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

