Michigan Basketball: 3 keys and a prediction for Wolverines vs Ohio State

2. Keep dominating ball screens

Purdue proved to be a good matchup for Michigan because the Boilermakers don’t defend very well and the same can be said about Ohio State. The Buckeyes aren’t very good at defending ball screens either and that’s something Michigan can take advantage of.

DeVante Jones was masterful on Thursday against Purdue and wound up with 10 assists, as well as some buckets out of ball-screen actions. He’s really come into his own and has proven me and many others wrong with his improvement.

Jones has figured out how to play point guard in the Big Ten and the Wolverines have found a way to make it so defenses can’t sag off and try to turn him into a scorer, as teams used to do to Zavier Simpson.

The answer has been the pick-and-pop. As Dylan Burkhardt of UMHoops discussed in a recent podcast (worth a listen) Dickinson has been incredible in pick-and-pop situations shooting better than 60 percent. He’s one of the best pick-and-pop shooters in college basketball.

Juwan Howard and U-M have leveraged that shooting and a nice wrinkle against Purdue was getting Diabate more involved as the roll guy to the bucket. Teams can’t help off Dickinson, who is sitting beyond the 3-point line and if Diabate gets any type of angle, he’s an elite finisher.

So, the Wolverines just need to keep dominating with ball screens and that’s really about Dickinson hitting those 3-point attempts and mid-range jumpers. Jones has to do his thing too but with the spacing Dickinson now provides, it’s much easier for him to operate.

And another result of this is that Caleb Houstan and Eli Brooks are starting to get more open looks and it has paid off — each made four triples against the Boilermakers.