While many were watching the Lions, or whoever their favored NFL team is, Michigan Men’s Basketball played a game at home against Purdue Fort Wayne. It was broadcast on BTN+ (or minus), hidden away from the eyes of many, which is a shame because it was a stellar display from Dusty May’s squad, particularly on offense. After a pair of frustrating late-game losses at neutral sites, Michigan won an emphatic beatdown victory over a weaker foe, shooting the lights out for much of the game and bottling the opposition’s attack en route to a final margin that comfortably covered the Vegas and KenPom lines.
This will be a shorter recap because there’s not a ton to say other than “wow! that was great!”, almost wire to wire. Michigan kicked off what would be a hot perimeter shooting first half with a Nimari Burnett three for the game’s first points, before getting to the basket at will to build up 17-4 lead that forced the Mastodons to call timeout. Danny Wolf’s pretty spinning layup was the bucket that triggered the timeout but Tre Donaldson had multiple makes of his own in the early going, in addition to the likes of Roddy Gayle Jr. and Vlad Goldin. Michigan was living inside.
Then came the three point barrage, makes from Will Tschetter and LJ Cason (yep, he was back in the mix) to stretch the lead all the way up to 19 points. PFW hit back with a 7-0 run but a pair of triples from Tre Donaldson sandwiched around a Tschetter layup set a new high watermark for Michigan, a 21 point lead (35-14). Two minutes later it was up to 22, after Justin Pippen (also getting some real run) made a three of his own to bump the edge to 40-18. Michigan was getting everything they wanted on offense, penetration to the cup and open looks from beyond the arc, all of which was being converted. Meanwhile the Mastodons had very little for themselves, their ball movement and any semblance of offense choked off. As a matter of fact, they had zero assists in the first half(!!). Jalen Jackson was able to score a decent bit, but the rest of the offense was anemic.
[Campredon]
By the time the game got to halftime, Michigan had built the lead up to 25 points, a 54-29 edge. Michigan closed it out with a couple jumpers from Sam Walters, one of which from three, which was a nice sight after the cold streak that the sniper had been in over the last few games. Vlad Goldin also put down a couple layups/dunks, but scoring in the first half box score was very evenly distributed: ten players had at least three points and no one had more than 12 (Donaldson). At halftime Michigan was shooting 21/27 from the floor(!!!) and 9/12 from 3 (!!). PFW, for contrast, was 11/33 from the floor and an abysmal 2/17 from three. It was a total domination.
And Michigan wasn’t done. They kept pouring it on out of halftime, tossing a 15-2 run on top of the lead already built up. Gayle had two dunks in there, Goldin had three dunks/layups, and Burnett canned a three. Getting everything they wanted, every time up the floor and now the Maize & Blue led by a staggering 38 points, 69-31. At that juncture, some five minutes into the second half, the game was completely over, and Michigan stopped blowing the doors off. Some regression to the mean brought the two teams back closer, as PFW would outscore the Wolverines 28-20, their offense not improving by much but the home team’s shooting finally drying up.
It looked like Michigan would have crack at 100 points for the second time this season but they closed the game in a fairly deep drought, no points over the last 3:41. That left the final score at 89-58, “only” a 31 point win. Still, Michigan was favored by 17 in KenPom, so utterly routing the #137 team (coming into today) in this fashion was pretty impressive as a whole. The usual cadre of human victory cigars got into the game in the final ninety seconds, Harrison Hochberg, Ian Burns, Howard Eisley Jr., and Charlie May, as Michigan wrapped up a dominant victory.
[Campredon]
I don’t have much to say about this one. Michigan’s shooting cooled off, particularly from deep but they still shot 48% (10/21) from beyond the long line. Their sizzling two point efficiency continued, though, going 27/38 from two. Donaldson led the way with 16 points but five players scored in double figures, four you’d usually think of but surprisingly not Danny Wolf. Instead, Justin Pippen was the fifth. Wolf did lead the team with 13 rebounds, while PFW’s box score is even funnier, Jackson leading the team with 27 points, while no one else scored more than six points. Jackson was 10/17 from the floor, while everyone else was 11/48 (lmao).
Sponsor note: Introducing the Minitab Stat of the Game, brought to you by our friends at Minitab, the market leader in data analysis. Why the Minitab Stat of the Game? Because the lone Michigan fan at Minitab, located in Happy Valley, couldn’t justify advertising on a Michigan site without a schtick. If you’re looking to up your game from basic business intelligence to real statistical analysis, Minitab offers a free trial of its software here. Tonight’s Minitab Stat of the Game: Michigan was 27/38 from two… they are the #1 2PT% team in the country after today’s game, shooting a remarkable 62.9% from inside the arc. Helps to get a lot of dunks/layups like today (Michigan made over 20 of them in this game).
Michigan is now 9-3 on the season, with one more non-conference game left. That would be a week from tonight, at Crisler Center against Western Kentucky. The Hilltoppers are a decent mid-major, 9-3 on the season and just a shade outside of the top 100 in KenPom. Michigan will be heavily favored (the current KP spread is 16 point) but WKU isn’t completely abject. After that, Michigan will be off to the West Coast to resume “B1G play” against USC/UCLA in the New Year. The WKU game is scheduled for 8:00 PM EST and will be broadcast on BTN.
[Click the JUMP for the box score]
