Michigan 70, Purdue 53
Michigan never trailed in a dominant performance at Mackey Arena, ending Purdue's four-game winning streak and cementing their hold on first place in the Big Ten.
Let's hope the victory doesn't come at a cost. This game never should've been played. Less than two hours prior to tipoff, Purdue's official men's basketball account tweeted a "Roster Note" that Sasha Stefanovic, who played in Tuesday evening's game against Ohio State, would sit out the next three games after testing positive for COVID-19. The Boilermakers would play, however, and their communications guy was so "VERY confident" in the team's protocols that he tweeted such while locking the responses. This passed as protocol, evidently:
Some further info on Michigan-Purdue going forward.
— Brendan Quinn (@BFQuinn) January 22, 2021
A Purdue official says the school is confident Sasha Stefanovic's positive test is an isolated incident with limited spread and it's been almost 67 hours since anyone had contact with Stefanovic (Tuesday, 11 pm).
Sasha Stefanovic to miss 17 days/3 @BoilerBall games due to testing positive for COVID-19. Reason Boilers aren't on pause? Purdue says extensive protocols followed: no cumulative 15 minutes of contact, masks everywhere, no eating on bus/planes, everyone own room, daily testing.
— Andy Katz (@TheAndyKatz) January 22, 2021
The Big Ten didn't step in. The game went on as scheduled. I hope they get away with taking this needless risk. That's what it was, though: needless.
As for the basketball itself, the two most heralded Wolverines combined to shoot 5-for-17 from the field, both true centers battled foul trouble against a team with a 7'4 backup, and only two M players finished in double figures. I deign to point out the officiating could easily be described as one-sided towards the home team. Yet this game was never particularly close.
a more literal floater than most [Campredon]
While Hunter Dickinson and Franz Wagner never got their offense going, Isaiah Livers was on the mark from the outset, finishing with a game-high 22 points on 17 shooting possessions. Livers crammed the rest of the box score with ten rebounds, three assists, two blocks, and only one turnover in one of his best all-around games of the season. Eli Brooks added 11 points on 5-for-8 shooting with some tough finishes around the basket.
Michigan's stout defense held the Boilermakers to their lowest point total of the season, which made effective secondary scoring somewhat unnecessary; Purdue also had only two double-digit scorers. Star center Trevion Williams needed 21 shooting possessions to tally 14 points. Guard Jaden Ivey was even less efficient in his first start replacing Stefanovic, going a wild 3-for-14 from the field but getting to the line for half of his dozen points. As a team, Purdue shot 20-for-65 with 11 assists and 14 turnovers.
well contested [Campredon]
Sticky perimeter defense and solid contributions from Austin Davis (six points, 3/6 FG) and Brandon Johns (four points, an offensive rebound, an assist, and a steal) helped weather early foul trouble by Dickinson. Juwan Howard even got some solid first-half minutes with Terrance Williams playing next to Johns and, for a brief stretch, using him next to Wagner with the latter defending Trevion Williams in the post. The Boilermakers rarely got all the way to the basket, got a clean look at the rim even less often, and couldn't hit their jumpers.
Thus, another blowout in another fashion. Michigan heads into the weekend 13-1 overall and 8-1 in the Big Ten, 1.5 games clear of Iowa and Wisconsin, which are tied for second at 6-2. They've won every game they've played with all their starters and every victory since Christmas has been by at least 11 points.
The upcoming round of COVID tests may be all that can stop this team. At full strength, they've been amazing. I hope the so-called adults in charge of all this don't ruin it by ignoring the lessons we should all have learned in the ten months we've dealt with this pandemic up close.
[Hit THE JUMP for the box score.]
January 22nd, 2021 at 11:48 PM ^
"Opinions offered from a soapbox without understanding the entire situation? Useless."
Irony is not just the opposite of wrinkly.
You can jump down from that soapbox now.
January 23rd, 2021 at 12:43 AM ^
I’m commenting on a blog, not calling my wildly unpopular opinion a “game column.” I also had most of the facts when I created my response.
