With a chance to sweep its two-game road trip this week, the Michigan men’s basketball team couldn’t capitalize on the opportunity against No. 15 Wisconsin. The Wolverines unraveled down the stretch at the Kohl Center in Madison en route to a 77-63 loss.
Michigan entered halftime tied at 31 apiece, but it didn’t take long for the Badgers to put them on the ropes coming out of the locker room. The knockout blow came in the form of a 21-3 run as the Wolverines struggled at the offensive end, and a severe scuffle broke out following the handshakes line at the end of the game. Michigan coach Juwan Howard appeared to grab the top of a Wisconsin assistant’s head and some players threw subsequent punches while others restrained Howard at the Michigan bench.
The Maize and Blue Review breaks down three takeaways from the Wolverines’ seventh conference loss:
Poor 3-point shooting once again an Achilles heel
Michigan’s streaky 3-point shooting continued against the Badgers, this time in the worst way possible. The Wolverines missed their first nine attempts from beyond the arc before Caleb Houstan and Eli Brooks drained a 3-pointer apiece. After that, though, Michigan was off the mark on its next nine attempts.
During that span, the Badgers went on a 21-3 run. The Wolverines had no answer at the offensive end of the floor. Hunter Dickinson attempted just one shot in a 12-minute span as Michigan unjustifiably went away from its bread and butter in the post. Instead, the Wolverines repeatedly missed open threes and settled for contested, off-balanced looks at the rim. They finished 4-of-25 from deep.
Michigan entered the afternoon as the Big Ten’s seventh-best 3-point shooting team (34.3%), but the Wolverines came nowhere near that clip in a dismal showing.
No answer for Wisconsin star Johnny Davis
On Sunday, Michigan saw exactly why Johnny Davis is at the forefront of the Big Ten Player of the Year conversation. The sophomore scored 25 points on 11-of-17 shooting, single-handedly driving the Badgers’ game-deciding run in the second half. Davis scored nine straight points in a 2:12 stretch, putting the game away in the process.
Michigan had no answer for Davis all afternoon. In man-to-man defense, 6-foot-1 Eli Brooks struggled to contest Davis’ 6-foot-5 around the rim, while Davis also easily created space on his fadeaway jump shots by elevating over Brooks.
Wolverines active on the offensive glass, but can’t turn boards into points
Despite losing forward Moussa Diabate to foul trouble just 10 minutes into the first half, Michigan remained active on the offensive glass until the break. The Wolverines pulled down eight offensive rebounds and finished the first half as a plus-10 on the boards. They finished Wisconsin, by contrast, recorded just two offensive rebounds in the first half and four total in the game.
However, Michigan couldn’t turn that into an advantage in second-chance points. The Wolverines only won the second-chance points battle, 10-9 — a head-scratcher given how many more offensive rebounds the corralled.
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