The Michigan Wolverines dropped their second game of the season, losing to the Duke Blue Devils, 68-63, on Saturday at Capital One Arena in Washington D.C.
Scheduling a non-conference game in mid-February for most programs may appear to be an ill-advised move, as it could potentially throw a team off in the middle of conference play just weeks before the NCAA Tournament. For Michigan and Duke, however, the game felt like an exact replica of a Final Four matchup at a neutral site, allowing both teams
to get a strong understanding of what the environment could look like in a few weeks.
While the Wolverines lost the game and are not the No. 1 team in the country anymore, it had no effect on the Big Ten standings, and Michigan is still a favorite to be a 1-seed in the tournament. Head coach Dusty May also learned a lot about his squad during and after the game.
“When you schedule a game like this, you don’t know what it’s gonna look like after the fact and even the preparation leading up to it,” May said after the loss on Saturday. “We know more about our team now. We’ll be better because of this game.
“We’re proud of our guys. I thought we fought, we competed, we overcame some adversity, we stayed together. And, like I said, there’s several learning lessons that we’ll have from this film and from this game.”
Part of playing in March is warming up in the tunnel before the game, traveling from city to city a whim and having no idea what to expect from the crowd at a neutral site. Michigan experienced all those things Saturday, stretching in the hallway, getting in and out of the city within days and playing in front of a split crowd.
By going through all this to play a game that has no bearing on the Wolverines’ postseason hopes, they will be much better prepared for the uncertainties of March Madness.
“This experience brought us together a lot more, and it’s a great learning process,” Yaxel Lendeborg said after the game on Saturday. “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 got to get used to as well because we have hopes to get to the National Championship Game. So it’s going to be just like this … in atmospheres like this, you really got to lean in on your circle and trust the five guys in there. Just build energy off of each other.”
Morez Johnson Jr. added: “Once we watch film, I’m sure there’s a lot of things we can learn from. And the loss I think is gonna pull us together. It will let us know we got each other’s back because a lot of us made mistakes in the game, but we’ll be alright when the time comes to play them again.”
The Wolverines faced a fellow national title contender in the Blue Devils as they were peaking, giving Michigan the best look possible of where it currently stands. Duke is one of the only other programs in the country to have a top-10 offensive and defensive rating while also matching Michigan’s size. With all that in mind, the Wolverines can clean up their weaknesses internally while still handling business externally.
“I don’t really wanna divulge what we learn internally. I can go with the big picture, that as of February (21st), we weren’t ready to beat one of the top programs in the country,” May told the local media on Monday. “We didn’t have to be ready in mid-February. Hopefully we have a chance to see them again because they’re gonna be playing late in March and possibly April, so it’d be awesome to have another opportunity.”
Michigan will need to regroup and prepare to face Minnesota and No. 10 Illinois this week before finishing the regular season at Iowa and vs No. 15 Michigan State next week. With just a few weeks before the Wolverines take on the field in the NCAA Tournament, May is using all he can to get his team as prepared as possible for a shot at what would be the program’s first national chanpionship in 36 years.
