Archie Miller is going to wake up in the middle of the night in a cold sweat, the image of Zavier Simpson maneuvering through his defense seared into his brain. He won't know if Simpson will dump the ball off to a rolling big, kick it out to an open shooter, or finish the play himself; he'll also know it hardly matters.

Simpson's virtuoso performance keyed Michigan's blowout of Indiana for their fifth win in six games. As IU stubbornly kept hedging Simpson, he kept whipping passes to open teammates, tallying 11 assists against a lone turnover. When help defenders overplayed the pass, he showed off his finishing repertoire, scoring 12 points on nine shooting possessions, highlighted by a pull-up hook shot over Indiana big man Trayce Jackson-Davis.

in ur base [Campredon]

This is when the Wolverines play at their best, when Simpson is primarily a distributor. Four additional Michigan players scored in double figures. Franz Wagner led the team with 16 points, pairing his usual swooping layups with a 2-for-4 mark from beyond the arc. Brandon Johns connected on all three of his three-pointers and bullied the Hoosiers defense into putting him on the line repeatedly, finishing with 14. Eli Brooks curled and floated his way to 13. Isaiah Livers added 12 points, looking like his old self until rolling an ankle early in the second half; while Livers later returned to the floor, he had a noticeable limp and didn't stay out there for long.

Other than the injury scare, this was the ideal game for Michigan. They led for over 35 minutes of game time and spent almost the entire second half ahead by double digits. Only two Indiana players had a significant offensive impact: backup center De'Ron Davis, who hit all nine of his shots—a couple of them rather improbable—but also gave a lot back as an immobile defender, and guard Al Durham, who scored 11 of his 17 points in the first half. For the first time, Juwan Howard deployed a 2-3 zone as more than a changeup out of timeouts; both man and zone concepts proved effective.

"brunner" doesn't quite have the same ring as "threeli" but [Campredon]

Every time it looked like Indiana might make the game competitive again, Simpson would dart into the lane and zip a pass to Johns for an open corner three, or hit the big man rolling for an uncontested finish, or thread a bounce pass between two defenders to Wagner for a transition layup, or find Brooks darting into the paint for a runner, or hit his man with a hesitation spin move and lay it in himself. Michigan had 18 layups or dunks; Indiana had ten, all layups—in spite of their athleticism they did not cross the E-line.

In an encouraging sign for the present and future, David DeJulius looked plenty capable of playing the point himself, handing out three assists with no turnovers and adding what's becoming his patented baseline floater when Simpson got a breather. Austin Davis nearly became the sixth Wolverine to hit double figures, scoring nine points on 4-for-6 shooting with a couple offensive boards. Jon Teske had six points, seven boards, and four blocks—he deterred IU's guards from even attempting to get to the rim. Cole Bajema tantalized with a deep pull-up three to beat the shot clock in garbage time.

three ball, corner pocket [Campredon]

The victory gets Michigan level at 7-7 in the Big Ten. With the weekend slate complete and no league games scheduled for Monday, the Wolverines are now tied with Ohio State for eighth in the conference, and there's the possibility for a whole lot of movement—third and 13th place are separated by two games in the loss column. If Michigan wants to keep moving up, they'll have to become the first visiting team to win at the RAC on Wednesday when they face Rutgers. Playing like they did today would give them a damn good shot.

[Hit THE JUMP for a lovely Wagner family photo sequence from MG and the box score.]