Dusty May explains if Tuesday is a revenge game for Michigan vs. Purdue

In his first season as the head coach at Michigan, Dusty May has the Wolverines tied for second in the Big Ten standings. One of the only reasons Michigan isn’t in first place at this point is a blowout loss to the Purdue Boilermakers back in January.

Now, Michigan is going to get another shot at Purdue, taking on the Boilermakers at home Tuesday night. However, May doesn’t want his team worried about trying to get revenge. Instead, the focus should be on playing a better game.

“We don’t use the word revenge,” Dusty May said. “But we have to play much better basketball. We need to make some adjustments schematically, but more importantly our mindset.”

In their first meeting, Purdue beat Michigan 91-64. In that game, the Wolverines shot just 37 percent compared to 54.8 percent by Purdue. Michigan also had 22 turnovers compared to just six by Purdue, which ended up largely being the difference in the game.

“That was a tough night. They deserved to win how they did and I thought we deserved the result that we got that night,” May said. “But we’re excited to see our growth, our improvement from then until now. It’s part of the process. That night a lot didn’t go right for us. A lot went wrong. But Purdue caused most of it. So, it’s going to be a tough game, but we’re excited to go out and compete.”

Since that loss, Dusty May has led Michigan on a four-game winning streak. Every game during that stretch was decided by four points or less. It’s also been a period where the Wolverines have been trying to put into action what they learned from that blowout loss.

“We talk about it. Until you’ve lived it, until you’ve experienced it, some things you can talk about it all you want. But four minutes ago, Indiana ties the game. The four-minute media timeout is three and some change,” May said. “And we come out of the timeout and go on a 4-0 run. In that environment, it was loud as it was. I’m not sure that without the Purdue experience that we handle it. We were unfazed. So, I’m not sure without that experience — maybe we do, maybe we don’t. You never know. But it definitely felt like we were unfazed when the arena lit up.”

Tip-off for the game between Michigan and Purdue is currently scheduled for 7:00 p.m. EST in Ann Arbor.