Penn State 75, Michigan 69
John Beilein got ejected at halftime, drawing technicals for complaining about a missed offensive foul call on Penn State, and the Nittany Lions effectively had a 16-point lead to start the second half after the ensuing free throws. Penn State managed to stave off a Michigan comeback; the last-place team in the Big Ten beat the first-place team. Lamar Stevens shouldered a heavy burden for PSU and had an impressive game: 26 points, 12 rebounds, 3 assists, and three blocks. Myles Dread chipped in five threes for the Nittany Lions, and Charles Matthews was the bright spot for Michigan.
Penn State was the better team on both ends in the first half. The game was tied at seven before a Dread three pointer immediately following a Zavier Simpson turnover keyed a 10-2 Nittany Lion run. PSU didn’t trail for the rest of the game. Early, Penn State conceded open threes to Simpson and he obliged — but missed all four attempts in the first eight minutes of the game. As Penn State extended its lead over the latter part of the half, Stevens won a head-to-head matchup on the offensive end against Jon Teske as Penn State played its best player — who’s really more of a physical combo forward — at the five and isolated him from the perimeter against Teske.
Meanwhile, Penn State’s defense, which featured switching on nearly every screen, really bothered Michigan. The Wolverines were held to 0.81 points per possession in the first half, and while the scoring eventually ramped up (especially during the free throw parade at the end of the game), the Nittany Lions defended well through the entire shot clock and forced the Wolverines into difficult shots throughout the game. Between a few uncharacteristic open floor turnovers that led to open looks and some offensive rebounds from Penn State (which included a few caught airballs), Michigan was at a substantial shot margin disadvantage at halftime. As the half spiraled out of control, Matthews and Ignas Brazdeikis were on the bench with foul trouble.
Jordan Poole tried to go 2-for-1 at the end of the half, and was blocked — the possession eventually ended in a missed Simpson layup. That gave Penn State the last shot: Jamari Wheeler set a strong screen — one that should have been called a foul — on Simpson, and Rasir Bolton snuck in a finger roll before the buzzer. Beilein confronted a ref after the teams started heading to the locker rooms, was given a technical, and was given a second technical as he continued to argue while retreating. Saddi Washington stepped in as the acting head coach following the ejection. It was the same role he had in the pre-season trip to Spain with a recovering Beilein still back home.
Bolton hit three of the four technical free throws to push the score to 43-27. From there, Michigan battled to get back in the game, but was unable to get the deficit down to a single possession. Iggy committed a senseless foul on Josh Reaves as Reaves attempted a three-pointer and sat for much of the second half with three fouls. Michigan’s leading scorer finished with just six points in 17 minutes. Matthews played well in the first half and really shined in the second: he was the lone Wolverine who showed consistent aggressiveness when confronted with the physical Penn State defense and was the driving force behind Michigan’s comeback effort. He finished with an efficient 24 points.
Michigan held Penn State to five points over a nine minute stretch in the second half, and Matthews trimmed the Nittany Lion lead to 55-51 — by splitting two sets of free throws — with over eight minutes remaining. On the next possession, Stevens isolated from the right side of the floor, found Dread in the opposite corner, and the freshman knocked down the three over a Simpson contest. Jordan Poole (who shot 1-8 from behind the arc) missed a rebuttal, and the miss turned into a transition opportunity for Penn State — Mike Watkins followed a Stevens miss and the lead was back to nine. Michigan’s offense also went cold, as they only scored five points over a seven minute stretch.
The Wolverines broke out their trapping press after the under-four timeout and caused some havoc, but they were unable to create enough turnovers to come all the way back. Matthews kept attacking and scoring, but eventually fouled out with one of Michigan’s many intentional fouls. Penn State couldn’t make all of their free throws — they wound up missing 13 total over the course of the game — and they still managed to win. A step-back Simpson three cut the lead to four with 30 seconds left, but Stevens knocked down both free throws on the next possession, then Simpson turned it over taking the ball up the court.
Much like Michigan State’s loss to Illinois last week, Michigan was ambushed on the road by a team with a deceptively bad record. Despite everything, Penn State still plays hard, they're considered to be a fairly decent team by the computers, and they earned a huge win in what’s been a pretty miserable season, one filled with close losses. The optics are certainly bad, and ultimately Michigan can’t afford to play as poorly as they did in the first half and still win on the road against anyone in the Big Ten. Had a couple plays unfolded differently — or had Beilein not been ejected (and Penn State given three points) — Michigan may have been able to come back, but in the end, they probably deserved to lose.
