Takeaways from Michigan’s road win over Rutgers

The Wolverines stepped up in the final few minutes, leaning on Area 50-1 to earn a 66-63 road win against Rutgers. Here are the takeaways from a #Michigan victory

In a good old-fashioned, grind-it-out Big Ten battle, Michigan made enough plays down the stretch to grab a road win. The Wolverines leaned on it’s bigs and got some key defensive stops en route to a 66-63 victory over Rutgers. With the win, Michigan improves to 16-5 on the season and 8-2 midway through conference play.

Starting the season with five projected top-five NBA Draft picks in Ace Bailey and Dylan Harper, Rutgers had high expectations entering this season and has failed to meet them. The Scarlet Knights, without Harper for this one, were 11-10 on the year and 4-6 in conference play. Rutgers entered this game 71st in KenPom, behind only Minnesota and Washington in the conference.

Michigan played excellent defense in this one, after Rutgers made only 33 percent of it’s shots and 28 percent of its threes. That defense carried them to victory in this rock fight. Here are the takeaways from the victory.

Michigan killed it in the final six minutes and change

Michigan led for most of this one, but the Wolverines never could put Rutgers away thanks to turnover issues and inconsistent play on both ends. But just like the Penn State win , the Wolverines stepped up in the final minutes when they needed to, often leaning on Area 50-1.

It all started with a deep Danny Wolf three around the 6:30 mark to give Michigan a five-point lead and silence the Rutgers crowd.

Scores from Vlad Goldin and Wolf near the basket kept Michigan at an arms-length as we approached the final media timeout.

After a big Rutgers three to cut the Michigan lead to four with three minutes left, Michigan went right to Goldin on the block to grab the momentum back.

The Wolverines (18 assists) moved the ball really well in this one, with Nimari Burnett finding Wolf late to put Michigan up six with just over two minutes left. Goldin got the hockey assist on that basket.

Michigan leaned on its talented bigs late in this one, and they played really good basketball down the stretch. Combine their scoring with some key stops and this was enough for Michigan to win.

A balanced scoring day

This was not a high-scoring game, but Michigan’s scoring was still balanced in the scoring department.

Goldin and Wolf contributed for a large portion of that scoring, combining to score 29 points in this one, with Wolf leading Michigan with 16 points. Tre Donaldson was the other Wolverine in double figures (10 points), Roddy Gayle Jr. had six and Sam Walters and Will Tschetter matched that with some key threes off the bench.

Michigan is at its best when scoring is balanced like it was in this one.

A tale of two halves in the turnover department

Turnovers had been the main concern for the Wolverines for most of the season, but Michigan posted a season-low in turnovers in the Penn State win and did good in the turnover department early in this game.

The Wolverines only turned the ball seven times in the first half. The Wolverines also managed to score 14 points off of 12 Rutgers turnovers, turning a weakness into a strength for parts of this one.

Turnovers were a big problem in the second half, with U-M turning the ball over way too much. 10 second-half turnovers allowed Rutgers to hang around and hang around.

I know I sound like a broken record, but these turnover concerns still being prevalent in February is concerning.

Justin Pippen plays an important role off the bench

This was one of the best games so far this season for the Michigan freshman, who has been doing more and more as conference play goes along.

Pippen had three points and four assists in 16 minutes, finding the open man on a few key second-half possessions.

Pippen’s shooting and court vision will be handy for Michigan come March.

Play of the Game

Ace Bailey didn’t do much in the first half, but he had the play of the game, with a reverse slam to put Wolf on a poster.

No wonder that guy is projected to be one of the first players picked in the NBA Draft.

As talented as Bailey is, the Wolverines did a good job limiting him: the freshman only had 10 points on 3-for-15 shooting.

Up Next

The Wolverines have the chance to pick up two Quad 1 wins next week. U-M hosts No. 16 Oregon (Wednesday, Feb. 5 at 6:30 p.m. EST on Big Ten Network) before traveling to Indiana to take on a struggling Indiana team (Saturday, Feb. 8, at 1 p.m. EST on CBS) in Bloomington.