It was the tale of two halves for Michigan.
After a strong start, No. 8 Michigan jumped ahead of No. 9 Rutgers by as much as seven points and led by three at halftime. The second half, however, saw the Wolverines go cold as they shot poorly, gave up the ball and fell behind quickly on their way to a 62-50 loss in the second round of the Big Ten Tournament in Chicago.
“I feel like sometimes that’s just the way the ball bounces,” Kobe Bufkin said during the post-game press conference at the United Center. “Obviously with didn’t get off to a great start in the second half, but we stuck through it. The outcome just wasn’t what we wanted.”
Michigan finished the second half shooting just 19-percent, going 4-for-21. The Wolverines scored the bulk of their second half points on 11 made free throws. In full, Michigan shot 34.8-percent at 16-for-46 and made 6-of-18 three-point attempts.
Rutgers got started in the second half with a jumper from Clifford Omoruyi followed by a fast break score from Derek Simpson 26 seconds to take a 29-28 lead. Michigan’s Hunter Dickinson evened the tally briefly with a free throw.
At the 15:01 mark, Dickinson sunk a three the sparked the Wolverines a bit, cutting the Rutgers lead to 40-39. Things went south from there, as Rutgers kicked off a 12-0 run that proved too much for the Wolverines to overcome.
Dickinson called it ‘deflating’ and explained it was the beginning of a communication problem on the floor.
“That’s something we practice a lot. Unacceptable,” he said. “The coaches emphasize it in practice and in timeouts of one guy declaring the shooter, one guy pinching in. So that’s just on the players on the floor to do a better job of communicating to one another.”
Michigan started the second half 1-of-17, the one being Dickinson’s three. Outside of free throws, Michigan didn’t sink another bucket until Dickinson again hit a three, this time with just under a minute remaining. Joey Baker and Bufkin added baskets in the final seconds.
Those communication problems Dickinson mentioned may have also contributed to the 14 turnovers Rutgers forced, seven in each half and seven from Bufkin alone.
“Give credit where credit is due. Obviously Rutgers is a very good defensive team,” Bufkin said. “Me personally, I felt like I probably played my worst brand of basketball on the worst day to play it. Seven turnovers is unacceptable.”
The turnovers were further complicated by the 12 offensive rebounds Michigan allowed. Dickinson said that he knew they were an area of concern at the half when the Wolverines had already given up eight.
“So when you give them another 12 extra opportunities on top of that, that’s 26 extra possessions for them, and that’s super hard for any team to try to come back from,” he said.
Dickinson finished with a game-high 24 points and seven rebounds. Bufkin scored just nine points and had seven rebounds as well. For Rutgers, Cam Spencer led with 18 points while Simpson added 13.
Rutgers will face top-seed Purdue in a quarterfinal matchup Friday at 11 a.m. CST where the Scarlet Knights will aim to defeat the Boilermakers for a third time this season. Michigan will head back to Ann Arbor and await its fate on Selection Sunday.
Michigan needed at least one win in the Big Ten Tournament to increase their chances of making the NCAA Tournament.
