Michigan point guard Tre Donaldson issued a warning to all Big Ten Conference teams after the Wolverines swept a road trip to Los Angeles.
“The Big Ten is going to run through Crisler (Center),” Donaldson said, referring to the Wolverines’ home court.
“That’s what we’ve been talking about. … I heard there’s ties (at the top) of the Big Ten and all that (in some years), but as a veteran group we have to stay focused and put those teams away. We need to show why we’re at the top and why they’re at the bottom when they do come to Crisler.”
The No. 24 Wolverines (12-3, 4-0), who are tied with in-state rival Michigan State for first place in the Big Ten, will host Washington (10-6, 1-4) on Sunday afternoon in Ann Arbor, Mich.
The Wolverines, under first-year coach Dusty May, have won four consecutive games and are 7-0 at home. On the road, they defeated Southern California 85-74 last Saturday and No. 22 UCLA 94-75 on Tuesday before wildfires engulfed the Los Angeles area.
Vladislav Goldin scored a career-high 36 points, shooting 13 of 18 from the field, for the Wolverines in the latter victory.
Unlike Donaldson, May refused to call Tuesday’s game at historic Pauley Pavilion a “statement” victory.
“We played a really good basketball game against a great coach, great program and great players,” May said. “Other than that, we have a long way to go.”
The Huskies’ first Big Ten road trip couldn’t be much tougher.
Washington missed its first 14 shots from the field Thursday in an 88-54 loss at No. 16 Michigan State. The 34-point defeat is tied for the Huskies’ largest since 2002.
“Our competitive spirit wasn’t there with our physicality and our toughness in order to play with Michigan State,” first-year Washington coach Danny Sprinkle said. “We knew what we were coming into as a staff and tried to convey that to the players and obviously didn’t do a good enough job in doing that.”
The Huskies are becoming known for their slow starts. They missed nine of their first 10 attempts from the floor last weekend against then-No. 22 Illinois and had to rally from a 17-point deficit to tie the score before losing 81-77.
On Thursday, Sprinkle refused to blame the loss to Michigan State on travel fatigue, although Spartans coach Tom Izzo offered that as an excuse.
“We had plenty of rest. We got here Tuesday night,” Sprinkle said. “We just got our butts kicked. … I wish I could blame it on that.
“Maybe after the third, fourth trip back and forth from West to East Coast, but they just out-toughed us. They out-competed us. They played with a lot better energy and effort than we did.”
Tyler Harris was the lone Washington player to reach double digits in scoring vs. the Spartans with 14 points. Great Osobor, a preseason all-Big Ten selection and the Huskies’ leading scorer with an average of 13.8 points per game, had just six against Michigan State on 0-for-8 shooting from the field.
The Wolverines are shooting an NCAA-best 51.9 percent from the floor this season, led by Goldin’s 66.7 percent, while the Huskies are 224th at 44.1.
–Field Level Media
