After earning a sweep of a two-game West Coast road trip, No. 4 Michigan returns home to face Indiana at Ann Arbor on Tuesday with improved consistency on its mind.
The Wolverines (16-1, 6-1 Big Ten) trailed host Oregon at halftime on Saturday before shaking their sluggishness down the stretch to secure an 81-71 victory.
While Elliot Cadeau tallied 17 points on 5-for-8 shooting to lead Michigan in scoring for the second time in the past three games, Nimari Burnett was close behind with 15 points, including 10 before the break.
Michigan coach Dusty May complimented Burnett’s overall floor game — he added three rebounds, three assists, two steals and one block – and approach as a catalyst.
“I thought in the first half, he was the one who really kind of carried more than his share of the weight. I thought he was poised. I thought he was mature,” May said. “He made big shots, and in the second half, we talked about that group, but I thought him driving and starting some driving kicks, and that became contagious, versus trying to drive and score on two or three guys, which we did a lot in the first half.”
After struggling at the start of January, logging only 14 minutes and shooting 0-for-4 in a win against Southern California, Burnett enters Tuesday with double-figure scoring games in three of his past four contests.
Aday Mara, who chipped in 12 points at Oregon, has been equally steady in the paint over the same span. Mara has contributed at least three blocks in three of the past four games.
Indiana is aiming to stop a three-game conference losing streak. The Hoosiers (12-6, 3-4) are coming off Saturday’s 74-57 home loss to Iowa, when just two players scored in double figures as the team shot 38.5%.
That included a 6-for-24 effort from long range.
Hoosiers coach Darian DeVries finds the attack has grown stagnant, a problem the team must remedy with games against Michigan and fifth-ranked Purdue on tap in the next week.
“For the first 15 games of the year, our offense was movement, cutting,” DeVries said. “We were getting and playing the way that we think makes us most successful. I felt like the last two or three games we’ve gotten away from that action.”
Tayton Conerway (16 points) and Sam Alexis (13) combined to go 13 of 19 from the floor Saturday while the rest of the team generated seven makes.
Alexis insists the Hoosiers aren’t panicking.
“It’s early,” he said. “We’ve still got, what, 13 more games left? I feel like we’re going to pick it back up. So we’re going to be good.”
Indiana hopes for a more consistent output from top scorers Lamar Wilkerson (19.6 points a game) and Tucker DeVries (14.2), who combined for just 16 points versus Iowa.
Tucker DeVries has just two double-figure scoring games in seven conference contests.
“He’s certainly in one of those shooting slumps that everybody goes through at some point in time,” Darian DeVries said, “but his, for him, has been an extended one here for a good chunk of time. He’s certainly been putting in the work in our practices and stuff. He’s shooting the heck out of it. It’s just one of those things.”
Michigan won last season’s lone meeting, 70-67 at Bloomington, Ind.
–Field Level Media