Michigan’s now tied atop the Big Ten with Michigan State, with Purdue a half game behind. The Wolverines welcome Maryland to Ann Arbor this weekend to start what will be a brutal six-game stretch to end the regular season.
[Box score after the JUMP]
February 13th, 2019 at 10:38 AM ^
Another Big issue that Penn State copied from Iowa is the 3/4 court press which is causing us to burn 10 seconds of the shot clock before we start our sets. We need to start breaking that press and attacking the basket, like we did to VCU a few years back.
February 13th, 2019 at 11:40 AM ^
Exactly. We attacked that trap precisely once all game, and it resulted in an easy layup.
February 13th, 2019 at 1:19 PM ^
No -- they attacked the trap at least one other time, possibly twice, and turned the ball over as a result. (I say "possibly twice" because the second turnover I'm thinking of seemed to be in transition, and it wasn't clear to me whether PSU was setting up the trap or not).
February 13th, 2019 at 1:38 PM ^
The simpson threes were killing me....I saw a handful that looked good and on target....damn those things just wont fall. Make 1 or 2 and it changes everything
February 13th, 2019 at 9:10 AM ^
To lose against the last place team in the conference and get virtually bumped out of the conference crown is particularly frustrating. They only had 1 other Big Ten win lol, I suppose they might be better than their record (I know they took Purdue to OT, for example) but still. All around disappointment now that there is no margin for error if we want to win the conference.
February 13th, 2019 at 9:18 AM ^
My concern is that this is a team that will not trend upward as the season goes on, as most JB teams do. When they are on, they look impressive. But the lack of depth and lack of shooting could result in an early bounce in the tournament.
February 13th, 2019 at 9:20 AM ^
This is going to be exactly like the 2013 PSU game that we sleep walked through and lost, which ultimately (along with that final game against Indiana) costs us a share of the regular season title. It's true PSU really isn't that bad but they're also 1-11. Can't give up Purdue is really well positioned to win the B1G now as they're done with us, MSU, MD, and WI. Stuff happens over the course of a season obviously. But we've already had 3 duds w/o playing any of Purdue, MSU or MD on the road. And with a brutal finishing schedule with 4 games against Maryland and MSU left plus @Minnesota this is drifting towards a 14-6 finish.
Some shitty luck tonight but bottom line is you can't give up 1.14 PPP to a team that is 314th in eFG. And fairly pedestrian with the other 3 factors as well including rebounding, though they destroyed us on rebounds tonight. Some of that was just lack of effort/intensity in the first half.
February 13th, 2019 at 9:45 AM ^
If you are a ref that tosses Beilein, you are like a guy that gets Mr Rogers to swear at you. It is 100% your fault.
Anyone know the last time, if ever, that Tom Izzo was ejected from a game?
February 13th, 2019 at 10:23 AM ^
Izzo should be ejected about 3 times a year in my estimation. Between the screaming, stomping, violent arm swinging, and generally coming onto the court or right next to an opposing PG you would think he would get T'ed up more.
February 13th, 2019 at 11:40 AM ^
t'd up more...or freaking EVER. the thing where he's four feet onto the court and becoming a sixth defender is just mind-boggling to me.
February 13th, 2019 at 10:20 AM ^
I thought the biggest problem was the offensive response to the 3/4 pressure. Simpson seemed reluctant to dribble the ball into the front court. They did a bunch of passing standing still (which occasionally led to high, sloppy passes), then Poole would dribble it across the line with about 22 or 21 seconds left in the shot clock. So the offense didn't get into their sets until about 15 seconds on the clock. This led to a lot of the last second heaves or hero ball that we saw. The offense just didn't flow.
Also the transition offense was just bad. We didn't get a lot of chances to run, but when we did it was a turnover or a missed layup. Against a team that is pressuring constantly, you have to get some easy buckets. We just didn't have it tonight.
February 13th, 2019 at 10:38 AM ^
I didn't see in the box score "How many times Daddy said FUDGE".
Can you please fix this?
February 13th, 2019 at 10:38 AM ^
I'm starting to sense a trend.
When Michigan plays teams who don't need a lead guard or wing to facilitate the offense, they can get into trouble. Minnesota, Iowa, Wisconsin, Penn State. All aren't super-reliant on their guards to score or make plays. I think Simpson's defense is so maniacal that he shuts down a lot of what teams want to do. But, when faced with mobile bigs like Happ, Murphy, Stevens, or Garza, teams can attack Teske off the dribble.
This game was the perfect combination of events from early shots not going down, refball, some random dude on PSU going 5-7 from three that it's easy to see how Michigan lost and why it's not some broader issue going forward.
