Michigan Will Use Loss to Duke to Fuel the Final Stretch, Rematch in NCAA Tournament

The Wolverines are in prime position to win the Big Ten, but Michigan could be looking toward a rematch with Duke.

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Michigan suffered its second loss of the season on Saturday night after taking on No. 3 ranked Duke in Washington, D.C. It was a poor shooting performance by the Wolverines, and Michigan lost the rebounding battle, which resulted in a 68-63 Blue Devils win.

While losing the highly anticipated game is never a good thing, Michigan can put this game behind it and focus on winning the Big Ten regular season. According to Yaxel Lendeborg, Duke has been the best defensive team he's seen this year, while Morez Johnson compared the Blue Devils to playing Michigan State — Michigan might not see this good of a team until the NCAA Tournament.

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"I would say this team defensively is a lot better than anybody else in the Big Ten so far in my opinion," Lendeborg said. "They have a lot of athletes, a lot of really good defenders and they know how to be in the gaps and play off of each other. Especially when shots aren't falling, but this is a great learning point for us and something to really build on for the next game."

"I'd definitely say it's like a Michigan State game, down low, they're very physical, chesting up, so I'd say it's similar to that," Johnson said.

Applying this experience

While Michigan played Duke in the regular season, it was treated as an NCAA Tournament game. Not only did the two teams compete on a neutral site, but both teams had shoot-around sessions prior to the game, and they used a Wilson basketball, which is what they will use during March Madness.

Despite the loss, Lendeborg believes this experience only made Michigan a tighter team.

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"Yeah, absolutely. This experience brought us together a lot more," Lendeborg said. "It's a great learning process, like you said. We didn't get the outcome we wanted, but we still had a lot of fun, we competed out there, and the environment is something we've got to get used to as well. We have hopes again for the next championship game, so it's going to be just like this."

Michigan didn't lose because it was the less-talented team. The Wolverines lost because Duke was more physical and out-rebounded Michigan, plus, the Wolverines couldn't hit their shots. Johnson said once the team watches the film, they can begin correcting their mistakes and will be ready if the two teams meet again.

"Once you watch film, I'm sure there's a lot of things you can learn from," Johnson said. "The loss, I think, is going to pull us together, let us know we got each other back, because a lot of us made mistakes in the game. But we'll be alright when the time comes to play them again."