Takeaways from Michigan’s overtime loss at Minnesota

Despite an outstanding second half from Danny Wolf, the No. 20 #Michigan Wolverines were upset by the Minnesota Golden Gophers on a Dawson Garcia buzzer beater. Here are the takeaways:

Wins on the road don’t always come easy in the Big Ten, and if you don’t bring your A-game, you risk losing to any team in the conference. Even the worst ones.

The Wolverines could never get into a consistent rhythm offensively, and after Minnesota had all the momentum in the second half, Danny Wolf made some clutch plays as Michigan went to overtime against a team still looking for their first Big Ten win.

While Wolf got bucket after bucket late at this one, Dawson Garcia made the most clutch shot of them all.

The Minnesota Golden Gophers are the bottom-dwellers of the Big Ten, entering this game with an 0-6 record against Big Ten opponents and 8-9 overall. Minnesota was ranked 104th on KenPom and amid a four-game losing streak heading into the game against Michigan, with its best win coming against Yale (79th on KenPom).

At the end of the day, this will go down as a Quad 3 loss for the Wolverines. Here are the takeaways from a frustrating loss.

Way too many turnovers, and Minnesota thrives playing physical defense

I did like how Michigan was trying to push the pace against a Minnesota team that 358th out of 363 teams in adjusted tempo on KenPom, but the Wolverines got off to a sloppy start early by turning the over the ball six times in the first 10 game minutes and seven times in the first half. Wolf in particular didn’t look comfortable early, accounting for four of those early turnovers.

Michigan turned the ball over 13 times, more than twice as many times as the Golden Gophers (six). Minnesota had 13 points off those turnovers.

Michigan couldn’t consistently knock down shots. The Golden Gophers played solid defense all game long (nine steals, six blocks) and rebounded incredibly well in the second half, winning a lot of the 50/50 balls and seizing the momentum late.

Decreasing the turnovers was an area of improvement we focused on earlier this week, but midway through the season and six games into conference play, taking care of the basketball is still a problem for the Wolverines.

Wolf more than makes up for his rough start

Props to Wolf for stepping up in the second half after getting off to a terrible start. He turned the ball over way too much and struggled to really get into a rhythm, oftentimes forcing passes into tight windows that disappeared quickly.

Gonna give credit where it’s due, though, Wolf did have some key buckets in the second half when Michigan was reeling to flip momentum back in Michigan’s favor. That included a tough fadeaway and some clutch threes, including this one with less than a minute to play.

In overtime, he was the only player on the Wolverines creating shots, setting up Vlad Goldin for easy looks. Wolf’s final stat line was 23 points, 10 rebounds, seven assists and six turnovers.

Wolf is a big reason why Michigan is a threat to win the Big Ten, and he’s played his way into the first round in the minds of some NBA draft gurus . Wolf’s playmaking ability is astonshing and I loved the clutch shot creation, but he has to cut down on the turnovers and be more sound with the basketball in his hands moving forward.

A solid Tre Donaldson game

Junior point guard Tre Donaldson really settled in offensively. He used his shot fake to create open shots, running the pick and roll beautifully and knocking down shots.

Donaldson gave Michigan consistent offense in the first half, contributing half the points on Michigan’s 10-0 kill shot run to give the Wolverines an 11-point cushion towards the end of the first half.

Donaldson didn’t do much in that second half and finished with 14 points.

A good night from three, but Michigan was too reliant on it

The Wolverines had another solid night from three, going 7-of-13 in the first half and making 50 percent of their 22 threes on the game.

In a sloppy game offensively where Michigan turned the ball over too much and Minnesota played pretty solid on-ball defense, three-point shots were the saving grace. Not only were the Wolverines knocking down open shots, they were creating open shots with solid ball movement.

The three-point shooting saved Michigan, but I did think it was a little too reliant on those deep shots.

Tschetter woke up feeling the cheesiest

Minnesota native Will Tschetter was the first player off the bench for the Wolverines, coming in for Danny Wolf after a foul and two sloppy turnovers in the first two minutes of play.

The redshirt junior gave a Michigan offense that started off slow a spark, knocking down his first two shots — both threes — to complete an early 8-0 run for the Wolverines.

After Minnesota got called for basket interference on a put-back attempt, Tschetter had eight of Michigan’s first 12 points and finished the first half with 11 points. Tschetter had a few key second-half buckets and finished this one with 15 points, tying his season high.

It was nice to see Tschetter have one of his best games of the season with plenty of family and friends in attendance.

Up Next

The Wolverines head back home this week, hosting the Northwestern Wildcats on Sunday, Jan. 19 at 2 p.m. on Big Ten Network. That matchup is a bit of a trap game for the Wolverines, who travel to West Lafayette to play No. 17 Purdue, another team with Big Ten title aspirations. That game (Friday, Jan. 25) is set for 8 p.m. on FOX.