BLOOMINGTON, Ind. – The No. 24 Michigan Wolverines are riding a three-game winning streak after they took down the Oregon Ducks 80-76 inside Crisler Center.
With the victory, Michigan (17-5, 9-2 Big Ten) advanced to their 11th consecutive win in Ann Arbor, but the Ducks didn’t make it easy as the game came down to the wire, thanks to another sloppy performance.
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The men in maize are taking their talents to Bloomington, Indiana, as they’ll take on the Indiana Hoosiers (14-9, 5-7 Big Ten) inside Simon Skjodt Assembly Hall.
Tip-off is scheduled for 1 p.m., but after that nailbiter against the Ducks, they’ll need to get their act together, or they could find themselves on the wrong end of the scoreboard.
“If we don’t play better than tonight, then we’re in trouble,” head coach Dusty May said after the Oregon game.
The Wolverines and Ducks teams came into the matchup tied for second in the number of wins in games decided by four points or fewer among major conference teams, with five.
Although the Wolverines improved to six, the Feb. 5 matchup was all too familiar. For the men in maize, it was Groundhog Day again, and they nearly blew another double-digit lead.
| Game | Lead | Opponent run | Outcome |
|---|---|---|---|
| Wake Forest | +11 | 10-0 | Loss 72-70 |
| Iowa | +16 | 47-28 | Won 85-83 |
| Arkansas | +15 | 57-24 | Loss 89-87 |
| Oklahoma | + 11 | 21-6 | Loss 87-86 |
| USC Trojans | +15 | 25-8 | Won 85-74 |
| UCLA | +18 | 28-6 | Won 94-75 |
| Minnesota | +11 | 10-0 | Loss 84-81 |
| Oregon | +14 | 14-4 | Won 80-76 |
Michigan led 64-50 with 12 minutes remaining in the second half, but turnovers nearly sealed their fate once again.
The Fighting Ducks went on a 14-4 run to cut the deficit to 74-72, as their defense was swarming down the stretch.
The Wolverines missed eight consecutive shots before the big Russian Vladislav Goldin, with the game-waining moments, made an and-one attempt to push the lead to 76-72.
But their defense saved the day down the stretch as they held Oregon without a made basket in the game’s final three minutes and 18 seconds.
“Our guys made big plays down the stretch but we just do enough to hold down the role. We have to play smarter when we’re playing good basketball, but it’s on to the next,” said May.
Will Tschetter came off the bench with a season-high 17 points to lead the Wolverines to their third consecutive victory.
Big men Danny Wolf (scored 10 of his 15 points in the first half) and Goldin (scored nine of his 15 points in the second half) were dominant in the victory.
“I thought we played really hard tonight with great intensity, and maybe because of that, our focus and concentration wasn’t good at times. We played some of our regulars longer stretches than usual, and that could’ve contributed to it, so we’ve got a lot more to do,” May said.
May smiled after the game, but his facial expressions and sound bites told a different story. His team has been giving up big leads all season long.
But maybe a trip down memory lane would bring a jovial side to him as he is returning back to his old stomping grounds.
May grew up in Bloomfield, Indiana, which is about 45 minutes southwest of Bloomington, where his team will be doing battle Saturday afternoon.
He attended Indiana University from 1996 to 2000, where he served as the basketball team’s student manager under legendary head coach Bobby Knight.
May began his career in video and administrative roles at IU and USC before accepting the assistant coaching job at Eastern Michigan University, where he worked from 2005 to 2006 under head coach Charles E. Ramsey.
May began his career with video and administrative roles with IU and USC before accepting the assistant coaching job at Eastern Michigan University from 2005 to 2006 under head coach Charles E. Ramsey.
Although there’s potential for a great homecoming, IU has been a house of horrors for the Wolverines.
Prior to winning nine straight games against them, they had dropped their last four games by a combined 11 points.
The Wolverines come into the matchup riding a three-game winning streak, while the Hoosiers are currently on a four-game losing streak
One of those streaks will end, but it depends on who becomes more aggressive in the battle, which kicks off at 1 p.m.
