8 — Friday, March 24, 2017
Sports
The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com
THE END OF THE ROAD
OREGON 69
MICHIGAN 68
For the majority of the season,
if you were trying to guess who
would have the ball in their hands
for the shot, you were better off
picking a name out of a hat.
First came the game against
Virginia Tech at Crisler Center.
The Wolverines surrendered a
15-point lead to fall, 73-70, to the
Hokies.
Justin Bibbs converted twice
from the line with three seconds
left to give Virginia Tech the
three-point advantage, but
Michigan still had a chance.
Muhammad-Ali Abdur-
Rahkman sent the ball toward
the baseline. Moritz Wagner
needed to use every inch of his
6-foot-11 frame to keep the ball
inbounds, corralling it toward
Duncan Robinson.
Robinson had no choice
but to let it fly from deep.
Waltonwatched from the
opposite wing as it rimmed out.
In the final five minutes of
the game, Michigan was 2-for-
9 from the field. That night,
the Wolverines needed an
answer down the stretch. It was
nowhere to be found.
Against Texas the following
week, things fell in Michigan’s
favor. The Wolverines won,
53-50, but things could have just
as easily gone the other way.
With 19 seconds left against
the Longhorns, Michigan trailed
by one. This time, Zak Irvin took
the final shot — driving to the
basket only to watch the ball
clank off the backboard.
Fortunately for him, Wagner
was there to clean up the
garbage. The sophomore big
man corralled a rebound, and
kissed the ball off the glass to
give the Wolverines a one-point
lead with 16 seconds left. Walton
was standing at the 3-point line
watching it happen.
Michigan had a man hit the
final shot. It didn’t have the man
hit the final shot.
Then came the trip to Iowa
City in January. Michigan
went back and forth with the
Hawkeyes all game — it was only
fitting that the matchup went to
overtime.
Once again, the Wolverines
dropped one — 86-83 — in
crunch time at Carver-Hawkeye
Arena.
With 19 seconds left, Iowa’s
Peter Jok knocked down two
from the charity stripe to put
the Hawkeyes up three. But
Michigan had the final shot. With
seven seconds left and a chance
to tie, DJ Wilson pulled up from
three. It didn’t even come close,
and Zak Irvin’s offensive rebound
was for naught.
Walton was the one who
passed it to Wilson in the first
place. John Beilein needed
someone who could take the
ball and go get a bucket. He had
one of his most inexperienced
starters shooting a deep 3 to tie
instead.
But somewhere along the line,
Beilein found his guy in Walton.
As he said on Feb. 25, after
Walton led the Wolverines to an
upset win over Purdue, Beilein
got the guard “we always wanted
him to be.”
Walton’s teammates had their
man to rely on down the stretch,
too. And in the locker room, after
Michigan’s season had ended, it
was clear to see how they found
him.
“The thing that hurts the most
is to see these guys down, and
that’s all that really matters to
me,” Walton said. “I love these
guys so much, and I just wish we
could extend their season.”
Their season. Not my season.
If there were a moment for
Walton to be selfish, Thursday
night was it.
After four years, he had played
the last game of his Michigan
career.
He had done everything he
could to make sure it wasn’t,
too, turning in 20 points — tied
for a game high — on 6-for-10
shooting, while adding eight
assists and five rebounds.
But that’s Derrick Walton Jr.’s
self-described M.O. — a servant
leader.
And that’s why — at some
point this season — everyone
figured out who they wanted
with the ball in his hands against
the Ducks on Thursday night.
It’s not because Walton played
outside of himself for the final
six weeks of Michigan’s season.
It’s because he’s type of
person you trust to keep your
season alive.
Last possession wins.
As the seconds ticked down in
the final minutes of Thursday’s
slugfest between Michigan and
Oregon, those were the three
words everyone was thinking.
Every shot, every dribble,
every pass would count for
more. As the Wolverines and the
Ducks exchanged the lead five
times in the final five minutes,
all it could take for either team
to emerge with the win was one
of something.
Inevitably, Oregon emerged
with one more than Michigan
in several categories:
One defensive rebound...
...Oregon
inevitably
outrebounded Michigan. The
Wolverines had worked so hard
to overcome many defensive
shortcomings in the second
half of the season, but the one
area that proved to be their
Achilles Heel was the offensive
glass.
Michigan
will
finish
ranked
212th
out of 351 teams
in
offensive
rebound
percentage
on
defense.
For the game’s
first 38 minutes,
the
Wolverines
had
done
as
good a job as
ever,
limiting
the
Ducks’
second
chance
opportunities. Oregon had just
four offensive rebounds and
two
second-chance
points.
