All right. Welcome on to the Wolverine basketball show. Clayton Safety with Chris Ballas. We're here at Capital One Arena in Washington, D.C.

Recapping, Michigan 68 to 63 loss to Duke.

What an atmosphere?

Incredible atmosphere. Had a tournament type of field. Both coaches kind of said that. And they got what they were, you know, trying to get out of this thing from that standpoint. It was a high-level game. It was a slug fest, as Dusty May called it. It wasn't a lot of rhythm in the second half. But, man, the first half was really entertaining. Yax O'Lendaborg looked like, you know, national player of the year type of player. For six to eight minutes, especially. Yes. Yeah. We thought we were headed for one of those 90 to 88 years, right? Yeah. And Boozer looked the part of the national player of the year at times as well. Fault trouble from him, followed trouble from Mara, Johnson, followed trouble from some of the Duke guards. So kind of different in that way. What was your biggest takeaway? Why was Michigan not able to get this time? Yeah, well, first things first, it felt like a tournament game, but it didn't because you didn't have the butterflies that you would in a one and done type setting. And you're thinking, oh, my God, if they lose this game, we're going home, we don't get to cover this team anymore, right? Now you're thinking, okay, on to Minnesota, on to Illinois, and those are the games that really matter. You hate to say thank you next, but that's kind of what it is.

And... Now you're thinking, okay, on to Minnesota, on to Illinois, and those are the games that really matter.

You hate to say thank you next, but that's kind of what it is.

And you learn a lot. They did some things, uncharacteristic things play in this game that really were the reasons they lost. Getting hammered on the boards, number one, was disappointing, right? 41 to 28.

And Dusty May did talk in the post game about how good Duke is at following their shots

and knowing where that ball is going to go.

And they work in that. But getting lost on defense, I think, three or four times down the stretch or at least a couple of times. Once I have a timeout, they're up by one. They give an alley-oop when they get lost and then it happens again. Some uncharacteristic things. And then they didn't shoot well either.

And it's still one possession game down the stretch. So a lot to say, hey, you know, if we play this team again, we're going to have a really good shot to win. Yeah, the loose balls, the offensive rebounds, they all went Duke's way. It wasn't that Michigan didn't want it. Duke might have wanted it a little bit more. And we just came, and, you know, I guess

that would be almost resulting to a certain extent, as Dusty May calls it, because a couple of things go your way, you hit three more threes. I mean, Michigan finishes six to 25 from three in this game. A lot of them good looks. Two of Lendiborgs that went out, you know, were in and out. He ended up three of nine from three.

So you had some opportunities there.

And if Elliot Cadill just hits... you know, we're in and out. He ended up three of nine from three.

So you had some opportunities there.

And if Elliot Kadoe just hits two of the ones that he has been making all year, then it's a game. You're right there. You win by a point. So that's the thing. That's what you have to take from this is that, okay, we had some shots. The fact that Elliot Cadoe passed up that last shot for Lenderbord, his last three.

Actually, maybe it was the one before the one. shots. The fact that Elliot Kadoe passed up that last shot for Lenderboard, his last three.

Actually, maybe it was the one before the one. Then, well, let me just say this, though,

the guard play I thought from Michigan, you had Elliott Kado's performance. Dusty May said,

hey, I'm riding with Elliot Kadoe. If a couple of his threes that he normally hasn't,

a couple of them were those deep threes from the left wing that he normally makes. Those go in. Then it's a different ball game from, and it's not a talking point as much. But Namari Burnett, 0 for three from the field, scoreless. Trey McKinney came in. I thought he made some nice plays and played some good defense. He had a couple dumb files two points one of six

from the field l jason you you may look at the film uh tomorrow and in tonight on the flight back

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