After the Indiana football team won the National Championship last night, the basketball team could not follow the success of Curt Cignetti’s squad. No. 3 Michigan welcomed the Hoosiers to the Crisler
Center and took their lunch money, winning handily, 86-72.
The Hoosiers entered this game with a 12-6 overall record and a 3-4 record in the Big Ten. They also entered on a three-game losing streak, falling to No. 7 Nebraska by six, No. 10 Michigan State by 21 and to Iowa by 17; on paper, this two-week stretch has been brutal for IU’s tournament resume.
Michigan got off to a great start and kept rolling from there, putting on its most dominant performance since the McNeese win nearly a month ago. Michigan played excellent defense and made its threes, not allowing Indiana to get comfortable all game long. After sweating through the last few wins, it had to be satisfying for fans to see this team play this well again.
Here are some takeaways from the victory.
Elliot Cadeau was in his bag
Point guard Elliot Cadeau made his first three-point attempt of the game, and fans know at this point that when that happens, they’re in for a treat.
Cadeau scored 10 of Michigan’s first 17 points and finished the game with a team-high 19 points, tying his career-high. He was shooting confidently and finished through the teeth of the Indiana defense when getting paint touches. Coming off his first scoreless outing of the season, Cadeau had a hell of a bounce-back performance.
The rest of the scoring was fairly balanced, with three other Wolverines (Yaxel Lendeborg with 15 points, Aday Mara with 13, Trey McKenney with 10) scoring in double digits, but Cadeau made the biggest impact while the game was still in hand. Dare I say, with his ferociousness in the lane, he played a whole lot like the former National Player of the Year Michigan is honoring this Friday. You win in March with good guard play, and Cadeau was more than good this evening.
As good a start as you could ask for on both ends
Head coach Dusty May mentioned after the Oregon game the Wolverines didn’t play with good energy in the first half. Whatever he said to fire the team up got through to them, as they got off to an electric start.
Michigan got out to a quick 9-0 lead in the first five minutes after a Mara hook shot and seven points from Cadeau. The Wolverines did this while playing swarming defense, not allowing Indiana to get comfortable at all. The Hoosiers turned the ball over twice, second-leading scorer Tucker DeVries picked up two quick fouls, and the Wolverines rotated beautifully. All five Michigan players were moving their feet to close out on shooters, with Lendeborg even blocking a three-point shot that fired up the crowd, and that energy was infectious.
The Wolverines proceeded to take a 17-4 lead with 11:43 to play in the first half, putting their foot on the gas as we saw during that dominant stretch in late November and December.
That great start set the tone for Michigan on both ends. A little 7-2 run in the first two minutes of the second half helped Michigan get its lead back up to 15, stomping out any chance of a Hoosier comeback.
Letting it rain from three
Michigan’s three-point shooters sure did look comfortable being back at home. Michigan made six of its first 12 three-point attempts — two from Cadeau, two from Trey McKenney, one from Nimari Burnett, and one from Will Tschetter. These makes helped Michigan jump out to a 15-point lead, putting Indiana in a hole that would be tough for any team to climb out of.
Overall, Michigan got great looks and knocked them down, making 40 percent of its shots from deep. The Wolverines have proven they don’t need to knock down threes to beat opponents, but an efficient night from three like this makes defeat nearly impossible.
Missed opportunities from the charity stripe
This team is elite at a lot of things, but free throw shooting is not one of them.
There’s a whole lot of green on Michigan’s KenPom page, indicating it ranks towards the top of DI hoops in many counting stats and advanced analytics. But Michigan is 164th in the country in free throw percentage (72.9 percent), just above average across the sport.
It didn’t cost them in this game, but Michigan shot 17-of-26 from the free throw line (65 percent). We’ve seen Michigan sweat through some missed free throws in recent close games; as good as Mara is, him shooting 44 percent from the line entering this game makes him tough to play in crunch time.
It’s not an issue now, but it could become one in March.
Up Next
Michigan is back in action on Friday night at Crisler Center to take on the Ohio State Buckeyes. That game tips off at 8 p.m. on FOX, and festivities will include Michigan legend and Columbus native Trey Burke, who will have his jersey honored. He posted a reel to Instagram earlier this week, featuring him and his son previewing the honoring; unsurprisingly, the game has been sold out for months.