Senior wing Zak Irvin and
redshirt sophomore forward DJ
Wilson were making aggressive
moves to ensure they weren’t
outmuscled or out-positioned
Duck defenders — plays they
weren’t making earlier in the
season.
But in the last two minutes,
two relapses proved to be
the costliest offensive boards
Michigan would give up all
season.
The first — off a missed front
end of a one-and-one — would
have
given
the
Wolverines
the ball up three with 1:49 to
go. Instead, Oregon forward
Jordan Bell grabbed the loose
ball and went straight up to the
basket for the put back.
“If I could, I’d do anything to
take back that one shot,” Wilson
said. “That offensive rebound
on the free throw that I missed
that resulted in two points.
That’s the one point that really
sticks out to me the most.”
That Bell score was the first
of a 4-0 run that put the Ducks
in the lead for good. After
the second basket, Michigan
needed another stop with less
than a minute to go for a shot
to win the game on the final
possession.
The Wolverines ended up
forcing Oregon forward Dillon
Brooks into a rushed layup at
the end of the shot clock, but
left Bell free without a block out
again.
The forward came down with
his second offensive rebound
in the final two minutes, and
Michigan had no choice but to
foul.
Just one of
those rebounds
could have sent
the Wolverines
off
to
extend
their
lead
or
find a winning
bucket.
Instead,
their
biggest
weakness
hit
it at the worst
possible time.
“We
knew
we were going to have to get
stops down the stretch, and
we didn’t get those stops,” said
junior guard Muhammad-Ali
Abdur-Rahkman. “We gave up
offensive rebounds, fly-bys on
drives, things of that nature.
You just can’t have that at the
end of the game. You have to be
standing there and get stops.”
One turnover…
… the Ducks committed in
the second half. Michigan’s
turnover margin was winning
it
games
this
postseason.
The Wolverines were forcing
opponents into 12.8 turnovers
per game in the Big Ten and
NCAA
Tournaments,
while
only committing 7.8 per game
themselves.
But Oregon never seemed to
be making the passes that could
be served up for Michigan to
pick off. Or dribble into the
wrong lanes. Or make the
mistakes that could have sent
the Wolverines into transition
for
a
momentum-changing
basket.
“I don’t think we’ve had the
same pressure we have had in
the past,” Abdur-Rahkman said.
“I don’t know why. I don’t think
it’s fatigue. They’re a great team
that took care of the ball better
than we did.”
Michigan’s
defensive
renaissance
over
the
past
couple months had winning the
turnover battle as the keystone
that held everything up. But
Oregon knew if it took care of
the basketball, they’d be in as
good as any position to win it in
the end.
One shot…
… More Oregon made from
the field than Michigan. Senior
guard
Derrick
Walton
Jr’s
pull-up jumper in the final
seconds may stand out, but the
Wolverines had other chances
in the final minutes to put
pressure on the ducks.
Walton himself had a chance
to finish a layup — a similar look
to the dagger he put in the final
minute against Louisville last
Sunday — to put Michigan up
three, but came up too strong.
Wilson had a look from three
after Oregon took the lead with
a minute left, but he ended up
air balling his chance, and the
Ducks were bailed out.
Michigan and Oregon each
had 58 field goal attempts.
The Ducks made 26 shots. The
Wolverines hit 25.
All together — that one
offensive rebound, that one
missing turnover, and that one
unwise shot cost Michigan a
one-point game in a tournament
where you only need one loss to
go home.
“It basically just says the
ball didn’t go our way,” Abdur-
Rahkman said. “Shots didn’t
go in and they were the better
team today. You only have to
beat a team once in the NCAA
Tournament, and they did that.”
Wolverines come up just short in three areas to end season
BRANDON CARNEY
Daily Sports Writer
KEVIN SANTO
Managing Sports Editor
K
ANSAS CITY, Mo. —
“Money.”
Plain and simple.
When Derrick Walton Jr.
pulled up from beyond the arc
with a chance to send Michigan
to the Elite Eight, that’s what
Andrew Dakich thought.
That’s what Walton thought
himself. That’s what everyone
thought.
“You felt like it’s meant to
fall,” said senior forward Mark
Donnal.
But it didn’t matter that
everyone thought it was going in.
It mattered that everyone cared
who took it.
With the game on the line,
the answer was unanimous.
The Michigan men’s basketball
team wanted the ball in Walton’s
hands.
That wasn’t always the case.
“I’d do
anything to
take back that
one shot.”