Michigan at Wisconsin Recap

Michigan at Wisconsin

It was starting to feel like the other early season late collapses for Michigan… But with the 2^nd half 15 point lead trimmed to 1 with only 1:30, Nik Stauskas found the matchup that he wanted and stepped back off a high ball screen and did what he does with confidence: He let it go… And Michigan took a 4 point lead and never looked back on their way to a 77-70 win at Wisconsin for the first time since 1999.  And as I write this recap I see the espn game day crew talking about the game and I hear Reece Davis say its Michigan’s first road win against a top 5 team since 1964. Wow… That really puts this effort into perspective… Just a huge effort from a team that had not forgotten the feeling from letting a big win slip away last season…

Look, I could sit here and crunch numbers all night and give you reasons why Michigan got this win. But the bottom line is that we shot the ball really well and ran Wisconsin off the 3 point line and forced them into a bad shooting night.  Caris was great tonight and an easy pick for player of the game.  His Big Ten career high 20 came in a variety of ways, but in the end you have to love the confidence and aggressiveness he played with tonight.  While Nik is clearly the go to guy late, having Caris and Glen create shots on their own is a huge boost to the offensive diversity of this team.

When you look at the long view of the season, this is a win that will change the expectations of this team and could be a season changing win that springboards this team to a special season. This was such a great team win tonight and possible the second best road win of the Beilein era (the Novak MSU blood game may never be topped).  Ken Pomeroy had rated this as our LEAST likely win left on the schedule, so I can’t over state how huge tonight was and how excited and proud we should all be as Michigan fans… Go Blue!

Wes Samons

Advertisements