 | DANIELLE RUMORE Rumore Has It |
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MINNEAPOLIS - The Wolverines looked dejected, a lost and sad look of frustration plastered across their faces.
With the clock ticking down and Michigan trailing, the players on the bench knew the game was over. They stood in front of the bench chins resting on the raised floor of Williams Arena, on top of their arms, crossed and resting on the hard wood.
The game ended, and the Wolverines dropped their fourth game of the season, 70-64, to Minnesota on Saturday.
The Gophers, on the other hand, felt differently than Michigan, confident and satisfied.
After the game, Minnesota tri-captain John Thomas left the tunnel leading to the lockerrooms, but not before he touched a series of sentences painted on the wall in maroon and gold.
The sentences read: Play hard. Play smart. Play together.
Somehow, I don't think the Wolverines read the same three sentences.
Essentially, that was all the game came down to - playing hard, playing smart and playing together.
It came down to the things that the stat sheet does not show: The basics. The fundamentals.
Saturday's game was a hard-fought battle between two good Big Ten teams, contending for the conference title.
The Gophers, coming into the contest, were shutting down opposing offenses with their stifling defense and full-court pressure. But they didn't shut down the Wolverines. Michigan did not play badly.
This game was as even as it gets - quite unlike the losses to Memphis, Pittsburgh and Ohio State. The Wolverines did not play well in those games, and there are no excuses for the winter-break disaster.
But two nights ago, the game was pretty much even. The Gophers shot 40.3 percent from the floor, the Wolverines, 39.7 percent. The Gophers pulled down 43 boards. Ditto for the Wolverines. Minnesota: five blocks, seven steals. Michigan: six blocks, five steals.
So what was the difference?
The Gophers played a little better when it counted. Fundamentally better, that is, and the Wolverines can learn from this. They can learn from the Gophers.
"Against the Minnesotas, the Indianas, we've got to rebound," Michigan forward Maceo Baston said.
"The whole thing was the rebounding. If we had rebounded, it would have been key for us, it would have been great for us."
The Wolverines may blame the loss on rebounding, especially on the offensive end.
And they would be correct. The Gophers' 9-3 margin on the offensive glass in the first half may have been the game.
Minnesota's Bobby Jackson, a 6-foot-1 guard, was the Gophers' leading rebounder. He pulled down 11 boards on Saturday, more than any Wolverine.
A 6-1 guard does not outrebound 6-9 towers like Maurice Taylor and Robert Traylor without knowing and practicing the basics of rebounding - positioning and boxing out.
This is just as, if not more, important than height.
That's playing tough. The Wolverines didn't see all of the shots, and they didn't box out.
There are also fundamentals to a half-court offense: moving without the ball, running set plays, setting picks, moving off screens and recognizing mismatches.
Minnesota does all of these things regularly. Jackson and backcourt mate Eric Harris run the offense and find the open men. And they run through screens to give themselves open looks.
They did it all day Saturday.
That's playing smart.
The Wolverines' three-guard rotation got very few open shots, very few shots without hands in their faces. They don't run their men into screens, just by them.
It didn't take long for the Gophers to recognize what the Wolverines were trying to do on offense. The Gophers constantly moved with their men, resulting in very few mismatches, if any.
Smarts.
In the post, Minnesota collapsed inside on Michigan's big men. Maurice Taylor was limited to 11 points, and was just two-of-six for five points halfway through the second half.
"Our half-court execution struggled against their aggressive man-to-man defense," Michigan coach Steve Fisher said.
"We did not do a good enough job of swinging the ball through the high-post."
For every small thing the Wolverines did wrong, the Gophers did something right.
And they did it together.
"I just happen to have a group of young men who refuse to lose, and they really fit like a glove," Minnesota coach Clem Haskins said. "They care for each other and they play as a team. That's the key."
It really is the key.
The Wolverines are close to the Minnesotas of the world, close to doing the little things to win the close ones, but they are not quite there yet.
"Our effort is what you have to have every night out to have a chance to win," Fisher said. "We have to pinpoint ... rebounding and half-court execution."
He's right on both accounts, and that's something to Go-pher.
- Danielle Rumore can be reached over e-mail at drumore@umich.edu.