Game 24: Purdue at Michigan Recap

The Dusty May era at Michigan finally has a signature moment. In their most impressive win of the season, the Wolverines outlasted Purdue, 75-73, moving into first place in the Big Ten.

It was the sort of night that was impossible to dream of a year ago, and a win that feels like a stamp of validation of May’s early progress in Ann Arbor.

It also might be the Michigan victory that felt least like a typical Michigan game.

The Wolverines have an established script for their games, and most have followed it. They win the shot quality duel and lose the possession battle, but they lead for most of the night by riding their 7-foot ball screen duo. They’ve lost a few games that followed the script and let big leads disappear, but they’ve rarely played games that deviate from the script too far.

The Wolverines trailed for 35 minutes and flipped the game in the closing moments. The Area-51 ball screen game didn’t create a basket, leaving Rubin Jones and Roddy Gayle Jr. to step up in key moments. The oft-maligned Michigan bench outscored Purdue 21-0.

This game was fascinating because it seemed like all of Michigan’s problems from the first meeting were still present, but the team figured out a way to overcome them and win anyway.

The defensive rebounding was sometimes disastrous, with Purdue hauling down 39% of its missed shots. Caleb Furst grabbed five offensive boards by himself, and his physical play down low helped force another five “team” offensive boards.

Michigan turned it over seven times in the first 11 minutes of the game and fell behind early, but then turned it over four more times the rest of the night.

Braden Smith was unconscious for the first third of the game, scoring from every spot on the floor with a shocking degree of ease. He created 47 of Purdue’s 73 points and still almost won the game at the buzzer.

In the preview, I noted how Purdue’s defensive style made it crucial for Michigan to hit open threes and snap out of their 30% 3-point shooting slump over the last six games. They shot 7-of-23 from deep — exactly 30%.

Michigan didn’t eliminate what went wrong at Mackey two and a half weeks ago; it just kept the game in check long enough to discover some home magic of its own.