Iowa vs Michigan Recap: 73-87 L

This game was going okay. Then they played the second half.

Bullet points!

• 58.8%. That is the effective FG% that Iowa's Big 10 opponents have averaged against them in 9 conference games this year, after Michigan shot a 71.4% yesterday (86.54% in the second half!). Michigan's average on the year coming into yesterday's game was 51%. They basically shot 20% better than their season average against Iowa.
• Iowa also shot above their season average yesterday. Their 53.5% effective FG% was about 5% better than their 48.42% average on the season. Too bad that wasn't even close to enough.
• Michigan likes to shoot three pointers. This game was no different. They took 56 shots, and exactly half of them were three's. Out of those 28 three's, the Wolverines made exactly half of those. Their 50% 3pt FG% was about 16% higher than their season average. Their 67.8% 2pt FG% against Iowa, was also about 16% higher than their season average. 
• I almost called the a Basabe double-double in the preview for this game. Michigan's best post defender is Horford, and he doesn't play as much as Morgan and Smotrycz. Neither of which, had a chance against Basabe. Basabe had 25 points on 9-11 shooting (81.8% effective FG%) and on 7-8 from the free throw line. He also grabbed 8 rebounds (4 offensive and 4 defensive). That was good for 15.6% of all offensive and 21.7% of all defensive rebounds available while he was in the game. If only Iowa had like 5 more Basabe's. 
• Cartwright had a nice game today. He actually had an effective FG% above 50%, shooting 55% (yay!). He scored 11 points on 5-10 shooting with 1-2 from three point range. He also had 9 assists (screw you Darius Morris) and 0 (!) turnovers. Michigan is not a good defensive team, so this is mostly a result of Michigan being bad defensively, and not Cartwright becoming amazing overnight. Still good to see, though. 
• Gatens had a meh kind of game. He had 11 points on 4-9 shooting and went 1-2 from behind the arc (50% effective FG%). That is pretty much all he did. Well, besides play some interesting defense. But, whatever.
• May continues to struggle. This really needs to be fixed in the final month of the season.
• I'll say it again without parenthesis this time. Screw you Darius Morris. How did he get stuck playing on a half-court offensive team like Michigan? I mean, this game was literally the "Darius Morris Show". He did his best Jason Kidd impression by putting together a triple-double. He was the only Michigan player that didn't just sit behind the three point line all day. He actually drove to the basket and scored 12 points and also found guys like Morgan and Horford down low for big dunks. He found his teammates 11 times total, and pulled down 10 rebounds. Yeah. He's a point guard.
• Iowa lost the overall rebounding battle, as Michigan grabbed 52.73% of all rebounds compared to Iowa's 47.27%. Iowa did grab 69.57% of all defensive rebounds available compared to Michigan's 68.75%, and 31.25% of all offensive rebounds compared to 30.43%. It should also be pointed out that Michigan is a horrible offensive rebounding team, and that their 30.43% today was about 10% above their season average. Oh, how I miss the days of Iowa being good at rebounding. 
• Iowa ended 23.44% of their possessions with an assisted field goal, and only 15.6% of their possessions with a turnover. That was good for a 1.5 to 1 assist to turnover ratio. This is good.
• Michigan ended 39.29% (!) of their possessions with an assisted field goal, and 17.2% of their possessions with a turnover. That was good for an assist to turnover ratio of 2 to 1. This is not good. 
• Iowa averaged 1.14 points per possession. Michigan averaged 1.36 points per possession. Iowa is now averaging 0.99 points per possession in Big 10 play, while allowing 1.16 points per possession. Also, not good.