Michigan played even with Penn State throughout the second half, but even wasn't enough as the Wolverines fell to the Nittany Lions 69-61 on Saturday night.
Freshman Manny Harris had a career game, scoring a personal best 29 points on 8 for 21 shooting in the loss, However Penn State's Taylor Battle has career highs in points (28), rebounds (13), and assists (6).
The story of this game can easily be told by looking at the three pointers taken and made. Penn State shot an incredible 55% (12-22) from downtown, whereas Michigan put up an incomprehensible thirty one three pointers, only making nine of them (29%).
Michigan would have been right in the thick of the game to the very end had they done better from the charity stripe (they went 12-20), however it's unfair to blame the loss on free throws or three pointers.
This team is very young, and very inexperienced. It was unrealistic to expect anything great out of this team this season. Manny Harris is just a freshman, and he should definitely stick around for a few more years, and hopefully the team will mature around him. The inexperience, miscommunication, and other intangibles aren't going to go away too soon, and until then, this team will be a bottom dweller in the Big Ten.
A win on Saturday against Purdue (televised nationally on CBS) on Senior Night would be huge. For the sake of the kids that do go out there day in and day out and give it their all, I hope we can end this disappointing season with a shocker. Go out and support our boys.
Buy tickets for the Purdue game here.Photo Courtesy: MGoBlue
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