There’s a fine line in college basketball between rolling teams and getting rolled. Between feeling good about yourself and starting to question things. Between the results that matter — wins and losses.
As Michigan basketball head coach Dusty May explained Sunday afternoon at Crisler Center, where his Wolverines escaped a gritty Northwestern team, 80-76 in overtime, some days, it’s just about remembering one thing: All’s well that ends well.
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“Happy to find a way to win this one,” May said Sunday. “I do think this will give us confidence. There will be days where we’re on the road and down five, down eight and it’s just about stay the course and find a way to win ugly.
“This experience and this evidence will help us going forward.”
In the glass half-full view of Michigan’s most recent performance, Vladislav Goldin took over with 31 points and eight rebounds to will No. 19 Michigan (14-4, 6-1 Big Ten) to victory.
The Wolverines committed only 11 turnovers in 45 minutes against a top-50 team in generating takeaways, won the scoring battle in the paint, 24-14 and had an edge on second-chance points (15-11).
In a glass-half empty view of U-M’s effort against the Wildcats, however, you could point out that U-M allowed a team with only four effective shooters — Brooks Barnhizer, Ty Berry, Jalen Leach and Nick Martinelli took 55 of NU’s combined 58 shots — to score 76 points, though, again, that was in 45 minutes.
Likewise, U-M’s bench scored just 12 points, the Wolverines were outrebounded, 41-39, and the other 7-footer, Danny Wolf, didn’t make a shot from the floor.
Actually, it’s that last fact that has May optimistic as his team heads into a huge road showdown with Purdue on Friday (8 p.m., Fox).
“Very proud of our guys to stay the course especially immediately after Minnesota,” May said. “We just talked about it as a staff, they’re as physical as anyone we can remember playing. … Our guys kept their composure down the stretch.”
Making the little plays
The ball isn’t going to drop every game, and this was clearly one of those for the Wolverines
Wolf, a Big Ten Player of the Year candidate, finished 0-for-7 from the floor while the team’s three lead guards — Nimari Burnett (4-for-10), Roddy Gayle Jr. (4-for-10) and Tre Donaldson (3-for-12) — hit just 11 of 32 shots.
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To have four of U-M’s five leading scorers combine to shoot 28.2% is often a recipe for disaster, but clutch free throw shooting and plays on the margins helped U-M fend off a Northwestern upset.
A number of those came from Rubin Jones, including a pair of 3-pointers, a pair of steals and a pair of free throws in the closing seconds to help U-M ice the game.
“Made some big 3s and big plays,” May said. “Then defensively thought he sat down and guarded in a very similar way to USC. … Had a real team mindset.”
The same goes for Wolf. Even though he didn’t connect from the floor, he led the Wolverines with a game-high 13 rebounds, and after turning the ball over 17 times in his past three games, he had just one giveaway Sunday, on an early pass that was too hot for Goldin to handle.
“I don’t think stats show how good of a player he is,” Goldin said. “He helps our defense tremendously, the way his size works is unbelievable. Then, even if he didn’t make a shot … he still has so much attention drawn to him, it opens up for everyone else.
“I mean he’s a great player, regardless if he makes the shot or not.”
Foul play
Michigan made 22 of 26 free throws in the final 25 minutes, a big part of the reason the Wolverines closed out Sunday’s game without panic.
The game ended as a free throw parade, beginning when Leach fouled out on a flagrant-two foul for hitting Goldin below the belt in the second half. He had a team-high 19 points at the time, midway through the second half.
Then, in the final 20 seconds, when U-M appeared to have corralled a game-sealing rebound, Goldin was tagged with a technical foul after he brought his arms down for a board and his elbow smacked a Northwestern player in the face.
“I didn’t try to hit him on purpose,” Goldin said. “I know, by definition, if your elbow goes to somebody’s face it’s a technical foul. … I’ve always had that problem, that somebody was under my elbows.”
All 11 of Northwestern’s overtime points came from the foul line, while U-M had nine points from the line (on 10 attempts) while making three of four from the field.
All told, the teams attempted a combined 68 free throws, which May was careful to address postgame.
“We’ve got to adjust to how the game is being officiated,” he said. “We have to play smarter, more disciplined basketball where we don’t put ourselves in position where someone else can control what happens with the result.”
Headed to Mackey Arena
One of the hardest places in the Big Ten (and the country) to get a favorable whistle is Mackey Arena, home of the Boilermakers. After losing its Big Ten opener to Penn State, Purdue (15-4, 7-1 Big Ten) has now won seven straight league games to sit in second place, half a game behind first-place Michigan State.
May isn’t asking for a favorable whistle, but he is asking his team for the same effort it gave Sunday. That effort was enough to propel Michigan to a gritty win, despite one of its worst shooting performances of the year, hitting 22 of 61 shots (36.1%) and only seven of 27 (25.9%) 3s.
“Turn all attention toward Purdue,” May said. “Have to have a great week of practice, have to fix some things, find some solutions to problems that we’ve faced…it’s January and we’re still learning a lot about ourselves every single game.”
May liked what he learned Sunday.
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.
This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Michigan basketball: Dusty May happy Wolverines starting to ‘win ugly’
