Gut reactions: Michigan basketball blows golden opportunity against Iowa

Michigan basketball was up by four points with less than 30 seconds left against Iowa and found a way to lose in overtime. Here are the gut reactions. 

The Michigan basketball team let another golden opportunity slip through its fingers on Thursday night as a quality road win that seemed to be in hand, slipped away.

Kobe Bufkin made an ill-advised foul which allowed Payton Sandfort and Iowa to tie the game on a 4-point play. Dug McDaniel missed a game-winning attempt at the buzzer and in the extra frame, the Wolverines never got off the mat in a 93-84 loss to Iowa.

Jett Howard was spectacular, scoring a career-high 34 points. 21 of those came in the first half and he made seven 3-pointers. Yet, Michigan struggled to get him shots late.

A big bucket from Bufkin, which pushed the lead to four just before the 4-point play, seemed to salt away a win, but Michigan basketball never got the final stop that was needed.

After two straight wins to improve to 3-0 in the Big Ten, Michigan has lost two straight and sits at 3-2 in the conference, as well as 9-7 overall.

Here are the gut reactions from Michigan’s loss to Iowa.

Gut reactions: Michigan basketball vs Iowa

• Jett Howard is a pure scorer. This might be his only season in Ann Arbor.
• Dug McDaniel was gutsy but 15 shots for him wasn’t part of the game plan.
• It was a rough finish for Kobe Bufkin.
• That 4-point play crushed Michigan’s spirit.
• Michigan basketball needs to learn how to win games. The late-game execution on both ends of the floor hasn’t been good.
• Tarris Reed and Will Tschetter both did really good things.
• Reed was solid on the boards and defensively.
• Tschetter was confident with his shot (3-for-3). Both could use more minutes.
• This feels more and more like an NIT team.
• I’ve said it needs 13 regular season wins and one in the Big Ten tournament to get an at-large berth and this was a missed opportunity. The committee likes road wins.
• I wish Hunter Dickinson had more than six shots (5-for-6). Iowa’s defense worked to prevent them, but that number is still too low.
• This is a fun team to watch — it has really good players — it just hasn’t done the little things consistently to win and that needs to change.
• Now or never, starting Sunday against Northwestern.
• The margin for error is gone. Michigan needs a 10-5 finish.
• Go Blue!