1/22/2021 – Michigan 70, Purdue 53 – 13-1, 8-1 Big Ten

Hey, remember that from 10,000 years ago? Really something, that game that happened in the immediate aftermath of a positive COVID test from Sasha Stefanovic. That decision was then rendered moot by a department-wide shutdown because apparently nobody at any level of government has enough sense to quarantine someone coming back from the place where the scary new COVID variant originated.

But anyway: Michigan rolled into Mackey, jumped out to a double digit lead, and never looked back. Without Stefanovic a bunch of usage fell on Jaden Ivey, who cannot shoot but enjoys it nonetheless. Michigan forced Trevion Williams into a 6/19 shooting night by turning his usual reliably okay shots into reliably terrible ones. Purdue never got it back to single digits after Michigan went up 25-14.

Just another day in the Pax Juwanica. Michigan doesn't seem fully put together just yet—there's a lot of balls booted out of bounds and the talent level on the roster is good but not overwhelming. And they just roll onto the home courts of NCAA tournament teams and casually batter them into dust. This one does come with an asterisk since Stefanovic is shockingly impactful for a guy with 15% usage…

cupcakes excised

…but it didn't feel like one gunner zipping around the court was going to change much about the shape of this game.

Onward, with a title in the crosshairs… ah right. That.

[After THE JUMP: doubling gets dodgy]

BULLETS

I mean okay keep doing that I guess. The doubling will continue until morale improves.

Dickinson did have six turnovers in this game but they weren't from post doubling. He had two moving screens, the eurostep travel-type-substance, and a couple that happened on attempted post ups before a double arrived.

It is not a coincidence that as soon as everyone started doubling Dickinson's face off Michigan's three-point shooting went nuts—with the notable exception of the Minnesota game. M went 9/16 against Wisconsin, 12/24 against Maryland, and 6/15 against Purdue. They're up to 39% in conference play, which is a half point behind Iowa for first.

One foul and three minutes short. This was a game for Austin Davis and Austin Davis was Austin Davis in it, hitting 3/6 from the floor and walling up against Williams effectively. He also picked up four fouls in seven minutes, which was fine. Williams ended up going 2/4 from the line, and the shots he got up against Davis weren't much better than the ones he got up against Dickinson:

Other guys in the Williams vein should get a dose of Davis.

Also the other two guys. Michigan played Brandon Johns and Terrance Williams (briefly) at center, which also went fine. Johns was mostly against Edey and Edey did almost no damage against him. Edey's only bucket was off a confused switch that saw first Brown then Livers end up on him.

Meanwhile Johns set up Livers for a catch and shoot 3 and chipped in a few points, including a bonafide finish through Trevion Williams:

Ace keeps banging the drum about Johns as a defender at the 5 and he's not wrong; if he can just chip in like he did in this game instead of contributing to the turnover issues he's going to be super valuable in games that are not Austin Davis games. Rotation permitting.

Some missed shots but no big deal. Franz missed this and had a couple other shots at the rim that didn't go down, so his day wasn't particularly efficient, but whatever these are going to fall:

He also had five assists; he's creeping up on Eli Brooks for second place on the team.

He's in fact just a tenth of a point behind him. His usual output of blocks and steals has seen him creep into the top ten at both in conference play (9th and 6th, respectively). Also his TO rate in conference play is 8.6. His usage is relatively low but that's because of the TO rate; he's getting up 22% of Michigan shots when he's on the floor.

Oh right. The last post didn't mention Isaiah Livers, Michigan's leading scorer in that game. This post almost concluded without mentioning Livers after a Kenpom MVP double-double where he put up 22 points on 17 shot equivalents. Livers has moved that midrange back-down jumper into the good shot category—has he missed it this year—and was judicious in his forays into the lane, picking up three assists to one turnover.

We noted that his TO rate had just about doubled; he's bringing that back down with a total of 1 TO in the last two performances. This one was more impressive because against Maryland he only took 3 twos. Nine in this game.

[Campredon]

For the first time this year: a ref complaining section. I mentioned on the podcast that I'm generally happy with the state of college basketball officiating. There are still some baffling calls, as there always will be, but verticality plus a new militancy against flopping has really improved the game. (Reviews, on the other hand, have not.)

This was the first game where I got really frustrated with the officials this season. I thought this sequence was fairly emblematic. You've got Zach Edey moving forward on his contest of Dickinson without a call immediately followed by contact to Eli Brooks's chest being called a blocking foul:

Then you've got the aforementioned eurostep "travel," Zach Edey crushing Eli Brooks into the ground as Brooks boxed him out, an incredibly bad block call on Livers, etc. Brooks was right when he repeatedly told Paul Szelc that "you're supposed to protect me."