Hunter Dickinson's end-of-regulation buzzer beater propels Michigan to win
Michigan narrowly defeated Wisconsin 87-79 on Sunday afternoon during senior day at the Crisler Center. It was a must-win game for the Wolverines, who are scraping and clawing their way toward an NCAA Tournament berth, and Sunday afternoon's win helped tremendously.
Here are three takeaways from the massive victory:
Hunter Dickinson saves the season
Michigan's season was 2.1 seconds from being just about over. A home loss against Wisconsin wouldn't look great on a résumé, especially for a team that is already teetering on the bubble.
The Wolverines were down, 68-65 with one last chance to send the game to overtime, and Wisconsin's arch nemesis, Hunter Dickinson, connected on a deep, desperation 3-pointer to send the game to overtime.
Instead of suffering another close defeat, Michigan went on to outscore Wisconsin in overtime, 19-11, to steal a victory from the Badgers.
Michigan now improves to 17-12 on the season, and its NCAA Tournament hopes remain alive.
Dickinson's brief first-half takeover needs to be more common
Hunter Dickinson didn't exactly dominate like he has in previous games throughout his Michigan career, but he had an impressive 8-0 run of his own late in the first half. The 7-foot-1 center single-handedly gave Michigan an important burst of momentum, which was slowly extinguished throughout the remainder of the game.
Dickinson had a similar brief dominant stretch in the first meeting between the two foes, but Michigan obviously failed to finish the deal in Madison. Once again, Michigan fails to close out a game in Ann Arbor, despite leading for most of the way.
If Michigan can have any chance of overcoming a mediocre season, Dickinson will need to be more consistent in his dominance. The Alexandria, Virginia native has grown accustomed to doing a lot of talking off the court, but he'll need to back it up on the court to propel Michigan to an NCAA Tournament berth.
Where is the two big men lineup?
Freshman Tarris Reed Jr. has shown remarkable improvement throughout the course of the season, and especially of late. The 6-foot-10 center helped Michigan to a huge victory over Michigan State last weekend, and he's been arguably one of the most efficient players on the team lately.
However, there still seems to be a bit of hesitancy from Juwan Howard to put both Reed and Dickinson on the floor at the same time. The two big men tend to share the floor near the end of games, but they haven't played extended minutes together other than in crunch time.
The two-big lineup is clearly one of the better lineups Michigan puts on the floor, but the casual fan wouldn't be able to tell based on how little time the two spend together on the floor.
Michigan will need to roll with the two-big lineup as much as possible as the regular season approaches its end.
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