WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. — Michigan’s week started with the Wolverines moving to No. 1 in the AP poll for the first time since the 2012-13 season. With games at Purdue and versus Duke in a five-day span this week, however, there was some concern their time on top could be short-lived.

But they looked every bit the best team in the country Tuesday at Mackey Arena, comprehensively dispatching No. 7 Purdue 91-80. Michigan led for the final 33 minutes, and its lead expanded to as many as 20 points late in the first half.

“We needed to deliver a lot of punches, whether it was the first or second,” coach Dusty May said. “We knew this was going to go all 10 [rounds]. If we took a shot, we knew we had to respond and our guys did that over the course of the game. That was impressive the way they answered those runs with really sound play.”

After Purdue scored the first two baskets of the game and led after seven minutes, Michigan took the lead on a pair of L.J. Cason free throws with 12:50 to go in the first half and never trailed the rest of the way. Cason’s foul shots jump-started a 16-0 run that put Purdue on the back foot and quieted what had been a raucous Purdue crowd.

“They set the tone,” Purdue coach Matt Painter said. “That, to me, is the game right there. The way they set the tone.”

Michigan’s differentiator this season has been its size, and 7-foot-3 Aday Mara was the game changer in the paint in the first half before foul trouble forced him to the bench for much of the second period. There was a sequence midway through the first half that epitomized his impact at both ends of the floor. He began by forcing Oscar Cluff into a missed shot at the rim, followed it up with an assist to Roddy Gayle Jr. for a layup, then altered Braden Smith‘s attempt at the rim, and capped the stretch by tipping out an offensive rebound that resulted in a Cason 3.

Mara finished the first half with 10 points, eight rebounds, two assists and two blocks in just 13 minutes.

“We wanted to stay one-on-one with our 5s and Mara made a couple of really nice plays,” Painter said. “We had to try to win that battle one-on-one because his passing is so good. So if you want to sit there and help and try to squeeze him a little bit, people will cut right off of it. He’s great at making those passes, getting guys 3s, getting guys layups, getting people in the bonus, getting to the free throw line a lot. So for us, we had to be better in that scenario.”

In most of Michigan’s biggest wins this season, the Wolverines have combined that size advantage with high-level shooting from the perimeter. They made 38 shots from beyond the arc in three games back at the Players Era Championship in Las Vegas and made 10 in a road win at Ohio State earlier this month.

On Tuesday, Michigan had its second-best 3-point shooting performance of the season, going 13-for-23 from the perimeter. The Wolverines missed their first four 3s before hitting eight of their next 12 to end the first half.

“I thought our guys did a really nice job of getting the advantage and keeping it,” May said. “We know how we’re built so certain games are going to dictate us doing certain things. And I thought when they put two on the ball, Elliot [Cadeau] made really, really good plays to just get us in closeouts and I thought we drove the ball, we drove it to kick it.”

In a game featuring All-American Braden Smith, who entered the season as the favorite for Player of the Year, it was Cadeau who played like the best guard on the floor. He outdueled Smith, who was held scoreless in the first half. The former North Carolina transfer opened the second half with 12 points on 5-of-5 shooting in eight minutes, consistently making big plays when it looked like Purdue might generate momentum. He finished with 17 points and seven assists.

“There was a lot of openings, I felt like, in the ball screen there was a lot of openings,” Cadeau said. “I feel like I just have really talented teammates that, if I get them the ball in the right place, they’ll make the shot.”

“I felt like I was being aggressive in the first half,” he added. “The shots weren’t just falling. They started to fall in the second half.”

It wasn’t just Cadeau making plays in the backcourt for Michigan. Cason came off the bench and scored 13 points, playing alongside Cadeau for long stretches. Freshman Trey McKenney, who has emerged as a consistent offensive threat over the past few weeks, also had 13 points, making three big 3s.

Michigan totaled 34 bench points to Purdue’s 15.

