The Wolverine: Covering University of Michigan Football and Sports
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had a string of games in the middle of the Big Ten where we won-lost, won- lost, and we learned a lot from that. It carried over into the four-game win streak before tonight. "We can do the same thing. We can Wolverines Suffer Sobering Exit From Big Ten Tourney Semifinals carry this over into a win streak, keep building momentum into the Big Ten Tournament and the NCAA Tourna- ment." They had no idea what was to For the briefest and oddest stretch, Michigan ended hostilities with the school it now refers to as "Ohio." Any such alliance, of course, is doomed to a very short run. come. They just knew how they'd stayed, how hard they'd played, and how desperately they wanted to be champions. Michigan won its last two games of the regular season. Michigan State dropped its final two, creating a three- way tie (along with Ohio State) for the championship. "The most rewarding part of what just happened is watching our young men's faces," Beilein said. "When you coach this long, and our staff knows this, it's not about the W's. It's about the journey. It's not the end of the journey, but it's certainly a highlight in this year's journey, and for some a four-year journey." For Novak, Douglass and every long-suffering Michigan basketball fan, the wait is over. ❑ Once the Buckeyes dispatched Michigan State in the last game of the regular season — helping Michigan to the Big Ten championship — any truce ended. Ohio State underscored that fact in the Big Ten Tournament semifinals, blasting the Wolverines 77-55 and sending them home a day earlier than they'd hoped. U-M head coach John Beilein marveled that OSU's effort marked the best he's seen by an opponent since he's been at Michigan. While the Wolverines weren't at their best — perhaps in part because of a grueling, 73-69 overtime win over Minnesota the night before — the Buckeyes were clearly going to be a handful for anyone. OSU's Jared Sullinger and Deshaun Thomas poured in 24 and 22 points, re- spectively, on combined 19-of-29 shooting. The Buckeyes also used their length and physicality to force 18 Michigan turnovers, eight more than U-M's season average. In short, Michigan's exit from Indianapolis wasn't one for the scrapbook. "I've seen some really good teams in my 20 years as a Division I coach that have played some really good games," Beilein said. "That's as good a game as I have ever seen a college team play. They're tremendous, with that talent. What's really good about it is they play together. There's no selfishness. They made the right pass, the right plays. It was an incredible performance. "They made us play poorly, and we certainly did not have a lot of success in a lot of areas. I'm proud of our kids, though. I liked that we fought. We stayed together though we got humbled quite a bit. We've usually bounced back because of the type of young men we have on the team." Michigan got 13 points from Tim Hardaway Jr. and 10 from senior Zack Novak, but shot just 30.9 percent (17 of 55) from the field and 16.0 percent (4 of 25) from three-point range. Freshman point guard Trey Burke endured the toughest struggle of his college experience thus far, going 1 of 11 from the floor, 0 of 7 from three-point range, scoring five points and turning the ball over eight times. "That's just the way it goes sometimes, one night and have a great game, and then you come out and have probably one of the worst games of your life. We've still got life. We've got games to play, and we're going to learn from this. The Big Ten media panel's Freshman of the Year dropped 30 points on the Gophers in the tournament quarterfinals, connecting on 11 of 14 shots and 3 of 4 three-pointers while adding three rebounds, two steals and two blocks. Burke's effort set a record by a Michigan player in the Big Ten Tournament, and represented the most ever scored by a freshman in the event. Hardaway added 20 points, but it still took the Wolverines overtime The turnaround from the night before couldn't have been starker. " " Burke said. "You come out to put away the Gophers. Minnesota led throughout the first half, and maintained a three-point edge in the final moment of regulation. A pair of three-pointers by Novak had pulled U-M back within striking distance, and Evan Smotrycz's clutch three with 17 seconds remaining sent the game to overtime. A Stu Douglass three got the Wolverines off and running in the extra session, and they never again trailed. But Burke played all 45 minutes of that fight, and it might have caught up with him 24 hours later. Whatever the reason for Michigan's unsavory exit from Indy, they Freshman point guard Trey Burke helped lead Michigan to a 15-1 home record at Crisler Arena this season, with the team's only setback coming against Purdue. PHOTO BY LON HORWEDEL There's a sour taste in our mouth right now. We'll bounce back. I'm confident we'll be ready to go, and we're preparing for a dogfight on Friday. were ready to quickly move forward into a higher-profile tournament. "We're a resilient group, " junior Matt Vogrich assured. "We hate losing. " — John Borton APRIL 2012 THE WOLVERINE 47