Before it got excruciating, that was pretty fun!

Franz Wagner put on a show, scoring 20 points on only 12 shooting possessions, pulling down seven boards, and dropping off three assists that all led to dunks. The rest of the Wolverines spread out the scoring and took care of the ball. Michigan played suffocating defense that forced Rutgers into an evening of contested midrange prayers.

The officials also put on a show, in a different way, calling the second half so much tighter than the first that it was hard to believe the same crew was out there. Michigan led by 15 points with 16 minutes play, pushed the lead to 17 at the under-12 timeout, and kept the margin in double figures until 1:51 remained. Yet the half felt like a brutal slog because it contained 24 of the game's 31 fouls, most of them before Rutgers annoyingly took a few intentional hacks to shine up the score late.

Jacob Young's three-pointer with four seconds left mattered only to KenPom devotees and gamblers, to whom it mattered quite a lot. It was an unfortunately fitting capper to the half, albeit not the game, for which Michigan deserved a larger final margin.

hope you like contested fadeaways [Campredon]

It took a while for M's offense to kick into gear, but the defense held strong all night. Even with the late bullshit, RU didn't crest a point per possession, and their shooting got predictably worse after some early long fadeaways dropped. For most of the game, the Scarlet Knights sat on one made three-pointer, and they weren't getting to the rim much, either.

A pair of baskets by Brandon Johns sandwiched around a Wagner dime to Austin Davis finally gave the Wolverines some breathing room in the first half, and they carried that momentum into the tunnel when Wagner corralled a loose ball and dropped in a ludicrous baseline teardrop to beat the halftime buzzer.

Wagner came out hot in the second half, working the high screen to assist a Hunter Dickinson slam, draining a three off an offensive rebound, getting to the line for a pair of free throws, isolating a defender for a runner, and attacking a closeout to create another Dickinson dunk all before the second media timeout.

Wagner, the creator [Campredon]

From there, Mike Smith's steady hand at point guard and a steady stream of whistles took over. While Michigan went an extended stretch without scoring, the Scarlet Knights couldn't tighten the gap, and Smith repeatedly broke their attempts to press and trap him into turnovers. He finished second on the team with 12 points, hit a demoralizing scoop layup late, and only turned it over twice in 34 minutes despite heavy on-ball pressure, particularly from Young.

Rutgers couldn't score in the halfcourt and couldn't get the ball away from M's ballhandlers. Despite the offensive drought, the game was never in danger.

With Wagner starring and Smith chipping in, the team overcame an inefficient scoring night from Dickinson (ten points on 11 shooting possessions) and 4/15 combined shooting from Isaiah Livers and Eli Brooks. It's difficult to tell which player is going to lead the offense in any given game, though someone always steps up. The defense, meanwhile, is reliable as a metronome. Michigan is now 10-1 in the Big Ten, two losses clear of second-place Illinois, heading into Sunday's top-five matinee at Ohio State.

[Hit THE JUMP for the box score.]