Michigan Basketball Can Turn The Corner Against Indiana

After such a slow start to the Big Ten season, Michigan basketball could beat Indiana on Thursday and officially turn the corner.

For all the doomsday talk about Michigan basketball falling apart and John Beilein’s days in Ann Arbor being numbered, the Wolverines aren’t that far away getting their train back on track.

That could happen as soon as Thursday night when Michigan hosts Indiana (9 p.m. EST, ESPN2).

The Hoosiers have been falling apart recently, with the most devastating of injuries coming against OG Anunoby, who will have surgery on his right knee and miss the rest of the season. Forward Juwan Morgan may not be available against Michigan either; he’s been dealing with an ankle injury.

There’s also Collin Hartman, who suffered an ACL tear in September and will likely miss the whole season.

So Indiana is weighed down right now. That doesn’t mean Michigan wouldn’t gain a significant surge by beating the Hoosiers on Thursday night.

If that happens, it would be the first time in over a month that Michigan has won back-to-back games.

These Indiana-Michigan games have been exciting in recent history.

Michigan was destroyed by the Hoosiers in early February last season, but the Wolverines got revenge in the Big Ten tournament with a buzzer-beater 3-pointer that ultimately propelled them to the NCAA tournament.

The season before that saw Michigan lose a 3-point game at Indiana. In the 2013-14 season, Michigan beat Indiana in the final regular season game to win the Big Ten regular season outright for the first time since 1986; that win featured Jordan Morgan getting a double-double on his senior night.

The season before that ended in almost the exact opposite way, with Indiana traveling to Ann Arbor and escaping with a one-point victory.

Point being: These games have been exciting and close. There’s a good chance Thursday will be something similar to that. And getting away with a win in that kind of game could very well lift Michigan over this hurdle it’s been struggling to clear.

Indiana features the No. 1 offense in the Big Ten; Michigan ranks No. 2. Indiana has the No. 2 effective field goal percentage; Michigan is at No. 3. I could run through a few more metrics, but it would basically demonstrate that these are two really good offenses.

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Where it really gets interesting is that both defenses have been down and out for the most part. Though the Wolverines have been playing much better on that end through the last few games, their defensive efficiency rating is still last in the Big Ten. On the bright side, though, Indiana’s is No. 11.

To put it simply, opponents are very efficient and score points in bunches against both defenses.

Not that either offense is as talented as the ones that took the floor in the 2013-14 season for an 84-80 explosion in the season finale, but that feels like a score we could have on our hands Thursday night.

The Wolverines play Indiana and Michigan State twice each in the next five games. After that is another date with Wisconsin, and then Michigan travels to Minnesota. This is the stretch of games we’ve been looking at since before the season started. Now that it’s here, it’s more or less lived up to the expectation of being a tough patch to get through.

Michigan has played well enough to have won three straight games, and that includes a road match against Wisconsin. If Michigan can put together a fourth consecutive game like that—and to do it against an Indiana team that’s consistently given the Wolverines more than a handful to deal with recently—it might bring this team to the brink of stepping back into the thick of things in the Big Ten.

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Considering the things we were saying about Michigan in early January, what an accomplishment that would be.

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