied him on the visit to Rutgers and was blown away. I believe only his dad went with him to Michigan, and based on a quote like this, it looks like that could have been the difference in his recruitment.
“I really like what they’re doing there and how they do things,” Knight said about Rutgers. “I like coach Pinkham and coach Schiano a lot. In fact, coach Schiano reminds me a lot of my mom.”
Knight is the first of a few uncommitted players that Michigan is watching closely to announce his decision. Michigan is now waiting on Sean Parker and Demar Dorsey, two more defensive backs who are at the center of quite a few rumors. Some of them say that Parker is for sure going to Michigan, whereas others suggest that he is going to end up at Washington, which just recently entered the picture. For Dorsey, the rumors are just as vast and have him signing with a bunch of different schools. Many rumors suggest he will land at Florida State, but it seems like just as many have him going to USC, Michigan, or even Florida, which just dropped him recently. Tomorrow is definitely going to be interesting, starting with Sean Parker’s announcement on ESPNU at 10 a.m. ET.
- The one player already committed to Michigan worth keeping an eye on is Terry Talbott, who is unsure of whether he should go to U-M with his brother or go to North Carolina instead.
- ESPN’s Tom Luginbill likes Michigan’s recruiting class and what Rich Rodriguez is doing with the program.
- Jerry Dunn has returned to the Michigan basketball team, but not as an assistant coach.
- Mary Sue Coleman is not a candidate to be the next president of the NCAA.
Expansion Talk of a Different Kind
We have been talking Big Ten expansion quite a bit lately, but by way of SPORTSbyBROOKS, we have expansion talk that has nothing to do with conferences, but rather the NCAA tournament.
Sources at ESPN and inside the administration at a powerhouse NCAA basketball school told me today that the NCAA basketball tournament going to 96 teams is a “done deal.”
An ESPN source said, “It’s a done deal with the expansion of the tournament. Depending on how soon a (TV) deal is done, the added teams could start next year. The NCAA confirmed that bidders would be interested in 96 teams, so they’re going with it.”
Another ESPN source confirmed to me that the network was in the formative stages of pondering a bid for the expanded tournament.
Greg Shaheen, who oversees the NCAA tournament, stressed that expansion is only being investigated and “nothing is a done deal,” but this seems to be another case of where there’s smoke, there’s fire. Tournament expansion was brought up last year, and initially I really did believe it was nothing more than talk. I mean, we have a terrible system like the BCS that can’t be changed because of a bunch of lame excuses, but the NCAA wants to mess with March Madness, which is just about as close to perfect as possible? Oh, right, this is the NCAA we’re talking about. Of course they are going to consider screwing with March Madness. Sure, a football tournament that only includes 4 teams is too ridiculous because players wouldn’t have time to study, but adding 31 more teams to the Big Dance won’t cause any problems? Give me a break.
I know this is all about money and that’s ultimately what will decide the size of the NCAA tournament, but you don’t mess with perfection on this large of a scale. If you want to expand it to 68 teams by adding a few more play-in games, then fine, go right ahead and do that. But to make the field as large as 96 teams would just be plain stupid. Right now the formula for March Madness works so well because of the constant excitement that exists. Some teams play to get a top seed; others play to simply get in; bubble teams play to have a chance at getting in; and the rest of the field’s hopes come down to the conference tournaments. This formula produces an exciting regular season, an exciting week of conference tournaments, and an even more exciting few weeks of basketball in the actual NCAA tournament.
The problem is that while seeding would still be important in a field of 96 teams, suddenly the bubble shifts from teams that are still pretty good to ones that are essentially nothing more than average, or if they’re a mid-major, are well below average in the grand scheme of things. I can see the argument if these bubble teams simply have a bunch of play-in games to make the final field or something like that, but again, that takes away from the excitement of the conference tournaments and really the home stretch of the regular season where teams can’t afford to lose. If the field suddenly expanded to 96 teams, the losses could be racked up and it wouldn’t mean anything.
