Michigan 74, Indiana 63
Against the best opponent they’ve faced in over a month, Michigan got off to a fast start and managed to keep Indiana at arm’s length for a comfortable win. The Wolverines scored on 10 of their first 11 possessions and managed to draw two fouls on each of Indiana’s stars within the first four minutes of the game. Michigan led 9-6 when Juwan Morgan and Romeo Langford each committed their second fouls on the same possession, and went on a 23-7 run from there. While Indiana managed to briefly cut the deficit to seven in the second half, the game was never really close.
Charles Matthews set the tone for Michigan. The senior wing faced a head-to-head matchup with Langford, a projected NBA lottery pick, and seemed to relish the opportunity. On Indiana’s first possession, Indiana ran a horns set for Langford, and Matthews stole it from him — forcing Langford to give a transition foul. Matthews drove and forced a tripping foul on Morgan. He hit a three after Langford helped off him in the corner. He rejected a side ball screen, drove baseline, and then dunked on Langford for an and-one. He made all of those plays before the first TV timeout.
Archie Miller subbed Morgan and Langford out, and Matthews continued to dominate. He harassed Zach McRoberts into a travel, then scored after steals in short succession — he swiped the ball from Al Durham and made an acrobatic layup over three defenders in transition, then he swiped a pass and threw down a big two-handed dunk. Matthews made highlight plays on both ends throughout the first half, totaling 16 points, two made threes, and three steals. Langford would wind up scoring 17 points (and Matthews finished with 18), but the latter decisively won the matchup with his impact early in the game.
He and Jordan Poole paced a Michigan offense that scored 1.42 points per possession and only turned it over twice in the first half. Poole hit threes on back to back possessions to start Michigan’s big run, he operated the pick-and-roll well, and finished with 12 points in the half. Miller subbed Morgan and Langford back in an attempt to stave off that run, but the Wolverines stayed hot. An Eli Brooks pocket pass to Brandon Johns — who contributed solid minutes for the first time this season — produced a layup and a 32-13 Michigan lead with 8:30 left in the first half. The Hoosiers only managed to cut it to 15 by halftime.
[Campredon]
After the half, Morgan began to drag Indiana back into the game. He was very active in the first half — scoring 10 points on 13 shot equivalents — against Jon Teske in the post, and stepped out and hit a pick-and-pop three late in the half. After the break, Indiana gave him the ball on their first three possessions: he scored a tough bucket over Teske, and then drew the second and third fouls on Michigan’s starting center. Johns fared better than Austin Davis in relief of Teske, as the latter committed a handful of fouls on Morgan in the second half. Neither were able to slow Morgan down though, and he finished with a game-high 25 points.
Michigan led by 16 with 14:30 left in the game when Indiana went on a quick 7-0 run, capped by a Devonte Green three-pointer on a botched switch. Johns capped off a long possession with a put-back dunk to stem the bleeding, but then Langford scored on back-to-back trips, the second of which came off a Morgan offensive rebound. The lead was down to seven with over ten minutes left in the game, and the Hoosiers were threatening. Zavier Simpson scored a big basket, getting into the lane and scoring with his sweeping hook, to stop the run, then he dished an assist to Matthews underneath.
Ignas Brazdeikis, who had a relatively quiet game by his standards, was fouled by Morgan on a jumper off a side ball-screen; it was Morgan’s fourth — and many of the others had been similarly senseless. Simpson had a few more assists with passes to Johns on the pick-and-roll (one of which he dunked) and the game was on ice. Michigan was able to outpace Indiana in a more offensively-oriented contest, which never was that competitive. Matthews and Poole were effective, particularly as Michigan built its lead, and Johns provided a nice lift off the bench with Livers out again.
Michigan’s now 15-0 and 4-0 in Big Ten play — tied with Michigan State atop the conference. The Wolverines and Hoosiers each had players out due to injury, and the early fouls on Morgan and Langford put Indiana in too deep of a hole to dig out of on the road against a top five team. The Wolverines will test their undefeated record on the road against Illinois (possibly the worst team in the league) on Thursday night.
[Box score after the JUMP]
January 6th, 2019 at 9:03 PM ^
Gotta admit, I was a little nervous at the tip. Great win and great to seen John's get some mi ites and contribute well while Livers gets healthy. Hope Livers gets back soon, tho.
January 6th, 2019 at 10:44 PM ^
I hope this was Brandon Johns introducing himself to the world. Really glad Charles got the better of Romeo, though I wish Romeo had like three points but oh well, Charles get em good regardless. The only thing that would make this team better is if X started scoring a teeny-tiny bit more.
January 6th, 2019 at 11:04 PM ^
The comment about X was odd after this game, in which he scored 12 points on 5 of 10 shooting. I don't think we want him scoring much more than that, or at least taking more than 10 shots. His usage seemed about right to me.
