Michigan loses to Illinois and their March Madness hopes with it
Feb 12, 2015; Champaign, IL, USA; Illinois Fighting Illini guard Ahmad Starks (3) defends Michigan Wolverines guard Spike Albrecht (2) at State Farm Center. Mandatory Credit: Mike Granse-USA TODAY Sports
The Michigan Wolverines played the Illinois Fighting Illini in overtime for the second time this season on Thursday night, this time losing to the Illini 64-52. Sophomore Kendrick Nunn lead the way for the Illini with 21 points, three rebounds and three assists while junior Spike Albrecht lead the way for the Wolverines with 13 points, two rebounds and five assists.
The Wolverines move to 13-12 (6-7) and have lost five of their last six games, while the Fighting Illini move to 17-8 (7-5) as we move towards the home stretch of conference play.
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More importantly, any sliver of chance of the Wolverines making the tourney this year is now gone with this loss to Illinois.
Michigan has played awful in games decided by five points or less, going 4-5 in those nine games, including overtime collapses against Wisconsin, Michigan State and Illinois on Thursday, which perfectly describes how their season has gone this year. They’ve also lost to NJIT and Eastern Michigan, teams that should be easy wins for the Wolverines.
This can be blamed on the injuries to the Wolverines star players, junior Caris LeVert and sophomore Derrick Walton Jr., as LeVert has been out since a Jan. 17 contest against Northwestern recovering from a foot injury and Walton out for the last five games, who’s been dealing with a turf toe and ankle injury all season and the timetable for his return unknown.
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They’ve had to rally around the likes of Albrecht, sophomore Zak Irvin and senior Max Bielfeldt as the leaders of the team. Given it’s clear that Michigan doesn’t have the talent they did in recent years, it’s still no excuse for how poorly Michigan has played this season compared to years past, which includes an Elite 8 appearance in 2014 and a national title appearance in 2013.
Michigan has looked dreadful on offense, stalling at times and being forced to make bad shots and increasing minutes to players like freshmen Aubrey Dawkins and Muhammad-Ali Abdur-Rahkman, whose minutes John Beilein didn’t expect to be increasing by this time this year.
This with the below output of highly touted freshman G/F Kameron Chatman, who’s averaging a mere 3.8 PPG with 2.8 RPG and shooting .289% from the field, shows how depleted Michigan is, and that they simply don’t have the talent this year to make the tourney.
If they do want to make the tourney however, they have to win every game for the rest of the season, including winning the Big 10 tournament. To do this, they have to go through some of the better teams in the Big 10 including rivals Ohio State and Michigan State at home, and (19) Maryland at College Park.
Barring a miracle for the rest of the season, the Wolverines simply don’t have enough firepower to finish out strong enough to make the tourney, and will most likely end up in the NIT for the 2014-15 season.