Juwan Howard shares initial impressions of Purdue

Michigan and head coach Juwan Howard will be the latest team subjected to the basketball equivalent of stopping a runaway train on Thursday night when the Wolverines face top-ranked Purdue and dominant, 7-foot-4 center Zach Edey. Only one team — Rutgers — has beaten Purdue this year and no one, seemingly, has answers for Edey.

And while Michigan has one of the better big men in the country and someone passingly capable of marking Edey in Hunter Dickinson, a 7-footer in his own right, even Dickinson will be at best a hindrance to Edey. With the scale of the problem — both literally and metaphorically — apparent, Howard couldn’t help but joke with reporters.

“So if you have some answers for how to stop him, or help us offensively, I’m all ears,” Howard said.

Prior to his quip, Howard did dive in to what makes the Boilermakers so dominant.

Well, it’s so obvious that they play through Zach Edey in the post. Just going back to the special year that he’s having, thus far. Leading his team to be No. 1 ranked in the country with one loss, versus Rutgers. They also do a very good job of offensive rebounds. Knowing that Zach is going to shoot the ball if he gets it in the post with a one-on-one matchup and they get themselves in great position to get a second opportunity,” Howard said.

Howard also highlighted that Edey is not the only show for Purdue, offensively. The emergence of a pair of freshman guards — Braden Smith and Fletcher Loyer — give the Boilermakers a perimeter scoring threat to counter balance the steady diet of Edey on the block.

“They also play well from the perimeter with those two freshmen,” Howard said. “Smith is having a good year, as well as Fletcher Loyer. They’re patient offensively and they don’t make too many mistakes. They do a great job of taking care of the basketball.”

And it’s not all offense for the Boilermakers, either.

For as hard as it is to stop Edey from scoring, it’s a similar degree of difficultly trying to consistently score with an 88 inch tall rim protector.

“Everyone talks a lot about their offense, but their defense is nationally ranked. They do a good job of protecting the paint, 3-point line, they get back in transition and they make you work for every bucket that you get,” Howard said.