Michigan basketball led by center duo again, holds off Rutgers 66-63

Posted by author February 1, 2025 Basketball

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PISCATAWAY, N.J. — Michigan basketball assistant coach Drew Williamson said earlier in the week there’s no such thing as an ugly win, but the Wolverines pushed the limits of that theory Saturday afternoon.

A few miles away from where the first college football game was played between Rutgers and Princeton in 1869, Michigan and Rutgers at times looked like they were in a gridiron clash, but the Wolverines won’t complain after a 66-63 victory at Jersey Mike’s Arena.

The Scarlett Knights attempted 20 more shots than the Wolverines, but turned 15 offensive rebounds into just six second-chance points. The Wolverines defense did enough to hold coach Steve Pikiell’s team to 32.8% shooting (22 of 67) from the floor, which included limiting projected top-three NBA draft pick, freshman Ace Bailey, to 10 points on 3-for-15 shooting.

Rutgers was without its other projected top-three pick, Dylan Harper, due to an ankle injury.

The Wolverines turned it over 17 times, including 10 times in the second half, but Danny Wolf made enough plays down the stretch as his 16-point, 14-rebound double-double led the way for the Wolverines. He scored 14 in the second half, and had four blocks and two steals.

Michigan (16-5, 8-2 Big Ten), which came in 26th to miss the top-25 cut last week, should find itself in a ranked matchup Wednesday at Crisler Center against No. 18 Oregon (6:30 p.m., Big Ten Network).

The key plays that won it

The second half was about as ugly a 20 minutes (outside of Mackey Arena) as there has been all season for the Wolverines, who turned the ball over seven times in the first 9:09 of the period. Rutgers didn’t have one miscue in that time.

Three times Rutgers made a 3-pointer to cut the deficit to a one-possession game — first by Tyson Acuff (Detroit Cass Tech) who finished with 14 points, then by PJ Hayes and eventually Zach Martini — to get the game to 48-46 with 6:45 left before Wolf hit a stepback 3 from the left wing to put U-M up five.

On the next possession, Vlad Goldin got an offensive rebound on a Wolf miss and made the putback, before Wolf got an offensive rebound on the next possession, kicked the ball out to Roddy Gayle Jr, who threw is back to Wolf for a slam.

Jamichael Davis, who led Rutgers with 20 points, hit a 3 from the corner to get within four with 3:15 to play, but Goldin (14 points, six rebounds) responded with a bucket.

After Rutgers got within four on a pair of Bailey free throws, Gayle tossed a touch-pass to a slashing Wolf for a score to go up 61-55.

Suffocating Ace Bailey

The Wolverines’ defensive gameplan was clear: Don’t let Bailey beat you.

Any time he caught the ball near the elbow, he was doubled, as U-M threw more than half-a-dozen different defenders on him. It worked early, as he went more than 13 minutes without a point.

When he did finally get on the board with 5:48 to play in the half, it came on a turnaround from the left baseline fading away against a double-team from Gayle and Goldin to go up 21-20.

U-M forced two early turnovers from him, and generally made his life difficult compared to when he went 9-for-10 in the first half vs. Northwestern on Wednesday.

But Bailey, a 6-foot-10 forward, found himself on a highlight when he split Goldin and Wolf at the 3-point line, then took two dribbles toward the rim before he glided under the hoop and threw down a reverse flush to send the crowd into a frenzy with 44 seconds left in the first half to make it a five-point game.

He finished the game 3 of 15 from the field and 0 of 7 on 3s.

Street fight start

The contest opened like a streetball match at the famed Rucker Park less than an hour up the road. Rutgers made 2 of its first 11 shots and turned the ball over five times before the first timeout, while Michigan made 4 of 9 shots with four turnovers during that time.

The only bucket that wasn’t a layup came on a Tre Donaldson (10 points, six assists) 3-ball that banked in off the glass before the point guard put his palms to the sky in Michael Jordan-shrug fashion.

Donaldson picked up two fouls in the span of 50 seconds less than eight minutes into the game, which flipped the vibes. Rutgers took a quick lead on back-to-back 3s by Acuff, then got seven straight from Tyson Davis before Justin Pippin — in for Donaldson — hit the deepest 3-pointer of his young career to put U-M ahead 20-19.

U-M got some breathing room when Sam Walters hit his second 3 from the right corner as part of a 13-2 run over 6:04, and went into the break up 32-25 after Goldin finished the half with a slam.

Rutgers had nine offensive rebounds in the first half, but didn’t capitalize with any second-chance points and shot just 11 of 36 (30.6%) from the floor and 3 of 15 (20%) on 3-pointers.

[ MUST LISTEN: Make “Hail Yes!” your go-to Michigan Wolverines podcast, available anywhere you listen to podcasts (Apple, Spotify) ]

Tony Garcia is the Michigan Wolverines beat writer for the Detroit Free Press. Email him at apgarcia@freepress.com and follow him on X at @RealTonyGarcia.