I thought it couldn’t get any more ridiculous than Evan Turner’s buzzer beater.

Never, ever, leave them open on the perimeter like that.

Why not just concede the 2? How about make free throws. We do that, we win.

ya’ll dont even know how depressed I am right now, Im bout to cry. We had to deal with Kalin Lucas in the reg season last year, then evan turner’s miracle half court shot and then this lucky shot. I mean are you kidding me, we had this.

I said earlier I thought we were being set up for heartbreak, but that was unreal. How does that happen to us two years in a row?

It’s not over, folks. We just played the toughest team left on the regular-season sked. Let’s go thump Minny and Sparty. . . and make a couple of FTs down the stretch. Really fun game, btw.

Because Morris always has to have the ball in his hand,we couldnt actually get it to someone who can make a clutch freethrow.I know thats harsh,Ime just tired of these heartbreakers.

Only saw the box score which listed a whole bunch of weird fouls on our guys towards the end… thought it might be a computer error, either that or Bo Ryan’s whipped referees rushed over from the Kohl to help him over the edge once again.

Well gents, it was a good year. We mustered a lone big win in East Lansing and made cocky guys like Bill Self and Thad Matta break a sweat in Ann Arbor. Remember this: next year, senior teams like OSU, Illinois and Purdue will be decimated, and the other conference contenders all lose their best and brightest. Meanwhile, our guys will be vets, maybe not upperclassmen, but more experienced than the inevitable All-Americans and Mr. Basketballs than Izzo and Matta lure with dreams of NBA cash. if we want to be great next year, we can, behind the play of great guys like Darius, Tim, Jordan, Zack and Evan. And Stu, don’t forget Stu, Sure, maybe Bo Ryan will continue to find ginger-haired nobodies with the glassy stares of Idaho Freemen to drop three-bombs on us while their fans spit on our players. (No amount of luck will get them past the sweet sixteen, however). Still, a year from now we should be able to muster a top-4 finish in conference — or we need to start asking questions. But for now, no questions. Just thanks, guys, for a great season. And a great blog.

Now beat Tubby and beat State and at least ruin a few other teams’ seasons, even if ours slipped away tonight.

Michigan had trouble the last few possessions with the Gasser and Taylor hand-off exchange (Hardaway got called for a foul with about 8 sec. left where he almost missed a switch and gave Taylor a look at the 3). Wisconsin came right back to it. Timmy did his job, but it looks like Stu panics a little, tires to make a play, ends up out of position, and Gasser pulls that shot out of his arse.

No disrespect,but I dont want Michigan to have a good year in a weak bigten next year.I want the bigten to be as strong as possible and Michigan to have a good year,and once the tourney starts I will be rooting for all the bigten cause we need a NC in the worst way and unfortunately its not going through AA.But yes next year should be fun,and I think Michigan is taking the necessary steps to Elite status no matter what happens the rest of the way.Go Michigan.Go Bigten.

I feel sick to my stomach. That was Rasheed leaves Horry wide open in Game 5 level crushing. I feel totally deflated. This team deserves better, they’ve been a joy to watch this year. I worry that at a certain point they’ll tighten up in close games because they haven’t been able to get over the hump.

All that said, the fact that I’m even feeling these emotions on February 23rd is incredible. This team had no chance at the beginning of the year. Realistically, they will enter the NIT with a real chance to make a deep run. That is a wild success based on the expectations we all had at the beginning of the season.

The second paragraph doesn’t make me feel any less disgusted. That shot didn’t look anywhere near good when he let it go. It looked way long. And it goes in? Sickening.

Tough loss lets face it NCAA tourney was a pipe dream. We don’t have one senior who plays. We lost to one of the best teams in the nation by a last second lucky shot. I’m bitter and you know the team is feeling bitter, just like after the Illinois loss. But people are watching this game. I heard us compared to a mystery team (Butler) at halftime on the BTN. Let Michigan play Butler in the first round actually let’s see Butler play in the Big Ten. But to be the best you gotta beat the best that’s why these annoying little teams with great records stink and are empty comparisons (they’ll never win a NCAA title anyway).

Anyway we can roll over or we can win at Minn. and against MSU and see what happens but true champions always rise above.

I’m fairly certain that ruining any flow in the game is not a good strategy. Fouling intentionally over and over puts your defense on its heels. And yes, teams do usually shoot with ten to go or so when they trail by two. Have you watched any games ever?

How does a team learn to win?

This game, Illinois, OSU, Kansas, we were in all of those games until the end but our demeanor was like we were getting away with murder by even being in the games. Jumpy and hesitant. Even the Indiana and MSU games we had comfortable leads and all but blew it.

I think (and hope) it primarily comes from experience, but also I think it comes from the attitude and confidence (swagger?) that you WILL win the game and the other team will have to do something spectacular to wrestle it away from you. When you have that attitude free throws are expected to drop and are a surprise when they miss, not the other way around.

We’re young, we’ll learn, and hopefully we’ll develop that swagger.

Too many results oriented people here. We just ran bad.

We lost a heartbreaker but there are some positives to take away from this game. Vogrich and Smotryz should walk away from this game with some confidence. Vogrich looked real good both times he came around the pick and shot right away..his feet were set he went straight up. Hardway should continue to have sky high confidence in his offensive game. Darius always seems like such a confident guy I hope that his missed FTs and turnover (esp the one to Vogrich/the front row) late in the game serve as a little extra motivation for these next couple of games.

If we beat Minny and Sparty then end up winning in the 4 vs 5 B10 tourney game I think we get in the NCAA tourney even w/o beating the 1 seed.

I will save my thoughts on the game itself and the last play for the post game thread whenever that gets up (aside, gotta say fantastic work by Dylan and Co. for getting all the postgame vids up. I know if I was doing this, I would be crying in the corner alone with my bottle), but on my feeling after the game.

I gotta say this feels completely different than the OSU game. Well maybe not completely different, since both were big dong punches. But with the OSU game, I went into it expecting nothing, largely because the team had given me nothing to expect for most the year. Then they found themselves in a game at the end and looking like they were going to win. When the shot went in, I went thru all the emotions, but I was left with a feeling that it was sort of fitting considering the year that happened. Not that the guys on the team deserved it, just that as a fan, it felt fitting considering all the hype went for not.

Tonight, it is an utterly different taste that is left in my mouth. To start with, I went into this game expecting them to win. Not for any sane reason, but just because I felt like and still feel like, this team has something special. So when the game was where it was at the end, I fully expected that shot to brick off the backboard and everyone to exhale. From my vantage point, it looked like a complete brick the whole way. After it went in, I went thru all the stages of emotion again much like OSU. But after sitting on this for several hours and drinking heavily, I feel much different than I did post-OSU.

The feeling is pretty much epitomized by what I have been saying for the last several hours, “that didnt happen. no way.” I still cant believe it. This is isnt fitting. This isnt how this is supposed to go down. We won that game darnit. And the more and more that I say that, the more and more I have to remind myself that I am a fan, that these are a bunch of kids (for real kids, not upperclassmen) and that what they have done this year has and is remarkable. Absolutely nothing has been given to this team. They have had to work their tails off everyday just to get into this position (a position that no one expected them to be in). Because of that, I doubt nothing that they believe they can accomplish.

With the OSU loss their also came a feeling of finality. The team at least in that incarnation was gone, but with this team, there is no finality. Only hope remains. Hope in the form of a bunch of young kids that are only learning how to become men. These are the battles that will make them men and will bring not only us fans great satisfaction in watching them accomplish great things but will also bring them to the places only they thought and believed they would get to. Go Blue!