Kornacki: Wolverines Unable to Rally against Indiana
2/3/2016 12:00:00 AM | Men's Basketball
Feb. 3, 2016
By Steve Kornacki
ANN ARBOR, Mich. -- The night began with a buzz in the air, and Michigan's men's basketball team taking control in the early minutes on Tuesday night (Feb. 2) at the Crisler Center.
Wolverine head football coach Jim Harbaugh walked out of the tunnel in the minutes leading up to the game with Indiana, sending the already frenzied fans to another level of joyous noise. Harbaugh made his way to his parents, Jack and Jackie, seated behind the Indiana bench in neutral colors.
Having a son coaching at Michigan and a son-in-law, Tom Crean, coaching the Indiana basketball team put the Harbaughs into an odd, yet wonderful, situation. Their oldest son, John, coach of the Baltimore Ravens, sported an Indiana baseball cap, but on Wednesday (Feb. 3) he will be all maize and blue during the football program's "Signing of the Stars" show at Hill Auditorium.
The Wolverines seemed to feed off the crowd energy early in the game but then couldn't buy a bucket for more than 10 minutes. Seldom does a team lead a basketball game by 11 points during the first half only to trail by 21 points at halftime.
Michigan lost, 80-67, and never got closer than the final score after the Hoosiers scored 21 unanswered points.
Had Michigan head coach John Beilein, in his 38th season and with 734 wins, ever seen a half in which he got a double-digit lead only to end up trailing by such a wide margin?
"Probably somewhere along the line it's happened," said Beilein. "You've just got to settle people down really. We were in a state of shock, and that was not the time for me to get into them. It was a time when they needed confidence, and they needed to know that I believed in them, and they're going to get better through it.
"It turned out to be insurmountable, and we feel bad about it. We'll watch some video and see what we can do to score some baskets. And when you don't make some baskets, get back and guard somebody."
Zak Irvin, who led Michigan with 16 points, said the Wolverines weren't able to play the kind of defense required to get back into a game by making stops and generating offense via fast breaks and extra possessions.
"That team can really, really fill it up," said Duncan Robinson, who scored 14 points for Michigan. "When they get out in transition and we take some questionable shots, and turn the ball over, it can happen fast."
The Hoosiers went on a 21-0 run.
"We just weren't able make shots," said Irvin, "and we let that go into our defense. We can't let that happen in the future.
"We were stunned (at halftime). We just tried to keep a mindset to come out and play our game the second half, but it was just tough. You've got to give credit to IU. They played well the whole game."
No. 22 Indiana (19-4, 9-1 Big Ten), the team atop the Big Ten standings, didn't allow Michigan to score in a stretch of 10:29.
"Obviously it hurts, especially losing to IU," said Irvin, who is from Fishers, Indiana. "We really wanted to beat them bad and couldn't do that. But nobody's going to feel sorry for us. We've got to pick our head up and be ready for Saturday."
Michigan (17-6, 7-3) hosts Michigan State on Saturday (Feb. 6) in a game that will be important in regard to contending in the Big Ten. However, in the early going, it appeared that the Wolverines might be making a statement against the Hoosiers.
Robinson's three-point shot with 9:05 to play in the first half gave Michigan a 24-20 lead, but then nothing went in the rest of the half.
"They hit a lot of shots, and we took some questionable ones," said Robinson.
Though, the Wolverines closed the first half by missing a flurry of makeable shots.
Mark Donnal missed a free throw in a one-and-one shooting situation. Then Irvin missed a driving layup, and Derrick Walton Jr. missed a three-point attempt. Walton missed a short shot, and then Irvin missed another shot driving to the basket.
"At times, when they went on that run," said Irvin, "we took tough shots, and there were turnovers here and there. But we also had looks that we normally make. So, that's tough. You can't really draw anything up for that. You just have to fight through it.
"And, most importantly, we can't let our defense waver, and that happened. It's just draining when you have an 11-point lead, and everything's going well. But basketball's a game of runs, and everyone saw that tonight. That 21-0 run was something none of us saw coming."
Those easy opportunities at the end of the first half could've resulted in 10 points, with Donnal getting another free throw had he made the first and cut the lead to a doable 11 points.
It wasn't until Robinson connected on a short-hook shot 1:24 into the second half that the drought ended. But the game was already all but over.
The Wolverines' four-game winning streak also ended, and the next game up doesn't get any easier.
"We're got to bounce back because we have Michigan State coming in on Saturday, and we know they're hungry," said Irvin. "We've got to look past this and move on.
"We've just got to learn from it. We've got Michigan State, another great team coming into our arena that wants to beat us bad. It's a big-time rivalry game, and so we've got to learn from it, watch the film and move on."
Beilein was asked about his message to the team afterward.
"If there are things in this game that help us win games down the line," he said, "then it will be worth it in the long run. But they were a much, much better team than us today."
Michigan was only one game behind Indiana in the standings before this loss.
"He was disappointed," Robinson said of Beilein. "But we were all really disappointed in ourselves to play in front of a packed house like that and play the way we did. That's tough, and that's not acceptable. So, we're just going to try to learn from that and go from there. We have an opportunity on Saturday against a good team.
"We have to forget about it, but don't forget how you feel about this game. That's just motivation moving forward."
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