Film room: How Hunter Dickinson can keep Michigan afloat offensively against Zach Edey, Purdue
Michigan Wolverines basketball junior center Hunter Dickinson (7-1, 260) is set to match up with Purdue big Zach Edey (7-4, 305), the frontrunner for national player of the year honors. Edey is one of the top rim protectors in the game, averaging 2.3 blocks per outing and denying a whopping 8.7 of opponents’ shots when he’s on the floor.
Dickinson is generating 0.942 points per post-up possession for the season, per Synergy. But that may not be the way to go against Edey, who’s tough to score on in the low post. Purdue ranks 37th in the country allowing opponents to shoot just 45.7 percent on two-pointers, too.
Evidenced by last season’s performances against Purdue, when Dickinson scored 28 and 22 points, respectively, Michigan’s big man has some answers.
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Those answers include his improved outside shooting. Six of his 21 made threes last year game against Purdue, and only on nine attempts. He was fantastic in the pick-and-pop game, stretching Edey (and the Boilermakers’ other bigs, including Trevion Williams) out to the perimeter.
Here are some examples of this here, with our commentary.
Only seven of Dickinson’s 50 points against the Boilermakers last season came on post ups. He had to get creative, and his three-point shot was on.
This season, opponents have shot 12-of-27 overall and 4-of-14 from three-point range on pick-and-pop opportunities with Edey as the primary defender.
Dickinson is 10-of-25 (40 percent) from long range this year, improvement from his 32.8-percent mark a year ago, though he’s not attempting as many (likely because Michigan has more on-ball creators on the perimeter than it did last season).
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Michigan can also use Dickinson in short roll and slip opportunities off ball screens to try to free Dickinson up. That will keep Edey moving — and guessing. The Wolverines are generating 0.988 points per possession when using the roll man in pick-and-rolls this year, which grades out in the 48th percentile nationally — not exactly stellar, but this is a prime opportunity to do more in those areas.
Dickinson’s production may well decide how the game goes — if the Wolverines keep it close or even win. It sounds like an oversimplification — and maybe it is — but the three to six looks Dickinson may get from deep could swing things one way or the other.
On the other end, it’ll be a team effort trying to contain Edey, who’s averaging over 21 points and 13 rebounds per game. The Boilermakers clean up on the offensive glass, grabbing a nation-leading 38.9 percent of their own missed shots, and Michigan has had issues keeping opponents off the boards.
“It’s not going to be an individual matchup with Zach and Hunter,” Michigan head coach Juwan Howard said. “I know on our end, it’s not. Defensively, for us, we’re not going to focus on letting one guy guard him because it’s very challenging.
“As a team, everyone can get an opportunity. Hopefully, [freshman point guard] Dug [McDaniel] doesn’t get matched on him — but I guarantee Dug will give it his best shot. But Zach is a player that we’ve faced before. Hunter played against him last year twice, and the year before that. So they’re both very familiar with one another.”
Michigan and Purdue tip off at 9:07 p.m. ET Thursday night at Crisler Center (Fox Sports 1).