January 6th, 2019 at 11:07 PM ^
Yeah the comment was more a general one than about his play in this particular game, this game was an outlier actually. He is only averaging 6 shots a game, maybe because he plays such good defense but he should drive and shoot more.
January 7th, 2019 at 1:54 AM ^
It might sound a bit odd but having X score more from the field during games is not really necessary. The change that might be the most important would be if X could hit 85% of his free throws. That would mean he could control the ball at the end of tight games without worrying about intentional fouls..
January 7th, 2019 at 9:57 AM ^
Yeah, I basically agree, I still believe having a pg these days who averages 7pts a game probably won't cut it but maybe i'm thinking more of the nba too, so far we're doing just fine.
January 7th, 2019 at 1:05 PM ^
In a way, we might be saying the same thing. If he was a high level free throw shooter, he would probably average double digits scoring without scoring any more from the field.
January 6th, 2019 at 9:06 PM ^
How bad is Illinois? They have a lot of close games against good teams in spite of their record being trash.
January 6th, 2019 at 9:22 PM ^
They will play desperate and Michigan has a bulls eye with that number 2 ranking next to their name. Every road game in the Big Ten is a battle.
January 6th, 2019 at 11:04 PM ^
Illinois is 106 on KenPom and Rutgers is 115. (Illinois moved up from 113 earlier today with a narrow 2 point loss to Northwestern.)
Penn State is now the 12th highest B1G team at 60 after getting trounced by Wisconsin.
January 6th, 2019 at 9:12 PM ^
Keep on winning. Go Blue!!!
January 6th, 2019 at 9:13 PM ^
That game in Bloomington is gonna be frustrating as hell. If you thought the fouls were soft and unbalanced today, you haven't seen anything yet
January 6th, 2019 at 9:19 PM ^
That game is going to be extremely tough to win, as IU will almost certainly be back at full strength for that game. Then again, Livers should be back by then as well.
Either way, that game is going to be very tough to win.
January 6th, 2019 at 9:43 PM ^
Agreed, plus that will kick off a tough 3 game stretch:
At Indiana
OSU at Home
At Iowa
That's going to be a really good measurement of where this team stands going into the second half of the season. Hopefully, we can stay healthy and continue to build some depth at a nice gradual pace like coach B is already doing..
January 7th, 2019 at 10:19 AM ^
Yes, I mean that game was great being up double digits basically the entire game and yet a small part of me was still frustrated with the calls. Fortunately, the offense was pure fire in the first half.
January 6th, 2019 at 9:25 PM ^
Great to see JB trust Johns w minutes. He looked lost at times on offense, mainly when he and Charles were trying to figure out who was screening at the top.
But he looked good and like he belonged. Depth will only get better. DeJulius even got some burn.
Poole is sick.
January 6th, 2019 at 9:27 PM ^
He wasn't so much trusted as he was the only option left. Nice game for the kid, but, geez, they need Livers to get healthy.
January 7th, 2019 at 12:40 AM ^
He looked about like you'd expect a freshman with skills to look. He's fine and it looks like he's now passed Davis. This was a very positive development since we lack quality depth for bigs especially if Teske has fouls and he's by far the best hope for someone who isn't playing now to make a meaningful impact the rest of the year. His performance was the most positive thing about today in terms of possible implications for the rest of the year.
January 6th, 2019 at 9:39 PM ^
Johns just needed some play....hes good...and we need him badly.... Davis is shockingly bad...his head is down the entire time, maybe if he kept his chin up he'd see things better... Johns doing well is huge...
January 6th, 2019 at 9:47 PM ^
You post like a grandma texts.
January 7th, 2019 at 9:16 AM ^
That is exactly how my mother in law texts.
January 6th, 2019 at 9:58 PM ^
He still looks a little lost, but definitely good enough for minutes and better than Davis. His talent is definitely there and he just has to get more comfortable in the system
January 6th, 2019 at 9:27 PM ^
Good to see Johns step up, but Matthews, Poole and Simpson had huge games as well.
January 7th, 2019 at 1:14 PM ^
These guys all bring something different to the table, and that is valuable. Seems like each game a couple different guys step up when others are struggling. Teams like that rarely have off-nights or multiple game slumps.
January 6th, 2019 at 9:33 PM ^
15-0 is the third-longest winning streak within a season in UM history. Record is 17 set in '84-'85.
January 6th, 2019 at 9:46 PM ^
Great win! Livers is certainly missed, but the post I saw a few days ago that Michigan can't win this game without him has been disproven.
January 6th, 2019 at 9:54 PM ^
Yeah, I read the same thing and scoffed at the assertion. Nice to see BJJ step up in a big way and help prove it wrong!
January 6th, 2019 at 9:57 PM ^
Brazilian Jiu Jitsu!
January 6th, 2019 at 10:37 PM ^
HailGary? aka Maizen?
