Michigan on the ropes, sloppy ball in The Barn

Michigan State all but ended Michigan's hopes of getting an at-large bid to the NCAA Tournament, defeating the Wolverines 54-42 in a very slow defensive struggle. Neither of these teams will be confused with the Tar Heels anytime soon, but the 55 possessions was still surprising. Add some mediocre shooting, and you get a low scoring game. In fact, even Michigan State's normally reliable offensive rebounding was off last night, as the Spartans collected just 30% of the available boards on offense. But they did shoot the ball just a touch better than the Wolverines, and got to the line where they converted.

It wasn't a bad game for Michigan, considering they took away MSU's offensive game plan (throw it at the hoop, and go get it). But it was yet another game that featured horrid outside shooting for the Wolverines. More than anything else, that has sunk Michigan this season. Coming into conference play, this was one of the better offensive teams in the nation. But that offense has been firmly in the bottom half of the conference since that point.

The Wolverines sit at 5-7, and you figure that they need 3 wins, at minimum, to get to the Dance. At home against Minnesota figures to be the easiest chance for a victory, and visiting Iowa looks like a winnable game. But after that? Facing Purdue in Ann Arbor? Wisconsin at the Kohl Center? The Wildcats in Evanston? None of these sound like attractive options, and that might be why Michigan is headed to the NIT right now.

As for Michigan State, well, they're the only team that's in the upper-right hand quandrant, so they don't have many problems these days.

DeShawn Sims was the only player for Michigan in double figures, with 18 points on 14 shots. Kalin Lucas led the Spartans with 15 points on 8 shots, and Delvon Roe posted a nice double-double with 14 points and 10 rebounds. Box score.

If Tom Crean had told his team to just shoot the ball from halfcourt every time they got that far, the offense probably would have been better off last night. Instead, Indiana turned it over on 39 %(!) of their possessions en route to losing at Minnesota, 62-54. The fact that the score was this close is actually, pretty impressive. In fact, when IU wasn't turning the ball over, they scored 1.35 points per possession. Had the Hoosiers only turned it over on, say, their season average of 25% of their possessions, they would have won this game by 4 based on that scoring rate.

But give credit to Tubby's team, which thrives off forcing turnovers, for its defense. But Minnesota was pretty sloppy with the ball as well in this one, turning it over on 29% of their possessions. Minnesota made up for it by rebounding half of their misses, which is actually a bit of a feat against the Hoosiers, one of the Big Ten's best defensive rebounding teams. Paul Carter grabbed three of those offensive rebounds, and also broke out for 22 points on 13 shots. Verdell Jones led Indiana with 18 points on 8 shots. Box score.

To give you an idea of how cluttered the Big Ten is now, 8 teams are now within 2 losses of each other. Whenever two of these teams play each other, it's a "huge" game. I'm sure the coaches are running out of euphimisms at this point. I know I am.

Tonight, Iowa visits the Kohl Center and Penn State travels to Purdue in a game relatively larger-sized than most.