Dusty May admits he underestimated physicality of the Big Ten

No. 20 Michigan defeated No. 7 Purdue 75-73 on Tuesday night, improving the Wolverines to 19-5 on the season and keeping them first in the current Big Ten Conference standings.

After the game, head coach Dusty May praised his team for their physicality against the Boilermakers, which is something he’s preached for much of his first regular season at the helm of the Michigan program. Although, May believes he may have underprepared his team for what the conference has to offer in that regard.

“I’m partly to blame. All summer, I underestimated the physicality of the Big Ten,” May told reporters. “We played Northwestern in NCAA Tournament last year and they out-physicaled us. We didn’t work the way we needed to all summer, all fall. And credit to our guys, they’ve adjusted, they’ve adapted. … We have humility in our program when something’s not working or something’s not going well, it’s, it’s about all of us putting our heads together and finding the right way for this group to get it done.

“And man, our guys play with great physicality. I think the last 12 to 15 minutes, there were several possessions where I thought, man, we’re finally, we’re the hammer on some of these possessions as opposed to being the nail.”

While Michigan may have “underestimated” what the Big Ten could bring physically, his team has adapted just fine as the win over Purdue pushed the Wolverines half a game ahead of the Boilermakers in the curent Big Ten Conference standings.

Four players for May scored in double figures during the victory, including a team-high 15 points from Danny Wolf to go along with his nine rebounds. Junior guard Roddy Gayle Jr. came off the bench and provided 27 key minutes, scoring 14 points — his highest scoring total in roughly a month — and seven rebounds.

Tre Donaldson and Vladislav Goldin both scored 12 points in 28 minutes during the winning effort as well.

Michigan will move on to face Ohio State on the road this Sunday. Tip-off is set for 1 p.m. ET and will air live on CBS as the Wolverines look to win their sixth consecutive game.

Six games remain on the Wolverines schedule during the regular season, including a top-20 matchup between Michigan and bitter rival Michigan State on Feb. 21. The two programs will meet again during the regular season finale on March 9 as well.