Michigan basketball got punched. Now it has to show it can respond. Again.

Posted by author February 22, 2025 Basketball

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If Michigan basketball wants to win the Big Ten conference, it has to play better than it did Friday against Michigan State.
The Wolverines hit just one of 10 3-point tries over the final 22 minutes against the Spartans.
Michigan still controls its Big Ten fate, with five games remaining, including a finale against Michigan State on March 9.

The nightmare unfolded seemingly in slow motion.

Michigan basketball trailed Michigan State by six with just more than two minutes to play on Friday night, and the shot clock was winding down.

Jeremy Fears Jr., a career 31% 3-point shooter, had the ball, and had to nearly throw it at the hoop. It was nearly 10 p.m when he sent the heave, but the bank was still open — the ball caromed off the glass and through the net.

If that wasn’t enough to drop the Wolverines’ collective shoulders, moments later Danny Wolf missed a 3-pointer — U-M went 1-for-10 beyond the arc over the final 22 minutes of the game — and MSU finished things off on free throws, handing U-M a 75-62 loss to snap a six-game Michigan winning streak.

To add to the frustration, MSU players celebrated on the Crisler Center court, well after fans in maize and blue had streamed out of the exits and those supporting MSU began their “Go Green, Go White!” chants.

“Give Michigan State credit, second half they were able to answer every run,” head coach Dusty May said. “They were the aggressor and tonight we didn’t look like a championship-caliber program. But this group has proved all year that we respond, we unify when things don’t go well, so no reason to expect any different.”

After all, that’s the main focus. Sure, the loss for No. 12 Michigan (20-6, 12-3 Big Ten) stings — the Wolverines are half a game behind the first-place Spartans with five games to play.

But U-M still controls its destiny in conference play — win out and Michigan will be Big Ten champions, a season after finishing last in the conference. \

Of course, that will require significantly better play than Friday.

“100%, that’s the main focus,” center Vladislav Goldin said, after leading the Wolverines with 21 points. “Continue fighting, because unfortunately we lost this game, it stinks, but we have the whole season in front of us. We have a lot of basketball left, and the main question is how will we respond.

“That’s going to show a lot of character, so that’s what we’re going to do.”

A bitter taste of the rivalry

For the majority of the Wolverines — other than Nimari Burnett, who scored 12 points, and Will Tschetter, who added five — this was most Wolverines’ first taste of the in-state rivalry.

All week leading up to it, some questioned if U-M was ready for the intensity.

“If we could go back, we’d do things differently, but you always would,” May said. “But we stay with the process. Our guys put in the work, but I think Michigan State had something to do with our issues today as well.”

The Wolverines’ “Plan 1A” was to limit the Spartans’ transition attack, and they finished tied at 10 points apiece on the fastbreak. “Plan 1B,” however, was supposed to be stopping offensive rebounds — MSU grabbed 14 of them, leading to 15-second chance points.

Goldin said he was surprised by the way the Spartans never wore down and just continued to come in waves. Danny Wolf, who finished with 11 points, eight assists and seven rebounds, said MSU’s 3-pointers in the second half, capped by Fears’ banked-in 25-footer, were deflating.

“There’s a cumulative effect of not playing offense well and not playing defense well. … We’re not naïve to it,” May said. “But I thought they were quick, aggressive to the ball, then those late shot clock 3s, they were able to track them down. That’s what they do; thought they played very, very determined.

“Their guards were able to break down our defense, get us in rotation and therefore they had some free runs, and we weren’t able to keep bodies on bodies. Sometimes, it’s as simple as that.”

‘No time to hang our heads’

U-M entered Friday with six straight wins, all by four points or fewer.

So, down 66-62 with 4:12 to play, U-M felt decent about its chances. Instead, U-M allowed an easy Carson Cooper dunk, followed by a Rubin Jones missed 3. The Wolverines then picked up a stop before Roddy Gayle Jr. was tagged for a travel and Fears hit his big 3.

On MSU’s next possession, the Spartans had three offensive rebounds, hanging onto the ball more than a minute before a pair of Jaden Akins free throws. Postgame, Wolf used the phrase, “we splintered” multiple times.

“Lost in the rivalry stuff sometimes is there’s a basketball game that requires execution and requires poise,” May said. “We didn’t look like a more poised, connected veteran team tonight.”

This is Michigan’s first loss in nearly four weeks, a demoralizing 91-64 loss at Purdue. After questions of U-M would respond, the Wolverines ripped off half a dozen victories.

May and U-M agreed to a new five-year contract Friday, in part because of the perspective he keeps.

Friday wasn’t a good night. The rest of the way?

“This can’t turn into two losses,” May said. “We’re half a game out of first place in the Big Ten in mid-February. There’s no time to hang our heads and mope and feel sorry for ourselves. We’ve got to unify, figure out a way to get better tomorrow, take care of our bodies and get our edge back.”

Tony Garcia is the Michigan Wolverines beat writer for the Detroit Free Press. Email him at apgarcia@freepress.com and follow him on X at @RealTonyGarcia.