Chicago – It’s easy to say, hey, they needed that. They’d been so dominant for so long, they looked invincible, as if the competition wasn’t real.
It’s fully real now for the Wolverines, who have a better idea of the challenge ahead. Purdue chopped them down a size or two in the Big Ten tournament final Sunday, taking a slight sheen off Michigan’s run to a 31-3 record and No. 1 seed in the NCAA Tournament’s Midwest Region. The Wolverines play Thursday in Buffalo against the winner of the play-in game between Howard and Maryland-Baltimore County.
They don’t yet know their opponent in the opener, but the first intangible opponent is their own mindset. They don’t often lose, and definitely not that way, as the Boilermakers shredded UM’s top-ranked defense in an 80-72 victory in the championship game. It shouldn’t have been a complete surprise, considering Purdue (27-8) was the AP preseason No. 1, possesses the size and guards to match Michigan, and was looking for payback.
It was a stark difference Sunday, watching the Boilermakers avenge an 11-point home loss to the Wolverines last month. But it doesn’t change much, other than reaffirming the Boilermakers as Final Four contenders, the No. 2 seed in the West.
The Wolverines are still what they were, 19-1 in the Big Ten regular season. They’re one of the top two or three favorites to win it all after posting ridiculous victory margins all season. They lost a game because they lost their defensive edge, and while it was crushing for players who have boldly stated historic intentions, it didn’t shake them.
Well, other than a helpful psyche shuffle.
“It kind of humbles us a little bit,” said Elliot Cadeau, the floor leader who had 10 points and 10 assists but struggled with his shot. “It shows us that we’re not untouchable, that people can be in games with us. People can force one-possession games, people can beat us by almost double-digits. It’s on us to come out and play harder. I think it can be a good thing, especially this time of year.”
Coaches will never openly admit losing is a good thing, and Dusty May wasn’t ready to take that approach. He acknowledged Purdue played with fierce vengeance, and its inside tandem of Oscar Cluff (21 points) and Trey Kaufman-Renn (20) tore the Wolverines up. Matt Painter’s teams are always tough, and this group appears to be toughening, winning four games in four days and making UM look like the tired team.
May understood the Boilermakers’ juiced-up motivation, but he still didn’t like his team’s response. In fact, the Wolverines were pushed to the closing minutes in all three games here.
“Purdue definitely played with more physicality than we did, they played with more edge,” May said. “That was the first time all year where teams have been able to just go one-on-one and score that efficiently. Credit them. They made a lot of tough shots. We gotta turn the page and focus on playing better.”
Michigan is one of the biggest teams in America with 7-3 Aday Mara, 6-9 Yaxel Lendeborg and 6-9 Morez Johnson Jr., and generally plays to its size. But after a 38-38 tie, Purdue took over by hitting 11 of its first 13 shots in the second half. Cluff and Kaufman-Renn finished a combined 17-for-26 from the field, as Purdue eschewed the 3-pointers, making only four.
Lendeborg (20 points) and Mara (14) kept the Wolverines fairly close, but the Boilermakers finished shooting 52.6%. UM was only 7-for-24 on 3s, but it was encouraging to see Lendeborg crank up the aggressiveness, while hitting four of seven deep shots.
Obviously as a top seed, Michigan can beat anybody in its region, but plenty of power-conference mainstays – Iowa State, Virginia, Alabama, Georgia, Texas Tech – are in its path. Cadeau and Mara have to stay out of foul trouble, Johnson has to be more physical, and Lendeborg has to take over when necessary, as he tried to do against Purdue.
“There’s something to learn from this,” Lendeborg said. “We can’t let our physicality drop, or our edge, or this is gonna happen to us. We were supposed to dictate how the game was played. … (In the first meeting) we killed their bigs. This time they got low-post positioning on us, easy layups. They started throwing the ball down low and doing their thing.”
Michigan’s thing is to extract different elements from all eight players in the rotation, with guard L.J. Cason out for the year. Freshman Trey McKenney has been shooting well, and senior guard Nimari Burnett can get hot.
No shakeups necessary, and no excuses offered. The Wolverines gave the Boilermakers credit, while slapping themselves.
“It’s absolutely more disappointing how we handled it,” Lendeborg said. “We are the best defensive team in the country and we didn’t show it. We can’t let nobody come in here and punk us again. We had that happen with Duke (68-63 loss), we should’ve learned from that mistake.”
The atmosphere in Buffalo should help ignite the Wolverines, with their friendly neighbors from Michigan State playing at the same site. As he often is, May was calmly introspective. Why does he think he has the team that can win it all?
“Because our body of work shows we’ve been able to play and beat some of the best teams in the country,” May said. “We’ve played really well, 19-1 shows the season we’ve had. Purdue got us tonight. But the times we have lost, we’ve been able to respond relatively quickly and get back to our best version. So no reason to think we’re not gonna do that now.”
Defense is one of the underrated predictors of Tournament success, and the Wolverines’ No. 1-rated metrics aren’t suddenly gone after one loss. They still have the size, physicality, talent and togetherness to win the national title, and they’re a popular pick. But the great and daunting challenge of March Madness is, they have to prove it all over again.
bob.wojnowski@detroitnews.com
@bobwojnowski
This article originally appeared on The Detroit News: Wojo: Despite recent cracks, Michigan has the pieces and the path to win it all
Reporting by Bob Wojnowski, The Detroit News / The Detroit News
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
