Michigan will face Maryland on Friday morning (11:30 a.m., BTN) in the Big Ten Tournament quarterfinals. The Terps weathered an early Michigan State run on Thursday and pulled away down the stretch with their defense for a comfortable 68-57 victory.
Rather than playing a third consecutive game against its rivals, the Wolverines will face a team that it swept this season. Michigan and Maryland played their home-and-home series within a three-week span in early January. The Wolverines won in College Park, 84-73, on New Year’s Eve, and then beat the Terps in Ann Arbor, 87-63, on Jan. 19th.
“They just whipped us both times,” Mark Turgeon said matter of factly in his post-game interview on Thursday.
The Wolverines scored 1.25 points per possession in both contests, two of their five best offensive performances of the 2020-21 season. They dominated each game offensively but did so in a completely different manner. Hunter Dickinson dropped 26 points in the first meeting, schooling the Terps with his one-on-one scoring, and he only scored three points in the second. Instead, Michigan won with its ball movement and passing ability after the Terps were forced to double and focus on negating Dickinson’s size inside.
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