Michigan 75, Ohio State 69: No Hunter, No problem

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There was 1:06 left in the first half of Michigan’s regular season finale in Columbus against rival Ohio State — a game being played without Michigan’s star player, Hunter Dickinson. And it was beginning to feel like there were only 21 minutes and six seconds of game action left until Michigan went from being on the right side of the bubble to the dreaded “work to do” distinction, just one short week away from Selection Sunday.

After Michigan admirably held serve in the first 18 minutes of Sunday’s contest, a back-and-forth battle that saw 13 lead changes and no team holding a lead greater than four points in those opening 18 minutes, Ohio State strung together a late run, bringing the Scarlet and Gray faithful to their feet. When Michigan took a timeout after Joey Brunk dunked the ball to give Ohio State a 35-28 lead thanks to his own personal 6-0 run, the Value City Arena DJ started blaring “Mr. Brightside,” much to the delight of a sold out crowd enjoying its biggest lead of the game.

Mr. Brightside, eh? Interesting song choice. But possibly a coincidence?

Midway through the timeout, said in-arena DJ switched away from Mr. Brightside and decided to go with … Endor’s “Pump It Up” as its new song.

Ok then. So much for subtlety.

If there’s a song more associated with the University of Michigan athletics than Mr. Brightside, it’s Pump It Up. And it became clear that Ohio State had elected to go in full Troll Mode to get its crowd fired up.

Look, if there’s someone that can appreciate some high-level trolling, it’s me. But the first rule of Troll Club is Don’t Poke The Bear If You’re Not Ready For The Consequences. And no matter how tempting it was to poke said bear — especially on Sunday when the bear just happened to be 7 feet shorter and 260 pounds lighter than expected — no matter how pumped up Ohio State fans felt in the moment and no matter how good that 86.8% in-game win probability on ESPN.com’s Gamecast may have felt in the final minute of the first half, that whole “second half” thing sure offers a lot of time for consequences to manifest.

And boy, did they ever.

In the second half, the bear fought back. Michigan, led by a determined DeVante’ Jones whose only taste of postseason basketball prior to coming to Ann Arbor has been Coastal Carolina’s near-annual participation in the CBI, closed the game on a 47-34 run after the Mr. Brightside/Pump It Up mash up.

Clutch threes, timely steals, a master class in the two-man game on the pick-and-roll. Michigan had it all in the second half. And Jones was at the center of all of it.

Michigan came into Columbus desperately needing another Quad 1 win to give its resume one final boost to close the regular season. And that’s exactly what the Wolverines got in the form of a 75-69 win.

Here are my takeaways from the victory — maybe not Michigan’s most statistically impressive win of the season, but probably it’s most impactful (and necessary) one: