When the calendar reads Feb. 10 and a team still doesn’t have a signature win, that often spells trouble for its March Madness hopes.
That’s the exact position in which the Michigan men’s basketball team found itself on Thursday. But with No. 3 Purdue set to visit the Wolverines at Crisler Center for a 9 p.m. tip, they knew an opportunity awaited to change that. The Boilermakers’ trip to Ann Arbor marked Michigan’s first home game of the season against a Quad 1 opponent.
The Wolverines secured a win in dominant fashion, dismantling Purdue, 82-58. Michigan led from wire to wire and put together its best performance of the season, emphatically knocking off a legitimate contender.
The Maize and Blue Review breaks down three takeaways from the crucial victory:
Moussa Diabate provides a much-needed spark
For much of the past two weeks, Moussa Diabate has struggled. He logged 21 minutes or less in two of the Wolverines’ last three games due to foul trouble and poor defensive matchups.
For a former five-star recruit billed as a freak athlete capable of defending ‘1’ through ‘5,’ that was a mild disappointment for Michigan. Entering Thursday, he had scored in double figures just once in the Wolverines’ previous five games.
But against the Boilermakers, Diabate made a difference from the start. He scored 13 points on 6-of-9 shooting in the first half alone, helping Michigan establish a low-post presence at the outset. He threw down multiple two-handed dunks, finished a tough catch and lay-in in traffic and recorded an and-one spin move along the baseline. In the first few minutes alone, he converted on four of his first five shots.
Dickinson’s jump shot stretches Purdue’s defense — again
After scoring a season-high 28 points against Purdue earlier this week, Hunter Dickinson got off to a slow start in Thursday night’s rematch. He struggled to convert at the rim, missing putback attempts and easy looks from within arm’s reach of the basket.
So the sophomore big man stepped out and made the Boilermakers pay for clogging the interior.
Dickinson knocked down a pair of first-half 3-pointers and hit a deep mid-range 2-pointer, forcing Purdue to guard him on the perimeter. In the second half, he knocked down another two shots from beyond the arc. That adjustment opened driving angles for Michigan’s backcourt and allowed Diabate to thrive in one-on-one post-up and face-up situations.
Michigan defends second-half lead rather than folding
Against Buffalo, Seton Hall, Central Florida, Minnesota, Northwestern and Nebraska, the Wolverines saw big second-half leads slip away.
So when Michigan went up double digits against the nation’s third-ranked team at the beginning of the second half on Thursday, it was fair to wonder whether the Wolverines would suffer a similar fate.
Instead, the opposite occurred. Michigan’s lead ballooned, and the Wolverines steadily built it up to a 26-point advantage by the under-four media timeout. They didn’t even blink, let alone unravel. Michigan ran Purdue off the floor, making a statement in the process.
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