'Very unique, well coached’ Michigan team earns Matt Painter’s praise

Before Michigan hammered Purdue Friday night in the Big Ten Tournament, Boilermakers head coach Matt Painter knew his team was probably in for a fight. Neither team has been playing their best ball for the last month, but his guys had already played one game, and the Wolverines came in with fresher legs for the first time a while. 

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The one guy he was most wary of was one who had been struggling much of the year. It turned out Painter was right. 

“I think Tre Donaldson is one of the most underappreciated guards,” Painter said before the game. “I think he’s very talented. He can score. I haven’t watched him a lot since we played that second time, because you just kind of move to your [other] opponents. But he always seems to make plays late in games. Even if it’s one of those games where he has 8 to 12, he still makes plays late in the game.”

Friday, he made them all when they mattered most. He hit an early triple (though he missed a couple, too, he wasn’t afraid to shoot them). He broke down Purdue’s guards off the dribble, found cutters, and looked like the “quarterback” Michigan head coach Dusty May wanted him to be. They got in the paint regularly and pushed the ball Painter noted, and Donaldson was a big part of it.

“They got us in transition a little bit early. I know the total points there aren’t extreme, but it’s like we had to do a better job to start with in the game,” he said. “We get off to a 6-0 run; they go on a 10-run. You’re just trying to get traction, right? You’re just trying to get some momentum, and we never quite could do that.

“They’re a good team. Tre Donaldson is a good player. [Nimari] Burnett didn’t have a lot of opportunities in terms of shooting, but they’re just solid. When you look at Rubin Jones goes 2 for 2, Roddy Gayle goes 3 for 5. Will Tschetter goes 3 for 5. L.J. Cason struggled a little bit with shooting, but like Danny Wolf … 7 for 10. Goldin is 5 for 11; Donaldson is 5 for 11. Everybody contributed. Everybody was just solid. 

“Their decision-making and obviously their assist-to-turnover ratio was very good. We’re not going to have a great assist-to-turnover ratio when we don’t get shots., and that was just a thing for us. Stay process-based, get good shots and stick with that. Because normally when we get good shots, we shoot at a very high clip.”

But not Friday, and again, tired legs probably had something to do with that. But the defense was much better, too, and guys looked like they had studied their scouting reports. The ball screen defense was very good (frosh L.J. Cason, especially, has picked it up there), and they fought through screens instead of ducking under. 

Almost everything at the rim was contested, and U-M’s length forced a number of off-balance looks that came up short. The adjustments they made after facing Purdue twice, getting blown out the first game and barely winning at home, were noticeable. 

“Obviously they’re well coached,” Painter said heading in. “They have a physical front line that’s very unique because both of them are very skilled. Like a lot of times, you’ll have guys of that size that are low post players or can make 3s, but they can’t drive it. Both of those guys can drive the basketball, can post the basketball, can pass.  think that’s where it starts …

“They have a lot of good pieces, they have good young guards that come off the bench for them that sometimes they play, sometimes they don’t play as much. Those guys are talented and good players. They’ve just got a good mix. Obviously, they didn’t have a good finish, like we didn’t have a good finish. But we’ve all had good finishes and then not played well in the tournament. Then you look at it and you’d rather play well in the tournament, right? Sometimes that can wake you up a little bit and help you. Sometimes it’s not a factor.”

It seemed to be for Michigan, which played with more passion — and seemed to be having more fun — than it had in weeks. 

“I thought across the board, we had to do a better job of keeping the ball out of the paint, especially when Danny Wolf is navigating things and Donaldson is navigating,” Painter said. “I don’t think it was any one player from them. I thought they collectively did a good job of breaking us down and getting the ball where they needed to get the ball. We had to do a better job of keeping it out of the paint.

“Give them credit. They were better than us today. They did some good things, and those guys did a great job of breaking us down.”