What a fitting way to end the season. All year there have been spurts of good play that are ruined by 5 or 10 minutes of terrible play. Michigan outplayed Purdue for over 30 minutes today and then let it all fall apart down the end.
Some notable numbers:
- Ekpe had 13 points and 9 boards but he only had 1 rebound in the second half. 13 points, 9 boards, 3 blocks and 6 assists is a damn good night for Mr. Udoh.
- Manny had 7 turnovers and no assists. Grady had 5 turnovers and 5 assists. Ekpe Udoh had 6 assists and 1 turnover.
- Purdue shot a miserable 26% in the first half but heated up in the second shooting 58%.
- Purdue was 8-18 shooting the long ball while Michigan was 7 of 26. Yikes
- Michigan outrebounded Purdue 41-33 which is hard to believe from watching the game.
DeShawn Sims finally brought his a-game with 19 points and 6 boards. He needs to bring it every night next year for this team to have a chance at being good. Although he still plays lazy at times it was good to see him take it to the hole a couple times. Mental lapses and lazy defense (did anyone see him just hug a Purdue player instead of fighting through a pick?) still plague Peedi but he always does enough to remind you how talented he is. Manny struggled and had one of his worst games of the year. He never really could get into it after the early foul trouble but 7 turnovers in 25 minutes is scary. Kelvin Grady is really killing this team by not being a scoring threat on the court. A bunch of times he would penetrate and make ridiculous passes to a Boilermaker, no one, or the sidelines. Laval Lucas-Perry will be a huge boost for this backcourt next year.
It is peculiar that this is the first time turnovers have been a big problem for this team. We all remember the talk about the basketball fundamental drills at the start of the year. Well they were clearly absent to tonight. The number of sloppy turnovers (24) was just startling. The stretch that lost the game was a series of sloppy turnovers and big time three point shooting.
Tough loss but we have gotten used to them this year. Michigan plays Iowa in the Big Ten Tournament 8-9 game on Thursday.
