WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. – After the 70-53 Michigan basketball team won Purdue, we shared five points from what we saw.
1. The Michigan machine does not easily short-circuit
Many Wolverines went wrong on Friday night. Michigan has its worst problem of the season, shot well below its average of the season all night and got 21 points in 7-of-22 shots with eight combined turnovers from Hunter Dickinson, Franz Wagner and Mike Smith.
Even so, Michigan never lost against a top 40 team that won four consecutive games and spent 26:30 of Friday’s 40 minutes ahead by double digits.
The credit goes to Isaiah Livers for 22 points, of course, but that kind of “off-night” dominance speaks to a team as synchronized and altruistic as any team in the country. Michigan’s decision-making remained stable even with varying lineups for both teams due to problems, and the Wolverines never seemed to spend more than a ball or two on a funk.
Many things didn’t go according to Michigan’s plan on Friday, but the part where the Wolverines continue to spread the ball in attack and dominate defensively does.
2. Wolverines can win a title with their defense
The defensive numbers for Friday’s game are staggering for Michigan: Purdue pitched 30.8 percent of his field on his court, including an 11 to 30 display in layups and 2 to 12 out of 2. According to KenPom.com, was Purdue’s second worst shooting night since 2012. The Boilermakers scored just 14 points from 20 offensive rebounds and were left with 0.796 points for possession.
We’ll talk more about Michigan’s post-defense next, but even far from the post, the physicality of the Wolverines, the ability to track passes and stand in front of units was on full display. Good teams can do this, big teams can take it with them on the road and championship contenders take it for 40 minutes.
3. Michigan showed courage in posting
If you had said before the game that Hunter Dickinson and Austin Davis would combine for 30 minutes, 13 points, five rebounds, seven turns and eight fouls, most would have assumed that Michigan was doomed to one of the league’s best courts.
But the Wolverines won easily and can thank Brandon Johns Jr., Terrance Williams and Isaiah Livers for that. The trio was hardly perfect defending Trevion Williams of 6 feet-10 and 265 pounds of Purdue or Zach Edey of 7 feet-4 and 285 pounds of Purdue, nor were they asked to do so for long periods, but used technique and physicality to defend yourself. Purdue scored just 34 points out of 36 shots, while neither Williams (14 points out of 6 in 19 shots) nor Edey (four points out of 1 in 2 shots) had enough offensive impact to win. Keeping the Boilermakers in this clip says a lot about Michigan’s positional versatility and unity, especially from players not used to defending the post.
4. Is this the senior raise for Isaiah Livers?
Sometimes, the elderly begin to raise their level of play in the second half of the season, as they begin to see the light at the end of the tunnel for university careers.
Livers has been a solid force for Michigan throughout the season and in recent years, but his last two games have been exceptional. On Tuesday, he scored 20 points, including four 3s, five rebounds and three assists. On Friday night, Livers was even more impressive, ending with 22 points, 10 rebounds, three assists and two blocks.
In probably his best game for the Wolverines, Livers scored in all three phases (eight points from the 2-point range, nine from 3, five from the free-throw line), seemed able to do all the kicks and was able to carry a team that was fighting elsewhere.
Michigan has a lot of veterans, but it’s fair to wonder if Livers is taking his game to the next level.
5. Friday’s game will be controversial at best
On the one hand, Michigan is now 13-1, alone at the top of the Big Ten ranking and has several days to rest before traveling to Penn State on Wednesday. On the other hand, fans of the Wolverines and potentially those within the program will spend these days nervous as they wait to confirm that Friday’s game did not put the team at risk of signing COVID-19. As we reported, Purdue player Sasha Stefanovic started showing symptoms on Wednesday morning – hours after playing and participating in a post-game celebration with his teammates. He quarantined it immediately and Purdue players had negative results for PCR + tests Thursday and Friday, but research shows that a COVID-19 infection may not appear on a test or produce symptoms for several days after exposure. In other words, Stefanovic may have spread the COVID-19 unknowingly among his teammates on Tuesday night, and he may not have shown up for tests on Thursday or Friday.
In the end, Michigan and Purdue said after the game that they felt comfortable playing, but playing as scheduled took many by surprise. It is a kind of leap of faith, which will hover for at least a few days over what would be another stellar victory in the special Wolverines season.