Michigan basketball isn't the first team to get its doors blown off inside Mackey Arena and it won't be the last. Still, the 91-64 loss to Purdue was surprising.
But maybe it shouldn't be. All season long, the Wolverines have struggled with turnovers. During conference play, they have been the worst team in the Big Ten at protecting the ball. Purdue has been the best.
Trey Donaldson had some early turnovers, and it snowballed from there. It was 13-2 Purdue in the blink of an eye. The game was over about 10 minutes in. Purdue is now 8-2 in the Big Ten. Michigan basketball is 6-2. U-M is 14-5 overall and here are three things we learned.
Turnovers are still the bugaboo
This Purdue was a major test for Michigan basketball for a few reasons. Not only was it the first matchup for Michigan against another Big Ten title contender, but Purdue's defense was going to test the Wolverines ability to protect the ball.
As we saw, the results were terrible. Michigan turned the ball over 22 times or 31 percent of their possessions. When you turn it over nearly 1/3 of the time you have the ball, that's not good.
You are going to get your butt whopped. That's especially when true when you give up 13 steals, which led to a ton of points for the Boilermakers. Donaldson had six turnovers. Danny Wolf and Vlad Goldin each had four. That's 14 between arguably Michigan's three best players.
I don't know how, but Michigan has to get better at avoiding turnovers. It's as simple as that.