WEST LAFAYETTE — The No. 21 Michigan men’s basketball team isn’t really in the business of bully-ball. Sure, graduate center Vlad Goldin can put his head down 15 feet away from the rim and back a smaller defender down into the paint and stuff him in the rim, but the Wolverines more often have their buckets come easier than that, and with more finesse. Sometimes, though, there really isn’t a choice.
From the moment the referee tossed the ball in the air and the game began, Michigan lost the game of physicality against No. 11 Purdue. The Boilermakers — fresh off a stinging loss to Ohio State on their home floor earlier in the week — were ravenous for the opportunity to avenge their previous misstep with a ranked win. Michigan, however, looked like it was on its heels, playing simply not to lose.
This lack of aggressiveness isn’t something that came out of the blue. In their loss against Minnesota, the Wolverines got bullied on the interior. And even in some of their wins, there has been that small nagging idea that perhaps their physicality wasn’t up to par in the Big Ten. And Friday night, that little nagging idea became a full-headed beast.
“That’s been the theme here lately,” Wolverines coach Dusty May said. “Especially with the traditional Big Ten teams, we haven’t risen to the challenge from a physicality standpoint.”
Michigan’s lack of physicality manifested itself in every facet of the contest, but there were several areas that stuck out more than others. The first of which was the Wolverines’ inability to get Goldin the ball anywhere near the basket.
Goldin is a feared player in the Big Ten. He leads the conference in scoring during Big Ten play and does so extremely efficiently. He can shoot the three now, but his real damage comes from the interior. Michigan just couldn’t figure out how to get him the ball in his sweet spot.
Instead, Purdue pushed the Wolverines out to the wings in order to alleviate the Boilermakers ball pressure. As a result, Goldin was constantly catching the ball well past the 3-point line with a defender in his face — a position where he is no real threat. And even when he did get the ball in the post, he was almost never receiving the ball in a position to do damage.
With the Wolverines leading scorer nearly neutralized by physicality, the Boilermakers had a much more manageable task in stifling Michigan’s offense.
“If the game is going to be physical, you have to be physical,” Goldin said. “We cannot be expecting them to change their mind, ‘Oh, you know what, this game is not going to be physical anymore.’ ”
From the start, it was clear Purdue wanted to be physical, and the Wolverines didn’t have an answer of their own. If the Boilermakers’ 40 points in the paint weren’t indicative of it enough, perhaps their 14 steals and Michigan’s staggering 22 turnovers would do the trick.
There’s a fine line in physicality — you have to be physical enough to create chaos, but not too physical that you get into foul trouble. Purdue toed the line perfectly, never finding itself sending the Wolverines to the line more than anticipated.
“You have to do it in a smart way where you’re not just fouling and being overly aggressive,” graduate guard Nimari Burnett said. “Because that translates to getting into foul trouble in the game and stuff like that.”
Michigan’s lack of physicality has been a mere whisper until this point, never really being a glaring issue. But Friday night, it was impossible to miss. And with more Big Ten matchups looming against teams just as physical as Purdue, this drubbing is a much-needed wake up call.
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