It was an All-Airport team, one of those that looked grand strolling up to its departure gate. The reason for that was its imposing size, which featured 6-foot-11-inch center Courtney Sims and 6-8 forward Brent Petway.
It was an All-Press Guide team, one of those that looked daunting as you read down its roster. The reason for that was its starting lineup, which included not only those two seniors, but also fifth-year senior swingman Lester Abram, true senior point Dion Harris and junior forward Ron Coleman.
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It was an All-Figure team, one of those that looked impressive when you saw the numbers next to its name. The reasons for that were right there in Wednesday morning’s paper, which showed it 16-4 overall, 4-1 in the Big Ten and tied with Ohio State at second place in the conference race.
Yet there was still skepticism about this team from Michigan, which had baffled and befuddled in seasons just passed and had not reached the NCAA tournament since 1998.
It long had been talented, everyone had said that. But when the spotlight was brightest, when the stakes were steepest, when the heat came at it as if blown from a blast furnace, it had withered, wilted and failed to meet the moment.
That certainly had been true of this season’s Wolverines, whose most impressive achievement had been an early-January victory at home over Illinois. But they had had some embarrassing losses before the New Year to North Carolina State, UCLA and Georgetown.
Its past, those performances and its 14-point loss at Purdue on Jan. 13, were the reasons for that skepticism, but now was their opportunity to white all of that out. For on this Wednesday night they were at the Kohl Center to face No. 2 Wisconsin and that gave them a gaudy stage to assert themselves and let all know that they were truly legit.
A victory here, even a courageous performance, would erase so many doubts about them, yet the Wolverines managed only to call up their past as Wisconsin ran its winning-streak to 16 straight with a 71-58 victory. Brian Butch and Alando Tucker each scored 16 for the Badgers (20-1, 6-0).
Wednesday’s game opened as if this were indeed a new Michigan team. The Wolverines played some impressive defense, ran off nine straight points and, with just more than two minutes gone, were up by nine in front of a suddenly silent Kohl Center crowd. But then they reverted to some old refrains.
Their defense waned, they started reaching and they got into foul trouble. Their offense fell stagnant and they often looked aimless as they suffered through long droughts. They took bad shots and missed and missed the good shots they took. They committed some errors under duress and other errors out of carelessness.
As a result, they had a dozen turnovers in the first half and managed just 17 points in the final 17 1/2 minutes of the period.
The Badgers hardly resembled the second-best team in the nation, especially with Tucker sitting out the last 12 minutes of the half with two fouls. But they did not buckle under the Wolverines’ early blitz, nor did they stumble with their star on the bench. They simply steeled themselves, called on their experience and looked for another way to win.
They found it with their defense, which continued to confound the Wolverines, and they found it with Butch, who led them to a seven-point halftime lead. He then catalyzed a Badgers spurt early in the second half that quickly built their margin to 15 and, with that, the reality was clear.
This was SOM: Same old Michigan.
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