To me expanding to 96 teams would just cheapen the whole spectacle that is the NCAA tournament. Sure, it’d be nice in the sense that Michigan would probably manage to make it to the Big Dance more often, but it wouldn’t be seen as quite as big of an achievement, at least in my eyes. Sure, I’d rather Michigan was on a level where the only thing in question is their seed rather than if they’re even going to make the tournament, but part of what made last year’s run so exciting was Selection Sunday and finally seeing Michigan in the bracket. If it gets to the point where 96 teams are part of the bracket, much of the excitement will be gone. Yes, there will still be bubble teams and excitement for them, but those bubble teams will not be on the same level as the current ones. Part of what makes Selection Sunday so great is the discussion about who got in and who was left out. Quite honestly, if the field expanded to 96 teams and all of the obvious bubble teams always get in, I really don’t care about the final few spots. It will just feel like the selection committee is scraping the bottom of the barrel to fill up the bracket.
I imagine that if the tournament does ever expand to 96 teams people would eventually get over it, but it just seems like the NCAA would be going overboard. At some point you have to cut off the number of teams that make the tourney and live with it. As I touched on before, this move is more about money than anything else (more rounds = more $), but the NCAA can’t use that as a reason to expand in the public realm. What they would probably say is that deserving teams are being left out each year and they want to change that. Well, that is true, but not on a scale as large as 31 teams. A single-digit amount of truly deserving teams get left out each year, but that is just part of the system. If the NCAA wants to add a few spots to lessen that number, then I have no problem. A few more deserving teams would get to play in the tournament, but the overall excitement of the season and week of conference tournaments wouldn’t really altered. If the NCAA goes too far, however, and expands the field to 96 teams, then I truly believe they would be hurting the tournament in a big way, regardless of how much money they could make off it. As the old phrase goes, if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.
Pitt to Big Ten Rumor Only a Rumor
I will admit, the Pitt to the Big Ten rumor that popped up over the weekend seemed more like smoke rather than full-fledged fire given the lack of a concrete source behind it, but the rumor was certainly intriguing. Nonetheless, now that some time has passed and Pitt officials have gotten a chance to comment on the matter, it’s obvious that for now, at least, it was all nothing more than a rumor.
“There is no announcement to make because there is nothing happening,” said Pitt spokesman Mike Gladysz.
Another Pitt spokesman added: “It’s a total rumor. There is no truth to it. I am 100 percent sure.”
E.J. Borghetti, the associate athletic director of media relations for Pitt, had this to say about the rumor:
Now hear this: rumors on Internet message boards should be read for amusement purposes only, and not consumed as responsible journalism.
Right now I will simply say that usually where there’s smoke, there’s fire as well. In other words, a rumor like this could very well be a sign that something behind the scenes is happening. Of course, it could be complete BS as well. Until the Big Ten comes out and says something one way or another, chances are this won’t be the last rumor about a team joining the conference, and it certainly won’t be the last time there are whispers about Pitt being that team. The thought of a decision being made so quickly was an interesting one, but for now we will have to continue to wait to see what happens with Big Ten expansion.
Monday Quick Hits: Brandon Graham Named Senior Bowl MVP
- Brandon Graham tore things up all week during Senior Bowl practice and did the same during the actual game on Saturday. Graham had a couple sacks to go along with a forced fumble and was named the game’s MVP. He was viewed as a second-round pick with an outside shot at the first-round by most going into Senior Bowl week, but now he is seemingly for sure a first-rounder and could even be a top-20 pick depending on who you talk to.
- We are less than 37 hours (at the time of this post) away from signing day. Right now there are three uncommitted recruits still considering Michigan that will be worth watching on Wednesday — defensive backs Sean Parker, Rashad Knight, and Demar Dorsey. It’s really too tough to guess at this point, but if all goes according to plan Michigan should get at least one of those three players. Parker seems like the most likely to end up at Michigan based on what Sam Webb has said on WTKA lately, but you never know with USC being the other team still in play. Knight is down to Michigan and Rutgers, and that one seems like it could go either way. Finally, Dorsey was rumored to have committed to Florida State last week, and though the Seminoles are on his final list, I don’t believe a final decision has been made yet. USC and Michigan are the other two schools on his final list. He is probably the biggest long shot of the three, but signing day is always good for a surprise or two. (By the way, Dorsey is Denard Robinson’s cousin, so that connection should help Michigan’s chances.)
