Michigan basketball's key stretch begins Tuesday at Penn State

Michigan stands 5-5 in Big Ten play with eight Big Ten games remaining, needing some big conference wins to bolster the NCAA Tournament resume. The Wolverines gave a few games away earlier in the year and now must make some up heading down the stretch. 

RELATED

• Wolverine TV: Juwan Howard, Michigan players react to Purdue loss

• Hunter Dickinson-led Michigan fights but falls at Purdue, 82-76

A home loss to Minnesota last month looms large. The Golden Gophers have only two conference wins, but one of them came at Michigan.

Penn State hasn’t been much better, standing 4-7 in conference play. Given the strength of the Michigan schedule in the next several weeks, Tuesday night’s game at PSU is huge, part of a three games in five day stretch.

“Rest and recovery. It kind of reminds me of the NBA schedule,” Michigan head coach Juwan Howard said. “I know a lot of these young men have not experienced that NBA lifestyle as far as what an 82-game schedules is like when you play every other day. Or sometimes, you may play four games in seven days.

“But from last year leading up to this year, with COVID being a reason why there are some games that have to be played because of postponement, we will figure it out. We’re not making excuses, because we’re not the only team in the country that will have to experience what we’re going to experience this week.”

Penn State played Wisconsin to the wire on the road recently, losing 51-49 in one of the uglier Big Ten games of the year. The score was 18-13 at the break.  

But the Nittany Lions are 7-3 in home games this season, including losses to Purdue, Ohio State and Miami. 

“They have shooting all over the floor. They also have a big that does an excellent job of attacking on the offensive glass, and he plays his role to the best of his skill set,” Howard said. “So, home for Penn State, they shoot the ball extremely well with the shooting that they have on the floor.

“It’s going to be very important for us to not allow any open looks to some of their three-point shooting. All it does is generate a lot of life into the crowd. And then what it does is add more confidence to the players that are out there on the floor.”

But his Michigan team will be prepared, Howard said, noting it’s not going to be their first rodeo on the road. Though Penn State isn’t the best Big Ten environment, road games are road games in the conference.  

“Thinking back to North Carolina at North Carolina, we’re going back to Central Florida and then Indiana, Illinois … all special places to play,” Howard said. “And then Mackey [Arena] got extremely loud [at Purdue], so it’s not our first time. It’s a part of the competition.

“We enjoy it. Our guys are doing a really good job of responding, not allowing the road noise to get to them. We’ve done a good job of staying organized. And, we understand what needs to be done and have prepared for what those types of environments are like.”

But they need wins in those games now and understand how detrimental a loss to the Nittany Lions could be. The next two games are Purdue and Ohio State. While they’re at home, those are two of the better teams in the conference. 

Getting off to a good start in the last, eight-game stretch Tuesday would be a good place to start. 

Michigan frosh Moussa Diabate still working into his role

Michigan freshman Moussa Diabate hasn’t played as much the last two games, giving up some minutes. He’s still a big part of the plan going forward, Howard said.

“It’s not singling one individual. When you look at our team and the last game and the last group that was out there, they had it going,” Howard said. “They did some really good things to fight back, get us back in the ball game. It’s tough to disrupt that flow.

“But Moussa is a very mature young man. He understands the big picture, and he also understands the why. It’s nothing against Moussa or any other player who was not out there on the floor. You just don’t want to break up that rhythm when you have a team who’s done a great job of fighting throughout the game, making runs and responding after runs and at the same time getting stops on the other end.”