3 reasons Michigan basketball will upset No. 18 Indiana

On Saturday, the Michigan basketball team (14-10, 8-5 Big Ten) will host the 18th-ranked Indiana Hoosiers (17-7, 8-5 Big Ten) at the Crisler Center in Ann Arbor, MI. Michigan is riding a three-game winning streak into this matchup, and if the Wolverines expect to get back into tournament contention, they’ll need to take down the Hoosiers this weekend.

Here are three reasons that Juwan Howard and Co. will upset Indiana tomorrow evening.

Crisler Center will work its magic

So far this season, Michigan basketball is an incredible 10-3 in its own gym. On top of that, only one of the Wolverines’ losses came to a Big Ten team, which also happens to be the nation’s No. 1 team (Purdue). The other losses were to No. 3 Virginia and, somehow, Central Michigan.

Still, in Big Ten matchups, the Wolverines are 6-1 at Crisler, and tomorrow night, we could see the Crisler Center work its magic once again. Seeing as this is the Wolverines’ final quadrant one game at home for the remainder of the 2022-23 regular season, I suspect that Michigan fans may pack the Crisler Center for this massive matchup. Additionally, in case Wolverine fans needed another reason to come out and support the team, the 2013 team — including John Beilein — will he honored at halftime.

Wolverines are getting hot from the floor

Throughout the season, we have seen Michigan basketball struggle to make shots, turn the ball over frequently, and struggle to move the ball around. Over the past three games, that streak seems to have ended; this is a huge reason that the Wolverines have now won three games in a row.

In Michigan’s most recent game, the Wolverines scored a whopping 93 points against a Nebraska team that had just upset Penn State. Michigan’s win was impressive, but even more so, it showed us that the Wolverines are starting to get over their previous scoring woes.

Seeing as Michigan is at home, where they shoot their best games, we could see another offensive explosion. Indiana comes into the game averaging over 77 points per game. If Michigan can keep pace early on and make big shots down the stretch — which has been a frequent issue this year — the Wolverines will pull off the upset.

Michigan basketball is mostly healthy

A storyline throughout the season has been the health of the Wolverines ever since starting point guard Jaelin Llewellyn went down early on. Since then, freshman point guard Dug McDaniel has taken over for the Wolverines, and frankly, he has done a terrific job thus far.

Last month, Michigan freshman guard Jett Howard — one of the Wolverines’ best shooters — went down with an ankle injury in the win over Minnesota. He has since recovered and gave Michigan basketball an incredible 22 points in the win over Nebraska earlier in the week. When Michigan is healthy and locked in, it has the ability to defeat nearly anyone in the nation; the struggle this year has been maintaining this status consistently.

As Hunter Dickinson insinuated during the pregame media availability, there are no more tune-up games left for Michigan basketball. If the Wolverines want to make it to the NCAA tournament next month, they’ll need to pick up some massive wins down the stretch. One of Michigan’s biggest games remaining on the 2022-23 schedule is tomorrow night — it’s time for the Wolverines to put the past behind them and extend their winning streak to four in a row.

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