#7 Michigan vs Purdue NCAA Basketball Expert Analysis

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Seventh-ranked Michigan leads the Big Ten standings, but the last time the Wolverines visited a dangerous team they were thumped. Could an upset happen again Friday at Purdue? Michigan will be favored on the NCAAB odds.

How to Bet Michigan at Purdue NCAA Basketball Odds & TV Info

When: Friday, 7 PM ET
Where: Mackey Arena
TV: Fox Sports 1
Stream: Fox Sports Go
Radio:com
Opening NCAAB Lines: TBA (Michigan will be favored)

Last Meeting

While the schools are scheduled to play once this season, they did twice last year and Michigan won both. The one in West Lafayette was 71-63. Franz Wagner scored 22 points and Isaiah Livers added 19 – both are still key players for Michigan. Neither team produced a shooting percentage over 40 and Wagner, who was 9 of 13 from the field, was one of only two players to make more shots than he missed. The other was Sasha Stefanovic, who had 13 points for Purdue on 3-of-5 shooting. It was UM’s first win at Mackey Arena since 2014.

Why Bet on Michigan? | 2021 NCAA Basketball Expert Analysis

Michigan (12-1) bounced back from last Saturday’s shocking loss at Minnesota with an 87-63 home rout of Maryland on Tuesday. Mike Smith made three early 3-pointers as Michigan raced to a 17-3 lead and that was it. Michigan made its first five 3s — Isaiah Livers had the other two — in an opening flurry that put the Wolverines in immediate control. Michigan led 42-25 at halftime and stretched its advantage to as many as 25 points in the second.

“I thought Michigan was terrific. They’re really hard to guard,” Maryland coach Mark Turgeon said.

Isaiah Livers led four double-digit Wolverine scorers with 20 points, his seventh career 20-point performance, while adding five rebounds, three assists and one steal. Franz Wagner notched another double-digit performance with 15 points, while tying a team-best six rebounds and adding three assists, one block and one steal.

Smith had another solid performance as the floor general, scoring 11 points — nine of them accounting for Michigan’s first 11 points — and doling out a team-best six assists. Junior Brandon Johns Jr., had a big night off the bench, scoring 11 points and adding four rebounds, while Austin Davis had nine points. Freshman Hunter Dickinson tied a team-high six rebounds and added a team-best three blocks.

Eli Brooks, who sat out the Minnesota loss with a foot injury, returned with seven points, four rebounds and five assists in a productive 18 minutes. The Wolverines shot 51.8 percent (29-for-56) from the field and dished out 20 assists, while blocking five shots defensively and getting six steals.

Here’s what coach Juwan Howard had to say: “I saw it the first day of practice, when we returned from Minnesota, the mindset of how guys came into practice. Not looking for excuses, not looking for ‘Hey, we played without one of our key guys.’ Looking for solutions, ‘Hey, let’s get in this gym. What can we do better? What do we need to work on and improve?’ When you have that type of mindset, looking for solutions, it didn’t surprise me the mindset the team was playing with (vs Maryland).”

Why Bet on Purdue? | 2021 NCAA Basketball Expert Analysis

The Boilers (11-5) won their fourth in a row Tuesday, a 67-65 upset at Ohio State. Freshman Jaden Ivey hit a step-back three-pointer for the win with five seconds left. Ivey finished with 15 points, eight of them in the final 3 1/2 minutes as the Boilermakers rallied from a six-point deficit. Purdue led for less than three minutes overall.

“He’s not made that shot for us this year, but he’s made it in practice,” coach Matt Painter said. “That wasn’t something that was new to us. It’s new to our opponents.”

Trevion Williams scored in double figures for the 11th straight game with 16 points and seven rebounds. He had 11 points and 4 rebounds in the second half. Sasha Stefanovic added 15 points, including 13 in the second half. His 3-pointer with 52 seconds left tied the game at 64 – his 17th straight game with a 3-pointer.

Purdue’s bench outscored Ohio State by a 28-6 margin and Purdue held a 36-8 advantage on points in the paint. Purdue was just 5-of-20 from long distance and is now just 11-of-52 from long range in the last two games. Opponents are 24-of-74 in the same span.

It was Purdue’s first win over a top-15 ranked team on the road since Feb. 25, 2012, at No. 11 Michigan (75-61). The win snapped a 15-game losing streak against top-15 teams on the road. It was also Purdue’s 22nd against a ranked team since the start of the 2016-17 season, the eighth most nationally. Purdue is 22-22 against nationally-ranked teams in that timeframe.

The Boilermakers have now won four straight games, their longest winning streak since the 2018-19 season. Three of the four wins have come on the road against Michigan State, Indiana and Ohio State.