Michigan won the glass in Boston and lost the free-throw line by twelve

UConn beat Michigan 85-77 on Friday night at TD Garden, and the game was decided at the free-throw line. UConn made 30 of 36. Michigan made 18 of 23. That is twelve points in a game Michigan lost by eight.

Everything else on the box score went Michigan's way or close to it. Michigan took 35 rebounds to UConn's 33. It held UConn to nine offensive rebounds, after UConn took 22 in the April 6 title game and Oakland took 21 on Monday. Michigan had 15 second-chance points to UConn's seven and 38 points in the paint to UConn's 24. It made three more field goals than UConn, 26 to 23, and outscored UConn 59-55 from the floor.

The second half is where the free throws piled up. UConn made eight field goals after halftime, on 23 attempts. It made 23 free throws, on 28. Michigan won the half 47-42 and still never got closer than eight, because it had trailed 43-30 at the break after going 1 of 8 from three.

Where the fouls landed#

Michigan was charged with 26 fouls to UConn's 22, and the count matters less than who carried them.

Elliot Cadeau was charged with two fouls 19 seconds apart early in the second half, at 15:03 and 14:44, and went to the bench. He came back, was charged again at 10:52, sat again, and fouled out with 2:16 left and Michigan down 80-68. He played 28 minutes, made 3 of 11 shots and had five turnovers to three assists.

Moustapha Thiam, the starting center, played his first game of the season and had four fouls in 15 minutes. J.P. Estrella played 32 minutes at the other end of that problem, scored 19 on 6-of-7 shooting and also finished with four fouls. Jalen Reed, the next big man in, played four minutes and was charged with two fouls in the last two and a half minutes of the first half.

So the two positions Michigan can least afford to lose for long, the point guard and the center, spent the game in foul trouble. That is a rotation problem before it is a whistle problem.

The cover that did not hold#

At Michigan's media day on October 22, Mike Boynton described Kenny Noland's role as "stability if Elliot's in foul trouble," per 247Sports' transcript. Friday was the night that description was written for.

Noland checked in for Cadeau the first two times he went to the bench in the second half. He played six minutes in all, missed both of his shots, had one assist and was charged with three fouls. The second time, Gayle replaced him with more than a minute of Cadeau's absence still left.

His minutes across Michigan's five games against outside opponents this fall, off Michigan's official box scores, next to Ricky Liburd's:

Two regular-season games is not a trend, and in one of them foul trouble shaped every minute of the second half. But the direction is the same both nights. Noland's minutes have fallen in each game since Oregon State, and Liburd took 19 on Friday, the most he has played in any of the five.

The bench as a whole played 58 of Michigan's 200 minutes and scored eight points. UConn's bench played 64 and scored 18.

The players who did hold#

Trey McKenney scored 22 in 36 minutes and made 4 of 9 threes. The rest of Michigan made 3 of 19. Roddy Gayle Jr. started for the second straight game, played 31 minutes and scored 18, with 6 of 6 from the line and three steals. Braylon Mullins led UConn with 23, and 10 of them came on free throws.

The glass, which was the open question going into Boston, looks closed for now: Thiam's return gave Michigan two bigs who could rebound, and Estrella and Thiam took 14 between them. The question Boston opened is who plays point guard for Michigan when Cadeau is sitting with four fouls in the second half, and the answer on Friday was a rotation that went to Noland twice and then to Gayle.

Michigan plays Marquette on Wednesday, November 11. If Cadeau picks up his fourth foul again, the name that checks in for him will say more about the plan than anything said at media day.