Double down on Dickinson, you get the three. The star freshman center was only on the court half the time, and scored a measly three points with one assist. But that’s all he needed to do a lot of damage to a Terrapins squad not yet fully recovered from the last time these teams met, as Michigan responded to their first loss of the season with an even more vicious demolition of the team they were visiting when the blowout streak began. Dickinson, who was hounded into five turnovers by Minnesota’s double-teams on Sunday, only had one tonight as he came ready to the pass the ball right back out of the post whenever Maryland tried the Gopher gambit.

It helped that his teammates were ready to sink the open looks that provided. Mike Smith, who had to create most of Michigan’s offense last weekend, was the first recipient of those open looks, scoring 7 of the team’s first nine points, and nine of his 11 first half points from the arc to go with three assists.

As attention shifted to Smith it was Livers (20 points on 11 shot equivalents, 4/5 from distance) and Brown (2/5 from the arc) getting the open looks while Maryland star forward Donta Scott stayed glued to Franz Wagner. In just 11 trips down the court Michigan had a 14-3 lead, and Dickinson was headed to the bench to watch his teammates finish the job.

In his stead, Austin Davis was his usual crafty self on offense, though Maryland’s five-winger lineups were too much for Big Country’s perimeter defense. Juwan also experimented with a weird lineup that gave freshman Zeb Jackson some of his first extended first-half minutes, surrounded by Davis, Eli Brooks, Chaundee Brown, and Brandon Johns. The lineup wasn’t precisely a success, but it ate up minutes and left the score at 28-19 before a timeout and a return to normality. More importantly for the future, for the first time Jackson looked comfortable on both ends of the court.

Even that lineup looked more together with the presence of Eli Brooks, who missed the Minnesota game with a foot sprain but started this one. The senior captain matched his season high of five assists to two turnovers, and held up on defense as usual despite the rickety foot and some tough matchups with Maryland’s huge and athletic backcourt.

With the starters back in, the 2nd half was more of the same until an odd technical foul exchange, which began when Mike Smith stripped UMD guard Eric Ayala, who was gingerly returning from a groin injury, on his way up for a late-clock prayer in traffic. The ball bounced right to Maryland winger Daryll Morsell, who’s still wearing a mask from Franz Wagner’s accidental elbow in their last meeting.

Morsell made the freebie but jawed at the refs for not getting an and-one from contact to his face by, who else, Franz. Referee Bo Borowski issued a technical foul for the complaint, Maryland head coach Mark Turgeon got another for advocating for his player, and Michigan’s bench picked one up as well for reasons unexplained. Six free throws—four of them makes by Livers—later, Michigan led 55-34 with the ball. Another open look off a Hunter Dickinson double quickly made it 57-34, and the freshman departed again, his work done.

The rest of the game was academic, but there was plenty of it for the coaches to try different lineups and play out their favorite scenes. The best was a few possessions of exchange between Maryland’s Donta Scott and Michigan’s Franz Wagner, underappreciated two-way players who were given the opportunity to take a couple of possessions against each other. It came out a draw.

Zeb Jackson and Austin Davis continued to see the floor as much either has all year, and both distinguished themselves... on opposite ends of the court. Davis was an energetic monster down the stretch, feasting on the Terrapins’ small frontcourt while their shooters failed to do the same with his perimeter defense. Jackson looked long and annoying as hell on defense, though still a work in progress on the other end; his lone assist was more impressive than two more bricked threes.

It is too bad those missed because either could have led to an assist for Brandon Johns, who otherwise filled up every column in the box score with an energetic, albeit foul-prone night. His effect on the court continued to grow with his confidence as the weird lineups gave him an opportunity to showcase his buckets of skills.

While Dickinson only played 21 minutes, 14 of those in the first half, the Maryland native also picked up 3 blocks, two offensive rebounds, and a lot of talk about the hometown Terps’ failure to recruit him. It’s hard to argue he could have chosen a better supporting cast.

The Wolverines are now 12-1 and tied for first at 7-1 in a Big Ten that’s as much of a ball of knives as they are. Michigan travels on Friday to Purdue, who concurrently rode their own hot shooting night to a win over equally hot Ohio State.

[Box score and more photos by MG after the jump]

Smith cooled in the 2nd half but his hot shooting early put the Terrapins permanently behind.

In the early going, whenever Maryland’s offense tried to drive they met a 7’2” wall.

Michigan had their pick of open shooters, and chose Isaiah Livers.

A scary moment in the second half, when Livers collided with Maryland C Galin Smith and both went down hard. Neither came out of the game.

Despite having to go play basketball quite a bit tonight, the bench mob was as lively as ever.

Oblig.

Click for big.