Purdue 92, Michigan 88
— Bryan Mac (non-seasonal) (@Bry_Mac) January 26, 2018
Sometimes you face a normal foe. Sometimes you face a fleet of T-Rexes in F-15s firing with maximum precision. When facing the latter, especially in their territory, the margin for error is terrifyingly thin.
For the better part of 40 minutes, Michigan held their own with the Purdue T-Rexes in F-15s, with Muhammad-Ali Abdur-Rahkman playing the role of dinosaur hunter. A MAAR three-point strike, part of a scorching second-half start for both teams, even gave the road underdogs a lead with under ten minutes to play. It was the game's 23rd lead change.
Vince Edwards countered for the 24th and final lead change. T-Rexes in F-15s are unrelenting; Michigan's few mistakes finally exposed them late. Some turnovers from Jaaron Simmons or Charles Matthews here, some missed free throws from MAAR or Zavier Simpson there, and the T-Rexes successfully repelled the rebel forces.
I've very much enjoyed watching Michigan-Purdue basketball games. I'm also very much ready for all those dudes to graduate and Carsen Edwards to go pro.
[Hit THE JUMP for the box score.]
January 25th, 2018 at 10:02 PM ^
Neutral non-B1G officiating will have Haas on the bench in the first 10mins of the NCAA tourney. They will be very lucky to make it past the first weekend.
January 25th, 2018 at 10:10 PM ^
That's ridiculous. And either way, Purdue is not just Haas. Carsen Edwards might be the best player in the conference, Vince Edwards isn't far behind. Purdue is a damn good team, I think the only thing stopping them is an off shooting night. But they haven't had one of those in months.
January 25th, 2018 at 10:28 PM ^
January 25th, 2018 at 10:55 PM ^
in years past their guards were mediocre shooters and turned the ball over a lot. they are much better this year. carson edwards has really improved his game. they still have their share of TOs though.
January 25th, 2018 at 10:56 PM ^
January 26th, 2018 at 1:00 AM ^
surprised if this wasn't Painter's breakthrough team. They're a really complete team.
January 25th, 2018 at 11:25 PM ^
They don't have a true PG which I guess could be their big weakness, insofar as they have one. But their guard play looks much better this year with Edwards and Mathias. And they play defense really well too (still top 10 in KenPom AdjD despite tonight's hot shooting from Michigan). I'm not gonna guarantee a Final Four for them but they look like a great bet to get there.
January 26th, 2018 at 12:58 AM ^
let me repeat, number 1 3pt shooting team in the country (44.2%!!!). They had 5 (!!!) guys with more threes in conference play than our top guy coming into this game. I think we're well past "hot shooting" with them.
They are an incredibly good shooting team and they have a nearly unguardable big man.
I think their only weakness might be that they play two sub 6-foot guards so they're prone to having taller guards have a fairly easy time (like MAAR did tonight). But, like, that's it.
January 26th, 2018 at 12:27 AM ^
he's incredible on offense as we saw tonight, but he is lock down on defense. Livers only got three shots off tonight and they ended up switching him onto MAAR because he pretty much takes the opponents best player 2-4.
C Edwards is great too but a bit short on defense. Not nearly as complete a player as cousin V.
January 25th, 2018 at 10:48 PM ^
January 25th, 2018 at 11:06 PM ^
January 25th, 2018 at 11:41 PM ^
January 26th, 2018 at 12:23 AM ^
January 26th, 2018 at 3:05 AM ^
and wings all the time. That's why they switch the pick and roll now. They don't worry about Mo taking a smaller guy because he can't get position in the post and teams have figured out he doesn't pass while driving so they can just help on the drive and he turns it over (Louisville played it wrong by not helping off our shooters, but teams learned this year).
Speaking of feeding the post to Wagner on a smaller guy, these were the three memorable instances in this game 1) MAAR was top of the key with Haarms on him after a switch. He gave it to Duncan because it's a much easier entry for Duncan to pass over/around Edwards but Duncan gave it right back to him (not even sure he saw the mismatch in the post). It's hard to throw it into the post around/over a 7'3 octopus. So MAAR drove on him instead. 2) someone tried a bounce pass and it was low and a bad pass and one of the little ankle biters was able to easily knock it away. And 3) the fateful Matthews entry in which Wagner didn't even put a body, i.e. post the guy up, he just stood there, put his hand up and Matthews threw to his hand but C Edwards just jumped in front. Terrible by both Matthews and Wagner.