January 23rd, 2021 at 10:04 PM ^
Nicely done.
Love,
Wrinkly ; {-
January 23rd, 2021 at 10:34 AM ^
There are “well informed opinions that further important conversations” and then there are Hot Takes. Usually the bloggers here are pretty good about understanding the difference, and indeed openly mocking purveyors of Hot Takes.
But this post by Ace was a flaming Hot Take.
January 23rd, 2021 at 7:36 AM ^
holy shit, we’re going to “stick to sports” this, in the middle of a pandemic?
it’s completely fucking valid to watch games in nearly-empty arenas, played shortly after verified player exposures, and wonder whether the game should be played in the first place. i can’t believe that talking about it is an issue for some of you people.
January 23rd, 2021 at 8:26 AM ^
There are a lot of credulous fools in need of new dumb views to embrace these days...
January 23rd, 2021 at 9:28 PM ^
absolutely agree - and generally agree with Ace's take on sports/pandemic. However, I felt the tone was off-putting even to me. IMO he wrote and twitter commented as if he knows more than anyone and those that disagree are just idiots. And again, this is coming from someone that generally does agree with him. I don't think it helps him, MGoBlog, or moving the needle to take the pandemic more seriously.
January 23rd, 2021 at 10:07 PM ^
Hm. Ok... considering.
January 22nd, 2021 at 10:54 PM ^
I seriously don't know how automobiles were made to be allowed.
January 22nd, 2021 at 10:22 PM ^
It is very "on-brand" for Ace. (I am fine with the opinion just not making it the focal point of your "gamer")
It is really horrible that the mean old B1G forced M, Coach Howard, and the team to play tonight without giving them ANY choice in the matter.......or maybe it is horrible that some believe that this is actually what happened.
January 22nd, 2021 at 10:29 PM ^
Ace has the right to his opinion, and I don’t mind that he feels strongly about it. What I do mind is how strongly he feels about it, but continues to profit off it when the games continue. Sit out the season if you feel as if these games shouldn’t be played, and stop writing, tweeting, and taking about it. There are other things to do then this.
We all have lines to draw that we believe are the safe thing to do... stop judging others when they have a different line then the one you agree with. This goes with a lot of other social items that are happening now a days as well.
January 22nd, 2021 at 10:56 PM ^
If sports are going on during this, it's important to acknowledge the cultural context of the game.
While you're acknowledging the cultural context, it's important to acknowledge the reality of the pandemic.
If you have opinions on the reality of the pandemic, the game at hand, and its cultural context, it's perfectly reasonable to express them within the column that covers the game.
If you work for an organization that covers the game, it's ok to publish those opinions in that column.
If you get views, ad revenue, and engagement from that column, it's reasonable to continue to earn your living writing about your opinions.
People are allowed to acknowledge the issues of a flawed system while still participating (or even THRIVING) in the system. Unfortunately, there's only one reality, and it's not Ace's responsibility to live in exile from it while stating opinions on a culture he's a part of.
January 22nd, 2021 at 11:05 PM ^
All of what you said are fair points, but the larger context isn’t a singular issue of one game or one decision that Ace disagrees with, but the structure that it is built on at the core. Pointing out flaws, and working towards a more positive outcome isn’t a problem, but he wants to make decisions for the people playing the game. If he disagrees with the decisions that are being made on a consistent basis, and it seems to be a core value he wants to live his life by, profiting on it seems a little hypocritical in the long term.
January 22nd, 2021 at 11:10 PM ^
This is an well intentioned but incorrect stance on the matter. Ignoring the presence of a pandemic is impossible, but for the sake of professionalism it’s totally unnecessary to inject your personal views on the matter. There is always only one reality but there are also different views and opinions of it for as many sets of eyes there are looking at it. To say unequivocally “they should not have played” is opining without including all the relevant information which, to me, is irresponsible.