That said, I'm curious to see how the two State games play out given MSU's reliance on Winston to generate offense.
February 13th, 2019 at 10:48 AM ^
So what you're saying is that we're going to get destroyed in the rest of our games, but we're gonna beat Sparty twice by 20 points in each game?
I might weirdly be ok with that
February 13th, 2019 at 10:39 AM ^
Penn St’s coverage of the pick and pop was excellent. Livers and Iggy had a guy in their face every time they touched it and they couldn’t get anything going. Zavier Simpson had his worst game that I can remember, I think this team did not expect to get punched in the mouth and had no idea how to respond when they did. Did anyone else think Teske looked exhausted? I hope these 5 days off are beneficial.
February 13th, 2019 at 1:31 PM ^
I thought Teske looked tired. I was wondering if he was sick or just run down from the Wisconsin game. Wisconsin games take a toll on this team.
February 13th, 2019 at 10:59 AM ^
No comments about the missed double dribble? We didn't play well enough to win but harder still when you're playing against the refs. In such a close game, every possession matters...
February 13th, 2019 at 1:41 PM ^
At that point I was just like "of course that happened" ...for the fact we were playing like shit and apparently the refs just dont want michigan to get any fair calls. If you are going ot call it like that then call it fuckin both ways...so tired of this unblanaced bullshit from these crap officials.
February 13th, 2019 at 11:20 AM ^
Officiating was just one factor in a perfect storm that also included PSU playing inspired ball in general; defensive rebounding being poor in the first half; Simpson being uncharacteristically sloppy with the ball and unable to finish at the rim; and Poole being unable to hit anything from downtown.
But it was definitely a factor. The sequence at the end of the first half alone was huge. PSU was up 11 when the officials missed the illegal screen. PSU scored on the play, then the officials called two technicals on Beilein, giving them three points to start the second half. How different is this game if we're down 11 to start the second half instead of 16 (and have our coach available)?
February 13th, 2019 at 11:46 AM ^
The pattern, if 3 games a pattern makes, that bothers me is the performance in each road loss in increasingly poor. I don't know if the team can be worse than they were last night, given an honest effort.
February 13th, 2019 at 11:47 AM ^
"How to B1G Basketball: A 14.5-Second Guide for Fans and Refs"
February 13th, 2019 at 1:22 PM ^
Wow. Upon further review, I think that was a double-dribble, traveling, and a shot-clock violation. The rare trifecta!
February 13th, 2019 at 12:29 PM ^
The wind is out of my sails. Absolutely had to have that game if they wanted to win the conference. Extremely frustrating loss. You wouldn't think a team with this much experience would get as rattled as they do, but Penn State had them out of sorts, sped up, and the entire 1st half was played way out of control. I don't know what Beilein said or what was said to him, but his ejection seemed really unnecessary.
I am always an optimist, but this isn't looking good right now (easy to say after a loss, I know). We seem to be regressing. Offense is generating less set scoring options and open looks and resorting to more 1-on-1. Bench is getting shorter and shorter. Davis has disappeared. Johns isn't ready. Brooks is looking rough. I don't even know what you do with Poole - he's all over the map. Iggy's in a funk. Matthews has had a nice couple of games, but if our answer is Matthews Hero Ball, we're screwed. Big guys are eating us up because Teske can't take a chance. And at the other end, we refuse to post up his mismatches because that's seemingly not how we play (meanwhile, we'll let Poole repeatedly jack up 20-foot nonsense). Simpson can't leave the floor. Our pets heads are falling off. etc.
I know we're generally okay. This is a good team. They can get hot. They can make a run through the tourney. But any illusion that this is truly a special, 1-seed caliber team capable of winning everything is slipping further away after every game.
(sigh) Snowflake over. Beat Maryland.
February 13th, 2019 at 1:25 PM ^
I will happily give every big guy 26 points on 29 shot equivalents, especially if over-the-back is called properly. Myles Dread was a bigger factor in the win than Lamar Stevens. He's a 37% three-point shooter, and they needed to do a better job closing out on him (although, in fairness, he did make a couple of ridiculous contested shots too).
The sky isn't falling.
February 13th, 2019 at 2:17 PM ^
I know the sky isn't falling. That's why I said:
"I know this team is generally okay. This is a good team. They can get hot. They can make a run through the tourney."
I also have an issue with you blindly evaluating Stevens based on total "shot equivalents". He took a healthy amount of jumpers in the game when PSU was out of options and didn't hit very many. You're taking that into account. -- I'm not. I'm talking about early-game post defense which has been non-existent since Iowa.
