Michigan basketball: Hunter Dickinson talks buzzer-beating 30-footer, if win over Wisconsin was his last game at Crisler Center
In eighth grade, Michigan Wolverines basketball junior center Hunter Dickinson — then a standout for Mater Dei School in Potomac, Maryland — hit a game-tying buzzer beater at the end of regulation, before losing to Landon in overtime.
Dickinson is still “crushed” by the loss, even seven years later.
Sunday afternoon at Crisler Center, in front of what Michigan’s 7-foot-1, 260-pound star called one of the best crowds of the season and in a crucial moment for both U-M and Wisconsin’s seasons, Dickinson hurled a 30-foot prayer at the buzzer with his team down three points. He hardly caught the ball clean on an inbounds pass from junior forward Terrance Williams II, his fellow captain and DMV native, took one dribble to gather and let it fly.
Swish. Tie game.
“Of course I did. Of course I knew it was going in,” Dickinson said with a laugh. “I practice that shot all the time, man.”
Graduate guard Joey Baker was the first option, but Wisconsin took him away, and Dickinson was the outlet.
“The play was for Joe to come off a screen by me,” Dickinson explained. “They sent [guard Max] Klesmit right there on the elbow, so I kind of knew that the play wasn’t going to work, because of the way they guarded it really well. I knew I was the outlet guy, so I thought there was a really good chance I was going to come out there and get that one.”
He said he knew he had to “hope for the best.”
“I got the ball, took one dribble and just let it up there. It went in,” Dickinson said.
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Michigan didn’t win the game on it, though, and there were five minutes left to play. The Wolverines wanted overtime, while Wisconsin would’ve much rather have been celebrating if the shot was off the mark.
Dickinson took some time to celebrate, but knew there was more work to do.
“‘Win the damn game,’ that was the message,” Dickinson said. “I celebrated for a good five-to-10 seconds. I feel like I deserved that. But after that, I was like, ‘We gotta win this game. We gotta win this game. We have all the momentum right now; we have to win this thing.’”
Michigan did just that, with big shots and big stops in the 87-79 victory.
‘I needed this one bad’
Dickinson finished with 23 points on 9-of-13 shooting from the field. It was his first 20-plus point scoring outburst since posting 26 in a 77-69 win over Ohio State Feb. 8 and his 10th such performance of the season.
He did it against Wisconsin, too. The teams don’t like each other, understandably, after last year’s postgame incident that resulted in fines and suspensions on both sides.
Michigan fell to Wisconsin by five points just 12 days ago in Madison. Dickinson went 0-of-3 shooting from the field in the second half, after entering the Kohl Center in a ski mask because he hoped to “steal the win.”
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Dickinson, who said he gave up social media for Lent but was able to hop back on because it’s Sunday — “you can take that excuse and post real quick,” he said — tweeted a photo of him in the ski mask from the last meeting between the Wolverines and Badgers.
“I couldn’t let them use that ski mask picture against me again. I needed this one bad,” Dickinson said with a smile.
The Michigan standout has flirted with the idea of departing school for the NBA over the last two offseasons. When stating his intentions to return, he alluded to it being for one more year each time, in different ways. If he does leave following this season, Sunday afternoon was his final regular-season home game at Crisler Center.
“Ah, I mean … I wasn’t expecting that one,” Dickinson said when asked if the thought crossed his mind that it could’ve been his last time playing for Michigan at Crisler. “Ah, shoot. Ah, I mean, I don’t think so. I don’t have the crystal 8 ball, but if it was, it was a damn good way to end it, that’s for sure. Right now, I’m focused on trying to beat Illinois.”
From a team perspective, Dickinson’s shot and Michigan’s performance in overtime — outscoring Wisconsin by eight points to pull away — kept NCAA Tournament hopes alive.
With one week left, the Wolverines are 11-7 in the Big Ten, tied with three others for second place (Indiana, Maryland and Northwestern) in the league behind Purdue (13-5). Road games at Illinois and Indiana loom before the Big Ten Tournament in Chicago. The Wolverines have won three in a row and six out of eight, though, appearing to be playing their best basketball at the right time.
“If we lost that game, it would’ve been really tough for us,” Dickinson said of his season-saving shot for Michigan. “But we’re not done yet.
“Not done yet.”
