Michigan Left
Michigan basketball and its fans have been waiting in vain for the team to finally make the NCAA tournament for the better part of a decade. The fallout from the Ed Martin scandal resulted in Michigan not making the NCAA tournament since 1998. There have been several instances where it looked like Michigan was about to turn the corner.
Hiring Tommy Amaker as the head coach in 2001 was widely hailed as a surefire way for the program to return to the high level of success it acheived from the mid-1980s to mid-1990s when the team won two Big Ten championships, advanced to the Final Four three times and won the NCAA championship in 1989.
The past two seasons also provided fans with reason to believe the team might have a chance to finally show some measure of progress by simply making the field of 64 teams that duke it out during March Madness. However both times the hopes were dealt a significant blow by the Iowa Hawkeyes. After going 16-3 to start last season, Michigan played the Hawkeyes at Carver-Hawkeye arena on February 4th.
Michigan’s only losses at that point of the season were to #14 UCLA (a team that played Florida for the National Championship), on the road to #16 Indiana (a team that is always tough at home, as #2 Wisconsin found out tonight), and #7 Illinois (a team coming off an appearance in the National Championship game the previous season). The loss to the Bruins was the only game of the three that took place at Crisler arena. So there was reason to believe Michigan could hang with the 25th ranked Hawkeyes and perhaps even warrant being ranked amongst the top 25 themselves.
That talk was quickly ended when Iowa completely destroyed Michigan, winning by the score of 94-66. Michigan’s perimeter defense was terrible and several other teams followed Iowa’s lead and had plenty of success with the trey. Iowa shot 66% from three point range and scored 39 points from behind the arc. Five days later the Buckeyes did the same thing, shooting 63% from three point range en route to scoring 45 points on three balls.
Michigan staggered to the finish of Big Ten play, losing six of their final 8 conference games before losing in the Big Ten tournament to a Minnesota team they completely destroyed not once but twice during conference play.
The Wolverines started off this season going 12-3, losing to #1 UCLA on the road and to North Carolina State on the road. Both losses were understandable. But tonight’s 69-62 loss to Iowa - this time at home - leads me to believe this loss will be another watershed woodshed moment for the Michigan basketball program’s aspirations to make the NCAA tournament.
Michigan cruised to an 11 point lead at the half. But Iowa made adjustments, tightened up their defense in the second half, and outscored the Wolverines on their home court by 18 points over the last half of the game. Dion Harris, arguably Michigan’s best player, went 0-11 for the game.
Did he try to draw fouls since his shot was so completely inaccurate? No, as he only shot 2 free throws. He went 1 for 2 from the line. So the Hawkeyes did a brilliant job shutting him down and holding him to ONE FREAKING POINT ALL NIGHT. Lester Abram went 3-9 and did not shoot a single free throw. Courtney Sims had his rare good conference game, shooting 9-12 from the field and hitting 11 of 13 free throws for 29 points.
But make no mistake, Iowa knew if they could shut down Harris and Abram they would have a great chance to win the game. Just like last year they knew Michigan’s perimeter defense was soft so they gutted the Wolverines from 3 point range. Expect other teams in conference play to do exactly what Iowa did.
The responsibility falls on Tommy Amaker to either find a way to get his best players good looks or to at least get them to the foul line. Because no one can step up right now and burn a team that is determined to stop Harris and Abram. Sims could do it in non-conference play but he isn’t going to be able to do the job very often in Big Ten play.
I really lost confidence in Amaker as a coach with the way his team completely collapsed last season. I hoped for the best this season but the second half perfomance against the Iowa Hawkeyes tonight leads me to believe that Amaker and his troops simply lack the heart, the ability to adapt, and the resliency to rebound from adversity. There simply isn’t reason right now to think the team will do anything other than collapse just like they did last year when Amaker had his best chance to lead the Wolverines to the NCAA tournament.
Courtney Sims Dion Harris Lester Abram Michigan Basketball Tommy AmakerNo Comments
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