January 23rd, 2021 at 12:17 AM ^
"Totally unnecessary" feels like a stretch, man. Other than the coaching pressers, which were straight transcription, I can think of very few posts in the history of this site that don't inject personal opinion into basically everything.
One thing that's really important to remember: the idea of "objective journalism" is a myth. It never existed, and it never will. You use the outlet you can to get a message out into the world. The writer has agency over what that message is. Every story has an angle. You may not agree with it — and that's the way it goes. You're allowed to express that, too. It's what the comment section is for.
January 23rd, 2021 at 1:25 AM ^
He definitely should have mentioned it, it was a big part of the game. However, injecting your personal opinion is completely unnecessary while backing it up with incomplete information.
January 23rd, 2021 at 8:15 AM ^
how’s this:
“there is some uncertain information about covid concerns within the purdue program.
”but hey, they played the game anyway, so fuck talking about it. isaiah livers scored 22, as...”
January 23rd, 2021 at 9:41 AM ^
How about “there was a COVID scare pregame when a Purdue player tested positive during the week, but Juwan and the team reviewed Purdue’s protocols and subsequent negative tests and were comfortable playing on. Hopefully this decision will be a good one in hindsight”.
Definitely better than calling Juwan Howard and Eli Brooks “so-called adults”
January 23rd, 2021 at 12:28 AM ^
Yeah. If Ace/MGoBlog feel this strongly that tonight's game shouldn't have been played, there should be no recap of the game. Stick to your guns if that's your view. Write a post just about the Covid aspect of this and say that because MGoBlog didn't endorse playing tonight, the game will not be discussed.
I would disagree with that take (I'm willing to believe the two programs know what they're doing), but I'd respect it.
January 23rd, 2021 at 12:46 AM ^
I agree. We are all scolded that this is a sports blog and to keep political items off of it yet Ace continually brings his political / controversial views to the board. Comment on the game. Both sides agreed to play.
January 23rd, 2021 at 1:03 AM ^
I disagree with Ace's views on this game and am fine with it being played....
However, I wanted to remark that public health and science are NOT inherently "political" and never should've become that way. The fact they have is a large reason why we're in such a mess.
January 23rd, 2021 at 9:42 AM ^
Sneering at people you disagree with and calling them “so-called adults” is not a responsible, mature, or helpful way to discuss the issue.
January 23rd, 2021 at 11:22 AM ^
So you’re saying Ace should quit his job in protest of the Big Ten playing basketball? That’s a pretty weird stance to take.
January 22nd, 2021 at 10:26 PM ^
i wouldn't expect anything less from him
January 22nd, 2021 at 10:34 PM ^
Unless Stefonovic just found out today he was positive and did not practice with the team for the last 3 days at least, there is no way to be sure that no one else on Purdue has not been infected. Once a player has been unknowingly playing/practicing while infected with his team, it is inevitable that it will spread to some if not most of the rest of the team. We won't be sure that Michigan is in the clear for a week at least.
January 23rd, 2021 at 2:25 AM ^
I tell my patients they have to wait 5 days from exposure to test (either a rapid or PCR), otherwise you may have a false negative. I'm not taking sides on this discussion as I can see both sides, just adding a little context.
However following this line of thinking, unless he did not have contact with his team for the 5 days prior to the positive test, then yes there is a potential his teammates (and our players) to have been exposed and return postive test results in the comming days.
January 23rd, 2021 at 2:04 PM ^
I guess I missed where the Ace hate is coming from, but okay whatever. I don't read everything on her all the time.
Kewaga's take is pretty much where I'm at here. Because of the timeframe, there is a chance that players on Purdue would have been contagious but still test negative. Not a huge chance, but still. With a confirmed positive, I would have postponed. There is wiggle room to make up games after all. Now there is a higher chance that Michigan players could test positive.
That said, if we do have players forced to sit due to COVID, we should be postponing rather than playing without key guys. This season has great potential, and we should be at full strength for our games. That's the real key here.
