The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com
Sports
Wednesday, February 24, 2021 — 15
COLUMBUS — Something had
to give.
Entering Sunday, the Michigan
men’s basketball team boasted
the nation’s seventh-best defense.
Ohio State, meanwhile, owned the
third-best offense.
In
a
battle
of
Big
Ten
heavyweights, the Buckeye attack
proved potent. Yet, the Wolverine
offense matched Ohio State punch
for punch, rising to the occasion
and
securing
Michigan
(16-1
overall, 11-1 Big Ten) a decisive
92-87 road win over the Buckeyes
(18-5, 12-5).
“We’re going to enjoy this
victory,” Michigan coach Juwan
Howard said. “Overall, it was a
big production for everyone who
played in that game from start
to finish, every guy contributed
huge, made great plays for us
down the stretch.”
One hundred and nine years
passed before a top-5 matchup
precipitated on the hardwood
between the bitter rivals. The first
one, though, lived up to its billing.
Both teams came out swinging.
Duane
Washington
notched
10 quick points for Ohio State,
showcasing a lethal 3-point stroke.
Senior wing Chaundee Brown
offered a counter off the bench,
draining three 3-pointers and
keying an 8-0 run that dug the
Wolverines out of an early five
point hole.
“I told (senior forward) Isaiah
Livers in warmups, I was like, ‘I
like these rims, I love these rims,’
” Brown said. “I was like, ‘Yo, it’s
gonna be a good one.’ ”
Brown’s teammates followed
suit,
with
Michigan
putting
together a scintillating first-half
performance, punctuated by a
10-of-13 mark from beyond the
arc. On 17 first-half baskets, the
Wolverines recorded 12 assists.
“Our guys understand … about
just making the easy plays,”
Howard said. “And we need more
ball and player movement. And
get away from the iso-ball. So the
different defensive reads, our guys
took their time making simple
plays.”
Though
Michigan’s
offense
percolated, the Wolverines failed
to build an advantage on the
scoreboard. Each basket induced
an answer from Ohio State at
the other end, with 6-foot-7 E.J.
Liddell giving Michigan fits.
Liddell’s three offensive rebounds
contributed to 10 second-chance
points in the first half. Heading
into the locker room, Michigan
clenched a two point lead.
In the opening minutes of the
second half, the offense grew cold.
Open looks, the likes of which the
Wolverines capitalized on during
the first twenty minutes, became
misses. Ohio State seized a three
point lead.
And yet, Michigan clawed
back, shifting its attention inside
to
7-foot-1
freshman
center
Hunter Dickinson. Pulverizing an
undersized Buckeye frontcourt,
Dickinson scored 16 of his team-
high 22 points in the second half.
“That’s what we expect him to
do,” senior guard Eli Brooks said.
“We feel that he can’t be stopped
down there. He’s proven himself
that he can score against anybody.
He did that today.”
The offense, though, by no
means became one-dimensional.
Five different Wolverines scored
in double-figures, with a sixth —
sophomore wing Franz Wagner
— finishing with nine points. They
only committed seven turnovers,
with all but one coming before
halftime.
“The
ball
movement
was
really great today,” Dickinson
said. “That’s something I think
has been great all year. Such
an unselfish team, I think I’ve
said it after every game, how
unselfish the team played. I think
everybody just enjoys playing with
one another, so it’s really easy to
share the ball.”
A pair of ferocious offensive
rebounds by Brown sustained
a possession that culminated in
his lay-up, giving Michigan a two
point lead with 5:45 to play. It was
a lead the Wolverines wouldn’t
relinquish.
The two teams continued to
trade blows in a game marked by
its intensity and physicality. The
tide seemed to turn definitively
in Michigan’s favor when Livers
scooped up an errant Ohio State
pass. He finished on the other
end with an and-one, giving the
Wolverines a six-point lead with
2:33 left.
With the clock waning, Livers
spiked Ohio State’s inbounds pass
back down the court, thwarting
the last-ditch comeback attempt.
The Buckeye sideline sat in silence
while Michigan spilled onto the
court and bum-rushed the tunnel,
relishing its most-impressive win
on a season that seems destined
for a special ending.
JARED GREENSPAN
Daily Sports Writer
MILES MACKLIN/Daily
Michigan proved its me in a top-5 victory on the road Sunday.
MILES MACKLIN/Daily
The Wolverines dominated from outside and in the paint to best Ohio State on Sunday afternoon.
Videos were shown, elbows
were thrown, some choice
words were exchanged and
bodies hit the floor.
