Michigan Basketball: Wolverines find groove in win over Minnesota

Michigan basketball scored an impressive win over Minnesota Thursday night in what was the Wolverines most complete performance in weeks.

Going into the road game against Minnesota Thursday night at the Barn, there were plenty of reasons to be concerned as a Michigan basketball fan.

But after the way the Wolverines dominated the Golden Gophers on both ends of the floor, it’s hard not to be bullish on what Michigan basketball can do over the final weeks of the season following the 69-60 win that will count as another quadrant 1 win.

Outside of notching another impressive win and adding a 15th victory over a top-100 team in the NET rankings, the victory also allowed the Wolverines to keep pace with Michigan State and Purdue in the Big Ten Race.

The Spartans beat Rutgers at home Wednesday to get to 13-3 and following UM’s win over Minnesota Thursday, the two rivals are tied in the Big Ten standings heading into their showdown Sunday at Crisler Center. Purdue is also a half-game back at 12-3.

In the first half, Michigan wasn’t great offensively, but a hot start allowed Michigan to build a 17-6 lead after a 3-pointer by Zavier Simpson. Jordan Poole was also lights out early and after knocking down an early trey, right before Ignas Brazdeikis hit from deep, Poole hit two more times, the last of which put UM in front 28-16.

Minnesota closed the deficit to 10 in the final seconds of the opening half, but in the second half, the Wolverines took control thanks to Brazdeikis who hit from deep again and then scored inside to put Michigan up 33-20.

Twice in the second half, the Wolverines went up by 18 points against a Minnesota team fighting for an NCAA tournament berth. The first time was when Jon Teske nailed a trey to put Michigan basketball up 40-22. Minutes later, Poole hit his fourth trey of the game which made it 43-25.

The 3’s continued to rain down in the second half for the Wolverines, as Poole hit again to push the lead to 20. Teske also made two more 3-pointers down the stretch to keep Minnesota’s late rally at bay.

When the clock hit triple zero, Michigan finished with 13 3-pointers after shooting 46.4 percent from deep. Poole broke out for 22 points, while Teske had 17 points, seven rebounds and five blocks in a huge performance for the 7-foot-2 center. Iggy added 10 points and Simpson scored only five points, but he tore down six rebounds, had three steals and dished out 12 assists.

On the other end, Michigan limited the Gophers to 37.3 percent overall and just 1-of-10 shooting from beyond the arc. Jordan Murphy had 18 points and 15 boards as the Gophers outrebounded Michigan 45-38, yet when it was all said and done, it didn’t matter.

Most importantly, after a grueling stretch, Michigan basketball looks to have found its groove again and with four challenging games ahead, including two versus Michigan State, it couldn’t have happened at a better time.