Michigan Basketball: 3 takeaways from unforeseen win at Iowa

Michigan basketball needed to get back on track after Saturday’s home defeat to Ohio State and they did it at the expense of the Iowa Hawkeyes.

The Wolverines catapulted out to a 12-point lead with 3:25 left and nearly gave it away to the Hawkeyes on Thursday night.

Iowa cut the deficit to a deuce with seconds remaining and had a chance to tie it, but fell short on a heave and a prayer by Jordan Bohannon. DeVante’ Jones stuck the dagger in their hearts by making a couple of free throws for another relevant road win for Michigan basketball.

Here are the three takeaways.

1. Moussa Diabate finally broke through

The fabulous freshman was unconscious in a must-win game for his Wolverines. He hit 80% from the field and had a career-high, and team-high of 28 points on the night.

Diabate worked hard on the glass too by accounting for eight boards by himself. He just about doubled his previous high of 15 points on the year.

Everyone in and around the program has been waiting a long time for Diabate to do what many predicted him to do when he arrived on campus. He and Caleb Houstan were anointed too soon and Michigan has struggled because of it.

The signs were there earlier in the season that this could happen and now Michigan basketball will benefit from it if they can find consistent winning ways.

Another freshman who played a pivotal role in the win was Kobe Bufkin. He was the spark that the starters needed from their bench brothers. He had 10 in 16 hard-earned minutes of action.

Michigan knew coming in that it had to have more of an impact from the non-starting five and Bufkin delivered that immensely.