Friday night Michigan lost to Wisconsin 71-60 in Chicago, in a basketball game that will likely never be noted for its historical relevance. Wisconsin is one of the best teams in the country, while Michigan might be able to sneak into the NIT, so this outcome was to be expected.
Michigan has somehow built a 2016 Big Ten contender in a lost season
The Wolverines suddenly have an array of promising players who hardly played before the Big Ten season.
Jerry Lai-USA TODAY Sports
But this was no cakewalk for Wisconsin like it should have been. Michigan had the lead for much of the first half, and the Wolverines tied the game with five minutes left. Eventually, the Badgers’ talent won out, but this game was brought up a situation that I’ve found myself noticing a lot this year: There was no way in hell Michigan should have been in that game.
For all the success the Wolverines have had this year, they’ve been dealt a difficult hand in 2015 due to injuries, bad luck and the growing pains of having a young team. These are the descriptions of the Michigan players who played more than 15 minutes:
- Spike Albrecht, a projected career backup point guard, who had no high-major options except for Michigan.
- Muhammad Ali Abdur-Rahkman, a freshman who had no other high-major offers.
- Max Bielfeldt, a formerly seldom-used senior who only had high-major offers from Michigan and Illinois.
- Zak Irvin, a four-star sophomore, and the only player on this list anyone saw having a great deal of college success.
- Aubrey Dawkins, a freshman who had no offers out of high school, despite his dad being the coach of Stanford, then got a Michigan offer in prep school.
- Ricky Doyle, a freshman "center" who was moderately recruited coming out of high school and out-played Frank Kaminsky for a spell.
That is arguably one of the least talented rosters in the Big Ten, and it’s not a roster of players that should be able to hang with Wisconsin. But that’s what the Wolverines have done this year, nearly upsetting the Badgers, blowing out on Thursday in the Big Ten Tournament and beating Ohio State, all since February 22. In that time, Dawkins, Abdur-Rahkman and even Doyle have gone from recruits that nobody wanted into extremely competent -- and often impressive -- Big Ten players.
There were a lot of different moments when it became obvious that winning this year was going to be a lost cause for Michigan. It could have been when Mitch McGary and Nik Stauskas announced that they were leaving for the NBA. It could have been when the Wolverines fell to NJIT and Eastern Michigan in non-conference season. It could have been after the injuries to star players Caris LeVert and Derrick Walton Jr.
Collectively, those moments ended any realistic chance Michigan had to go to the NCAA Tournament. But the fact that Michigan is still on the verge of the NIT with this roster is something of a miracle. But the possible NIT bid isn’t the most important aspect at play. Rather, it’s that in a lost season, coach John Beilein has set his team up for far better than an NIT bid in 2016.
Dawkins, who hardly played in non-conference season, has scored in double figures eight times in Big Ten play, averaging 18.75 points per game in the last four games of the season, and has a top 200 offensive rating nationally, according to KenPom.com. Abdur-Rahkman, who rarely played until mid-January, has scored nine points or more seven times since then. Irvin, the best player on the team has become a star, while Doyle has shown some flashes, including against Kaminsky in the tournament.
Add in talented freshman Kameron Chatman, the return of Walton and the possible return of LeVert -- pending his NBA decision -- and Michigan is looking like one of the better teams in the Big Ten heading into next season.
It was a lost season in one regard, but in terms of developing future potential, Michigan got more out of this year than it ever could have hoped for just three months ago.
And that’s why next year, the situation we saw during the Wisconsin game -- that “how the hell is Michigan even in this” situation -- is never going to cross anyone’s mind.
See More:
