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Michigan traveled to New York City on Saturday for a Big Ten showdown with Rutgers at Madison Square Garden.
The Scarlet Knights, one of this season’s biggest surprises, entered the game winners of 10 of their last 12 games and ranked the 25th-best team in the nation.
The Wolverines recently snapped a four-game losing streak with a 78-69 over Nebraska earlier this week. Starting point guard Zavier Simpson sat out of that game due to a violation of team rules, but returned for Saturday’s game.
Michigan got off to a strong start and built a 27-17 lead in the early-goings, but Rutgers battled to within 37-34 by halftime. After the break, the Wolverines once again started hot, and rebuilt it’s lead to 60-46 with under ten minutes to play. Once again, the Scarlet Knights fought to within three points, but Michigan prevailed with a 69-63 victory.
1. An ugly, but important, win
After 40 minutes of play, the Wolverines had more points. At the end of the day, that’s ultimately what matters. However, when Michigan watches the game film it may question how it was able to pull this one out. The Wolverines finished with 16 turnovers, including several down the stretch in crunch time. Rutgers took advantage, scoring multiple times off the miscues. Yet, Michigan managed to finish on top anyway, and when the selection committee looks over the resume at the end of the season, all they’ll see is another win over a ranked opponent for the Wolverines.
2. poor rebounding effort
In addition to being loose with the basketball, Michigan was abused on the boards in this game. The Scarlet Knights bullied their way to 26 offensive rebounds, an absurd number, and it’s really the only reason why this game wasn’t a Wolverine blowout. Rutgers shot just 33 percent from the floor, but multiple opportunities helped them keep it close. Michigan won’t survive another showing like that on the defensive glass however.
3. Brandon Johns Jr. career-high
Earlier this week, Brandon Johns Jr. set a new career-high with 16 points against Nebraska. That mark didn’t last long, as the sophomore eclipsed it on Saturday with a 20-point outing against the Scarlet Knights. Johns Jr. was huge for the Wolverines in this game, especially with how he contributed from outside, hitting better than 50 percent of his three-point attempts. The sophomore has been up-and-down this season, but if this is a sign of him settling in to Big Ten basketball, it will give Michigan a big boost down the stretch.
4. wolverines find the range
The Wolverines finally found their footing and knocked down their open looks at a decent clip. The month of January was unkind to Michigan in terms of shooting, but the Wolverines bounced back on Saturday with a much better shooting performance, hitting 47 percent of their shot attempts. It was just one outing, but perhaps Michigan will gain confidence from this game and shoot the ball better moving forward. That will determine how competitive the Wolverines are to close the regular season.
5. rivalry games up next
Michigan has won back-to-back games against Power 5 conference opponents for the first time since winning the Battle 4 Atlantis tournament back in November. It’s a good time to end that drought, with big rivalry games coming up next week. The Wolverines will host Ohio State on Tuesday, Feb. 4 and then host Michigan State on Saturday, Feb. 8. The Wolverines will have to play better than they did Saturday to defend home court against the Buckeyes and Spartans, but make no mistakes, these are opportunity games for Michigan. It’s hard to overemphasize how big two wins next week would be for Juwan Howard and company.