Michigan Basketball Can Beat Purdue Again In The Big Ten Tournament

Michigan basketball has already had its way once with Purdue this season, and the Wolverines can do it again on Friday in the Big Ten tournament.

Back on Feb. 25, Michigan basketball was playing its final home game of the season against a Purdue team that would go on to win the Big Ten regular season title.

Nobody told the Wolverines about that, though, and they ran all over the Boilermakers. The final score of 82-70 didn’t do a good job of reflecting just how lopsided that game was.

Moritz Wagner exploded for 22 first-half points and finished with 24. Derrick Walton Jr. had a double-double with 17 points, 10 rebounds and 5 assists. Duncan Robinson hit 3 of 4 3-pointers and had 11 points. As a team Michigan shot 11 of 26 (42.3 percent) from behind the arc and only turned the ball over nine times.

It seems fairly obvious to say teams should work like hell to shoot the bell well and not commit too many turnovers, but that’s exactly what the Wolverines have been doing lately. It’s not necessarily a goal; it’s just what they’ve been doing.

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In their opening win over Illinois on Thursday afternoon, they shot 54 percent from the field and only had seven turnovers.

Broadcasters were drooling over themselves during the Rutgers-Ohio State game Wednesday night when they were saying no one would be excited to play the Scarlet Knights, but that has to also be true of a Michigan team that’s continuing to catch its stride at the exact right time.

Wagner obviously had an incredible first half against Purdue in their first meeting. To expect him to replicate that performance might be a little too much to ask for, but what he did to get all those buckets (including four 3-pointers) can easily be replicated.

Purdue big men Isaac Haas and Caleb Swanigan were stretched more than they’re used to on defense, and it freed up the Wolverines offense to get a lot of high-percentage looks that they converted.

Defensively Michigan did a great job disrupting Purdue’s normal offensive flow, and the Wolverines limited Swanigan to only two offensive rebounds. The 7-foot-2 Haas only had three.

Michigan already got Purdue once, and the formula it used to do that is one that can be replicated on Friday afternoon in Washington D.C.

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At this point the Wolverines are playing to jockey for a better position in the NCAA tournament—it’s a virtual guarantee they’re in now—and another win over the Boilermakers would go a long way in helping that cause.

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