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Big Ten Monday Recap: Indiana Hoosiers and Michigan Wolverines Ride Explosive Offenses To Easy Wins

BTPowerhouse recaps the Big Ten action from Monday night.

By Bryan Steedman
Rick Osentoski-USA TODAY Sports

Things will get quite a bit more interesting tomorrow night, with Maryland hosting Georgetown and Michigan State facing Kansas at the United Center, but the Big Ten did have two ranked teams in action tonight. Both Indiana and Michigan hosted a pair of cupcakes this evening, with each team riding their offense on pace to double digit victories.

Game of the Night: #14 Indiana 102 Austin Peay 76

The Hoosiers continued their early season offensive explosion tonight against Austin Peay, scoring 102 points on pace to a 26 point victory. The offense had a field day for Indiana, hitting on 40 of their 60 field goals, including 59.3% of their 27 three pointers. Interestingly enough, the Hoosiers actually shot worse (60%) from the free throw line tonight. Leading the way for the Hoosiers in the backcourt was Yogi Ferrell, who added 22 points, 9 assists and 6 rebounds. His partner in the backcourt, James Blackmon Jr., also had a big day with 20 points on 7 of 12 shooting from the field.

Senior Nick Zeisloft had an impressive night off the bench as well for the Hoosiers, hitting on five of his seven three point attempts. Troy Williams and Thomas Bryant also reached double figures, while Michigan transfer Max Bielfeldt just missed out with 9 points.

The most impressive run on the night started in the second half when Max Bielfeldt made a layup with 15:30 remaining. Indiana would then go on to make 15 field goals in a row and not miss a single shot until James Blackmon missed a layup with 3:18 (if you don't count a missed free throw nine seconds prior). If you don't feel like doing the math, that means the Hoosiers went over 12 minutes tonight without missing a single shot. It's hard to lose a game when you're hitting absolutely everything.

One thing should be mentioned, though, and it's a recurring theme so far for the Hoosiers early on this season. That theme is turnovers. While they don't matter that much when you shoot this well, 20 turnovers against Austin Peay is never a good thing. Even more so when almost half of the turnovers came from guards Yogi Ferrell and James Blackmon.

Up next for the Hoosiers will be Creighton on Thursday.

#24 Michigan 88 Elon 68

Indiana wasn't the only team to have a strong offensive performance, with the Wolverines scoring 88 points in their 20 point victory over Elon. Offense was on display tonight in Ann Arbor, with Michigan hitting on 51.7% of their field goals and even better from deep, going 13 of 24 from beyond the arc. A lot of that had to do with an explosive performance from Duncan Robinson, who hit all six of his shots, five of which were three pointers. Derrick Walton Jr. also got in on the fun tonight, hitting 6 of 7 from deep and leading the team with 24 points. Guard Zak Irvin, a key contributor last season, had a lackluster debut tonight as he missed all five of his shots coming in off the bench.

Things will get a bit more challenging for Michigan this Friday when they take on Xavier.

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