Michigan Basketball Falls...Again
After an embarrassing 14-point loss to UCF, Michigan got back to Big Ten play with another loss. The Wolverines traveled to Piscataway and will return to Ann Arbor after its first loss ever against Rutgers. The Scarlet Knights got hot early, while Michigan struggled to make bunnies. Seniors Geo Baker and Ron Harper Jr. hit tough shots all night and led Rutgers to a 75-67 win over the maize and blue.
The Wolverines are now just 7-6 overall and 1-2 in the Big Ten as the things that showed up as issues earlier in the season still remain. Michigan is not shooting the three ball well, Caleb Houstan doesn't look anything like a one-and-done player and Hunter Dickinson is just not a big enough part of the offense. Throw in the struggles and inconsistency of DeVante' Jones and you have the same formula that keeps leading to losses for the Wolverines.
Juwan Howard was without several players against Rutgers because of COVID and other reasons, but I'm not sure it would've mattered. Michigan was just 3-of-15 from three-point range. Would Brandon Johns have fixed that? Terrance Williams? Zeb Jackson? This is just not a good shooting team and that has proven to be the case time and time again.
As a fifth-year, transfer point guard, DeVante' Jones is just not getting the job done. He played 31 minutes tonight against Rutgers and scored the same amount of points as me. That is simply unacceptable. He only shot the ball three times. This is a guy who was the Sun Belt Conference Player of the Year and averaged just under 20 points a game. I have no idea where that player is because he never showed up in Ann Arbor.
Finally, there's the Caleb Houstan mystery. The next time he plays like a top-ten recruit will be the first time. He went just 1-for-8 from three-point range against Rutgers and scored only 12 points in 36 minutes of action. That's not a horrible point total, but he just has to be more productive, especially on a night like tonight when Michigan was so shorthanded.
This basketball team is struggling badly right now and it's not going to get any easier. In fact, it's going to get significantly harder. Michigan's next four games are at home against Michigan State, at home against Purdue, on the road against Illinois and then back in Ann Arbor against Maryland. Right now, I'd pick Michigan to lose all four of those games. The Spartans, Boilermakers, Illini and Terrapins are all better than Rutgers. Three of the games are in Crisler, but I'm not sure how much that matters right now.
Juwan Howard is in a tough spot right now. He has a lot to figure out with no time to do so. He's got tough opponents on the schedule from now until the end of the season and no one is going to take it easy on the defending Big Ten champs.