Whenever
Michigan
and
Ohio
State
square
off
—
regardless of the sport — there
are sure to be some fireworks
and animosity. On Sunday,
though, bolstered by both
teams’ top-5 rankings and
their recent encounters, the
intensity was ratcheted up.
The bitter rivals were at
each other’s throats with hard
fouls, aggressive drives to the
rim and players diving for loose
balls. The Wolverines seemed
to relish the physicality.
“I
like
these
types
of
games, dog fights,” senior
guard Chaundee Brown said.
“Like (Michigan coach Juwan
Howard) says, it’s a boxing
match.”
From the tip-off, it was clear
the game was going to be a war
of attrition. Whichever team
was left standing at the end
was going to have to earn it.
Using every bit of motivation
afforded by the Buckeyes,
Michigan did just that.
It’s typical for players and
coaches to claim that they
view each game in a vacuum,
that they don’t look ahead to
any one opponent and don’t
look back at the results of
previous
seasons.
For
the
Wolverines, who hadn’t won in
Columbus since 2014, this was
not the case.
“The biggest thing that we
came into it looking at was our
record at Ohio State,” senior
guard Eli Brooks said. “That’s
something we really wanted
to change at the start of the
day. That’s what drove us the
most.”
While seniors like Brooks
didn’t want to see their 0-3
road record extended further,
even those playing in their first
game against the Buckeyes
had added motivation.
Prior to the game, Howard
showed the team a video of
Ohio State players dancing in
the locker room after beating
Michigan
for
the
second
time last year. The Buckeyes
subsequently also started a
tradition of presenting “golden
jersey” trinkets to players who
sweep the Wolverines in the
season-series. Michigan took
offense to all of it.
“Of
course
we
were
motivated by it,” freshman
center Hunter Dickinson said.
“But I think the players here
last year and coach Howard
were
probably
the
most
motivated from watching that
video.
“I think it was just the
Michael Jordan approach, any
little thing that can get you
extra motivated helps. That
was something that definitely
got everybody really prepared
for this game and motivated.”
Added Brooks: “Yeah, we
showed them a couple videos
that rubbed us the wrong way
and that we wanted to change
the tides, so that’s why we did
that.”
Despite this being their first
taste of the rivalry, Brown
and Dickinson were involved
in a majority of the trash talk
and strife — Brown by choice
and Dickinson by virtue of
his position. At one point, the
referees had to step in and tell
Brown to tone down the back-
and-forth he was having with
a Buckeye.
Meanwhile,
the
usually
even-keeled,
mild-mannered
Dickinson
threw
down
a
monstrous two-handed dunk
in traffic with a little more
aggression than usual, driving
the Michigan bench to near-
hysteria.
“I could tell that they didn’t
like us, and we sure didn’t
like them either,” Dickinson
said. “You could see that it
was a really competitive game
and I think there’s definitely
something to be said for an
Ohio State-Michigan rivalry.
It’s definitely one of the best
in the country.”
Whether
it
was
from
newcomers to the rivalry or
veterans well-conditioned to
the rough-and-tumble nature
of it, the Wolverines brought
a bit more intensity over the
Michigan-Ohio border. And it
paid off in a big way.
“Gonna
enjoy
the
bus
ride home with the victory,”
Howard said. “Because I’ve
been on the other side before
when you’ve lost a game and
you had to have a bus ride back
home. It’s not a good feeling.”
CONNOR BRENNAN
Daily Sports Editor
Wolverines edge Ohio State on the
road in thrilling top-5 showdown
‘M’ rides extra motivation to win
over fourth-ranked Buckeyes
Michigan proved it’s ready for March, maybe April
MILES MACKLIN/Daily
Due to the nature of the rivalry, Michigan brought particular fervor in its win over Ohio State on Sunday.
ETHAN
SEARS
COLUMBUS
—
Hunter
Dickinson fired off a tweet and
stepped up to the Zoom camera.
“First of all, did you literally
just tweet that clap back at Doug
Gottlieb before coming on this
Zoom call?” a reporter asked.
“Yeah.”
Around
when
Michigan
men’s
basketball
was
tipping
off
in
Columbus,
Gottlieb,
a
sports radio
host,
had
tweeted:
“Michigan
hasn’t
played
the
better Big 10 teams, got smoked by
Minnesota on the road… Hard to
guess how they play today- smart
money is on Ohio State.”
It’s the kind of sentiment the
Wolverines have heard for much
of the season. They’ll probably
hear much less of it after Sunday.
