They were hired less than two weeks apart last spring, each tasked with building Big Ten programs that were torn down to the studs. Eric Musselman and Dusty May had each taken wildly different paths in that process — Musselman stocking his USC roster with athletic wings, while May, at Michigan, built around two towering big men. But both had approached their brutal Big Ten slates in need of a statement, some kind of sign that showed their new teams could survive the gauntlet to come.
Months of soul searching had led USC to the brink of that moment Saturday, having fought its way back once, then again, then again, returning every haymaker from Michigan with a punch of its own. But as the shots stopped falling and the paint clogged up, USC ultimately could only hang on for so long in the second half, losing to Michigan, 85-74.
Desmond Claude had done his best to carry USC back from the brink, continuing his tremendous month with a 19-point performance. But Claude would draw his fifth foul with over three minutes remaining and USC down just two.
Michigan would bury USC from there, finishing with a 12-3 run that left the Galen Center filled with Wolverine fans roaring, “Go Blue!”
For USC (9-5, 1-2 Big Ten), the loss halted a four-game win streak. But even in defeat, the Trojans showed they could hang tough with a potential Big Ten power.
This was, for all intents and purposes, a nightmare matchup for USC on paper. All season, Musselman had lamented his team’s dearth of capable bigs, knowing it would make matching up with bigger frontcourts, like Michigan’s, difficult.
But a pair of towering 7-foot transfers couldn’t deter USC from driving fearlessly into the lane. Nor would they exactly bully the Trojans down low. USC, in fact, would render Vladislav Goldin, Michigan’s leading scorer, largely ineffective. He’d spend much of the second half sitting with four fouls.
Wesley Yates especially would weave his way through the paint at will, as the sophomore hit his first seven shots, among them several acrobatic efforts in the lane.
But Yates, too, would slow considerably in the final stretch, missing each of his last five shots as Michigan pulled ahead.
The Wolverines (11-3, 3-0) didn’t wait long to flash that offensive firepower Saturday night, firing one shot after another from long range. One of its 7-footers, Danny Wolf, even got in on the party, stepping back to sink a three over USC’s Chibuzo Agbo. Within the game’s first four minutes, Michigan hit all five of its three-point attempts, setting the tone for a high-flying affair.
The Trojans held on tight through that early barrage, climbing back just as quickly as Michigan had fired ahead. But while the Wolverines knocked down 10 first-half three-pointers — more than their season average — USC would do most of its work in the mid-range and at the basket, where Michigan’s pair of 7-footers had otherwise deterred most offenses.
Back and forth, the two teams traded buckets as competing chants echoed out from a split crowd of maize-and-blue and cardinal-and-gold. The lead would change 10 times in the first 20 minutes alone, the last coming as Michigan hit back-to-back three-pointers to close out the half.
But whatever momentum USC’s offense had mustered in the first half had faded by the start of the second. As Michigan hit six of its first seven shots out of halftime, USC went ice cold from the field, held scoreless for nearly four minutes. Claude turned the ball over on consecutive possessions. Then Yates followed with a bad pass on a third.
As Goldin hammered home a fast-break dunk and let out a roar, Musselman looked up at the scoreboard, with USC trailing by 15, less than four minutes into the second half.
Still, USC refused to fold, clinging on until the end, when Michigan gave it no choice but to give in.
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