Michigan fell behind by double-digits very early on in Sunday’s rivalry game against Michigan State, and the Wolverines could never recover. The team suffered its third consecutive defeat in a 79-62 loss to the Spartans at the Breslin Center.
Here are three takeaways from the loss.
This is hardly a takeaway. This has been known for a while. However, it was glaringly obvious on Sunday afternoon.
Vlad Goldin and Danny Wolf have always been Michigan’s best players — and leaders on both sides of the ball — but that fact has become increasingly apparent over the last couple weeks.
Stunningly, in Sunday’s loss to Michigan State, Goldin and Wolf combined for 47 of Michigan’s 62 points. The two big men also combined for 14 of the team’s 19 made field goals in the game.
The lopsided nature of Michigan’s offense has become so apparent that every time the Wolverines take the ball down the floor, Goldin and Wolf are the only two scoring threats of the five Wolverines on the court.
Wolf and Goldin accounted for 40 of Michigan’s 65 points in the loss to Maryland, and 31 of the 75 in last week’s loss to Illinois.
Dusty May and Michigan will need to determine if the offensive plan of attack will run exclusively through the two 7-footers going into the postseason, or if they will make an effort to get the guards involved like they were earlier in the season.
For the first time in the Dusty May era, Michigan has lost three games in a row. It hasn’t been a kind end to the regular season for the Wolverines. Illinois, Maryland and Michigan State all got the best of Michigan in the final week of the regular season.
Unfortunately for the Wolverines, this three-game losing skid comes at the worst possible time. Michigan will be heading to Indianapolis for the Big Ten Tournament this weekend, and the Wolverines haven’t won a game since Feb. 27.
Dusty May shed some light on how the team can rebound from this tough stretch.
“I have a lot of belief in our guys. We saw some things in the second half. The sense of urgency. The sense of desperation that we need to play with, and I think if we can find a way — the last two days in practice, we’ve shot the ball better than we have all year. And so, I think that gives us an opportunity to get our confidence back.”
“This was our tough stretch. We didn’t play near as well as we need to , but I do believe in the response and the character of this group. So we’re excited to go play. Flush this. There’s nothing we can do about it now other than continue to find ways to be better.”
Michigan is officially the No. 3 seed in the Big Ten Tournament, falling behind Maryland after Sunday’s loss to Michigan State. The Wolverines will begin their conference tournament run on Friday night, taking on either the No. 6 seed (Purdue), No. 11 seed or No. 14 seed.
The early parts of the Big Ten season did the heavy lifting in terms of the Wolverines earning the No. 3 seed. Michigan started the conference season 5-0 and surged to a 14-3 Big Ten record before losing the last three games of the regular season.
At one point about three weeks ago, Michigan was right in the thick of the Big Ten regular season championship hunt, but the Wolverines fell apart (to say it nicely) in the home stretch of the regular season.
Regardless of what has happened over the course of the last few weeks, Michigan will look to reset before they embark upon two upcoming tournaments.
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