With the game on the line in the Michigan men’s basketball team’s 62-61 loss to No. 18 Indiana, the Wolverines’ offense disappeared, not scoring in the final 5:12 minutes of play and missing its last seven shots.
And after the game, junior center Hunter Dickinson still didn’t know where it went.
“I don’t know man, I really don’t know, I don’t know,” Hunter dejectedly repeated when asked to explain the offensive struggles down the stretch. “That last five minutes was kind of a blur, I don’t really know what happened.”
No matter how blurry things looked to Dickinson, Michigan’s offense clearly wasn’t the same as the game entered its critical final stretch. The tempo, the aggression, the efficiency it displayed throughout most of the game — all of it vaporized. The Wolverines’ scoring was last seen in a Dickinson hook shot using his non-dominant right hand with just over five minutes left.
Running down the court, Dickinson stared at his right hand in celebration. But that hand, and all of Michigan’s, became bone-chillingly cold. So cold that Dickinson was left repeating himself in despair, over and over again afterward.
“That was hard, that was hard to play through, that was hard to play through,” Dickinson said of the final five minutes.
The Wolverines had an especially hard time executing. Relying on fast-paced play early, Michigan faltered when the game settled down and it was time to run sets consistently. The culprit wasn’t just minimal cohesion, but also the group’s connection with the game plan.
“Organization was a big reason why (in) some of the sets we weren’t able to get to what we were asking from the offensive end,” Michigan coach Juwan Howard said. “Because there are times when guys want to go ahead and do it how they want to do it, or they see how the defender’s playing and they feel that this is the best way how to run the set. … That’s a learning process that the players have to get better with.”
When the Wolverines did create space in that stretch, it further highlighted how alien their offense became from their scoring throughout much of the game. Sophomore guard Kobe Bufkin missed an open layup in the paint en route to zero second half points, while freshman guard Dug McDaniel had a late drive attempt vehemently rejected off the backboard by Indiana forward Trayce Jackson-Davis.
And those looks — as unsuccessful as they became — were an anomaly. For most of the game’s final five minutes, Michigan didn’t create any real chances.
With just over a minute left and after multiple Hoosier turnovers, the Wolverines’ absent offense got another chance to reestablish itself. Instead, it was stagnant yet again. Freshman wing Jett Howard and junior forward Terrance Williams II exchanged multiple passes on the same side of the court as the rest of the offense stood and watched. Williams then forced a pass to a double-teamed Dickinson and the ball couldn’t get to him.
No post touch to Dickinson. No off-ball movement. No shot opportunities. And no semblance of an offense.
“Whatever we were doing wasn’t working,” Dickinson said. “Whether it’s executing or just running the plays right, it wasn’t a good all-around effort by us out there. We need to execute better down the stretch if we’re gonna win a tough game like that.”
Despite the offenses’ early exit, Indiana kept giving Michigan’s offense chance after chance to re-assert itself into the game. Jackson-Davis’ missed free throw while leading by one with 12 seconds left served as the final invitation. A quick timeout bought the Wolverines time to draw up that grand entrance. A team hungry for a ranked win looked ready to cash-in.
None of that mattered. By then, Michigan’s offense was long gone, and it was unable to find it again. Not in the final five minutes. Not through its rehearsed sets. Not in that final timeout.
The final play resulted in a heavily-contested, off-balanced shot by Jett. It ended up nowhere near the rim as the clock expired, seemingly joining the Wolverines’ offense.
Gone in a flash.