Fifth straight loss. Pathetic.
ANN ARBOR, Mich. — Michigan basketball had been languishing ever since surprising Ohio State in mid-January. But with KenPom No. 106 Rutgers coming to Crisler Center, the maize and blue had an opportunity to right the ship.
As usual, the Wolverines got out to a torrid start, going up 10-2 over the Scarlet Knights before even hitting the under-16 media timeout. Unlike the last contest at Michigan State, Michigan was particularly aggressive on the defensive side of the court.
Up 14-5, Michigan went to an interesting lineup with Dug McDaniel and Jaelin Llewellyn on the court at the same time, along with Will Tschetter, Tarris Reed Jr., and Terrance Williams II, but quickly switched out of it, replacing Reed and Williams with Nkamhoua and Tray Jackson. It was in this time that Rutgers battled back, cutting the deficit to five. But Tschetter hit a timely 3-pointer to extend the lead back to eight. Both teams then had something of a stalemate before Jackson hit a 3 to put the Wolverines up 11.
It didn’t take long before Michigan got quiet offensively again, with Rutgers cutting it to six, but — as was the them of the game — then Llewellyn drained a 3 to put the Wolverines back up by nine. The maize and blue struggled to add to their lead, having turned the ball over nine times to this point, compared to Rutgers’ five.
While Michigan had gone four of its last four, it was on a field goal drought, having not hit for over three minutes. Rutgers took advantage — as the Wolverines tend to let teams do near the end of the first half — cutting the deficit to just five. However, Williams hit an impressive floater with the shot clock expiring before Nimari Burnett got a steal on the other end, leading to a Nkamhoua slam dunk as the seconds came off the clock to push the Michigan lead back to nine at the half.
The Scarlet Knights drew first blood in the second half — a period in which the Wolverines have typically fallen apart. But Michigan quickly answered with a layup by Reed and a 3-pointer by Dug McDaniel. Shooting 55.2% from the floor and 46.7% from 3, the maize and blue would need to continue the torrid offense while keeping Rutgers to 37.1% shooting — as it had to that point.
Up 12, Nkamhoua hit a shot underneath and was fouled, draining the and-one, putting Michigan up 15 — the largest lead of the game — with 17 minutes remaining.
But the maize and blue got stagnant, allowing a 6-0 run to the Scarlet Knights. With 14:58 remaining, the lead was 47-38.
Again, the Wolverines found themselves in a scoring drought and Rutgers took advantage. With just over 10 minutes to play, the lead was just four, until Burnett cut down the baseline for a dunk to extend it back to six — momentarily. The Big Ten foes traded blows for a few moments, and Michigan brought McDaniel and Reed back into the game to stem the bleeding. Now shooting 50% from the field and 33% from 3, the Wolverines needed to make something happen.
Nkamhoua hit a floater to extend the lead back to six, but Derek Simpson hit Rutgers’ second 3 for the day to make it just a three-point game with 6:53 remaining. A minute later, after a trip to the foul line, the Scarlet Knights were down just one and the Wolverine offense was rudderless and hanging on for dear life.
A minute later, as tends to be the case for the maize and blue, they were down two. Rutgers had its first lead of the game with just over four minutes remaining. Michigan was 1-of-its-last-8 and hadn’t scored in over three minutes. Less than a minute later, after some fouls and turnovers, the Wolverines were suddenly down six and fans, accustomed to seeing Michigan struggle in the second half, started heading for the exits at the under-four media timeout.
That turned out to be prescient as the Wolverines continued to struggle and ended up losing, 69-59.
Michigan turned the ball over 19 times and allowed 19 points off turnovers. It shot 33% in the second half and was 1-for-11 from 3 in the final 20 minutes after starting 6-for-13. Rutgers went on an 18-2 run to finish the game.
With the loss, Michigan moved to 2-8 in conference play and 7-15 overall. It was the Wolverines’ fifth loss in a row and 10th in 11 games (with the win over Ohio State being the only win in 2024 thus far).