When it's decided that we've done a good job avoiding foul trouble, Teske turns into a beast in the paint defensively. If we had anybody to competently back him up, he could play that way wire-to-wire because he's an excellent defender who generally doesn't foul. But again, Davis's disappearance along with the failed attempt to shoehorn Livers or Johns into a misplaced 5 has made Teske's presence an absolute requirement. So early in games, he's a pylon and people are scoring at the rim at will. That sucks and it wouldn't be the case if we had a Jordan Morgan or Al Horford or anybody who could play replacement level defense for a 5 minute stretch.
If you want to lump 2nd-half 15-foot jump shots and every other Stevens jack into that conversation to create a sub-standard scoring percentage, then we're not talking about the same thing. I'm strictly talking about first-half Passive Teske borne out of necessity because our early season backup centers have turned into pumpkins.
I agree overall that I'd rather have Happ, Stevens, Fernando, Ward or anybody else take a bunch of contested post shots over a 7-footer than let guys rain open threes, but that wasn't my point.
February 13th, 2019 at 12:31 PM ^
You would think the 3/4 court zone press would now be a staple against UM, or at least something they should anticipate, including in the NCAAs. An uneven half-court offense becomes even more erratic and confused when they begin their half-court action with 19 or 20 seconds on the shot clock. As to officiating, not gonna go there. We didn't lose this game because of the whistles. Penn State came out of the gate with energy and hit a bunch of shots. We had no energy and couldn't put it in the ocean.
February 13th, 2019 at 12:57 PM ^
This isn't the team that is going to out execute you with their half court offense. Maybe its time to push the pace a bit, not walk the ball up the court every time and not even start running offense until there is 15 seconds on the shot clock. Try to get early opportunities before the defense is set and clogging the paint due to our lack of spacing. Its been a factor in all three of our loses this year.
February 13th, 2019 at 7:18 PM ^
Agreed. We have a 7'1 dude on the court at all times. When people press, Teske should be getting position down low and we should be pushing up the court hard to get him the ball right around the basket. There was no one on Penn State tall enough to get in his way if he got in the right spot. It seems like we are too focused on executing plays and not just playing basketball.
February 13th, 2019 at 1:07 PM ^
The amount of minutes incurred by the paper thin rotation is a bit concerning as well. These guys can't keep logging 30+ minutes (or maybe they can), but it's apparent the have to.
February 13th, 2019 at 3:42 PM ^
Its funny for being 22-3 I am not optomistic bout our NCAA chances..The lack of offense this year is a disappointment..we will be lucky to make it to th sweet 16..The offense isnt getting better as the season progresses and thas been a halmark of JB teams but not this year,,
February 13th, 2019 at 4:13 PM ^
I agree. Total idiot interpretation here, but it seems like Michigan teams usually gain familiarity, comfort and efficiency throughout the season. By the time the tourneys come around, we're far more polished than we were early.
For whatever reason, this team seems to be regressing in that department. As the going gets progressively tougher, we're seeing them try to take things on their struggles individually instead of as an offensive unit.
I can't define any of that specifically. Just a gut feeling.
February 13th, 2019 at 4:34 PM ^
It just dawned on me before that we might not see the patented Beilein February Surge this year because the guys on the court have a ton of experience now and there's not much room to improve. Plus, it looks like they won't be getting any help from the bench.
But at the same time there is room for improvement, particularly Poole and Iggy. If they get more efficient in the next few weeks Michigan might be able to return to the form we saw in November.
February 13th, 2019 at 4:27 PM ^
I know this was an unusual game against a team that is much better than its record indicates. And there were a lot of extenuating circumstances. But, this was a bad loss (I almost said 'garbage' but thought that was too harsh). Penn State is not a good team, Michigan should beat them, it's very simple. It's a game they should have won and one they have to have if they want to win the conference. They looked tired and out of it for much of the game.
Michigan is a weird team. They have an incredibly high ceiling and could be the national champs but when they're off they're off and it seems like they can lose to anybody. I love Beilein's teams but they always drop a few to inferior teams which is incredibly frustrating.
This team's chi is blocked on offense or something. I only watched the second half last night but everything seemed like a struggle - they can't get the defense to move and they can't shoot over them. I don't know what the solution is but those weaknesses are a recipe for disaster come tournament time.
I'm not that worried though - they'll turn it around because they almost always do, but they have definite weaknesses and it's frustrating to watch them in games like this.
February 13th, 2019 at 10:56 PM ^
We were good enough to overcome shitty refs but shot poorly and played bad defense while going down 15 points. The refs sucked but we were not good either.
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