Michigan didn’t experience its finest moment of a sterling season against Michigan State on a national stage Sunday. Far from it.
But in a college basketball world of shrieking madmen and finger-pointing, blame-shifting, skin-saving tyrants, John Beilein fashioned a moment to remember.
Oh, it didn’t happen on the court at Crisler Center. Out there, his team saw a six-point second-half lead turn into a nine-point deficit in the Wolverines’ 77-70 loss to the Spartans. That’s because Michigan managed all of nine points from the 15:42 mark until 44 seconds remained in the game.
U-M saw MSU reduce the home team’s offense to one-on-several bull rushes to the basket, interspersed with well-guarded three-point launches. Michigan managed all of six assists, set against Michigan State’s 15, in a ball-moving offense that took advantage of everything the Wolverines attempted to do.
No, there was no victory on the court. Michigan’s first loss at Crisler this year sat devastatingly on the home team. It puts Beilein’s crew a game back of the Spartans and Purdue’s Boilermakers in the Big Ten race. With road games still to play at Maryland and Michigan State, that might be checkmate for regular-season championship chances.
It’s the Big Ten, they say. Anything can happen. That’s true, but something just did happen, and it’s not good for the home team.
Beilein certainly didn’t cast aside hope. Perhaps more importantly, he didn’t cast blame on his players. He didn’t cast assistant coaches under the bus. He didn’t moan about injuries, briefly mentioning redshirt junior forward Charles Matthews’ (1-for-8, four points) tweaked ankle but in the same breath pointing out MSU’s much worse physical status.
The Michigan head coach simply stepped up and called it like it was. The Spartans played better on this ill-fated afternoon, rallying behind a performer that offered up 40 minutes of magnificence.
“Michigan State had a tremendous game plan, and they just played better than us,” Beilein said. “They were much better than us in about everything — offense, defense, they got to the foul line more…
“They made us play poorly. Give them all the credit in the world. We’re a pretty good team, but we weren’t the better team today.”
Post-game graciousness by a coach is about as uncommon as slam dunk contests in Munchkin Land, but Beilein put it on full display in the aftermath of a game that will grind on him for a while. He never once snapped at the questions picking apart his team’s offensive struggles. If a student reporter stumbled a bit, he or she wasn’t going to become an easy target for venting.
No, Beilein went on to say it like it was. Michigan State’s Cassius Winston surgically took his team apart. The Spartans’ point guard scored 27 points, racked up eight assists, went a devastating 13-for-14 from the free throw line, and ran a ball-screen offense that repeatedly created too-easy openings for a team that wound up shooting 50 percent (24-for-48) from the field.
“He just gets into these little areas, and then he’s got that floater game that very, very few players have,” Beilein said. “It is an art to be able to go full speed, stop, and float it up and be able to get it to go in. He’s one of the best I’ve ever seen at it.
“If you impact him more with your ball screen coverage, you can take that away. For some reason, our impact wasn’t there, or he got by our impact, with hesitation.”
The Spartans entered Michigan with obvious injury issues, losing starters Josh Langford and Nick Ward along the way. Maybe even more importantly, those looking through maize and blue glasses saw how junior point guard Zavier Simpson got the better of Winston in their previous meetings.
Simpson hounded Winston defensively in those games, and some counted on that to happen again. MSU countered with double ball screens and a host of counter measures designed to run Simpson off, and Winston took full advantage of the freedom.
Beilein gave full credit, both to Winston and the Spartans.
“They were really good last year, and they’re really good this year — and so are we,” Beilein said.
MSU coach Tom Izzo heaped praise on the Wolverines as well — a significantly easier task, with a crucial win in your coat pocket.
“This could end up one of the best rivalries,” Izzo said. “There aren’t a lot of places where there are two schools in the state, both ranked top 10. He’s got a very good team.”
It’s a bottom-line game, no doubt. Michigan trotted out its 1989 national championship team to a wildly warm reception some 30 years after the fact … because they won.
But Michigan’s bottom line has been awfully good for the last decade. And even in the toughest moments, the post-game class remains the same. That counts for something — or should.
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