'Stick with the grind': U-M basketball's season on life support after beatdown at Purdue

WEST LAFEYETTE, Ind. — For the vast majority of the past 87 games, win or lose, Michigan basketball coach Juwan Howard has maintained a sense of confidence in both his program and its players.

But late Tuesday night, deep in the Bowels of Mackey Arena after Howard had removed his suit jacket and stood in just a blue wash shirt tucked into his navy blue slacks when he wiped his brow and exhaled.

Michigan had just suffered a 99-67 defeat to No. 2 Purdue, not only its most lopsided defeat of the Howard era, but in 17 years since a 37-point loss to No. 1 UCLA in 2006, and the head coach was at a loss for words.

After a long breath, Howard called the defeat "disappointing in all levels" and said it was even more so the case when he considered how his team came out flat despite what he called a "great week" of practice leading up to the contest.

To be fair, the Wolverines were without leading scorer Dug McDaniel (academic issues) and Tray Jackson for a third consecutive game (concussion protocol, broken nose), so it was an uphill battle either way, but the worrisome part on Tuesday was the game seemed as much a reflection on U-M as it was on Purdue.

"They're a great team, really a damn good team," Howard began. "Not only in our league, but in the country. But we've got a lot of work to do. We've got a lot of work to do."

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Since the evening the Wolverines fell, 51-49, to UCLA in a 2021 Elite Eight matchup, Howard's program is just 44-43 overall and 24-24 in the Big Ten across the past three seasons.

This year, the Wolverines are No. 80 overall in KenPom (meaning right now even a true road win at U-M is only a Quad 2 victory) and their defensive rating of 106.2 points per 100 possessions is 152nd nationally.

U-M has lost 12 of 16 games since mid-November and went 1-3 vs. non Power Five teams during that stretch. One year after the Wolverines went 4-13 in games decided by six points or fewer or in overtime and spent an offseason trying to correct the issue, the Wolverines are 1-6 in such games this season.

There have been real questions about the direction of the program in recent years, which Howard has rarely if ever acknowledged. That is until Tuesday, shortly after he found out the fog would ground his team's chartered flight in West Lafayette until the next morning, when he too was able to sit back and take a big picture look at the situation.

"Never thought about it, first time hearing it is from you," Howard said when asked about his team's .500 record the past three seasons. "Wow, we have a lot of work to do. We're going to roll up our sleeves, continue to scrap, claw, and make sure we compete. Compete with a group of guys that want to be out there, want to play at the level of a playing team."

That is perhaps what bothered Howard the most, the lack of effort. He's long explained he can deal with a missed shot, a bad pass, or even an aggressive turnover when a player is trying to make a play, but what he won't stand for is lackluster effort.

At times that was in question on Tuesday, as defensive rotations were a problem from the start as the Boilermakers made 14 of 21 (67%) of their 3-pointers; by far U-M's worst percentage allowed in the Howard era.

“We missed a bunch of assignments," said senior guard Jaelin Llewelyn. "They hit a lot of 3s in the whole game pretty much."

Even when there were brief flashes of brilliance, like when U-M held the Boilermakers to 1-for-12 shooting in the middle of the first half, it wasn't enough because the offense went on a nearly 6-minute scoring drought of its own. The Wolverines are now at the very bottom of the Big Ten and are in serious jeopardy of missing the NCAA tournament for the second consecutive season for the first time since its 10-season drought from 1998-2008.

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Llewellyn has been on teams that have made significant turnarounds before and he's trying to draw on that experience for inspiration. As a sophomore, Llewellyn's Princeton Tigers began the year 1-7 overall before they won 13 of the next 19 games and made it back to second place in the Ivy League standings.

The season was wiped out by the COVID-19 pandemic, so it's not clear if Princeton would have made it all the way to the dance, but it taught Llewellyn a valuable lesson.

"It may be hard now, but stick to it," Llewellyn said. "We've got a staff who prepares us super well and we just have to stick with the grind ... kind of have to have a short memory, but we obviously will review the film.

"We have a lot to work on but that's the beauty of basketball, we get to do it again. Back to the drawing board, back to practice and back to watch film."

While the losing isn't exactly a new feeling in Ann Arbor — Michigan is 15-22 in its past 37 games dating back to January 2023 — this type of loss hasn't happened in decades. The last time the Wolverines lost by that many points to a Big Ten team? Also Purdue, 79-43, on Feb. 13, 2002.

Tuesday's defeat was the 10th most lopsided loss Michigan has ever suffered in Big Ten play and the defense's 1.47 points allowed per possession was the team's worst in seven seasons. Things don't get much easier for the maize and blue; per BartTorvik, a system for calculating offensive and defensive efficiency, U-M is projected to lose nine of its remaining 12 games which would certainly mean missing the postseason altogether.

The ship appears to be sinking, but its leader says it won't go down without a fight.

"At Michigan, we have a rich tradition," Howard said. "I've been part of that as a player and coach. I'm not going to sit here and not allow that to continue in that fashion."

Contact Tony Garcia: apgarcia@freepress.com. Follow him at @realtonygarcia.

Next up: Hawkeyes

Matchup: Michigan (7-11, 2-6 Big Ten) vs. Iowa (11-7, 3-4 Big Ten).

Tipoff: 5 p.m. Saturday; Crisler Center, Ann Arbor.

TV/radio: FS1; WWJ-AM (950), WTKA (1050 AM).

This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Michigan basketball has 'a lot of work to do' after beatdown at Purdue