- According to Rich Rodriguez, Michigan has room for all three of the aforementioned players if what would simply be an amazing signing day happens and Parker, Knight, and Dorsey choose the Wolverines. Rodriguez said on Saturday the max Michigan can take is 29, and unless there is an unforeseen decommit, that leaves three open spots in the 2010 recruiting class.
- Rodriguez also said that this spring some offensive players may switch to defense since there isn’t a ton of depth on that side of the ball right now. Once the entire recruiting class arrives on campus in the summer depth won’t be as big of an issue, but right now Michigan just needs more bodies on defense.
- A defensive assistant coach should be hired in the next week or so, but not until after signing day. I think the reason for that, based on what someone told me, is because Michigan gave recruiting coordinator Chris Singletary coach status so he could go on the road to recruit. I suppose a coach could be hired now since all of the visits have wrapped up, but Rich Rodriguez probably just wants to get signing day out of the way first.
- Former commit Adrian Witty, who was set to come to Michigan until the admissions department supposedly prevented that from happening, is headed to Cincinnati instead.
- Tony Grimes, who was once viewed as a Michigan lean, committed to Ole Miss.
- Associate head basketball coach Jerry Dunn is expected to return to the team after taking a leave of absence.
- John Bacon provided some insight into what Manny Harris did to get suspended on the day before the Purdue game.
- MLive’s It’s Just Sports interviewed Courtney Sims.
Wolverines Split Spartans in Thrilling, Controversy-Filled Series
This past weekend’s series between Michigan and Michigan State can best be described as a roller coaster of emotions. It started with straight up disappointment on Friday night before turning into hope and anger before that game came to an end. On Saturday it was the complete opposite. A great start resulted in joy for all Michigan fans, but suddenly that became even more disappointment before the night ultimately ended with relief and happiness.
Friday’s game was so disappointing because Michigan didn’t show up for the first 43 or so minutes. Michigan State scored a goal in each of the first two periods, and Corey Tropp added his second of the game 2:51 into the third period to put the Spartans on top 3-0. Michigan thankfully woke up and started to put up a fight shortly after when Carl Hagelin got the comeback started with a power-play goal that came on a two-man advantage. Louie Caporusso scored another power-play goal for Michigan with 3:20 left in the game, making it a 3-2.
It appeared that MSU had basically sealed a win when Andrew Rowe scored his second goal of the game less than a minute later, but after a review the referees waved it off and gave him a penalty for checking from behind instead. What’s odd is that it didn’t look like a penalty was called initially, but coming out of the review that is what the referees’ explanation was for the goal not counting, meaning it was still 3-2 and Michigan now had a power play.
Michigan was unable to do a whole lot on the power play, but right after Rowe got out of the box it looked like Chris Brown scored the game’s tying goal with 31.8 seconds left. Actually, he did put the puck in the back of the net, but the problem was that Matt Shegos blew the play dead right before the puck went in because he apparently lost sight of it. I don’t know why he had to be so quick with the whistle, but just like the Notre Dame game at Yost last year (and countless Red Wings games in the last year), an early whistle proved to be costly. Michigan was unable to score the tying goal for a second time and went on to lose 3-2.
I seriously don’t understand why Shegos suddenly blew the play dead and couldn’t have waited half a second to see where the puck ended up, but that was pretty much the worst possible time for such an awful call. Michigan likely would have forced overtime and with all of the momentum on its side, it would have had a golden opportunity to win or at least tie and go to a shootout. Instead it lost its third straight game to the Spartans and its second in a row overall.