January 7th, 2019 at 12:01 AM ^
He's one of the worst in the Football and Basketball live game threads along with Freelion and a few others, they're almost unreadable unless its a huge blowout.
January 6th, 2019 at 9:52 PM ^
Loved what I saw from Johns today. If he can keep up play like that and keep improving, he will be a really nice piece to have come tournament time at the 5. The refs today were overall annoying on both sides. Calling some soft fouls that made our defense not as effective as it usually is because our guys were in foul trouble and afraid to touch the opponent. Overall good game. Besides Johns, Simpson, Poole, and Matthews all played well. Livers would've been nice to have against Morgan, but Johns did a pretty good job behind Teske
January 6th, 2019 at 10:23 PM ^
Holy shit, this game had a total of ten turnovers. If the refs could've swallowed their whistles more often this might've actually been a pretty beautiful basketball game
January 6th, 2019 at 10:31 PM ^
As much as I liked the first half, the second half might have been even more impressive. Indiana was fired up, Morgan was playing very well, and we couldn't hit a 3 the entire half. A lesser team would have found itself in a barnburner. But the closest the Hoosiers could get was 7 points.
It should be a great game at IU. Their PG will be back, and the Langford-Matthews matchup won't be as lopsided as it was today just because Langford will be better by then.
January 7th, 2019 at 11:31 AM ^
You're expecting a great game at IU? I expect to see the Hoosiers in the bonus with 16 minutes left in the first half.
January 7th, 2019 at 2:28 PM ^
Hey, that doesn't mean we can't win. They shoot FTs even worse than us.
January 6th, 2019 at 11:02 PM ^
Johns will be the next to the NBA behind Iggy/Matthews/Poole but I just feel bad for Davis. On Stu Douglass’ podcast, he talked about how impossible it is for a guy like Davis to get more minutes when he is being judged every second of the 3-5 minutes he’s out there. Obviously it’s like that in all sports but I just don’t know how he’ll ever get out of his head when there’s no room for error with Teske ahead of him and Johns behind him.
January 6th, 2019 at 11:12 PM ^
People will appreciate AD (NTAD) during the Wisconsin game when he will use his 5 fouls against Ethan Happ and his free throw shooting percentage of about 50%. Also he will absorb fouls against Ward and Tillman. He'll never be great but he has his role on this team.
January 6th, 2019 at 11:22 PM ^
I mean yes, but also if you're only out there for 3-5 minutes, you shouldn't be making too many very obvious blunders. Some players can be on the floor and not contribute, but also not make mistakes, which is kinda what I wish Davis was
January 6th, 2019 at 11:09 PM ^
Might be time for Stephen M Ross to find his wallet and give Mr Miyagi a call. We sure could use a healthy Livers for the remainder of the season .
January 6th, 2019 at 11:26 PM ^
"Man who catch fly with chopstick accomplish anything."
January 6th, 2019 at 11:27 PM ^
Slacks on, slacks off. -Mr. Miyagi Sandusky
January 6th, 2019 at 11:18 PM ^
If this team continues to improve throughout the season, watch out! They will take their lumps on the road in Big Ten play, but a 15-5 conference record appears more than attainable at this point. Simpson is still my favorite player. Tough as nails, fearless and a true leader. Gonna be a fun season! Already making my plans for the Final Four.
January 6th, 2019 at 11:30 PM ^
Impressive game — I’m not quite sure where the steadiness is coming from, but at this point I think we can say it is a real thing.
It’s not just Simpson — I think it’s the experience of last year's tournament runs, plus the B1G tourney run the year before. This is a tough, battle-tested core.
January 7th, 2019 at 12:05 AM ^
defensively, the steadiness is definitely matthews/simpson. offensively, this is the first year where we have consistently 2-3 guys scoring over 15 points a game since the '13, '14 years. poole/iggy/matthews give raw scoring ability that most teams don't have from 3 guys.
January 7th, 2019 at 12:18 AM ^
This game was a weird feeling. I’m a BPONE guy and with ten minutes left, even when Indiana got within nine, I was calm and confident we’d get a stop here and a bucket there and stave off any run. ZS is a bulldog and a calming influence. He may be my favorite player of the last ten years, and there are a lot of awesome guys to choose from. Great win!
January 7th, 2019 at 1:02 AM ^
We both have BPOPE with this team. Brilliant Pinnacle Of Positive Expectations
January 7th, 2019 at 8:56 AM ^
Wrong sport for BPONE.
January 7th, 2019 at 8:36 AM ^
Indiana fans complaining about the refs in this game is hilarious. Michigan was called for 2 more fouls than the Hoosiers and IU was in the double bonus with like 8 mins left in the game.
January 7th, 2019 at 9:12 AM ^
Johns looked good. He could be a huge addition down the stretch.
January 7th, 2019 at 9:49 AM ^
.750 FT woooo!
Comments