Michigan Basketball: 3 takeaways from Oregon barn burner
By Nick Popio
In an absolute back and forth slugfest, Oregon held on by the skin of its teeth against Michigan basketball to gain a game that no one wanted to lose.
In the first half, it looked like the Oregon Ducks were going to run away with an easy road win over Michigan basketball. Anthony Mathis was burying three’s, while the Wolverines went cold on empty trips. In time the maize and blue furiously fought back to take the lead in the second and ultimately send it to overtime. Both team’s will to win was incredible and it felt like a matchup where the winner was moving on to the final four.
From that tip, Oregon was dialed in and didn’t seem phased at the early start. Getting ahead early put them in a position to remain within striking distance all game long. Payton Pritchard put his teammates on his back to make the game-winning bucket in overtime and the last 15 of the entire game. He proved that Oregon will only go as far as they can by relying on the sensational senior as the road forges on.
Michigan started the season unranked. It has played 11 games under new coach Juwan Howard. Four of those games have been against top-10 opponents.
— Scott Bell (@sbell021) December 14, 2019
Michigan has won two of these games comfortably, lost one by 1 in OT and got blown out on the road against No. 1 in the other.
For Michigan basketball, it did everything they could to pull it out. They came within a fingertip away from eking out its third top ten win of the young season. The preseason schedule now wraps up with two more home tilts before driving up the road to reignite the war with Michigan State. Juwan Howard has to get his bunch back on track immediately because the Big Ten appears to be the most difficult conference to navigate through in 2020.