Splish, splish, splish, and kaboom goes Indiana’s perfect home record, which they had stretched to 12 wins before Michigan’s stretch bigs gave them a bath. Michigan hit 11/17 threes—every single one of them an open shot—to pull of a big road upset in Bloomington, and breathe some life into hopes to extend their tournament streak. Every one of those threes also came from a “forward,” with Caleb Houstan knocking down 5/7, Terrance Williams II going 2/2, Brandon Johns stuffing his only attempt with no hesitation, and center Hunter Dickinson canning 3/4.

Dickinson was the star of the night, playing the double man, hedging, and altogether frustrating Indiana's offense while serving as the focal point on offense. As often was the case last year, his 25 points on 15 shot equivalents and four assists understated his effect on the game, as his kickouts generated much of the open space that the other tall guys took advantage of.

With their other large men on target, the Wolverines were able to keep Indiana’s star center Trayce Jackson-Davis helplessly guarding Moussa Diabate, whose energic play stymied several Hoosier comeback attempts in the second half. IU had a chance to cut the lead to 8 with 13 minutes left when power forward Race Thompson tried to slam over Dickinson. The ball caromed through Caleb Houstan’s hands towards three Hoosiers, but Diabate dove in there to tip it to Eli Brooks for a two-on-one opportunity. A few hurried drives later, Diabate flew in from the perimeter to save an offensive rebound, and immediately chucked it out to Devante’ Jones, who found Caleb Houstan in the corner and push the lead back to 13 at the Under 12 timeout. Six minutes later, Indiana’s final comeback attempt was thwarted again by a Diabate dive at an offensive rebound that was trying to get to Indiana point guard Xavier Johnson. The hustle play created a tie-up that awarded Michigan possession on the arrow. Dickinson then handed off to Jones on a backdoor cut to win the race to 69 before the Under 4 break. Assembly Hall, which was rocking after their team’s upset victory over Purdue earlier this week, took that as its cue to empty through the exits.

Despite the hostile environment, Michigan controlled the game from the get-go. With Dickinson able to single Jackson-Davis on the defensive end, his teammates mercilessly harassed Indiana’s shooters from the perimeter. Juwan Howard then frustrated Indiana’s offense further by breaking out a zone defense and hedging with Dickinson, which forced the Hoosiers to take a lot of bad jumpers.

After Michigan pushed the lead to 29-13, Mike Woodson called timeout and came up with a new strategy of running right at the Wolverine defenders. That led to a 9-0 punchback by Indiana, and a cascade of fouls on Michigan at the end of the first half. Juwan’s squad kept pace thanks to some brilliant play by Terrance Williams II, who after canning his first three scored off a fallback, took Race Thompson off the dribble for a high glass layup, and drew so much attention the next time he entered the lane he was able to dish to Brandon Johns for a dunk. Williams’s ten points off the bench were the difference as Michigan took a 39-30 lead into halftime.

Much-needed wing work. [Campredon]

If there was a chance for an Indiana comeback in the second half, it was an ominous ten fouls, nine on the starters, generated from that stretch of aggressive play. Dickinson, Diabate, Houstan, and Jones had two apiece going into the break, and Dickinson picked up his third right out of it when Jackson-Davis attacked baseline and picked up some light contact. Houstan’s third a few possessions later was a lot softer. His open three-pointer was called a two, and when he shared that information with the referees they issued a technical. The ball was as outraged as the rest of basketball as Xavier Johnson, who’d been chirping at the stripes all game, missed both. However the Hoosiers used the opportunity to shift momentum back, lobbing passes inside to TJD until Michigan doubled him and gave up a rare open triple to Race Thompson. That cut Michigan’s lead back to single-digits and led to a Michigan timeout. Diabate’s heroics followed.

Indiana was ready for the guards to come down the lane. [Campredon]

Also ominously, the Wolverines turned it over 14 times as Frankie Colins, Eli Brooks, and Devante’ Jones struggled with Indiana’s length at guard. Running off screens and kicking out after doubles on Dickinson generated a lot of space for the forwards, but Michigan’s guards were invited to attack the lane and usually found TJD waiting. That strategy works when the threes aren’t falling. It didn’t work tonight.

The Wolverines improve to 9-7, and 3-3 in conference play, with the Spartan-slayers of Northwestern visiting Crisler on Wednesday, and a big rivalry trip to East Lansing next Saturday. Michigan is still waiting to hear if the home games versus Michigan State and Purdue, postponed when Michigan had too many players in COVID protocol to field a team, will be rescheduled.