Michigan basketball players work to shrug off frustration of tough loss at Illinois
CHAMPAIGN, Ill.— The frustration seemed to seep out of Zack Novak as he answered questions Wednesday night in the back corner of the visiting locker room in Assembly Hall.
The junior guard usually is the Michigan basketball player most angry and distraught after losses. He sat in the corner, elbows resting on his knees, his disdain visible after Michigan came so close to grabbing a critical road win before falling, 54-52, to Illinois.
Win, and Michigan’s locker room would have been filled with talk of a potential berth in the NCAA tournament, of being in position for a bye in the Big Ten tournament.
Instead, Michigan (16-10, 6-8 Big Ten) slid to eighth place in the Big Ten.
“Whatever,” Novak said. “Move on to the next one.”
The next one is at Iowa on Saturday (4:30 p.m., Big Ten Network). A victory at Carver-Hawkeye Arena would put the Wolverines in a position to split the week and go into a home game against Wisconsin on Feb. 23 with a slim chance at a NCAA berth or home games in the National Invitation Tournament.
Another reason Novak and the Michigan team was frustrated Wednesday is that the Wolverines struggled offensively against Illinois. They shot poorly from the 3-point line - 2-of-18 - and had their point guard, Darius Morris, on the bench for almost seven minutes in the second half and for multiple possessions in the game’s final two minutes. Still, they had a chance to tie the game or take the lead after being down 11 points and shooting 30 percent overall in the first half.
“We were right there,” redshirt freshman Jordan Morgan said. “It’s really frustrating. A Big Ten road win is something big, and knowing that we really could have won that game if we had a better first half, it’s frustrating.”
Now the last thing the Wolverines need to do is dwell on the loss.
“I don’t want these guys thinking about that, and I don’t even want to think about that. It’s not worth it,” junior guard Stu Douglass said. “We have to go into Iowa, a big test there, on the road.
“We have no doubts we can win the next four games, make a big run in the Big Ten tournament and go to the NCAA tournament. So to dwell on (Illinois) would just be pointless.”
Michael Rothstein covers University of Michigan basketball for AnnArbor.com. He can be reached at (734) 623-2558, by e-mail at michaelrothstein@annarbor.com or follow along on Twitter @mikerothstein
Comments
maizenbluedoc
Thu, Feb 17, 2011 : 9:44 p.m.
Last night's game can easily be explained. The lack of making baskets. I don't recall such terrible shooting. Many times they just threw the ball up, hoping for something to happen. I realize this happens in some games, but Michigan should have won the game last night. They appeared out of synch offensively all night. Tough loss, for sure.
48104
Thu, Feb 17, 2011 : 9:36 p.m.
Did we watch the same game? I seem to recall Michigan closing the scoring gap with Morris on the bench. That was not the issue.
rensational
Thu, Feb 17, 2011 : 9:23 p.m.
Well, Beilein used to have Harris sitting on the bench at inexplicable times, as well. I just read the article linked to above that says "...Morris explains his...stay on the bench..." and he doesn't really make it sound like Beilein took him out for no reason. I understand other points made here, but really what bothers me about Michigan--and I understand this is a fairly young team--is we just don't have enough consistency in terms of who steps up, which leads to nights like last night. That's why I don't really have any complaints about Morris on the bench...don't know if his being out there would have helped. People used to say/complain that Michigan was all Harris and Sims. Fair enough, but we could benefit from something of a Harris/Sims combo, as a long as other guys contribute just enough like we see with teams like Purdue. I watched that game last night and at many times was just kind of like, "Where is Hardaway???" or "Where is Morgan??" Douglas and Novak were having off nights, and if we could have made just a few more 3s we could have won. So, what I didn't understand is why the team didn't try to get the ball to Hardaway for open 3s more, seeing that Douglas couldn't get them to go down and Novak wasn't really bringing that to the table, either, nor was Smotrycz. Lately, Hardaway has been the closest thing to a consistent scorer and difference maker, so I just couldn't understand his relative lack of involvement, especially in the 1st half. He did some nice things in the 2nd half, but we really could have used him knocking down some 3s.
michboy40
Thu, Feb 17, 2011 : 6:22 p.m.
Belein has been riding Morris a lot this year. He must be taking matters into his own hands.
rocco
Thu, Feb 17, 2011 : 6:02 p.m.
I thought Beilein lost the game for them by benching Morris for seven minutes in the second half. At one point Morris had to tell the coach to put him back in after Stu Douglas got a bloody nose. Morris was not making assists because noone was hitting shots. He missed some outside shots, too. It was a good strategy to move the ball inside to Morgan but he was constantly challenged by their bigs. They constantly challenged our outside shooters, too, who shot very poorly for the game. (Except for Douglas, our 3pt shooters are well below 40% and nowhere near the top of the Big 10). The best things were that we moved the ball well and looked in sync as a team, even better than a senior laden Illinois team. The back door plays were run to perfection and embarrassed Illinois time and time again. That augurs well for the future. Michigan will be stuck in lower half of the pack unless Beilein recruits more post players (not next year apparently). For a large part of the game, Illinois owned us in the paint, floating passes into the post and their center scoring at will. That was the game and McCamy stepping up at key times to hit the three. That was a winable game that the coach lost just to make a point that made no sense to anyone, especially Morris.
SalineBob
Thu, Feb 17, 2011 : 5:47 p.m.
That was a golden opportunity missed. Illinois was there to be had--they looked listless to me. It must be harder than we can imagine to be a student-athlete and practice and travel and get up for every game, especially if your season is not going as well as you had hoped. The Illini play out there on the floor reminded me of too many similar MSU games I've watched this year. Illinois was very fortunate to win