Michigan basketball has fallen on bad times.
The Michigan Wolverines were obliterated on the road, losing to No. 2 Purdue Boilermakers , 99-67.
The Wolverines had a tough task heading into West Lafayette, taking on one of the best players in college basketball and a team who put together three double-digit wins against Big Ten opponents since its loss to Nebraska on Jan. 9.
Nonetheless, Michigan shot itself in the foot from the jump, going scoreless for long periods of time, staying undisciplined by getting into foul trouble early and not defending the three.
The first half started and ended on a sour note for the Wolverines. The first media timeout came as the Boilermakers led 11-4. By this point, four of the five Purdue starters had a basket (except for Edey) and Braden Smith had nine points before Michigan scored seven as a team.
The Wolverines’ leading scorer, Olivier Nkamhoua, picked up two early fouls seven minutes into the game, so Juwan Howard was forced to put in Youssef Khayat and Jace Howard, who each had to play seven minutes in the first half. While Howard made his first basket of the season to cut the deficit to eight just before the under-12 media timeout, Mason Gillis and Caleb Furst hit threes of their own to put together a mini 6-0 run with 10:47 remaining in the first half.
After that shot, however, scoring disappeared for both teams. Purdue went 0-for-8 in a three-minute scoring drought and Michigan went scoreless for 5:27 into the next media timeout.
Both teams put together some points following the stoppage, but after Jaelin Llewellyn made back-to-back threes and a layup to cut the Boilermaker lead to 10, Purdue then finished the half on a 15-2 run (7-for-7), including a buzzer-beating three at the end of the half by Fletcher Loyer while the Wolverines went scoreless for two and a half minutes to go into halftime trailing, 49-25.
The first three and a half minutes of the second half highlighted Edey and Terrance Williams II doing all of the scoring for their respective teams (Edey had six and Williams scored eight). Meanwhile, Tarris Reed Jr., Michigan’s only center, picked up his fourth foul at the 17:12 mark of the second half and had to sit.
Nimari Burnett and Nkamhoua made their first baskets in the game at the 12:30 mark, but they didn’t make much of a difference given Lance Jones scored 10 points in two minutes to add to his game-leading total of 22 at the under-12-timeout and kept the lead to 24 points.
The Boilermakers built off of Jones’ momentum out of the stoppage, going on a 9-0 run in two minutes. Even after the Wolverines made a field goal, Purdue continued to pile it on and led by 30 points with seven minutes remaining.
Once the Wolverines didn’t make a field goal for four minutes and Reed fouled out into the final media timeout, Howard finally emptied his bench for the remainder of the game.
Michigan went on to lose, 99-67, in its worst loss of Howard’s coaching career.
Edey had 16 points and 10 rebounds and Jones finished with 24 for the Boilermakers. Llewellyn scored 16 for the Wolverines. Team-wise, Michigan shot 33.8 percent and 31 percent from three. Purdue shot 51.5 percent from the field and 66.7 percent from three (15-for-21).
The Wolverines return home on Saturday against Iowa.