Coming into Thursday’s game, IU was well aware of the offensive firepower that the Michigan Wolverines possessed.
That Michigan firepower torched the IU defense all game thanks to one of the Wolverines' best offensive performances of the season.
Michigan got off to a hot start and never looked back as the Wolverines won 90-60 at the Crisler Center, marking the Hoosiers' third-largest conference loss under IU Coach Tom Crean.
“There’s no excuse for that,” Crean said in his post-game radio interview. “The biggest issue I have is not the loss, but the way that we never put ourselves in a fighting way. I don’t mean in a fist fight way, but an attacking way.”
Senior guard Derrick Walton Jr. was Michigan’s leading scorer Tuesday, as he scored 21 points and only missed one basket the entire game.
He led the way during Michigan’s blazing start to the game, which got the Wolverines out to a comfortable lead within a few minutes. The Wolverine offense was firing on all cylinders in the first half, scoring 10 of 15 baskets to open the game. At one point, Michigan scored on eight straight possessions.
IU’s porous defense allowed Michigan to race out to a 19-point lead in the first half on the back of both strong shooting and terrific ball movement.
In the first 20 minutes of the game, the Wolverines scored 1.62 points per possession and shot a red-hot 67-percent from the field.
IU consistently left Michigan shooters wide open in the first half, both behind and inside the three-point line. Michigan’s senior guard Duncan Robinson was the recipient of many of those open looks, drilling three nearly uncontested three-pointers in the opening half.
IU’s interior defense also struggled in the first half as Michigan’s sophomore forward Moritz Wagner was seemingly able to get whatever he wanted down low. In the first half, he had 12 points and was six of seven from two-point range.
Nothing changed after halftime.
IU had no answer for Michigan’s offense in the second half as the Hoosier defense couldn’t get the requisite stops to allow IU back in the game.
The Wolverines were able to do significant damage from the free throw line in the second half, shooting 14 of 18 from the charity stripe.
“There’s no excuse for the lack of aggressiveness defensively,” Crean said. “It wasn’t like we weren’t there, it wasn’t like we weren’t in front of them. We weren’t aggressive enough. We let them have too much freedom shooting the ball and it became a groundswell.”