“When you sit there and your fourth or fifth option can carry the weight or someone like L.J. Cason can come in the game and control a game at the end of the game,” Painter said. “Even though he didn’t control the game today, so to speak, he made a lot of good plays. Just look at their bench and when you can go to them and get consistent, get 3s from all of them. They make their free throws, their bench doesn’t turn the ball over.

“They’re the No.1 team in the country for a reason. A lot of times people have a solid five and then they make a dip when they sub. These guys don’t make a dip.”

Test No. 1 for Michigan in one of the most difficult two-game stretches of the college basketball season is now finished, and now awaits a date with No. 3 Duke in Washington, D.C., on Saturday. It’s a chance for the Wolverines to get out of the grind and monotony of Big Ten play and an opportunity to play a high-level game against another potential Final Four team.

For May, winning that game just to be No. 1 in the AP poll for a second straight week isn’t the primary goal.

“This is great for our fans, it’s great for recruiting, it’s great for the attention that it puts on our program and our prestigious university,” he said. “But as far as, do we care? Absolutely not.

“April 7th, if we’re No. 1. That’s what we’re ultimately concerned with.”

American-born Team China Olympic skier Eileen continues to center herself as the most polarizing subject of the Milan Cortina Winter Games. 

An interaction Tuesday with a reporter went viral after Gu responded to a question about her winning two silver medals instead of gold so far this Olympics, suggesting the question came from a “ridiculous perspective.”

“I’m the most decorated female freeskier in history. I think that’s an answer in and of itself,” Gu said when asked if she saw her two medals as “silvers earned” or “golds lost.”

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“How do I say this? Winning a medal at the Olympics is a life-changing experience for every athlete. Doing it five times is exponentially harder because every medal is equally hard for me, but everybody else’s expectations rise, right? 

“The two medals lost situation, to be quite frank with you, I think is kind of a ridiculous perspective to take. I’m showcasing my best skiing. I’m doing things that quite literally have never been done before. So, I think that is more than good enough, but thank you.”

Gu’s answer drew mixed reactions on social media after she had already been a target of immense global criticism for her decision to represent China over her home country, the U.S.

Gu has won two silver medals in freestyle skiing in Milan Cortina in the slopestyle and big air events. She has one final event, the halfpipe, remaining Saturday and has an opportunity to add to her total.

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Eileen Gu of China reacts after her first jump in the women’s freestyle skiing big air qualification during the Milano Cortina 2026 Olympic Winter Games at Livigno Snow Park Feb. 14, 2026. (Joe Camporeale/Imagn Images)

Gu has been the subject of global criticism since her decision to represent China dating back to the original decision in 2019 and her first Winter Olympics in Beijing in 2022. This year, that criticism has ramped up as she has won two silver medals and even responded to a question about President Donald Trump criticizing U.S. Olympian Hunter Hess for being critical of the current state of America.

“I’m sorry that the headline that is eclipsing the Olympics has to be something so unrelated to the spirit of the Games. It really runs contrary to everything the Olympics should be,” Gu told reporters Monday.

“The whole point of sport is to bring people together. … One of the very few common languages, that of the human body, that of the human spirit, the competitive spirit, the capacity to break not only records, but especially in our sport, literally the human limit. How wonderful is that?”

Gu also claimed she had been “caught in the crossfire” herself. 

“As someone who has got caught in the crossfire before, I feel sorry for the athletes,” Gu said. “I hope that they can ski to their very best.”

Vice President JD Vance weighed in on the controversy surrounding Gu in an interview Tuesday on Fox News’ “The Story With Martha MacCallum.”

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Silver medalist Eileen Gu of China attends the awarding ceremony for the freestyle skiing women’s freeski big air event at the Milan Cortina 2026 Olympic Winter Games in Livigno, Italy, Feb. 16, 2026.  (Hongxiang/Xinhua via Getty Images)

“I certainly think that someone who grew up in the United States of America who benefited from our education system, from the freedoms and liberties that makes this country a great place, I would hope they want to compete with the United States of America,” Vance said.

“So, I’m going to root for American athletes. I think part of that is people who identify themselves as Americans. That’s who I’m rooting for in this Olympics.”

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