Michigan's Minor Miracle: Wolverines erase 20-point deficit, stun Indiana in overtime

Don't ask the Michigan basketball team how it managed to escape Indiana with a victory on Wednesday night. After a game that made absolutely no sense whatsoever, Coach John Beilein could only thank his lucky stars that the Wolverines pulled out a game they deserved to lose.
 
Every now and then, a sporting event completely defies rational explanation. Michigan's 72-66 overtime win in Bloomington, Ind., against a crestfallen bunch of Hoosiers, certainly fit that description. While Coach Tom Crean's kids outhustled and outworked the Wolverines, controlling the game's first 39 minutes in the process, Michigan used some improbable occurrences in the final minute of regulation to tie and then win this encounter in Assembly Hall.

With just 60 seconds left in regulation, a Wolverine squad intent on making an NCAA Tournament push found itself trailing IU, 59-53. Despite sensational non-conference wins over UCLA and Duke, a loss to the team picked last in the Big Ten's preseason poll would have dealt a serious blow to Michigan's postseason plans. Such a setback was staring the gold-shirted visitors squarely in the face. They would need a minor miracle to avoid an unmitigated disaster.
 
That miracle promptly arrived, courtesy of two primary sources: Hoosier guard Devan Dumes, and the front rim.
 
After UM's Manny Harris hit a three with just 43 seconds remaining, Indiana--still up by three (59-56)--knew that it could gain an advantage by merely holding the ball. Even if the Hoosiers didn't score, a 35-second shot-clock rundown would have put the game clock under 10 seconds, when the use of a well-timed foul can thwart a trailing team's attempt to get a tying three-point shot.
 
There was just one problem for Crean and company: On the most important possession of the evening, Devan Dumes allowed himself to get seduced by the chance for an easy basket.
 
When Indiana got the ball back with 43 seconds left, Beilein wisely pressed in the hope of speeding up the Hoosiers and tricking them into putting up a quick shot. Unfortunately for the home team, Dumes took the bait. Speeding down the left wing, Dumes caught an outlet pass and drove to the goal, but the ball got knocked loose, allowing the Wolverines to snag a steal and set up their offense with plenty of time remaining. Had Dumes backed the ball out and reset his team's offense, Indiana would have been able to milk the clock unless Beilein chose to foul. By falling for a fool's gold scoring chance, however, Dumes set the stage for Michigan's other big break in the final minute of the second half.

When the Wolverines looked for their game-tying triple, Laval Lucas-Perry--a transfer from Arizona--took the honors. His shot squarely hit the front rim, bounced in the air... and dropped straight into the basket. The unlikely bounce tied the game at 59-apiece, and when the unsettled Hoosiers launched an ill-advised three that missed with two seconds left, the Wolverines had gained a new life called overtime. After being down 44-24 early in the second half, the Wolverines--falling in love with the three-point shot instead of working for layups and feeding the ball to dependable post player DeShawn Sims--were bailed out by the three in the dying moments of regulation time. John Beilein teams are built around three-point shooting, and luckily for Michigan, the Wolverines had the right kind of makeup to scramble back from a big deficit. Indiana, meanwhile, relied too much on the three in the final minutes of regulation, getting away from the ball fakes and dribble drives that had enabled the Hoosiers to get layups against UM's defense.
 
In overtime, the Hoosiers clearly looked like a team that was thinking about the opportunity it had just squandered. Despite getting most of the game's loose balls and using better shot selection for most of the night, Indiana had nothing to show for its high-energy effort after 40 minutes of basketball. Forced to play an extra five minutes, IU felt the weight of the situation, panicking instead of regrouping.
 
The worried and mentally distracted Hoosiers missed four free throws in the extra stanza, while a Michigan team oozing confidence settled down at the offensive end of the floor. Patient in their half court sets and reliable at the foul line, Beilein's boys finally produced the high-percentage brand of ball that eluded them for most of the evening. By all rights, they shouldn't have survived against a less-talented but hungrier opponent. In the end, however, the Michigan men will take this notch in the win column, and try to realize that they need to play with great intensity each time they take the court.
 
On a night when North Carolina-slaying Boston College got ambushed at home by Harvard and former Michigan coach Tommy Amaker, this year's Michigan team received its own high-level education about the perils of playing soft. Losing is usually the best teacher, but on this night, John Beilein can only hope that a lucky win in Hoosierland will teach the Wolverines how to handle prosperity, and their place of prominence in the Big Ten race.

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