The Wolverine: Covering University of Michigan Football and Sports
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game when he picked up a foul battling to prevent the Spartans' Adreian Payne from getting position. Fellow big man and redshirt junior Jon Horford picked up two on the same possession, so little-used redshirt sophomore Max Bielfeldt checked in. "You just have to move forward," Morgan said with a smirk at the foul that limited him to four minutes in the first half. "When I only get to play a half of basketball … it's difficult to match their physicality down low and their offen- sive rebounding." MSU corralled 14 offensive boards and outrebounded the Wolverines 38-28 for the game. Michigan never completely folded, but the shots weren't falling, close, far or in between. Michigan shot only 31.5 percent (17 of 54) from the floor to Michigan State's 50.0 percent (27 of 54). Sophomore Nik Stauskas scored 17 points, but was only 4 of 14 from the floor. "They were the hungrier team from the very start," Stauskas said. "They got every loose ball and rebound, and were just all over the court — a lot more hungry than us." Illinois was famished, too, in a second-round matchup two days earlier. The Illini, winners of four of five games heading into the tournament, had disposed of Indiana a day before and were eager to atone for an 84-53 home beat-down at the hands of Michigan March 4. The Wolverines were only up five at the half and allowed the Illini to climb back from a 13-point second-half deficit to go up by three before freshman Derrick Walton Jr. hit a key triple to tie it. Morgan scored on a pick-and-roll finish with seven seconds remaining, and Illinois' Tracy Abrams left a point blank eight-footer at the buzzer short to allow Michigan to escape, 64-63, behind 19 points from Stauskas. The script was similar in the Wolverines' semifinal win over Ohio State, only U-M got off to a scorching start. Michigan led 15-2 and was up by as many as 16 before OSU whittled the lead to 41-37 at the break. The Buckeyes then came back from 11 down in the second half to grab a three-point lead with four min- utes remaining, but Michigan rallied for a 72-69 win. Stauskas led U-M with 18 points and sophomore Caris LeVert added 17 in U- M's seventh straight win, setting up the program's first trip to the tournament final since 1998. Though Michigan couldn't finish the job and capture a second banner, Beilein insisted it hadn't diminished a special regular season. "Absolutely not," he said. "This Michigan State team we lost to is terrific. They've got such experience, athleticism and a great coaching staff. For us to win two out of three from them is a great accomplishment, and for us to win the conference is a great accomplishment. "Yeah, we would have liked to have it all, but you move on. We feel good about what this team accomplished and the direction of the program." — Chris Balas