The first period of Saturday’s game at Joe Louis Arena was more of what we saw in the third period on Friday. Michigan dominated play and came out firing, especially in the latter stages of the first period. A.J. Treais tipped in a rebound to put Michigan on top 1-0 13:07 into the period. Less than five minutes later Chris Summers fired in a shot that appeared to be redirected by a Michigan State player on its way to the net. Michigan wasn’t done yet, though. With only 26 seconds left in the period Brian Lebler scored to give Michigan a 3-0 lead.
Early on in the second period Michigan State was on the verge of having the nail put in its coffin but managed to keep the deficit at 3 despite Michigan having a couple of great scoring chances while shorthanded. Michigan went on to kill off its penalty and went on a power play of its own shortly after. Like Michigan, the Spartans ended up with a great scoring chance, except they actually capitalized on it. The shorthanded goal made the score 3-1, and five minutes later Brett Perlini made it 3-2, which is what the score was heading into the third period.
Only 50 seconds into the final period Jeff Petry scored a power-play goal to tie the game up at 3. Michigan looked shell-shocked, and with 7 minutes left in the game Dean Chelios scored on a wrap-around to give the Spartans a 4-3 lead. It seemed like Michigan was as good as dead, but an MSU turnover in front of goalie Drew Palmisano led to Michigan scoring a shorthanded goal of its own. Matt Rust put it past Palmisano to make it a 4-4 game with less than 5 minutes to play.
A few minutes later, in a situation that was very similar to what happened on Friday night, Chris Brown scored to put Michigan up 5-4. Brown brought the puck right up to the post and somehow managed to put it past both Palmisano and a Spartan player that was basically in the net. Brown had to give it his all to get the puck past both MSU players, and thankfully Matt Shegos swallowed his whistle and allowed the play to happen. Michigan went on to win 5-4 after missing a couple empty-netters in the final minute.
A split was less than ideal, especially when you consider what happened during Friday’s game, but all things considered I will take it. After all, Michigan was down 3-0 on Friday and looked to be down 4-2 later in that game. Bad call or not in the final minute, Michigan didn’t show up until it was too late and paid the price. Then on Saturday, Michigan choked away a 3-0 lead and had to score twice in the final five minutes to come away with a split. The worst-case scenario going into the weekend was another sweep at the hands of MSU, and Michigan came pretty close to having that happen, so I will take a split.
What does this mean for Michigan’s NCAA tournament hopes? Well, rather than inch closer to Michigan State and put themselves in great position for an at-large bid, the Wolverines instead really didn’t go anywhere and are now tied for 17th with three other teams in the PairWise Rankings. To put it simply, Michigan has to have a stellar finish to have a shot at making the tourney as an at-large team. This was true no matter what, but it is even more so after splitting each of the last two series.
Michigan has an odd week coming up. It plays at Bowling Green on Thursday and then heads to Wisconsin for the game at Camp Randall Stadium on Saturday. Then, a week from Tuesday, it returns home to Ann Arbor to finish the Bowling Green series. Although the Falcons did beat Michigan earlier this season at Yost, that win was 1 of only 4 total in regulation for Bowling Green. Basically, there is no excuse for Michigan to lose either of those two games. As for Wisconsin, Michigan beat the Badgers way back in the College Hockey Showcase. Wisconsin has only lost twice since then, though, and it is third in the PairWise Rankings. It’s a big week for Michigan, to say the least.
Michigan Handles Iowa to Snap Losing Streak
I went to Crisler Arena on Saturday to watch a Big Ten basketball game, but it felt like I took a wrong turn and ended up at the Intramural Building. I say that because it seriously felt like Michigan played against a team comparable to a group of regular students you would see at the IM building. Actually, that might be a bit of a slap in the face to some of the people that play IM basketball. I don’t know how this team has won in the conference twice and just barely lost to Michigan State, but I think someone sitting behind me described Iowa best when he said, “They would be a good Division 2 team — maybe.”
Iowa’s lack of talent was on display from the very start of Saturday’s game. The Hawkeyes went scoreless for the first six and a half minutes of the game and failed to actually make a field goal for nearly the first ten minutes of the game. This ice cold start allowed Michigan to open the game on a 13-0 run. From there Michigan eventually took a 22-5 lead before Iowa’s issues rubbed off on the Wolverines. Michigan has played down or up to its opponents quite a bit this season, and Saturday seemed no different following the initial big run. After that Michigan went nearly four minutes without a point and six or so minutes without a field goal, though Iowa didn’t exactly do much itself during that drought. As a result, Michigan led 29-17 at halftime.
