Michigan Basketball was outmatched from the jump on Friday night against Purdue, struggling to rebound, limit turnovers and prevent the Boilermakers from making any shot on the floor. Head coach Dusty May shares his thoughts:
The Michigan Wolverines went into West Lafayette on Friday night ranked as the No. 21 team in the country, per the AP Poll, and No. 13 in the NET rankings. Their four losses were by a combined eight points, and had only dropped one game in Big Ten play.
Walking into Mackey Arena, the Wolverines felt confident they could compete with one of the best teams in the country. But that quickly turned sideways just minutes into the contest.
Michigan started the game with five turnovers on seven possessions in the first few minutes, leading to a quick 13-2 deficit. The Wolverines had already struggled with turning the ball over all season long, but head coach Dusty May has been working on trying to limit the turnovers to sustain leads and avoid large deficits.
“(Purdue) set the rules of engagement from the very first possession,” May said after the 91-64 loss.
Michigan came into the matchup ranked 345th out of 364 teams in the country in terms of turnovers per game (15). The Wolverines coughed up the ball 15.3 times per contest in their last three games, which included ann overtime loss against Minnesota and ann overtime win at home over Northwestern. However, Friday was much worse than the previous two games, as Michigan turned the ball over 22 times.
“The turnovers are obviously a theme (this season), that we’re just loose, we’re casual. That’s been the theme (with us) lately, especially with the traditional Big Ten teams,” May said. “We haven’t risen to the challenge from a physicality standpoint. We’re not there as a program quite yet. But we’re going to be obsessed with getting to the point we need to where we match the level of intensity and physicality in these games.”
However, turnovers are not the only reason Michigan was blown out. May addressed many other factors, including the hostile environment, poor shooting, and struggling to properly defend.
“There are going to be learning lessons from this,” May said. “The pace of our cuts, the pace we run the floor, the lack of communication and in a very hostile environment, we just have to be better in all facets. I don’t think we played well in any area tonight, so no, this is where we’re a growth program, we’ve got a long way to go.
“I don’t think we were physical enough on our blockouts, I don’t think we played well in any facet, and Purdue was extremely determined for obvious reasons. They lose here every couple of years for a reason, so it’s more the competitive spirit that we didn’t play with that is most disappointing.”
On the other bench, Purdue came into the game with a perfect game plan — stop Michigan center Vlad Goldin by double-teaming him inside the post, prevent Danny Wolf from creating angles to put the defense off-balance, and stay ready on the perimeter to force turnovers and fast-break opportunities.
The scheme and execution were flawless, and the Boilermakers limited Goldin to 14 points (four in the first half) while Wolf only had four total points on 1-for-7 shooting. The two 7-footers combined for eight turnovers.
“Vlad has been as good as anybody in our league,” Purdue head coach Matt Painter said after the win. “We really didn’t want him to get those deep post-ups and we tried to fight right there and try to come with a quick double with him. We tried to just stay with Danny Wolf and try to keep him from getting angles to the best of our ability. Then we wanted to switch as much as we could, but we didn’t want it to be lazy switches. We wanted to be clean and keep the ball in front of us.”
The Boilermakers had 29 points off turnovers, were 11-of-13 on layups going up against Goldin and Wolf in the paint, and shot more than 51 percent from the field. Purdue’s lead was never threatened.
In a tight battle at the top of the Big Ten standings, Michigan State and the Boilermakers now hold a slight lead over Michigan for the top-three spots, but the three teams will have many chances to beat up on one another later in the season.
“Hopefully we look back as this is a fork in the road,” May said. “Where we go in the right direction and learn from this and keep it moving. If we’re going to be a championship-level program, we’ve got to be able to rise to the occasion or at least match the energy and spirit of a championship-caliber program. And we’re not there yet.”