For 39 minutes and 54 seconds, the Wolverines beat No. 12 Wisconsin last night.
In the other six seconds, the Badgers hit a buzzer beater to beat the Michigan men’s basketball team, 53-52, at Crisler Arena.
Taylor received the inbound, but after being double teamed, he passed it to teammate and freshman Josh Gasser. He banked in a 3-pointer with Michigan guard Stu Douglass’s hand in his face to spoil Michigan’s upset bid.
“We had them,” sophomore guard Matt Vogrich said. “We had them for so long. We had momentum. But then something like that happens. It’s just not a good feeling, especially when you’re that close. It was like what, five seconds?”
An upset against Wisconsin was exactly what the Wolverines needed to get on the bubble of the NCAA Tournament. And with less than a minute remaining, sophomore guard Darius Morris went to the free-throw line with the chance to seal the deal by netting two foul shots on his one-and-one opportunity.
But Morris missed his first shot from the charity stripe and the Badgers had possession with about 20 seconds left. With three fouls to give, the Wolverines fouled Jordan Taylor on three-straight inbound plays to leave Wisconsin with just 6.9 seconds left — enough time to make one last shot.
“The game was coming down to these last few possessions,” sophomore guard Eso Akunne said. “Wisconsin’s known for shooting solid. We just didn’t want to give them (an opportunity) to get an uncontested shot.”
“Gasser took it out, (freshman guard Tim Hardaway Jr.) was guarding Gasser and I switched with Tim,” Douglass said. “Taylor was going to go back to his right hand — that’s what he likes. He did, I touched the ball, and he just ripped it out and found Gasser spaced while I was trying to reach in.”
After maintaining a comfortable lead for most of the first half, Michigan went into the locker room at halftime with a 31-30 advantage. Two dunks from redshirt freshman Jordan
Morgan, one from Hardaway Jr. and two 3-pointers from Hardaway Jr. gave Michigan all the momentum it needed in the first stanza.
But halftime doomed the Wolverines. Though they started with a 3-pointer from Douglass, Wisconsin slowed down the game and exchanged leads with Michigan.
The Wolverines shot 35 percent from the field in the second half, which allowed the Badgers to dictate the games tempo and use coach Bo Ryan’s offense to its full potential — suck the shot clock dry, score at the buzzer and get offensive rebounds on any misses to kill its opposing team’s momentum.
Wisconsin shot just 32 percent in the second half but outrebounded the Wolverines, 32-30 — the Badgers collected nine offensive boards to Michigan’s two.
“A lot of balls fell in their hands,” Vogrich said. “They rebounded, it kind of kills you. They miss a shot and then they rebound and make the next one. We just have to keep our heads up.”
Using the home crowd to its advantage, Michigan swapped leads with Wisconsin 10 times. The Wolverines stayed in the game until the final minutes but the Badgers found a way to win.
Taylor provided the most problems for the Wolverines, recording the game-winning assist and scoring a game-high 20 points.
The Wolverines would have taken fourth place with a victory against the Badgers which would theoretically put them on the bubble of an NCAA Tournament postseason. But instead, they fell to seventh place in the conference standings.
Michigan takes on Minnesota on Saturday, hoping to regroup from a devastating loss at the buzzer.
“Each time you lose that opportunity (to get into the NCAA Tournament) you’ve got to beat somebody else to make up for it,” Michigan coach John Beilein said. “It comes down to a numbers game a little bit … close doesn’t count.”