Indiana's best path to an upset was to drag Michigan's shooting down to their level and gain the edge with rebounding and drawing fouls.

The Wolverines shoved the Hoosiers into the foliage and walked that path themselves in the first half, then ran away in the second to bring their magic number for a Big Ten title down to one.

A ragged game stayed close for the first 12 minutes before Hunter Dickinson answered a Trayce Jackson-Davis poster dunk with one of his own. Led by Franz Wagner in full attack mode, Michigan widened the gap by getting into the bonus early and forcing the issue for the rest of the half. The Hoosiers went 12/28 from the field while Michigan was 11/37, but the visiting Wolverines went 16/18 from the line compared to a 6/9 mark for IU. Only a stepback jumper from Jerome Hunter, replacing the injured Armaan Franklin, kept the Hoosiers within single digits at the break.

Livers hit three of his four three-pointers in the second half [Campredon/file]

Then Isaiah Livers locked in. After opening the game 1/6 from the field, he went 4/5 in the second half with three makes from beyond the arc to finish with 16 points, second only to Wagner (21 on 13 shooting possessions) among either team. With the defense giving IU fits, Michigan only really needed scoring from four players, the aforementioned duo plus Mike Smith (14 on 7 SP) and Hunter Dickinson (13 on 11 SP). Eli Brooks and Chaundee Brown were the only others in the scoring column with six and three, respectively.

Dickinson shut down Jackson-Davis, who tied his season low with ten points on 15 shooting possessions. With their best player rendered ineffective, IU resorted to a lot of tough shots, and only Aljami Durham could put them down with any regularity. The Hoosiers had four scoreless droughts of about three minutes or longer (one clocked in at 2:59). It's hard to put up an answer when the other team is beating you at your own game.

Michigan is now 18-1 overall and 13-1 in the Big Ten. They've moved up to second on KenPom, inching ahead of Baylor, and have both Dickinson (3rd) and Wagner (9th) in KP's player of the year standings. A win in any of their three remaining games would secure the conference title, as would any Illinois loss. The Illini are currently playing without Ayo Dosunmu against Wisconsin on ESPN. If the Illini pull that out, the Wolverines can clinch in their head-to-head matchup on Tuesday.

I'm running out of superlatives. Enjoy the ride to a one-seed.

[Hit THE JUMP for the box score.]