Oh, and Big Ten ref home cookin' sucks, and doubly so because we don't seem to benefit at Crisler.
January 22nd, 2021 at 10:44 PM ^
"as though they acted with criminal intent." It's fine to disagree with Ace, but this is an absurd interpretation of what he wrote. "Getting away with it" means not getting anyone infected, not getting away with a crime.
January 22nd, 2021 at 11:22 PM ^
Before reading this write up, I watched the post game interviews - 1st Matt Painter & 2nd Juwan Howard. Painter was very specific and very deliberate with his explanation of the circumstances. He called Juwan on Thursday, before the PCR test confirmed the less reliable antigen test, that in all probability one of his players was positive. Once he had the positive PCR, he again notified Juwan. Juwan then asked that ALL Purdue players take the PCR test, which they did, and all results were negative. I encourage everyone to simply watch the two post game interviews.
January 23rd, 2021 at 12:49 AM ^
There you go stating facts... Ace doesn't care about facts, he is lining up for a position on FOX or CNN.
January 23rd, 2021 at 12:04 AM ^
Do better, Ace
Who here seriously expects the person who accused those who said Cade was better than Milton during the Rutgers game of being racists to ever be better? This is who Ace Andender is as a person.
Seriously. We have how many years of this guy being like this? I used to defend him occasionally despite some differing opinions. But it's become more than clear to me that those that dislike him do so far more than simply due to politics. He's a hateful, resentful person. All you need to do to see this is listen to how demeaning he is to Seth and his takes on the podcasts. It's straight-up bizarre.
January 23rd, 2021 at 12:25 AM ^
The disappointing aspect of all this is the fact that Ace does a very good job in writing game recaps; often within 30 minutes of the final horn. When Ace makes it about Michigan athletics and the specific athletes and teams, he is very good. When he makes it all about his own opinions on aspects of things outside of the actual game, that is when it goes downhill.
January 23rd, 2021 at 2:28 PM ^
I don't think Ace is hateful; he's just opinionated about lots of things (like we all seem to be), and he's got a loud enough megaphone here at the site for being heard. I never caught the "it's racist to question Milton" take from Rutgers but it has been brought up here a couple of times so I assume there's something to it, but he was on the Milton train most of the year (even when guys like Brian mentioned we shouldn't take it as a good sign that he was the starting QB sort of by default). It's hard to give up your prior beliefs, especially when you can credibly argue various other positions. It's similar to his (and others) incessant cries for Matt Campbell to take over as HC at Michigan, which seemed largely based on a distaste for Harbaugh and the current state of the program and not some deep-held belief that a guy who was barely above .500 at Iowa St. was poised to return UM to glory.
Anyway, this entire write-up glossed over yet another dominant performance by UM and it's sad we've all sort of missed that.
January 22nd, 2021 at 10:15 PM ^
This team is really good. There were moments when the questionable officiating and the inspired Boilermaker momentum could have turned this into a close game. But Michigan seems to have enough excess/overwhelming talent and teamwork to overcome such obstacles.
January 22nd, 2021 at 11:54 PM ^
Yes, I think we have enough evidence now (at least I do) that we can say Michigan is the best team in the B1G. At least they are at the moment.
January 22nd, 2021 at 10:18 PM ^
https://mobile.twitter.com/BFQuinn/status/1352771031644176385
Looks like at least some additional testing was requested by the program. Will still be wary of the upcoming tests for both teams.
Great win. Go Blue!
January 22nd, 2021 at 10:27 PM ^
Deleted comment - enough snark from me already
January 22nd, 2021 at 10:21 PM ^
Such a pleasure to watch.
January 22nd, 2021 at 10:25 PM ^
The “so-called adults” asked for 2 PCR negatives before a player could participate after the Sasha positive. The fact the first time we as the general public heard about was 50min to tip is not ideal, but hindsight is 20/20.
