Hunter Dickinson weighs in on what led to loss to Minnesota
Michigan men’s basketball fell to 6-4 on the season with a 75-65 loss to Minnesota in Ann Arbor on Saturday night. Saturday’s game was eye-opening given the Wolverines were a 13-point favorite against a team projected near the bottom of the Big Ten standings.
Poor communication and execution defensively doomed Michigan in the second half, as it allowed 43 points to the Golden Gophers. Minnesota’s Jordan Battle scored 21 of his 27 points in the final 20 minutes.
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Sophomore center Hunter Dickinson spoke with the media after the game and reviewed what went wrong for Michigan throughout the basketball game.
“Sometimes we weren’t locked in defensively,” Dickinson said. “Sometimes it’s not all on the guy guarding the ball. On the back end, we need to be better with our low man and protect the rim a little better. The dude who’s the furthest away from the ball needs to be down low guarding and helping his teammates out. As I said, he’s a good player, so we’re not always going to be able to defend him 100%. Sometimes you’ll get beat. So we need to do a better job helping out our teammates.”
Michigan’s energy was inconsistent on the defensive end throughout the night. The team’s physicality was also called into question after the game.
“As a team, defensively we could have come out with more energy,” Dickinson said. “Not just with our bodies but with our mouths as well trying to talk ourselves into the right spots. We not only need to be more physical but also mentally smarter on the defensive end.”
Dickinson pushed back a little bit on questions about Michigan’s physical approach to Saturday’s game. Instead, he sees it as an opportunity to communicate better.
“It was more mentally for us and being in the right spots,” he said. “That was more of what we needed to do. People weren’t in the right spots and needed to be more vocal as a unit out there.”
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Perhaps some of Michigan’s struggles on defense were due to frustrations on the offensive end of the floor. The Wolverines shot 3-of-18 from three-point range after making 50% of their attempts the last two games. Dickinson believes confidence bleeds over into both sides of the court.
“It’s hard when you’re not making shots,” he said. “Especially threes. Especially open ones. That’s just sometimes how the game goes. You’re not going to make every shot. For us, it’s just a matter of staying confident in one another and ourselves. That’s a big thing we need to do when we’re not hitting shots.”
Michigan came into the season with lofty aspirations and goals to be a team that can win a national title. The focus has been narrowed to simply improving every time they step onto the floor.
“Right now we’re just trying to get better each and every day,” Dickinson said. “We know there are no championships to be had in December. Obviously, there’s some type of haste to try to get better and not go 4-4 in another eight-game stretch. We think we’re better than what we’re showing out there. It’s a matter of us continuing to buy into the game plan and what the coaches are showing us offensively and defensively.”
Howard told his team in the locker room the loss to Minnesota should serve as notice that anyone can be beaten in the Big Ten. Nothing will come easy for Michigan as it works to win a second-straight conference title.
“This was a good wake-up call for us to realize how good the Big Ten is and how hard it is to get a win,” Dickinson said. “There are no off nights. You have to bring it each and every day or everybody in the Big Ten could beat you.”
Michigan’s next basketball tilt comes against Southern Utah on Dec. 18 in Ann Arbor.
