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Michigan Makes A Statement With 12th-Round TKO Of Ohio State

To say Sunday’s Michigan game at Ohio State lived up to its billing would be an understatement. While we haven’t seen every college basketball game this year, we’ve seen enough to know U-M’s 92-87 win in Columbus was at least one of the best games of the year in college basketball.

Both teams made contested shots in back and forth action that resembled a Final Four contest. The defense wasn’t bad, but the offense was better, the Wolverines making an amazing 10 of 13 triples in the first half yet leading by only two.

Bodies flew and players chirped, as they do in rivalry games …

And Michigan head coach Juwan loved every minute of it.

“Because this is the Big Ten, baby!” Howard said, laughing and clapping into the camera during the postgame Zoom with reporters. “It’s a very, very physical conference.”

He likened it to a boxing match, and U-M was the one standing at the end.

He expected nothing less than the Buckeyes’ best, and he and his team got it. Though U-M’s vaunted defense allowed 87 points, OSU shooting 50 percent from the floor and 53.3 from long range, they made the plays they needed to make down the stretch to pull away.

On just about any other day, against any other opponent, the Buckeyes probably would have won. But not Sunday. Not against a group that, in just its third game back after a 23-day layoff, hung with its rival blow for blow in a battle of heavyweights before finally delivering the knockout punch in the last four minutes.

If anyone doubted whether these were two of the top four teams in the country going in, they shouldn’t anymore.

RELATED: Wolverine Watch: U-M Busts The Bucks, 92-87

RELATED: OSU’s Holtmann Credits Michigan Wolverines Basketball After 92-87 Loss

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Michigan Wolverines senior Isaiah Livers and his team beat Ohio State in Columbus.
Michigan Wolverines senior Isaiah Livers and his team beat Ohio State in Columbus. (USA TODAY Sports Images)

“Damn right I anticipated a challenge!” Howard said when asked if he thought his defense would be tested. “Ohio State is a great team. They got in the position they’re in by being 18-4 before this game and being ranked No. 4 in the country. They have a great coach, also a very balanced team.

“They have outside shooting; they have inside scoring. They have guys that can drive the ball to the basket. They’re a very skillful group and a well-coached group. [No], I’m not happy with our defensive numbers, but I’ll take it with a victory. I’m going to take a look at our film and see how we can improve.”

First, though, he planned to savor the victory with his team on the bus ride home. This was a critical one — there were some, like national analyst Doug Gottleib, who still thought U-M hadn’t been adequately tested this year — and gives the Wolverines a bit of breathing room before a three-game stretch home with Iowa, at Indiana and home against Illinois.

The Hawkeyes are three back in the loss column, Illinois only two, and both will bring their ‘A’ games to Ann Arbor with them.

If the Wolverines play as well as they did Sunday, it still might not be enough. U-M brought its A- game offensively, making only one of 10 triples in the second half (despite having even better looks than they got in making 10 in the first stanza) and probably ‘B’ at best on defense.

There was no shame in it. OSU provides matchup problems the way the Buckeyes spread the floor with their shooters, and their No. 3 adjusted national offense lived up to its billing. At the same time, they give something on the other end by playing small, and freshman Hunter Dickinson made them pay with 16 second half points in dominating the post.

Dickinson got some time with his coach Saturday night to go over his game, as he often does, and it continues to pay off.

“Those one-on-one film sessions, those workouts that we have, the team workouts, the big man workouts … he’s growing before our eyes,” Howard praised.

“It takes freshmen a little bit longer to figure it out, but Hunter has his high basketball IQ because of his passion for the game and the way he is set on learning. A lot of guys don’t want to be coached. Hunter wants to be coached.”

More importantly, he really wants to win, like the rest of his teammates. Some chuckled a bit when transfers Mike Smith and Chaundee Brown spoke of being keys to a championship run after coming from losing programs at Columbia and Wake Forest.

Nobody’s laughing now. Not only are the Wolverines one of the nation’s elite teams, but both Smith and Brown are huge reasons why. Smith distributed brilliantly again, and Brown was a star in arguably the biggest game of his life to date, knocking down three first-half triples, playing great defense and crashing the glass in the second half for second-chance opportunities.

The team fed off his energy.

“Chaundee showed an extra effort, continuing to go after the ball and wanted that ball more than his opponent,” Howard praised. “You could just hear the energy from the bench and how everyone was clapping and cheering him on, and it inspired us …

“In the first half, we gave up 10 second-chance points, and in the second half, it was zero. We also looked at the turnovers and the turnovers, if I recall, in the first half, we had six. In the second half, we only had one. That was the difference in the ball game.”

That and U-M’s 19 assists. The Wolverines had five players in double figures, including Brown’s 15 and senior Eli Brooks’ 17, and sophomore Franz Wagner added nine.

The only thing that mattered to Howard, though, was the final score.

“I look at it as how can we make one another better? How can we make the simple play and not make the game so hard for ourselves?” he said. “And that’s my job where I can always do a better job of putting them in a position to make the easy play.”

Maybe. But the group he’s put on the floor is doing so much right now, it’s hard to imagine the ceiling being much higher.

There’s always room for improvement, and the tough part of the schedule is just getting started. For one day, though, this squad looks every bit the part of the elite squad we’ve seen most of the year, and they’re having too much fun to slow down now.

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