Michigan center Hunter Dickinson on close losses: 'It's just the same thing over and over again'

Michigan Wolverines basketball had a disappointing regular season that included 14 losses. Twelve of them came by six or fewer points or in overtime, some of them gut-wrenching defeats. That was the case in both of Michigan’s road setbacks last week — 91-87 in double overtime at Illinois and 75-73 in overtime at Indiana.

Michigan has had numerous potential game-winning and game-tying shot attempts this year, but most haven’t gone down. There have been blown leads, failed comebacks and seemingly everything in between.

“At this point, the losses are just so numbing — not like in terms of, you don’t care,” Michigan junior center Hunter Dickinson said on his podcast, Roundball. “But just in terms of, it’s hard to really get so down on them.

“It’s just like watching … there was a movie where this guy dies but then he comes back to life and tries to keep doing it over and over again and he’s trying to change the future but nobody will listen to him. There’s like a bomb, they’re running into sacrifice. The guy knows it but nobody will believe him, so he keeps dying.

“Come back, dying, come back, dying, come back, dying. It’s essentially like that, where it’s just the same thing over and over again.”

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At No. 38 in Kenpom’s adjusted efficiency rankings, Michigan is the highest-rated team with 14 losses. The Wolverines actually moved up five spots following Sunday’s loss to the Hoosiers. They’re playing like an NCAA Tournament team but don’t have the résumé for it yet.

“Obviously, after the game, it’s just like, ‘Oh my God.’ It’s just demoralizing,” Dickinson added. “But then afterwards, you’re just so numb to it now.

“We’re playing well enough to win. We’re not losing by 10, 12 points. We lost by two in overtime and we lost by four in overtime to Illinois. The pain is there, but it’s getting numbed.”

Michigan enters this week’s Big Ten Tournament with a lot of work to do to make the NCAA Tournament. The general consensus is that the Wolverines, who start with a matchup against Rutgers and could take on top-seeded Purdue with a win, need at least two victories to make the Big Dance.

The Maize and Blue were picked third in the Big Ten preseason media poll but finished 11-9 in the league, tied for fifth. They’ve made the last five Sweet 16s and haven’t missed the NCAA Tournament since 2015. The high expectations at a perennial contender like Michigan have made the year such a disappointment up to this point — and Dickinson understands why.

“For me, in terms of just being at Michigan, I feel like there’s a standard of excellence and there’s a standard of, everybody knows that we should be in the tournament but we’re having a bad season so that’s why everybody is trying to make fun of us,” Dickinson said, noting he hears “NIT” chants at road venues.

The Michigan center explained why the Wolverines are playing desperate down the stretch, as opposed to having “nothing to lose.”

“There’s a standard of us playing with our backs against the wall, instead of playing with nothing to lose,” he began. “Because ‘nothing to lose’ would be a team that people don’t expect to be in the tournament but they’re having a good enough season … Like if Penn State was in our position — well, I guess they kind of are, because they’re on the bubble. But if they needed to win two games here to get into the tournament, then they would be playing with nothing to lose.

“But for us, I think it’s more of a ‘backs against the wall’ … Us, UNC, teams that are expected to make the tournament and are just not having good years are playing with a more backs against the wall type approach.”

The podcast predicted winners for major conference tournaments. When the Big Ten was brought up, Dickinson made sure to, in a lighthearted way, explain how impressive it would be for Michigan — his pick — to cut down the nets Sunday in Chicago.

“Purdue’s been playing so well,” Dickinson said. “If you think about how good they’re playing, they just went and killed Illinois, so it’s really hard to see a team beating them, which will make Michigan winning the Big Ten Tournament just so crazy.”