Michigan Basketball survives Minnesota in Overtime: 3 takeaways for UM

Michigan is on track to achieve two important goals

A loss to Minnesota could have been devastating and not just because of all the missed free throws. Instead of being 8-4 in the Big Ten, Michigan basketball would have fallen to 7-5 and that’s with a road game looming against Northwestern Tuesday.

That’s a game that Michigan could easily lose. The Wolverines struggled earlier this week to beat the Wildcats and doing it again, on the road, won’t be easy. So a loss to the Gophers, plus another to the Wildcats would have dropped UM to 7-6 in the Big Ten, with a trip to Wisconsin up next.

Even with the win, Michigan needs to split the road games against Wisconsin and Northwestern. If the Wolverines are as good as we think, they should have a chance at sweeping those games, but they will need to play better than they have been.

With Wisconsin, Northwestern, Penn State and Maryland on the road, as well as Ohio State and Iowa left at home, Michigan doesn’t have any cake walks left. And UM needs to win 2-3 games in that stretch, most likely to make the tournament.

However, to finish in the top four in the Big Ten, it can probably only lose a game or two, considering Nebraska and Michigan are tied at 8-4 and the Huskers own the tiebreaker.

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It wasn’t pretty Saturday, but the Wolverines got closer to achieving those goals. Hopefully, they can learn from their mistakes and get better, because right now, they don’t look like a team capable of winning multiple games in the NCAA tournament.