In the second half it was more of the same. In the first ten or so minutes of the half Michigan went on a couple runs and over time continued to pull away from the Hawkeyes. This resulted in Michigan going up by as many as 24 points before it essentially sleepwalked through the final nine or ten minutes of the game, allowing Iowa to only lose 60-46 when all was said and done.
Manny Harris and DeShawn Sims combined for 40 of Michigan’s 60 points in this game. Each had 20 points, and Sims also had 12 rebounds to complete the double-double. The other 20 points came from Stu Douglass (6), Zack Novak (6), Laval Lucas-Perry (4), Zack Gibson (2), and Darius Morris (2). As you probably guessed, it was a pretty lackluster effort for the team shooting-wise, especially outside of Harris and Sims. Those two combined to shoot 44% from the field; that’s not great, but it’s not terrible, either. The rest of the team, on the other hand, shot 25% from the field, which is just awful. Perhaps Michigan simply played down to its opponent, which as a team shot 31% from the field and 26% outside of its leading scorer (Aaron Fuller, who had 16 points). I guess it didn’t matter, though, because as much as Michigan struggled, it still destroyed Iowa and was up by 24 before basically putting things in neutral at the end of the game.
Michigan is now back over .500 with a record of 11-10. Next up on the schedule is a game at Northwestern on Tuesday (7 p.m. ET on the BTN). In the first meeting between these two teams Michigan went from leading by 17 to trailing by 10 to quickly making a comeback only to lose in the end. It was definitely a tough one to swallow, especially at home, so hopefully Michigan will be able to get some revenge on Tuesday.
The Wildcats have gone 2-4 since that first meeting with Michigan, though one of those wins came against Purdue and only one of those losses was at home (against Wisconsin). Northwestern is actually currently below Michigan in the Big Ten standings, though it is still 14-7 overall. If the Wildcats even want to think about their first ever NCAA tournament appearance, they have to win games like this, so you can bet they will come to play on Tuesday. Here’s to hoping Michigan evens up the season series by winning for what would be the fourth straight time in Evanston.
Rumor: Pitt to Join Big Ten
I will stress that this is merely a rumor, but the word on the street (and by street I mean message boards and Twitter) is that Pitt is set to join the Big Ten, and an announcement will be made next week. Supposedly Pitt’s athletes have been informed of the move, which is how the rumor got started in the first place. The date of the announcement is allegedly February 4, which is next Thursday.
If this turns out to be true, and I still think that’s a big if, I’m more than okay with Pitt becoming the 12th member of the Big Ten. They are at the top of my realistic wish list of candidates to join the conference alongside Missouri. I probably would be a bit more excited if Missouri were to join (partly because of how entertaining it would be to watch the domino effect the move would set off on the Big 12), but the Big Ten could certainly do worse than Pitt.
Aside from that, if this is true then I’m going to really start wondering about how the teams will be split up into divisions. Rivalries in the Big Ten will play a large role in splitting up the 12 teams, as will making sure the divisions are balanced. It will definitely be interesting to see how that turns out, because I don’t know if a perfect plan to split the teams up exists. I imagine the Big Ten will want to make sure that rivalry games played in the last week of the season are between teams in the same division in order to prevent a possible rematch in the conference title game, but it is going to be tough to set it up in a way where everything works out.
The other thing I’m going to start wondering about is when the official move to the conference would happen. The consensus seems to be the fall of 2012 based on how long it would take to leave the Big East, which does make sense. A move like this doesn’t just happen overnight, because the Big East will need to receive notice well in advance if Pitt decides to leave, and obviously the Big Ten will have to take some time setting up the schedules to include Pitt and plan a conference title game in football.
I suppose we’ll find out more next week if this rumor is true, but until then, let the speculating begin.
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