The Michigan Wolverines’ basketball team lost their first game of the season today, falling 75-57 at Minnesota in a matchup the Golden Gophers controlled throughout. U-M’s record fell to 11-1 as a result, though every college basketball fan in the nation knew the Maize and Blue were bound to lose at some point when considering how much of a grind the Big Ten slate is.
The key for this Wolverine squad moving forward will be to put this horrendous performance behind them, and make sure one loss doesn’t turn into a second straight when Maryland comes to town Tuesday night.
“It’s one game and we know we’ll have to bring it in practice and keep grinding,” senior guard Chaundee Brown insisted afterward. “We’ll have to have a short-term memory.
“We know we can’t settle with where we’re at, because we didn’t come out ready to play like they did today. They threw the first punch, but it’s onto the next game for us.”
“You have to credit your opponent, because Minnesota was ready and we weren’t from the start,” senior forward Isaiah Livers added. “We didn’t come out with intensity and lacked focus from the start.
“We’ll go back to the drawing board and move onto the next game. It’s the new guys’ first loss here, but we handled it well in the locker room and guys weren’t pointing fingers.
“[Senior guard] Luke Wilson and I have been here four years and we both said afterward we’d rather have that first loss in January instead of February or near the Big Ten tournament when seeding happens.
“We’ll move on and learn from this.”
The Wolverines didn’t do much right on either side of the ball today, shooting just 39 percent from the field and allowing Minnesota to convert 47 percent of its shots. Twenty Michigan turnovers didn’t help matters either.
The Golden Gophers deserve credit, on the flip side, with two of their key cogs — redshirt junior point guard Marcus Carr and junior center Liam Robbins — going off for 17 and 22 points, respectively.
“They had a heck of a day and all of them played well, especially in the second half,” Brown recalled. “Give credit to Marcus Carr, and Liam Robbins had a really good day too. It’s one game though, and we’ll move onto the next.”
On the other side of the coin, Michigan’s most consistent cog — freshman center Hunter Dickinson — had the worst game of his collegiate tenure today. He finished with a season-low nine points on four-of-five shooting, while committing five turnovers.
He was clearly flustered with the looks Minnesota threw at him.
“He handled the loss well, though you can always handle it better as a freshman,” Livers noted. “He’s only 18, 19 years old and still hasn’t been in that frustration spot yet — he’s always been the focal point.
“Robbins, [fifth-year senior forward Eric] Curry and [sophomore center Sam] Freeman all gave him different looks and bothered the heck out of him. He’ll get back and watch film and shake his head like we all will, and keep grinding.
“Hunter had probably never seen those looks before. He missed some easy layups he usually capitalizes on, but we had good shots in the first half that just didn’t fall. Credit them for not fouling because they did a great job of moving their feet and staying straight up.”
Notes
• Brown earned his first start of the year today with senior guard Eli Brooks missing the game with a sprained right foot. He drained two three-pointers and finished with a team-high 14 points, while playing 27 minutes, the second most he’d seen in a game this year.
“Maybe two days ago, or yesterday in practice [was when I found out I’d be starting],” he revealed. “I figured I’d start because Eli was in a boot. I did pretty well on the offensive end today and found guys, rebounded and hit open shots.
“I did alright on defense but could have done better — I got some cheap fouls that I thought were questionable. [Freshman forward] Terrance [Williams] and [freshman guard] Zeb [Jackson] gave us great minutes after that, but I thought my defense could have been better.”
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