Michigan has not had a memberable basketball season till this point, outside of the win over Ohio State (which was big) and maybe the win over UConn, there has not been anything spectacular about their season. But, a win over #7 Ohio State in the Big Ten Conference tournament would have been huge heading into selection Sunday.
Despite Evan Turner’s great first half, Michigan was in the game all the way till the end. Turner was not shooting particularly well in the second half, and Michigan had a chance to win it. Michigan wen up by 2 points with 2.2 seconds to go in the game. This is where the controversy started.
Here is a replay of the final play of the game:
Clearly, everyone in the arena should have known Turner was going to get the ball with the game on the line. He did. That is the point of the controversy. There is a noticeable delay from when he caught the ball to when the clock starts, but I do not think that Michigan should have won this game like many Michigan fans are stating.
First, people will give the explanation that the delay was the simple reaction time to hit the start button. I can understand that reason, but that is not why I don’t think Michigan should have won.
Michigan coach, John Beilein, should get the blame for this loss. What was he thinking in terms of defense on that last play? How do you play four back and one person guarding the two Ohio State players near the inbounder? Especially, since one of those two OSU players was the leading Player of the Year candidate.
It should be unacceptable to Michigan fans that Turner was able to catch the ball and with two dribbles be at half-court. Michigan needed to deny Turner the ball and either let someone else make the play to beat them or make it much tougher for Turner to catch the ball in stride.
Michigan fans its time to look at yourself and stop using the clock as a scape-goat.
I frankly have no idea what Beilein was thinking. It blows my mind every time I think about it. Make Ohio State work for a shot, they might have even of had to force a pass around half-court somewhere and usually those are knocked away.
I would have had three guys set up in the front court and two guys around half court, make someone other than Turner get the ball. Instead he puts one guy (6’3 Stu Douglass) in the front court and the other four guys are all the way down by the 3pt line!!!
IDIOTIC!!
I agree completely. “Make Ohio State work for a shot” says it all. It’s embarrassing the way that game ended for Michigan.