Rapid reaction to Michigan’s 71-67 win over Ohio State in the Big Ten Tournament quarterfinal.
THE MOMENT
The No. 1 seed Michigan men’s basketball team engaged in a far more interesting Big Ten Tournament quarterfinal than most anticipated. No. 8 seed Ohio State’s tenacity on the glass and hot shooting from its key players — guards Bruce Thornton and John Mobley Jr. combined for 34 points — kept the Buckeyes within arm’s reach of the Wolverines all game long.
Down the stretch, Michigan was in a dogfight but manufactured key stops and junior center Aday Mara secured a crucial loose ball on a drive by junior guard Elliot Cadeau to get the finish and set the Wolverines’ lead at 67-64.
That offensive rebound and putback gave Michigan just enough of an edge to come away with the win.
THE TAKEAWAY
During the regular season, Michigan coach Dusty May often preached and applauded his team’s ability to win in different ways. Now that the Wolverines are in the postseason, they are utilizing that practice when something drags behind.
Michigan lost the rebounding battle just three times in the regular season. One of which was in its top-three clash against No. 1 Duke, but the other two were against low-tier Big Ten opponents in Maryland and Penn State.
Against Ohio State in the Big Ten Tournament, the Wolverines didn’t lose the rebounding battle but certainly lost on the offensive glass 10-6 — but they still found a way to win.
The combination of strong field goal shooting in the first half with marginally better free throw shooting in the second half allowed Michigan to excel in other categories to make up for a relatively lackluster performance on the glass. And just as May anticipated, the Wolverines used a lesson learned from the regular season to come away with a postseason win.
THE STAR
Mara proved the effectiveness he can have in a game when he isn’t in foul trouble. Normally averaging just under 23 minutes per game, Mara finished with 28 minutes in Friday afternoon’s contest and made the most of those minutes.
Mara didn’t pick up his second foul until less than 10 minutes to play in the game, and in a stretch midway through the second half, he had a sequence with an alley-oop finish from Cadeau, a very long two-pointer from the left wing, and a pair of made free throws to cement Michigan’s lead.
Although the Wolverines generally struggled on the glass, Mara kept them afloat with 17 points on the afternoon and also tallied two blocks and a steal.
Mara’s discipline early paid off in the second half as he often had strong spurts later in games when he returned from foul trouble. But against Ohio State, he was able to stay in for longer and impact winning to his fullest.
THE STAT
Michigan opened the game by knocking down its first four 3-pointers but went just 1 of 13 over the final 28 minutes of play and had to figure out other ways to score.
In crunch time, though, the Wolverines’ defense came up strong and held the Buckeyes to 3-of-14 shooting in the final 10 minutes of the game.
FOUR FACTORS
LSPlay
Such a great day of basketball ahead - very glad to be in a positive mood for it. Go Blue! We are 5-0 vs. MSU/OSU! That rocks!
GrapeApe
At the game. One take away for me is that I expect other teams -to have a chance to win- to play physical as hell and force the refs to make the calls. Pistons style.
B1G_E
And so it shall stay. It was very gratifying watching Donovan Dent and UCLA outplay MSU. Props to the Bruins and Badgers for getting their act together and looking like tough outs at season’s end.