WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. (AP) — No. 1 Michigan stuck to the game plan Tuesday night.
The Wolverines ignored their ranking, the fact they were playing their first game in 13 years as the nation's highest-ranked team or the distraction of looking ahead to Saturday's long-awaited showdown against No. 3 Duke.
“This is great for our fans, it's great for recruiting, great for the attention it puts on our program and our prestigious university,” coach Dusty May said following an impressive 91-80 victory in one of college basketball's toughest road venues. “But as far as do we care (about being No. 1)? Absolutely not. If we're No. 1 on April 7, that's what we're ultimately concerned with.”
The Wolverines (25-1, 15-1 Big Ten) seem to be making a stronger case each time they step onto the court. They've won 11 straight, have 21 double-digit wins this season and now hold a 3 1/2-game lead over the Big Ten's preseason favorite.
But in a game Purdue (21-5, 11-4) desperately needed to stay in the conference chase, Michigan beat the Boilermakers at their own game by dominating the middle early in a contest that felt like an NCAA Tournament game.
“Our goal was to win the Big Ten,” Purdue coach Matt Painter said. “But those dudes aren’t losing four (conference) games. We’ve got four losses, and they ain’t losing four games, that’s just reality. When you’ve been in the league for 25 years, that’s reality.”
They played well enough to earn a rare day off Wednesday.
On Thursday, it will be back to work with a new goal — to continue showing there will be no drop-off from the balanced offensive, suffocating defensive or strong post play as the intensity increases and the stakes get higher.
Painter got a firsthand glimpse of just how difficult these Wolverines can be on Tuesday — just like as t hen-No. 7 Michigan State did in a 12-point loss on its home court Jan. 30.
The rest of the country may find out Saturday in one of the biggest regular-season games all year and a potential preview of a Final Four matchup that could take place just about an hour southeast of where the Wolverines fulfilled their job Tuesday night.
“We're going to treat it like a Sweet 16 game because — I'd say a first-round NCAA Tournament game but we're not going to be playing Duke in the first round,” May said, drawing laughter. “So we're going to treat it like a Sweet 16, hopefully a Final Four-type game where we're going into with the short prep against a team we don't know very well, and then we'll see if we can get our guys to execute a game plan. If we do it well, it'll be an awesome win.”
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