Low Five: Michigan

I actually wanted to write this one. I doubt many will want to read it (believe me - I get it), but my brain wanted to walk this one back. The post-game angst from Illini Nation was well placed. Everyone watching got a glimpse of the future. This was how the season ends. For that reason - I needed to parse this loss and decide for myself if this game was just a one-off clunker or the blueprint of how Illinois gets sent home from the NCAA Tournament.

The last four losses? One possession coin flips. This one? Pretty much a full scale beatdown. We led 16-15 at the 12:00 mark of the first half - that would be our last lead of the game. Michigan extended to a seven point lead at halftime and that was pretty much it. There was no valiant second half run. Heck, there wasn’t even a fake rally. We never exerted any real game pressure on Michigan over the final 20 minutes. The closest we got was five - and Michigan immediately responded with a 22-6 run. They had every answer. We’ve methodically imposed our will on many an inferior opponent over the past two months, but that script was fully flipped tonight. Make no mistake - we were vastly inferior to Michigan on this night.

So if you’ve made it this far, you might as well suck it up and come along for the full ride in this “Belt to A**” edition of low five…