TheWolverine.com - U-M loses ugly

February 10, 2009

Chris Balas
TheWolverine.com Senior Editor

The atmosphere and effort ? at least for much of the night ? were outstanding Tuesday in Crisler Arena.

The basketball was not.

Box Score.

U-M played hard but not well in a 54-42 home loss to Michigan State, dropping the Wolverines to 5-7 in the conference and leaving significant work if they're to make a run at the NCAA Tournament. The loss was their third home setback of the Big Ten season with four of their final six to be played on the road.

The two teams combined to shoot seven of 38 from three-point range and Michigan made only four of 24, most of the looks contested. Junior forward DeShawn Sims scored 18 points when his teammates made a concerted effort to get him the ball inside in the second half, but he didn't get the help he needed from his supporting cast.

Manny Harris scored only seven points for Michigan and no other Wolverine had more than six. U-M also hurt its cause in missing five of 11 free throws and turning the ball over 13 times.

"Michigan State is a great team, and we were going to have to play very well tonight to beat them," head coach John Beilein said ? "We just did not play the way we can play."

Especially in the first half.

The Wolverines managed only 15 points at halftime on only 19 shots, stifled by an aggressive MSU defense stationed on the perimeter with an eye on the back door. The Wolverines made only two of 10 triples and turned the ball over eight times against three assists.

Freshman Stu Douglass, who scored 20 points Saturday at UConn, played only four minutes in the first half after picking up two quick fouls and his teammates had trouble getting good shots.

Many of the 13 turnovers were unforced and came at critical junctures.

"We're just having some really big timing issues, people reading each other. I was really disappointed," said Beilein. "That hasn't happened to us very much. Our timing was off, and their defense was very good.

"It was a shock early in the game. Guys are so long, we don't really see that length and speed defensively when we're shooting and moving the ball."

The Spartans didn't fare much better early but escaped with a 23-15 lead at the break when the half ended fittingly, with Zack Gibson missing two free throws after being fouled intentionally and Novak missing a long triple at the buzzer.

MSU opened a 12-point lead at 31-19 before U-M battled back to make a game of it, closing to within 40-35 on a long Harris triple and 42-38 on a three-point play following a dunk from Gibson with 4:47 to play. But Harris missed an ill-advised triple from the top of the key and MSU's Kalin Lucas made his with 3:31 to give the Spartans room to breathe.

Loose balls and bounces went MSU's way down the stretch, leaving Beilein without answers.

"There are some 50-50 balls we have to get. When you're smaller, you're not going to get the ball up here, so you have to get the ones down here," said Beilein. "It's part of the youth, experience, strength, willingness to bloody your nose to win. That is a five-point game with three minutes to go. Those 50-50 battles are huge. I've got to coach it better and we've got to do it better.

"We made a great run, but I didn't think we did well down the stretch. Down four a couple times ? we're better than they way we played when we were down four."

They just couldn't prove it.

Notebook

? Beilein admitted he was frustrated by the absence of another scoring option to Sims.

"Find somebody," he said. "It's tough right now. Stu got in foul trouble, our other guys are in a shooting slump. We went to Manny a lot and we went to DeShawn, and DeShawn played well.

"Manny always faces their best defender, so we've got to continue to develop our players so we have more answers."

? The potential four- or five-point swing at the end of the first half was one of the game's turning points, said Beilein.

"We had a gimme basket coming up and if it was a regular foul, and I would have been disappointed they called it," said Beilein. "But we get an even better situation with the ball and don't get anything. That was a pretty big play."

? U-M will get a day of rest before heading to Northwestern this weekend, the first of four remaining conference road games.

"We've lost three home games. Obviously I want to speed this learning curve and what it takes to consistently win at home ? this learning curve isn't as fast as I'd like it to be," said Beilein. "Our length, our depth, all those things are big issues. We've just got to continue to grow ? the coaching staff, team, development, practices, everything."

He stopped short of saying MSU was a must win for his team.

"We've just got to play, concentrate on the next practice, the next game," he said. "What is the must for, to get in the NCAA tournament? There are a whole bunch of those. But when it comes to March, if we're not close to 20 wins or 9-9 in the conference, we're not going to be in. Will one game determine it? I don't think so, but they add up."

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