Pride, connectivity in question as Michigan hits rock bottom: 'This s— works'

The Michigan Wolverines men’s basketball team continues its spiral to the bottom of the Big Ten after a 69-59 loss to Rutgers on Saturday afternoon in Ann Arbor. The defeat was its 10th loss in its last 11 games, and 15th in its last 19 as the record moved to 7-15 (2-9 B1G).

The recipe was similar to many of the other losses. The Wolverines led at the half, pushed the lead to 15 points in the second half, then completely collapsed, allowing a 37-12 run to end the game from a Rutgers offense that ranked 300th on KenPom.

In a game that featured the 13th and 14th-ranked teams in the Big Ten, Michigan entered the day as the worst and left as the worst. And it has the Wolverines searching for a way out of the cellar to no success.

“I mean, it was like the whole season,” sophomore center Tarris Reed said. “We come out strong in the first half almost every game, in the second half, we died down. So Coach [Howard] was upset, and rightfully so. It’s up to us. In the second half, we had a great opportunity to extend the lead. You can come out tougher than them, but they wanted it more.

“I really can’t tell you [why it’s happening], man. It’s tough out there. I feel like sometimes it’s got to do with locking in on defensive schemes. Maybe some of us are scoreboard-watching, but overall, I feel like we’ve got to lock in as a group as a five out there defensively and stop them as much as we can.”

Michigan has become famous for its blown leads in the second half of games. With the loss on Saturday, U-M’s record fell to 7-8 in games it led at the half. Most of them involve some sort of scouring drought and double-digit run given up to the opposing team. Head coach Juwan Howard said it comes down to want-to and buy-in from the players.

“What stops the bleeding is pride,” Howard said. “Pride to have the mindset to go out and, whatever play it is, it has to be one of those where you roll your sleeves up, get your knees dirty. Those are the type of plays that we need. For example, driving to the basket during that stretch run that they had, thats gotta be where you’ve gotta have pride to sit down and guard and not allow a blow by. Or, an offensive rebound where you gotta have a certain level of fight and commitment to play physical by starting with the basics — boxing out and pursuing the basketball. If you box out, your opponent won’t get the basketball. Thats what also helped key their run.

“And then on the other end, because it became a compounded mistake when the ball is not going in for you offensively, then you get into your thoughts and you forget the defensive end. And then when a team scores, that’s when the doubt comes in. That’s what was displayed during that stretch run.”

Accountability has been questioned across the board over the last few years, but never has it been more apparent than with this group. Howard claims that will taking ownership is only going to increase moving forward.

“I’ve never seen last place before in my life when it came to playing on the collegiate level here and also now coaching,” Howard said. “And this is the first time that we’re going to figure out a solution to get out of it. We’re not going to just give in to it.

“Continue to work in practice, drill what we feel are the habits that will help us. And then at the same time, hold guys accountable. When you’re not doing your job, then of course you can come sit next to [assistant coaches Howard Eisley and Saddi Washington].

“You have to look yourself in the mirror and say, it starts with me first. And then you gotta get uncomfortable. And during those moments of who’s going to take charge and be a leader when things are getting out of whack, I searched around and watched faces. Those faces didn’t look like there was a lot of confidence.”

Five years into the Howard era, the team is at one of its lowest points in recent history, and a far cry from the groups that made runs through the NCAA Tournament in 2021 and 2022. But the fact that Michigan has reached those heights under Howard leads him to believe that there’s a pathway forward and that the process works.

“Everything is always addressed in practice,” Howard said. “We have a great staff that. We’ve done this before and had success while doing it. But the buy-in has to be reciprocated on the other end as well. And when you have the buy-in that you’re going to do what we practice and apply it, it works. It’s been proven that it works. One year there was COVID, but that team got healthy and they were going to make the tournament. And how far, we really don’t know because the season stopped. The second year we went to the Elite Eight. Then the third year of that team we went to the Sweet 16.

“The shit works. It does.”

But this Michigan team does not have anything to hang its hat on with a little over a month to go in a season that is already lost. It is telling that one of the strongest voices on the team’s current is sophomore point guard Dug McDaniel, who can currently only play in home games due to an academic suspension.

“Dug said one time when he was watching the game at home, ‘Man, we don’t look together.’ That stuck with me,” Reed said. That stuck with a lot of us on the team. We gotta work on it. He’s the captain of the team. He’s the point guard. He’s going to have to ball the majority of the time.”

Howard reacted: “That’s a strong statement. Within the locker room, if that’s the case, if you care about winning and fixing that, come together. I like what I saw when we had a stretch where they went to the foul line. They are speaking up and the group was talking. I don’t know what they were talking about, but they were huddled up. That shows a sign of togetherness. But we’ve got to do that for 40 minutes.”

So is anything going to change? Time will tell.

“Yeah, I’ve considered [changes],” Howard said. “Maybe go on my walk-ons. I know they care. They don’t give up. They do a lot of what we ask. They all are dialed in.”

Michigan returns home Wednesday night for a showdown at Crisler with No. 6 Wisconsin. Tipoff is set for 7 p.m. ET.