Michigan sets offense back decades in Sweet 16 loss to Texas Tech
By Kareem Gantt
Michigan had one of the worst offensive showings in NCAA Tournament history, making 1 of 19 three-point shots while only scoring 44 vs. Texas Tech.
The good news is that the Michigan Wolverines scored 40 points against the tough Texas Tech Red Raiders defense. The bad news is that the Red Raiders scored 63 points. So, do the math, and tell me what that equals to? If you guess offensive ineptitude, then you, my March Madness friend, would be correct.
Michigan went into their Sweet 16 matchup with Texas Tech fairly confident that their offense would discombobulate the Red Raiders aggressive swarming defense. Well, they were wrong.
Very wrong.
By the middle of the second half, we were openly questioning whether Michigan would do break a dubious Tournament record for fewest points scored in the shot clock era. They didn’t, but that wasn’t the type of comforting news that the fans back in Ann Arbor wanted to here.
Here’s the grizzly truth to Michigan’s offensive disaster.
The Wolverines shot only slightly north of 32 percent from the field, but it was from the three-point line where they’re abysmal offensive showing really shined, in all the wrong places. Michigan was a pathetic 1-for-19 from three-point land, which averages out to a 5.3 percent showing.
Their leading scorer was Ignas Brazdeikis with 17 points, but it took him 16 shots to achieve that. For the basketball novices out there, that’s not a model of efficiency.
As much as it’s easy to pile on this near-historic offensive train wreck, the fact of the matter is that it wasn’t that the Wolverines couldn’t produce points if their life depended on it, but the fact that the Red Raiders defense is simply that freaking good.
Texas Tech swarmed and ball-hawked Wolverine ball-handlers all night, and they couldn’t get anything going all night. Regardless, we didn’t foresee Michigan scoring just 44 points, but, then again, when Tournament time rolls around, anything can indeed happen.
Rest in Paradise, Michigan.
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