January 22nd, 2021 at 10:26 PM ^
Several more of Purdue's players will surely test positive in the next few days. We can only hope that none of them are currently shedding virus and are still a couple days away from being contagious. We won't know whether Michigan was infected for a week, at which point we may have reinfected Penn State's program. If we make it to the Indiana game, we should be alright.
January 22nd, 2021 at 10:37 PM ^
I’m willing to make a bet that everything in your post will NOT happen. Both programs/ADs have not hesitated in the past to cancel games. Understanding of the virus gets better each week and testing protocols improve as well.
Keep preaching Mike, but chill for now.
January 22nd, 2021 at 10:42 PM ^
And yet Michigan missed it's last three football games, despite the caution of Manuel. Look, I want to be wrong, but betting you know what this virus is going to do, especially without understanding the details of the positive case, is pretty foolish. I hope none of what I wrote comes to fruition, but having watched it spread through my family and my kids school, I can only say that once the virus gets into a group, it is incredibly difficult to stop it from spreading.
January 22nd, 2021 at 11:13 PM ^
Well hold on. It was never the intention of any of the sports leagues (pro or college) to keep infections to zero. They knew some player at some time was going to get it. The nature of the virus made this inevitable. The intention was to minimize the spread once they knew someone was infected. And the fact that last 3 football games were cancelled shows that we did a good job following the protocols.
Also, I think there still is a good argument that being under the control of your school’s team protocols is one of the safest and best way to mitigate the risk of spreading.
Lastly, with the information at hand (most of which we don’t have), do you really think Manuel and Howard would put players at undue risk?
January 22nd, 2021 at 11:38 PM ^
The latest from Painter seems to be that Stefonovic starting showing symptoms on Wednesday, meaning he was probably contagious since Sunday. He practiced with his team likely multiple times while contagious and played a game on Tuesday with his team. That is all you need to know to cancel this game. This game should not have been played. I understand that you can't necessarily keep infections to zero. But there was plenty of information to say that the risk of infection was too high to play this game tonight. Hopefully Purdue, Ohio State, and Michigan don't see multiple infections in the next week. Personally, I think we should postpone the Penn State game this week until we see what happens, so as not to add another team in to the potential spread. If we hear of any more Purdue or Ohio State player testing positive in the next few days, there should be no question of us postponing the Penn State game next week.
January 22nd, 2021 at 11:52 PM ^
I’ll ask again, with the information at hand, do you think Manuel and Howard would put the players at undue risk?
Keep in mind, they have already agreed to cancel a game this year (Penn State). So it’s not like they are gun shy to do so.
January 23rd, 2021 at 1:07 AM ^
Eh, that science is debatable re: Sunday.
If he became symptomatic on Wednesday, he may not have been contagious until Tuesday. If Purdue gets to Sunday/Monday without additional positive tests, we're probably in the clear. It's good we have a long break though, regardless.
January 22nd, 2021 at 11:37 PM ^
We may want to keep in mind that the football program 1) has 100+ players and 2) went 2-4, leaving the players without much incentive to stick to protocol and 3) played its season while a lot more students were on campus. So it may be an apples/oranges comparison.
At any rate it's not entirely clear how much risk you face of contracting the virus during a game. The biggest problem on teams seems to be things like team dinners, where guys are sitting close to each other for a couple of hours.
January 23rd, 2021 at 9:25 AM ^
Just like the M football team it appears that the teams (=players) that relax their diligence after disappointing results (I.e. starting 2-4 in the B1G and seeing your “premier” win was against a severely down ACC power) are the ones that are seeing COVID issues in general. I don’t believe there have been many/any incidents of teams infecting each other. —( Possibly Illinois and UW in football but I thought The Illini outbreak was a few weeks after their game with Wisconsin.)
January 22nd, 2021 at 10:29 PM ^
Lot of Drama Queens on this board, especially the writer.
January 22nd, 2021 at 10:29 PM ^
off games by both wagner and dickinson and yet still win going away. this team is very strong and balanced. nice W!!
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