Men’s Basketball: Michigan vs Indiana

Indiana Vs Michigan Preview

It’s a Big Ten Showdown in December as Michigan takes on Indiana at Crisler Center on Saturday December 2nd. Not too often you see Big Ten Conference Games In  Early December

Michigan comes into the game after a loss to North Carolina in the Big Ten/ ACC challenge. Bringing them to 6-2 on the season and head coach John Beilein talked about getting better and moving on from the North Carolina game. “We are right where we should be at 6-2, we are right on schedule we are not a ahead or behind.”. Going into a game against Indiana the players and coaches are excited about playing conference opponents earlier than expected. “I have not experienced this before so it’s kind of cool” Said Isaiah Livers. Livers also noted that Michigan has a chance to be 2-0 in Big Ten Play and thinks that Michigan has a good shot to do it. “I was looking at that and thought that would mean a lot heading into January and be 2-0 in Big Ten Play.”

If Michigan wants to win this game, they will have to get better defensively as they had 10 turnovers and no shutouts against North Carolina and that is something Michigan has worked on in practice. “We have done these drills, these thinking drills while your playing basketball so Coach Beilein is trying to help us in game situations and it has helped me a lot” said Livers. Michigan is currently in one of the toughest stretches of season playing against North Carolina wednesday, Indiana on Saturday, followed by Ohio State, UCLA, Texas and Detroit. “After each game we are not going to dwell on it we will learn from it and move on to the next one” Livers Said.

Indiana has a couple of stars to watch out for including senior guard Robert Johnson who had 17 points and 4 rebounds against Duke. Johnson averages 33 minutes a game for the Hoosiers. Redshirt Senior Josh Newkirk will be looking to have a breakout game for the Hoosiers against Michigan as he had only 8 points and 2 rebounds against Duke. Indiana may have a ton of experience but also has a freshman guard in Aljami Durham who is becoming a promising defender at Indiana and was also 2 for 4 from field goal range. For Michigan to get points in the paint they will have to deal with one of the best defenders in the Big Ten in De’ron Davis. Davis Averages 12 points a game and also averages 4.3 rebounds a game. Juwan Morgan will be a factor for the Hoosiers as well as he had 14 rebounds and had 6 rebounds against Duke and also averages 26 minutes a game.

The game will be on Saturday December 2nd at 12:30 on CBS