Michigan Basketball: Wolverines a Familiar Victim of Buzzer Beaters

The simultaneously thrilling and heartbreaking finish — depending upon your allegiance — to Saturday’s game between Michigan and Wisconsin wasn’t the first time the Wolverines were deprived of a Big Ten win by a buzzer-beater.

It wasn’t even the first time the Badgers delivered the sucker-punch.

Between the Evan Turner clincher — a near carbon copy of Ben Brust’s theatrics on Saturday — and the Josh Gasser backboard dagger, Michigan has become a repeat casualty of gut-wrenching losses over the last several years. While no amount of devastation will exceed the low-point of losing on the last shot to bitter rival Ohio State in the Big Ten tournament, Brust’s game-saving heave won’t help blot the images of other heartbreakers in recent UM history.

The best cure? Returning the favor in kind. Seeing how close Trey Burke has been on a pair of late 3s to either put Michigan ahead or even up the score — first in a loss to Ohio State and again in overtime versus Wisconsin — the Wolverines aren’t far off.