Michigan Basketball: Wolverines make a statement against Minnesota

Michigan basketball didn’t just beat Minnesota Wednesday night, it dominated the 16th-ranked Gophers and proved its a Big Ten contender.

This game against Minnesota was supposed to be Michigan basketball‘s toughest test. But for the second game in a row, Juwan Howard cleared the bench in a blowout win well before it was over.

At least in terms of game time, because this game was over when Michigan basketball opened the second half on a 33-8 run. It was an incredible performance but something we have come to expect from the 10th-ranked Wolverines who are now 10-0 overall and 5-0 in the Big Ten.

Liam Robbins was supposed to be the guy to finally give Hunter Dickinson a run for his money and instead, Dickinson shredded him.

https://twitter.com/BigTenNetwork/status/1347022365645889538

The 7-foot-1 freshman might have even had the best game of his young Michigan basketball career. He scored a career-high 28 points, made 12-of-15 shots and grabbed eight rebounds. His defense was solid too.

Beyond Dickinson, there were two really impressive things about the win and one of those was the way the Wolverines played defense.

Michigan built a double-digit lead in the first half, but it was cut to six by the halftime break. Yet, the Wolverines put the clamps down and held Minnesota to 28 percent shooting, at least that was the number when U-M cleared the bench.

Marcus Carr was 5-of-16 and Robbins 2 of 8 and scored just five points. The Wolverines also owned the boards as they did against Northwestern on Sunday and they also dominated in the paint as they have done all season.

Much of that has to do with Dickinson, who is one of the best interior finishers in the Big Ten, but Franz Wagner, Isaiah Livers and even Brandon Johns, who went 3-for-3 dominated inside and that allowed the Wolverines to crush Minnesota despite making just four 3-pointers.

Under John Beilein, that just never happened and this kind of win required a bunch of treys. But with Dickinson, Wagner and others, the Wolverines don’t always need to hit a bunch of threes, not when they can own the paint.

Michigan is long, athletic, physical and I see no reason why the Wolverines shouldn’t be one of the 3-4 favorites to win the Big Ten championship, because after this start, they are certainly in a strong position.

And following a statement win over the Gophers, maybe the doubters will stop talking about the schedule or lack of one.