I just want to win something

Why get blown out when you can lose a heartbreaker?

In reality, Michigan had absolutely no right to win that game. They were out-rebounded by 17. Shot an anemic eFG% of 38.8% and had the good fortune of Michigan State's sloppiest game handling the ball all season, winning the turnover battle 18 to just 4 for Michigan; probably half of those turnovers were directly because of Michigan's defense, though, so we can't quite say it was all luck. Regardless, Michigan looked bad last night, and in most other circumstances, probably would've lost by double digits.

Instead, they lost because the refs swallowed their whistle and didn't call a blatant foul on the final play, an alley oop to Sims with 1.5 seconds left in the game.

I don't know what else to say, frankly. Manny Harris looked good, but you have to score more than 16 points on 13 shots. That's Rodney Stuckey numbers. You can't have that. But otherwise, he was collected and played within himself. The best thing he did, actually, was that when he drove into the lane and people converged, he pulled the ball out instead of looking for a foul which he invariably wouldn't get. One complaint, and maybe this is because I watch too much NBA basketball and want everyone to be Steve Nash, but on that two-man game he runs with Sims, when Sims rolls to the basket and both defenders are facing Harris, he has to make that pass between them. If he does that, Michigan gets 5 more open dunks a game. But these are small complaints and probably unrealistic. Probably Manny's best game all year.

Sims was great again. He airballed a three pointer that would've sealed it, but he was open and was shooting well. Plus, if I can recall, the shot clock was running down and he had two of his teammates on either side of him, which is to say, no cutters or anyone to pass to. Other than that, he looked strong on defense and has established a great baseline jumper. Sims is officially the most talented player on this roster.

The other guys were bad. Not much else to say there. Sans Sims, the team was 4-24 from three point range and the starters (remember, Manny didn't start here) scored a grand total of 17 points on 24 shots. Of the team's four turnovers, three of them came from Douglass who had his second straight terrible game, and one came from Novak. (Sidenote about Novak: The announcers kept saying what a great shooter he is, but that his shots just aren't falling this year. He shot 34% from three-point range last year and is shooting 28% this year. What about these numbers says "Good Three-Point Shooter" to you? Just because that's the only thing he does on offense, doesn't mean he's good at it.)

So what now? I don't know. If this were MGoBlog, there would be the picture of an otter. But it's not, so you just get more of my babbling.