I really just think Wagner does not know how/is not strong enough to get good post-up position and our entry guys have no idea how to enter it into the post. You'd think they at least did it some in high school or something. Would be an interesting basketbullets to see some of ours vs some of Purdue's after all the discussion about post entry passes this week.
Wagner needs Cs/lumbering PFs guarding him so he can use his quickness to take them to the hole (a la Nick Ward). That's why we play him at the five. He's tough to guard for opposing 5s and we're willing to let him try to hold his own against them.
January 25th, 2018 at 11:38 PM ^
January 25th, 2018 at 11:43 PM ^
There is no actual B1G officiating in basketball, just NCAA officiating. Other conferences have to deal with TV Teddy and the rest, too.
January 26th, 2018 at 6:10 AM ^
January 25th, 2018 at 10:07 PM ^
We played a top 5 team twice and lost both, by a total of 5 points. Ugh. But no one else can give them a game, so that says something about us.
January 26th, 2018 at 9:35 AM ^
I was thinking the same thing. Michigan could've made some plays to keep it closer and give them a chance to win but it was still an impressive performance. Purdue seems good as hell and are the hottest team in the country. Not many teams can really hang with them right now.
If Michigan can play like that everynight and eliminate some of the glaring mistakes they can win a lot of games.
On the plus side, Ohio State lost. Fuck them. Let's get 'em in a couple of weeks.
January 25th, 2018 at 10:00 PM ^
Purdue just played better. Still proud of how they played in a hostile environment. That place was rocking for Purdue and Michigan still almost pulled it off.
January 25th, 2018 at 10:01 PM ^
January 25th, 2018 at 10:31 PM ^
January 25th, 2018 at 11:42 PM ^
January 25th, 2018 at 11:49 PM ^
The MAAR who was our best player tonight?
Even when he's not channeling Kevin Durant at Rucker Park, MAAR's a glue guy who makes a lot of key plays when we need them. He's earned his minutes.
January 26th, 2018 at 12:53 AM ^
January 26th, 2018 at 9:38 AM ^
I agree I would like to see Poole get more minutes at SG, just to see Rhkman get some rest. I'm afraid they're burning him out out there. He was great last night but he still tends to disappear for stretches. I wonder if he'd be more effective if he was a little fresher?
January 26th, 2018 at 3:22 AM ^
he was absolutely outstanding before the last 3-4 minutes tonight. Two of his misses in the first half were essentially Kobe assists. On both Haarms came over to contest and didn't get blocks so on the first Teske had an easy OREB that he kicked out to MAAR for a 3.and on the second Wagner had an easy Oreb putback.
Z singlehandedly carried us at the end of the first half when we went down 9. He started off the run with the Wagner Kobe assist, next possession stepped in front of the post for the steal, outran everyone for the And1 layup, couple possessions later hit a three and then ended the M scoring with an incredible layup over Haarms.
He once again had 5 assists to 1 TO (with 2 steals to boot, remember how valuable steals are to the offense?).
Yes, he had a rough stretch at the end with the blocked layup by Haas, the TO (his only one) on the drive and kick attempt to Wagner and then the missed layup, but those were essentially the only "errors" he had all game. Like there's no such thing as red zone offense or defense, there's no such thing as clutch in bball. He's a really player and he'll be fine at the end of games.
However, the end of games in which the other team is fouling...then maybe take him out? Beilein is going to give him some more chances to get his confidence up. He's a good shooter, it's mental that he's not hitting FTs...I hope.
January 26th, 2018 at 9:40 AM ^
TrueBlue killing it with the analysis!
January 25th, 2018 at 10:01 PM ^
Needs to find his jump shot.Drives almost every time with poor results lately.I believe he is the key guy....Played @MSU & @ Purdue went 1-1,biggest deficit was 9 points and that was only briefly.This is a good team that has realistic chance of getting noticably better by March if Matthews blends in with the offense more smoothly this team is poised for a fun March.
