Dusty May not burning the tape from Purdue loss: 'There are going to be learning lessons'

Friday was a nightmare for Michigan. The Wolverines looked like they were sleepwalking as they suffered a 91-64 loss at Purdue. While it may be easier for Michigan to simply erase the loss from its memory, head coach Dusty May won’t allow the team to do that.

“We’re definitely not going to burn the tape,” May said. “There are going to be learning lessons from this. The pace of our cuts, the pace we run the floor, our lack of communication in a very hostile environment — we just have to be better at all facets.

“I don’t think we played well in any area tonight. We’re a growth program. We’ve got a long way to go. So, I think if we burned the tape, we’d be burning a lot of really important lessons that hopefully we learned tonight as a group.”

Michigan has plenty of learning to do. In the loss, the Wolverines were sloppy with the ball, committing 22 turnovers. Purdue capitalized on the Wolverines’ mistakes, scoring 29 points off their turnovers.

Meanwhile, Michigan seemingly couldn’t cause issues for the Boilermakers, who finished the game with just six turnovers. In fact, Michigan’s defense had little effect on Pudue in general.

The Boilermakers shot 55% from the field and 38% from beyond the arc in the win. Purdue’s Braden Smith was particularly dominant, racking up 24 points, 10 assists and seven rebounds.

One of the few bright spots for Michigan was its offensive balance. The team had four players score double figures but no Wolverines recorded more than 14 points. May believes his team must embrace the physicality of the Big Ten if it wants to find success in conference play this season.

“We haven’t risen to the challenge from a physicality standpoint. We’re not there as a program quite yet,” May said. “But we’re going to be obsessed with getting to the point we need to where we match the level of intensity and physicality in these games.”

Despite the lackluster performance, Michigan is still 6-2 in conference play this season and third in the Big Ten standings. In ESPN analyst Joe Lunardi’s latest Bracketology, he projected Michigan to be a four-seed in the NCAA Tournament.

One loss doesn’t define the Wolverines. However, Dusty May believes it could be a turning point for the team.

“Hopefully we look back as this is a fork in the road,” May said. “Where we go in the right direction and learn from this and keep it moving. If we’re going to be a championship-level program, we’ve got to be able to rise to the occasion or at least match the energy and spirit of a championship-caliber program.”