THE ESSENTIALS

WHAT	Michigan (15-5, 5-2 B1G) vs Rutgers (6-14, 0-7)
WHERE	Crisler Center Ann Arbor, Michigan
WHEN	7 pm ET, Wednesday
LINE	Michigan -22 (KenPom)
TV	BTN PBP: Joe Davis Analyst: Jon Crispin

Right: Sadly, this was still less mean than including a picture of actual Rutgers basketball.

THE US

Caris LeVert still won't be in the lineup tonight, but John Beilein told the media yesterday that there's a timeline—one he won't reveal—for his return:

"Caris has had more testing," he said. "Things continue to go in the right direction, but he is not ready yet. We hope it is very soon, but he is moving in the right direction."

LeVert has not met with local reporters since sustaining the injury. Beilein has repeatedly declined to expand on the specifics, other than to say the program is being "overly cautious" and that it's a "lower left leg injury."

 

Of the aforementioned timeline, Beilein would only say, "For the first time we met and said, 'OK, let's start looking at this date.'"

Michigan plays Penn State at Madison Square Garden on Saturday; ideally, he could work his way back in that game and return to his normal role for next week's home games against Indiana and Michigan State, but that would be a best-case scenario at this point.

THE LINEUP CARD

Projected starters are in bold. Hover over headers for stat explanations. The "Should I Be Mad If He Hits A Three" methodology: we're mad if a guy who's not good at shooting somehow hits one. Yes, you're still allowed to be unhappy if a proven shooter is left open. It's a free country.

[Hit THE JUMP for the rest of the preview.]

THE THEM

It's been a long day. Let's not waste precious time and space on this. Here is Rutgers' team shot chart, courtesy of Shot Analytics:

Here is the nicest thing John Beilein could think to say about them:

Beilein on Rutgers: "Eveyone's a Division I player. Everyone can run and dunk and make shots."

— Zach Shaw (@_ZachShaw) January 26, 2016

I'm sure that wasn't meant to be backhanded as hell, but alas.

THE RESUME

The highest-ranked team Rutgers has beat this season is #272 Farleigh Dickenson. They briefly led Indiana by a point in the second half of their Big Ten opener before the Hoosiers pulled away for a comfortable eight-point win; since then, their smallest margin of defeat has been 14, and they lost by 50(!) against Purdue. Rutgers is a historically bad power conference program.

THE TEMPO-FREE

Big Ten stats only.

Four Factors explanation

In Big Ten play, Rutgers is being outscored by 0.36 points per possession. Nothing else needs to be said.

THE KEYS

Win the game.

THE SECTION WHERE I PREDICT THE SAME THING KENPOM DOES

Michigan by 22.

They are so, so bad.

ELSEWHERE

UMHoops preview. Maize n Brew preview. UMHoops' Zach Shaw has a great article on Zak Irvin's all-around improvement:

“He’s really competitive, and if you score on him, he really takes it personally,” Walton said. “I think that really plays a big factor into why he’s so successful against the dynamic guys we play against.

“I’m always joking and saying ‘Man, I don’t know if you can stop this guy today, he’s kind of a handful, stuff like that. … He hates getting doubted, so anything I can do to fire him up and get him going.”

Please don't stop talking, Derrick. It's working.