January 25th, 2018 at 10:19 PM ^
January 25th, 2018 at 10:33 PM ^
January 25th, 2018 at 11:01 PM ^
6 assists. his game is his driving and dishing when it's contested. he did ok at that tonite. but yes, the team will much tougher if he could improve his jump shot. he should take more of those irvin elbow jump shots. he was pretty good at those earlier in the year but those have disappeared.
January 26th, 2018 at 3:50 PM ^
dude made some mistakes but was good in the second half and still ended up 4-7 FGs, 2-2 FTs (!!) for ten points on only 8 shot eqs, 6 assists to 3 TOs plus an OREB for a good 125 Ortg.
January 26th, 2018 at 3:35 AM ^
in the last minute. I think the only other jumper he took was a 10 ft miss in the first half.
January 25th, 2018 at 10:07 PM ^
We are just as good as the 3rd best team in the country. No one will want to play us in March! If Charles gets rolling we'll be unstoppable. This team can go 8-0 in it's last 8, that puts us at 25-6, not bad...at worst, probably 23-8.
January 25th, 2018 at 10:28 PM ^
U-M matches up well offensively against Purdue but has had a much harder time scoring against others. Yes, the schedule is about to lighten up, but when you’re prone to six-minute droughts, any road game can be lost.
January 25th, 2018 at 10:51 PM ^
Plus we should win at least one game in the B1G tournament.
January 25th, 2018 at 11:00 PM ^
Honestly, 7-1 is very possible.
What game will we not be favored in?
We'll be favored in each of these for sure:
- vs. Northwestern
- vs. Minnesota
- @Northwestern (de facto neutral site off campus that will be mostly empty and have a lot of M fans).
- vs. Iowa
- @Wisconsin and @Penn State could be tough but neither is a tournament caliber team or close to it.
- vs. Ohio State (at home we'll be favored)
The only one we maybe aren't is @Maryland.
The four toughest games of our schedule are all behind us (@OSU, @MSU, @Purdue, vs. Purdue).
It's easier from here on out.
January 25th, 2018 at 11:03 PM ^
doesn't equal winning. i'm happy with 6-2.
January 25th, 2018 at 11:17 PM ^
Didn't say that's what it was. But we went 5-3 in our first 8 games and the last 8 are SIGNIFICANTLY easier. 6-2 should be the expectation if we're favored in 7-8 games, but 7-1 is exceedingly possible.
January 26th, 2018 at 10:24 AM ^
The toughest game remaining is OSU, because we always play like crap against them.. Then @Wisc, because Troll Center.
January 25th, 2018 at 10:06 PM ^
Well played, both teams.
The game is so much more enjoyable when the refs swallow their whistles, as they did for that 10 min stretch of great ball.
January 25th, 2018 at 10:07 PM ^
Under no circumstance should Z be in when chasing points. He definitely should not be on the floor if he is not even handling the ball. MAAR running point is fine, but if that’s happening, get someone else in a shooters spot.
Z in the corner takes up a shooters spot and puts M playing 4 on 5.
Mind boggling for such a good coach.
January 25th, 2018 at 11:39 PM ^
January 26th, 2018 at 12:25 PM ^
Simpson that is shooting 46% from three this year? He'd be taking a shooter's spot?
And it's not good to have your PG with a really good 3:1 A:TO ratio in the conference on the floor when you need to score? Or the guy that will get stops and steals and transition baskets? Riiight.
Get outta here. Up late in a game when the other team is fouling, maybe, but if you're down, you want him in the game.
January 25th, 2018 at 10:10 PM ^
January 25th, 2018 at 10:34 PM ^
We shot 60% ourselves. It was a clinic out there.
Purdue was the #3 adjusted offense in the country per KenPom prior to the game. They're tough to stop.
January 25th, 2018 at 10:11 PM ^
If this team doesn't learn to shoot FTs we aren't going anywhere in the tourney
January 25th, 2018 at 10:11 PM ^
January 26th, 2018 at 3:41 AM ^
in the entire game. Two of them when it was already over. FTs did not cost us this game.
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