Michigan is a legitimate national title contender. Chaundee Brown is a key reason why.

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Michigan faced its biggest test of the season on Sunday and passed it with flying colors.

Hunter Dickinson is grabbing most of the postgame headlines, and rightfully so. He had a team high in points (22) and rebounds (9) and the offense ran through him in the second half when Michigan’s hot 3-point shooting cooled down as Ohio State shifted its focus to the perimeter.

But I can only write “Hunter Dickinson is good” in so many different ways before it growing stale. Dickinson a lock for Big Ten Freshman of the Year and has endeared himself to Maize and Blue fans almost instantly.

Instead, I want to focus today on Chaundee Brown. He may not be a starter on this year’s team and he may not be someone who fans got to see grow with the program over the years, but he was a key reason Michigan pulled off a huge road win over a projected No. 1 seed on Sunday.

That’s equally because of timely shooting on the offensive end and relentless effort on the defensive end.

Marc-Grégor Campredon / MGoBlog

I’m still definitely a novice when it comes to video editing, but I’m working on getting better at it so I can incorporate it more in my coverage in this newsletter. With that in mind, I put together a 6-7 minute video breakdown of Chaundee Brown’s contributions on Sunday. You can view it below.

Video breakdown

Post-script

My favorite stat of Sunday's game: Not only did Chaundee Brown score 15 points on just 8 shot attempts (0 trips to the FT line), but all 15 of his points came while Michigan was either trailing or tied. The more I think about that, the more impressive it is.

Every hoop he made was crucial. And they oftentimes came at times when Michigan needed them to halt a pending OSU run. Instead, Ohio State never got a lead that was greater than 5 points. And coincidentally, when the Buckeyes took that 5-point lead, the next thing that happened was an immediate Brown triple.

Brown didn’t just score 15 points on Sunday. He scored 15 much-needed points.

Coverage elsewhere

If you’re still not sick of Michigan-Ohio State coverage yet, there’s some more stuff below.

• I spoke about Michigan’s big win, the schedule ahead and even some Michigan football stuff on the radio with Sam Webb this morning. You can listen to that discussion here.

• Here’s a collection of some of my tweets from Sunday’s game, too:

Scott Bell @sbell021

The Michigan Wolverines just walked into Columbus and beat projected No. 1 seed Ohio State in a true road game. It's now a two-team race for the B1G regular season title. Michigan is 11-1 in B1G play. Illinois is 12-3. All other B1G schools have at least 5 conference losses.

Scott Bell @sbell021

Michigan’s 5-point win over No. 4 Ohio State in men’s hoops was statistically Michigan’s least impressive win over Ohio State of the weekend. Michigan beat OSU in hockey by 6 and it beat the OSU women in hoops by 9.

Scott Bell @sbell021

Michigan just went through the football and basketball regular seasons without losing to Ohio State. Big 1, Little 13.

Scott Bell @sbell021

Ohio State is a very good basketball team. It played very well today. It got a number of fortunate calls. And it gets a big fat L to show for it.

Scott Bell @sbell021

Charging calls have been consistent in the sense that one team consistently gets the calls and one team consistently does not.

Scott Bell @sbell021

Michigan's offense is operating better than Ohio State's. The Buckeyes are making some great shots and there are some good individual efforts being made by OSU players. But Michigan's sets are routinely yielding great looks for Michigan players. U-M has 14 assists. OSU has 6.

Scott Bell @sbell021

These are definitely a pair of No. 1 seeds in the NCAA Tournament. This matchup has been as advertised and then some.

Scott Bell @sbell021

I, for one, am shocked that there are some controversial calls being made in a game played between a pair of top-5 Michigan/Ohio State teams in Columbus.

Scott Bell @sbell021

3li Brooks hitting a pair of shots that are about as important as they can get with 36+ minutes to play. Ohio State came out hot and really had a chance to build a big lead early. Massive answers from Brooks.

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Mailbags

Each week, Scott takes questions from readers on Michigan sports and life in general. Here’s a full archive of all of those mailbags:

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