Depleted Wolverines Fall In Champaign
Give Juwan Howard and Michigan some credit — they scrapped against a very good Illinois team on the road tonight, but without Hunter Dickinson in particular, the Illini were just too much. The Wolverines cut it to just one point with a little under seven minutes remaining in the game but could never get over the hump, and unfortunately, Illinois went on a 7-0 run right after that.
Throughout the game, Howard was forced to roll out several rag-tag lineups that included inexperienced freshmen Frankie Collins and Kobe Bufkin and even seldom-used backups Jaron Faulds and Jace Howard, who both gave U-M a career high in minutes. The young and untested Wolverines knew they needed to step up in a big way and a few did. Howard put his body on the line multiple times and had several nice hustle plays and Faulds did his best to bang with and challenge monstrous Kofi Cockburn. Bufkin and Collins showed the athleticism and fearlessness that made them such coveted recruits and normal start DeVante' Jones had one of his best games as a Wolverine scoring 17 points. It's tough to win on the road in the Big Ten and it's obviously even tougher without your All-American center. Still, there are some positives to build on from this game.
Big picture wise however, Michigan is now just 7-7 and is strongly viewed as a non-tournament team. When they finally get back to full strength, Howard needs to put on the tape from this game and emphasize the effort, hustle and tenacity on defense. If he can get that out of guys like Dickinson and the rest of the main contributors every night, maybe the season can be salvaged to some degree.
No one is going to feel sorry for Michigan for losing with Dickinson on the sidelines, but he's obviously a huge part of what the Wolverines want to do on both ends of the floor. When he and the rest of his teammates are back and ready to roll, they need to dig deep in order to avoid an embarrassing 2021-22 season.
