Michigan overcame 18 turnovers to make Big Ten history at Iowa

Michigan won its final road game of the season Thursday at Iowa. The Wolverines are perfect on the road this season (see below).

One more regular-season game remains (again, see below) before single-elimination time.

See what was the difference in Thursday’s game and what Michigan win meant.

Road perfection

Not since the 1975-76 season has a Big Ten team won every conference road game. Indiana played 18 league games then, not like Michigan. The Wolverines’ win Thursday, 71-68, gave them a perfect road record — not just Big Ten games, but any game. Michigan’s two losses came at Crisler Center (to Wisconsin) and a neutral site (Duke).

“I told the guys I don’t know if it will ever happen again,” Michigan coach Dusty May said on the postgame radio show. “Especially when you factor in the depth of our conference, the parody in our conference, and the quality of coaching and players. I just can’t imagine that that’s going to happen again. But we’re going to try it again next year.”

Thursday’s game was not necessary for the Wolverines. They locked up the Big Ten title last week in a top-10 showdown. They’ll play another one Sunday in a rivalry game with Michigan State. The Big Ten Tournament is next week and the NCAA Tournament after that. Many teams, even good ones, would have lost Thursday’s game. Michigan didn’t.

The second best defense in the country held Iowa to 39% shooting and 27% from 3 and Michigan made enough free throws down the stretch.

Turnover problem

It had been a while but Michigan’s turnover problem popped up Thursday: 12 in the first half, 18 overall. Iowa had just five. Elliot Cadeau, Morez Johnson Jr., and Aday Mara each had four; several others contributed to the problem.

This was Michigan’s second worst turnover performance of the season, second only to the Nov. 14 game at TCU. Cadeau, the point guard, had some careless inbounds passes late. Playing physical and denying passes, like Iowa did vs. Michigan, is probably the way to slow Michigan’s offense. The Wolverines have enough playmakers, small and large, to make teams pay. That’s what happened Thursday and why Michigan is a legit threat to win it all.

Michigan’s second half was definitely better. “We thought we executed a little bit better,” May said. “We screened better. We started beginning our offense with a stagger or a flare just to get one clean catch. … They had us on our heels a little bit in the first half because of their physicality.”

The rest of May’s comments

May spoke about the rest of the performance. He joked about the key shot in the game: Aday Mara’s desperation jumper late. The difference, May said? “I thought we drew up a bank shot. Eighteen-footer with a 7-foot-3 player with .8 on the shot clock.”

The free throw shooting and Michigan’s ability to get to 50-50 balls late was the actual difference, the coach said.

May was asked about senior Roddy Gayle Jr.’s performance: 3 for 4 shooting, three rebounds, and a monster block late. “Roddy staying ready and coming in and doing whatever the team needs is impressive,” May said.

Bennett Stirtz, one of the best scorers in the Big Ten, saw a lot of defenders and needed a bunch of shots to get his points. “I thought our size, length and athleticism and the ability to share the responsibility of guarding him (bothered him),” May said. Instead of one player wasting all his energy on that end of the floor, multiple Wolverines defended Stirtz. “I thought all of our guys did a good, solid job guarding him when the opportunity presented itself.”