Michigan Basketball: 3 keys, odds and a prediction vs Purdue

2. Take care of the basketball

On the road against Purdue, Michigan outshot the Boilermakers (55-51 percent) from the field and 44 percent to 27 at the 3-point line. However, U-M still lost the game. How? Extra possessions.

Purdue got a bunch of extra possessions. One reason was offensive rebounding. Purdue dominated on the boards (Dickinson had just two) and outrebounded the Wolverines 31-18, an effort that included 11 offensive rebounds.

Michigan has to keep that number in single digits tonight. The Wolverines also gave away possessions with 11 turnovers, many of them were unforced. Dickinson had four. Michigan needs to get those things cleaned up, otherwise upsetting No. 3 is going to be very difficult.

3. Carry the defense over from Penn State

Another thing that would help tremendously is a better defensive effort. Michigan was terrible in the first half against Penn State but allowed just 23 points over the final 25 minutes.

Eli Brooks was stellar and basically didn’t leave the floor. Dickinson, who wasn’t great offensively for Michigan Tuesday, was a force protecting the rim, and Michigan basketball found a way to win a game by getting stops.

We’ll see that comes into play tonight. But if the Wolverines are going to win, they need to avoid the mental errors which could mean not playing the Kobe Bufkin’s of the world.

I’m not sure how Juwan Howard can do that with another game on Saturday, which will be the fourth in the last seven days, but the young mistakes are killing Michigan basketball this season and the Wolverines have reached a point where they can’t afford it anymore.

Brooks, DeVante Jones, and Dickinson need to play as much as possible tonight. Brooks may need to play every single minute but the defense has to build on its second half from Saturday.