Michigan Basketball: Free fall continues in nail-biting loss

Despite a hard-fought effort, Michigan basketball succumbs to a close call finish at home that it desperately needed to have.

With the return of Isaiah Livers, Michigan basketball seemed destined to return to form after dropping seven of its last 11. It took until the second 20 minutes of play to get back in the groove and entertain a small lead that didn’t last too long. Then reality struck when Livers re-injured his groin about midway through the half. It didn’t end their hopes officially but made the task that much more problematic to upend the Big Ten leading Illini in a must-have game.

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Ayo Dosunmu forged the path to victory for the Illini. He finished with a game-high 27, but most importantly nailed the dagger in the clutch to put away the slumping Wolverines for good. His jumper to win it was just a hair taller than Zavier Simpson’s reach could defend and that is what finally did the maize and blue in.

On the defensive side of things, Michigan basketball was better than the first outing at least. It didn’t let Kofi Cockburn eat the Wolverines alive in the paint again. It held the Illini to 44 percent from the field as well as 36 percent from beyond the arc. They even outrebounded a team that rarely trails in that category. To sum it up, Michigan did everything it could on that side of the ball and still came up short.

The glaring issue that jumps out in this one though is the poor free throw shooting in crunch time. Michigan basketball missed every freebie down the stretch that would have definitely won them the game. They only scored two points in the final five minutes which kept Illinois alive and ultimately steal it right before the final whistle. It is now the fifth defeat in the last six affairs for Juwan Howard’s drowning first-year program.

Michigan has not seen times like these since the 2014-15 campaign when they struggled mightily to a 500 record. Chances of making the postseason are dwindling faster than telephone landlines are going out of style. There seems to be little to no answer for what ails this squad right now. That is a very disheartening feeling after what they did in the Bahamas to kick the season off.

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The maize and blue will turn their attention to Nebraska on the road this coming Tuesday to try to get something positive going.

The Cornhuskers are in worse shape than Michigan is in currently, so a win away from Ann Arbor could be just what the doctor ordered. For Nebraska, their two Big Ten triumphs have occurred at home, which means Michigan will have to seek out its first road victory at that expense.

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