1. Michigan did a fantastic job taking Ace Bailey out of the game. Denied the ball, swarmed him with double team when he got the ball, and had tall guys guarding him to make his shooting more difficult. Second Saturday in a row against a team from Michigan that Ace struggled. 4-17 last week, and 3-15 (0-7) this week. Game over. We just can’t win with neither of our superstars playing well.
2. The rest of the team wasn’t much better. Overall we shot 22-67 overall (32.8%), and 10-36 from three (27.8%). Michigan played a subpar game and was ripe for an upset, but we just couldn’t hit shots. Every time we cut the lead to 3 or 4, we would miss and Michigan would push back up to 6 or 7. Just could never get over the hump.
3. Michigan had 17 TOs and gave up 15 offensive rebounds, giving Rutgers many more possessions, and a whopping 21 more shots. But whereas we shot 22-67, Michigan was an efficient 22-46 (7-20) and hit 15-21 FTs. This was a workmanlike road win for the more talented team.
4. Humongous shout out to Jamichael Davis for a career day, leading Rutgers with 20 points on 8-14 FGs, including an impressive 4-7 from 3-pt range. He added 4 rebounds, 4 steals, 2 assists, and another 0 TO game. He also ran the offense well. I actually feel more confident in his ability to quarterback our offense, way more than JWill.
5. For anybody holding out a faint hope of a magical February run, this loss puts a stake in those hopes. We’re done from an NCAA at-large standpoint. Period. The goal now is to try and make a mini run to finish 9th in league, so we can get a single bye and hope for a magical BTT run.
6. But this all depends on a somewhat healthy Dylan Harper, and that’s a big question mark. If he’s out for much longer, or not effective upon his return, then we’re just playing out the string and maybe playing spoiler.
