Big moment for the full house…an early jam bucket for Amare Bynum proved to be a perishing highlight for the Buckeyes in their rematch with Michigan. (Press Pros Feature Photos by Sonny Fulks)
The Wolverines bullied the Buckeyes on the backboards and everywhere else for their third straight win in the rivalry and sixth in the past seven meetings.
Columbus, OH – Michigan manifested its measurable advantages over Ohio State many times over in their second meeting.
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But if – and that’s a BIG if – the largest crowd this season at the Schottenstein Center clung to hope their Buckeyes had a second-half run in them to pull off a Super Bowl Sunday shocker, a seven-second sequence said no. Not today.
Veteran columnist Jeff Gilbert writes Ohio State and OHSAA sports for Press Pros Magazine.com.
Five minutes into the second half, Michigan’s 6-foot-9 Yaxel Lendeborg – possessor of the kind of long, strong, rangy Big Ten body the Buckeyes are missing – beat the Buckeyes on both ends.
First, Lendeborg blocked 7-foot Christoph Tilly at the rim, then got the ball out quickly to Morez Johnson Jr. – owner of another 6-9 body like the Buckeyes need – for a powerful two-handed dunk.
There was still 15:09 left. The lead was 54-39, and if you had been in denial to that point, you just knew. No upset alert. And maybe not ever for this Ohio State team, one that beats the teams it should but has yet to upset any in the Top 25.
Ohio State hung with the No. 2 Wolverines in a loss three weeks ago in Ann Arbor, playing with a more physical edge. They’ve played NCAA locks Illinois and Nebraska close at home. But the way Michigan flexed Sunday, the Buckeyes needed their best performance to get a signature Quad 1 win to move them in the right direction off the NCAA Tournament bubble.
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Not even close.
Michigan led the entire afternoon, dominated for an 82-61 victory and had plenty to do with Ohio State’s lack of physical presence.
Flushed….Michigan started the second half with a reminder of their athletic and physical dominance.
The Wolverines are big, strong, long, mature, talented and intimidating. To build a Final Four worthy team, second-year head coach Dusty May mastered the transfer portal, the place he found all five starters.
“They’re a good team, but they don’t belong in the same conversation as us,” Lendeborg said. “We’re serious about this, and we’re not gonna get big heads.”
Ohio State senior guard and four-year captain Bruce Thornton didn’t agree with Lendeborg’s talent assessment despite Ohio State (15-8, 7-6 Big Ten) existing for the second straight season on the NCAA bubble.
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“I don’t think it’s a talent difference,” Thornton said. “Michigan has a better team, but we let small things affect us today. We didn’t rebound like we were capable of. When you give up offensive rebounds to a good team, it’s hard to beat them.”
“I don’t think it’s a talent difference. Michigan has a better team, but we let small things affect us today. When you give up offensive rebounds to a good team, it’s hard to beat them.” – Bruce Thornton
Michigan (22-1, 12-1) built a 44-34 halftime lead with offensive rebounding and three-point shooting. A dozen offensive rebounds created a dozen points. And the Wolverines made 9 of 18 three-point shots with quick ball movement and offensive rebounds.
Those numbers shrunk in the second half. But that’s when the Wolverines attacked the basket, shot a much higher overall percentage and continued to force Ohio State into difficult shots and untimely turnovers. The Wolverines, in a phrase, can do it all.
Unlike Michigan, the Buckeyes are limited by size and depth. But head coach Jake Diebler wouldn’t make that excuse even after his team was outrebounded 44-31. Diebler, who said more than once he has a good team, thought more about the size of the fight in his dog than the size of his dog in the fight.
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“I don’t know that I would say there was a lack of effort – there was a major lack of physicality,” he said.
Diebler’s example was when Michigan shot, his team ran hard to the rim instead of running hard to box out. And Michigan took advantage.
Welcome home? Amare Bynum sets his sights on smacking the shot attempt of former Buckeye Roddy Gayle, Jr.
“That’s a lack of physicality, and that’s a lack of attention to detail,” he said. “Where I’m most disappointed is our lack of physicality today. We had that against them the first time. And to their credit, they saw some of that. And they hit us more than we hit them.”
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May cut Ohio State some slack by saying his team is a bad matchup for Ohio State because of size. The first question to Diebler sought his thoughts on what it will take to build an innately physical team like Michigan.
“This time of year we have to focus on the internal,” he said. “Everything that we’re doing right now is to be better in the controlables and to make sure that when we step foot on game day we’re at our best. That’s all we’re focused on right now.”
The next-to-last question to Diebler asked if he had checkpoints to gauge the building of the program. He bit more this time, but he reiterated the second half of the Big Ten schedule is time to focus on the next game more than recruiting.
“There’s some teams in our league this season that give us as a conference some top-of-the-country teams,” Diebler said. “We want to be there. That’s what we’re working towards. At the end of the season, we sit down and we figure out, ‘OK, how can we speed it up?’”
May was asked how he got Michigan to this point so fast after taking over the mess he inherited from Juwan Howard. He didn’t profess a secret strategy to last year’s 27-10 finish, Big Ten tournament championship, Sweet 16 appearance and this year’s lofty ranking.
“The way we played last year, we fell in love with a certain style of play and and identity,” May said. “We felt like we could be really big and fast. There wasn’t this master plan. We brought in good dudes who worked and wanted to build something together.”
“There was no master plan. We brought in good dudes who worked and wanted to build something together.” – Michigan coach Dusty May
May built the roster with team-first players, which was evident by how they shared the ball on offense, were connected on defense and crashed for rebounds on both ends.
“We knew it was going to be a super talented team, but they just welcomed us with open arms,” said Yaxelborg, who joined the team this year with Mara and Johnson Jr. “It was running from day one. Nobody has secret agendas.”
Despite all those Michigan advantages, basketball’s great equalizer can be that it’s a make or miss game. But that theory didn’t go the Buckeyes’ way either.
Ohio State had a good stretch of shooting in the first half to stay within striking distance of Michigan’s putbacks and 3-pointers. But they fell off as the game progressed, finishing at 36.4% and 7 of 22 from three-point range.
Thornton scored 16 points and Devin Royal overcame a one-for-six start to score 15. Christoph Tilly scored eight out of the gate, including two 3-pointers, and finished with 10. John Mobley Jr. had a difficult day with four points on one-of-nine shooting following his 22-point performance at Michigan.
Michigan’s defense ran John Mobley, Jr. off the three-point line and into the land of the giants.
Michigan ran him off the three-point line, where he was zero-for-three, and into the paint where Michigan’s giants awaited.
Michigan’s first-half three-point efficiency was aided by 7-foot-3 Aday Mara. He had missed his four three-point attempts this season. He made two in a row. Then he got dunks and hook shots to fall to score a career-high 24 points. Lendeborg was next with 14 points.
Since Ohio State won four of five against Michigan from 2020 to the first meeting in 2022, Michigan has won six of seven in the rivalry. Sunday’s 21-point loss is the most lopsided to the Wolverines since 99-73 at Michigan in 1989 and the most lopsided at home since 90-66 in 1976. Michigan was national runner-up to Indiana that year.
Such a resounding result gave the Michigan fans much to revel in. The fan whose shirt said Men (in Michigan colors) vs. Boys (in Ohio State colors) had reason to walk outside after the game with his coat off.
And the growing margin gave Michigan fans scattered around the Schott more than enough confidence to cheer late-game buckets and dunks with a chant of “Let’s Go Blue.”
Ohio State fans, who made up the most of the 17,684 in the seats, had seen and heard enough by then and remembered what Sunday was about for everyone else.
They left for their Super Bowl parties.
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