Purdue and Michigan are examples of a dwindling sum of teams whose top scorer is a true low-post player. The Boilermakers’ Trevion Williams and Wolverines’ Hunter Dickinson will clash in West Lafayette on Friday.
Both teams have been reliable on the glass with Dickinson’s 15.7 points and 7.5 rebounds per game catapulting the Wolverines to 11th in the country in rebound rate, while Purdue is 29th in this category with Williams contributing 15.4 points and 9.5 rebounds per game. Both leading rebounders play exclusively in the post with neither having made a 3-point shot this season.
Purdue has done a good job of pushing things to the outside with opponents taking 47 percent of their field-goal attempts from 3-point range, the seventh-highest percentage in college basketball. Michigan is ninth among Division I teams in 2-point shooting percentage at 59.1 percent. However, the Wolverines make just 30.8 percent of their 3-pointers in road games, which ranks 224th in the country.
Purdue should have lots of clean possessions as the Michigan defense is generating a turnover on just 14.8 percent of opponents possessions, which ranks 330th.
In true road games opponents are converting 40 percent of their 3s, which should lead to Purdue giving Michigan one of its stiffest tests of its season.
The play: Purdue, +2.5.