Michigan basketball ready to 'see where we are' with road test at Purdue

Michigan basketball ready to ‘see where we are’ with road test at Purdue

Posted by Admin January 21, 2025 Basketball

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There is no such thing as a game off in the Big Ten.

In case that was not perfectly clear, Michigan basketball lived it last week. The Wolverines fell in overtime to Minnesota, who was winless in conference play, on Thursday, then needed overtime again on Sunday to outlast a tough Northwestern team which sits 2-5 in the league.

Still, there are nights that are tougher than others, and No. 20 Michigan (14-4, 6-1 Big Ten) is about to walk into perhaps the hardest scenario of them all when it travels to Mackey Arena in West Lafayette, Indiana — home of No. 12 Purdue (15-4, 7-1 Big Ten) for a top-20 clash Friday (8 p.m., Fox).

U-M head coach Dusty May got his first taste of that vaunted environment when he was a student manager on Bob Knight’s Indiana staff (1996-2000), and when asked to relive a particular moment on Monday morning that may have stood out from his time, May nearly shuddered as he responded.

“They’re all bad,” he smiled. “Those guys, that arena, it’s going to be — we better have our hand signals ready, better be poised, gotta be able to pass, better have our fakes and footwork on point. It’s as tough an environment as there is in the country to play in, anyone who’s played there or been there knows that.”

The Wolverines have 13 regular season games remaining on their schedule and as of Monday, 10 were Quad 1 via the NCAA’s NET rankings, two are Quad 2 and only one (home vs. Rutgers) currently is Quad 3 or worse.

‘Work on us’

With only one game on the docket for this week, U-M should be able to have its best crack at the Boilermakers

May said the team would have Monday off with the intention to be fully rested Tuesday, which he said marks the group’s best chance to work on both itself and an opponent simultaneously since the middle of December.

“Get back after it with a real solid plan for what we’re going to see and what we’re gonna do,” May said. “We’ll work on us and we’ll work on Purdue, but this time of year, you’re trying to fix problems. … (Opponents) find some holes in what you do and now we have to counter that and continue to get better.”

On cue, May was asked which of those problems through 18 games may be at the top of the list in his mind and perhaps surprisingly it was not turnovers that he first mentioned. Instead, U-M’s coach has been most bothered by the fact he feels his team is missing a certain quality he feels all elite units in the league need.

“Our rebounding has to improve, we’ve got to find ways to be more disruptive on the defensive end,” May said. “Offensively, we have to screen better, we have to cut better. Most of us haven’t been in the Big Ten for a long time. There are certain things you forget.

“I catch myself saying ‘Oh, next fall, next summer, we’ll work on this more’ but we have to play with much more physicality, have to adjust to the game better. … We have to be the aggressor when it comes to physicality and we have the size and the bodies to do it.”

‘See where we are’

The Wolverines are 7-14 at Mackey Arena since 1999, but Purdue has won three straight in the matchup and four of the past five overall.

Yet as of the early portion in the week, May wanted his team to focus on itself before it installed its game plan against the No. 2 team in the Big Ten. Among the priorities, U-M is still hoping it can gain some valuable minutes in the guard rotation from any of its freshman trio — L.J. Cason, Justin Pippen or Durral “Phat Phat” Brooks.

May said Monday that Cason, who has appeared in 14 games but played just six minutes over the past five and didn’t suit up in either of the past two games, is on the right track behind the scenes.

“L.J. Cason had a really good week of practice,” May said. “I thought going into the game that he was going to get an opportunity, but it just didn’t shake out like that. If he continues to work and continues to progress, I think we’ll see him get in some live game action here soon.”

There is one line of thinking that says U-M has nothing to lose this week. Should it fall at Mackey on Friday, well sure, that’s not fun, but if most coaches are being honest with themselves as they do the “win-loss” schedule game in the preseason, that is a game that far more often than not ends in the defeat column on the ledger.

However, that’s not to say this is a game U-M can’t win. The Wolverines’ upside is arguably as high as anybody’s in the league — and perhaps the nation — and a full week of prep could lend itself to getting that side of May’s team.

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The only other time U-M has five days between games is Feb. 16-21 — after a road game at Ohio State leading into a home game vs. Michigan State — so these opportunities for lengthy prep don’t come often.

May knows it will take his team’s best to capitalize on this shot at a résumé-boosting victory.

“We got our work cut out for us,” he said. “But we’re anxious to see where we are.”

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.