Michigan Basketball: 3 takeaways from the Wisconsin skirmish

Michigan basketball was in it until the first few minutes of the second half when they drifted away and utter chaos broke out after the game had been decided.

The maize and blue went up by five at 38-33 in the second half against Wisconsin and were then outscored 18-3 to go down by 15.

The Wolverines couldn’t catch fire and missed a lot of makeable shots and eventually got taken down. That wasn’t what they were talking about following the loss though, it was the all-out melee that occurred right after between Juwan Howard and Greg Gard that turned into a violent scene involving the players and coaches.

Here are the three takeaways.

1. Michigan’s dreadful shooting display

Michigan basketball went 4-25 from triple for a disgraceful 16%. The Wolverines didn’t fare much better from the field as they shot at a 39% rate.

Moussa Diabate got in foul trouble and basically disappeared in sight. He wasn’t anywhere close to where he was in Thursday night’s upset win at Iowa. He only saw 19 minutes of action in the loss and will probably get suspended for his part in the post-match fight.

Caleb Houstan was non-existent for the most part. He hit two from long distance and grabbed 10 boards, but failed to make a steady imprint in another struggling outing for the freshman.

The bench didn’t have much of an impact either. Terrance Williams was seen throwing haymakers in the brawl, so he’ll be expected to miss time with the fallout yet to be known up to this point of the writing.

Hunter Dickinson had the best performance, but that’s been his M-O all season long. Dickinson and his teammates now have to regroup without some of its most important pieces on Wednesday against a rising Rutgers squad who would love to sweep them and close the door on their postseason aspirations.