Because, really, what else is left to
question. Between Gottlieb’s tweet
and Dickinson’s press conference,
Michigan and Ohio State played
the sort of basketball game usually
reserved for an elevated court in
April. Shots hitting nets. Bodies
hitting floors. Dickinson and E.J.
Lidell battling. Chaundee Brown
and Duane Washington Jr. all over
the place. Rankings tend to border
on meaningless — this, though, felt
every bit like No. 3 vs. No. 4.
Michigan came out on top,
92-87. It is, at this point, a
prohibitive favorite to win the
Big Ten regular-season title. The
questions left now are reserved for
March. So Dickinson hit back at
Gottlieb, responding: “Lol.”
“I think coming into the season,
some people didn’t have us ranked in
the
country,”
Dickinson
said.
“Some people had us ranked I
think seven in the Big Ten. And so
I don’t think it’s anything new to us.
I think one way or another, they’re
gonna have to, I guess, realize
who we are and what we’re about.
One way or another.
“We don’t look for anybody’s
appreciation.
We’re
gonna
go
out there and earn it every day in
practice and in the games.”
If
you
didn’t
think
those
questions were answered before
Sunday, look to the first half. The
Buckeyes were bringing double-
teams on Dickinson every time he
put the ball on the floor, making it
impossible
for
him
to
score
inside. So Michigan moved the
ball and shot the lights out with 10 3-
pointers and 12 assists, keeping it in
the game when its defense and its
star big man couldn’t.
Or look to halftime. That’s when
Brown, one of those players who
was on fire from outside in the
first half, told Wolverines’ coach
Juwan Howard: “Go to Hunter.”
Needing to stop Michigan from
shooting
more
3-pointers,
Ohio
State
didn’t
pressure
Dickinson
quite as much in the last 20
minutes. So he scored 16 points
with five rebounds, including a
two-handed dunk that shook the
Schottenstein
Center’s
foundations to put the Wolverines up
82-76.
“They had a 6-7 guy (Lidell)
guarding a 7-2 guy,” Brown said.
“So I’m like, if they double, we
have myself, Isaiah (Livers), Mike
(Smith), Eli (Brooks), (as) shooters
around the perimeter. So they
gotta give one. They’re not gonna
double him, or if they do, we
gotta shoot it. It was just common
sense.”
You can also look a few minutes
before that dunk. That’s when
Brown
grabbed
two
straight
offensive rebounds underneath
Michigan’s basket with Buckeye
bodies all around him. He flipped
up a putback attempt — the
Wolverines’ third shot of what’s
technically
classified
as
one
possession — that went in. It put
Michigan up 71-69, a lead it never
relinquished.
“It was very inspiring,” Howard
said.
But let’s go back to what Brown
said for a second. It gets at the
heart of what makes Michigan
so good, so frustrating to play, so
impossible to defend. You can’t
get away with single-covering
Dickinson. You can’t get away
with leaving the Wolverines’
shooters. Unless you’ve got a big
man capable of containing a guy
who looks like a Player of the Year
candidate or Michigan happens to
have a bad day shooting, there’s no
answer.
“When it’s time to compete
out there on the floor, we talk
about all the time, winning the
day and be(ing) appreciative of
the opportunity to have this time
to play basketball,” Howard said.
“During these games when there
are tough stretches, when we go
through scoring droughts or turn
the ball over or the other team gets
an offensive rebound, our guys
always figure it out and stay the
course.”
Slowly but surely, the truth of
that — the truth of everything
Howard preaches — has become
evident over the course of the last
three months. It’s been impossible
to ignore or shrug off since mid-
January, when the Wolverines
blew the doors off Minnesota and
Wisconsin at home.
Since they’ve returned from a
COVID-19-induced pause, beating
the Badgers on the road, Rutgers
at home and Ohio State in what
might be the best game of college
basketball’s regular season, even
those with their heads in the sand
have awoken to the possibility that
this team might just be playing on
a Monday night in April.
“Welp,” Gottlieb tweeted after
the game. “Missed this one.”
Sears can be reached at
searseth@umich.edu or on
Twitter @ethan_sears.
//
//
Online Event: Thursday, March 4, 2021 | 4:00 p.m.
STEVEN
CUNDIFF
Harrison M. Randall
Collegiate Professor of Physics
An online lecture. For more information, visit
events.umich.edu/event/81662 or call 734.615.6667.
LSA COLLEGIATE LECTURE
Optical
Frequency
Combs