The Wolverine: Covering University of Michigan Football and Sports
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8 THE WOLVERINE MARCH 2023 L loyd Carr said it best, many years ago: "Winning is about finishing." Juwan Howard's basketball team hasn't figured out how to finish consis- tently, and thus may well be finished long before it wants to pack away the basket- balls. This carries all the marks of an if-only campaign for the Wolverines. If only they weren't so young, with two freshmen and a sophomore in the starting lineup. If only they could figure out how to get the ball to junior center Hunter Dickinson at crunch time, and he could figure out how to best lead the young talent around him. If only the Wolverines could defend better. If only they were tougher rebound- ing the basketball, especially at the de- fensive end. If only they hadn't lost a grad transfer point guard to a knee injury, and could speed up the maturity process for others. Michigan did finish against Michigan State Feb. 18, on a night when humanity eclipsed hoops. The Wolverines did ev- erything right in rallying to beat the Spar- tans 84-72 after acknowledging the ter- rible shooting tragedy at MSU via deeply respectful pregame gestures. The question now becomes, can Michi- gan find a way to salvage a season with an unexpected finish? They've already done enough damage down the stretch to keep an off-the-bub- ble NCAA Tournament season firmly in that pride-searing position. Three straight wins over Big Ten lesser lights set the stage for this team taking the next step. Beating No. 18 Indiana at Crisler Center, then going on the road to take down a beatable Wisconsin at the Kohl Center, would have left detractors saying "Not so fast" on the early burial. Instead, U-M doubled down on every- thing that put their streak of five straight Sweet 16 appearances in mortal jeopardy. Like they did in high-profile nonconfer- ences losses to No. 3 Virginia (70-68), No. 19 Kentucky (73-69) and North Carolina (80-76), the Wolverines competed but couldn't close. Howard's crew didn't score in the final 5:12 against the Hoosiers. Despite leading for 33:54 of a 40-minute game, and by as many as 11 points, they couldn't get it done. Michigan went 0-for-7 shooting in that protracted scoreless stretch, Dickinson getting just one of those shots. Howard hinted at freelancing as a cause for not drawing better looks. "Organization," he stressed. "That was a big reason why. Some of the sets we weren't able to get to what we were asking from the offensive end. There are times when the guys want to go ahead and do it how they want to do it or they see something on how the defender is playing and feel that, 'This is the best way how to run the set.' "Overall, you've just got to trust. You have to trust what is being asked and also apply. That's where I think we had some trouble down the stretch and weren't able to get to the offense that was called. That's a learning process our players have to get better with." Dickinson expressed his own aggrava- tion afterward. "It definitely is frustrating," he said. "We weren't really getting that many good looks at the basket the last couple of minutes. Whatever we were doing, it wasn't working. Whether it's just ex- ecuting or running the plays right, it wasn't a good, all-around effort by us out there. We need to execute better down the stretch if we're going to win a tough game like that against a really good team." Dickinson caught some unwanted at- tention himself for donning a ski mask for the march into the Kohl Center, sig- naling his intention to steal a win there. Instead, the Badgers swiped Michigan's lunch money, 64-59, despite not making a field goal for the final 10:45 of the game. That ridiculous stretch allowed the Wolverines to chop a 12-point deficit to 1 point and opened the door for a road heist. But in keeping with a season-long pattern, Michigan finished like Bill Buck- ner in the '86 World Series. Michigan Daily alum Jacob Gase dug up the troubling stat that during the past four years the Wolverines were 1-9 in 10 games where they could draw up the final play. U-M has come up 0-for-12 shoot- ing in those situations. Howard sports a strong résumé in his four-year stint as Michigan's head coach, including a Big Ten championship, two NCAA Sweet 16 appearances and an Elite Eight. His critics love to make compari- sons to John Beilein, who coached 41 sea- sons of college basketball, the final dozen at Michigan. Howard is nearing the (perhaps too- soon) end of Season 4. He's already learned some hard les- sons. Despite the stirring win over MSU, this looks like another. The comeback over the Spartans in- jected a shiver of hope into a borderline lost season. But given a daunting re- maining schedule, it will take far more than one emotion-filled surge to finish like the Wolverines want. ❏ WOLVERINE WATCH JOHN BORTON A Frustrating Finish Could Be Looming At 15-12 with just four games remaining in the regular season, head coach Juwan Howard and the Wolverines are fighting to make the NCAA Tournament. PHOTO BY LON HORWEDEL Editor John Borton has been with The Wolverine since 1991. Contact him at jborton@thewolverine.com and follow him on Twitter @JB_Wolverine.