I'm sure you've heard the phrase before in basketball, defense travels. When you're playing

on the road, you may not always have your shot falling. You may not always have everything

clicking offensively, but if you play sound defense, you can hang around in pretty much any venue.

Normally, Mackey Arena and West Lafayette is one of the most daunting venues in college basketball,

and it is still a tough

place to play these days, but that's mostly just because Purdue's pretty good. But Michigan's

defense traveled on Friday. Michigan's defense overwhelmed on Friday. This Michigan team

was not elite defensively a season ago. It was probably about middle of the road in the

Big Ten. The strides this defense has taken have been incredible. Take the last two games,

for example, and not necessarily just the overall numbers, they're plenty good. Here's what I love.

Maryland's longest uninterrupted scoring streak, five points.

Purdue's, same, five points.

So there hasn't been a 6-0 run or better against Michigan in the last two games.

Also, Maryland trailed by 17 to the half. In the entire second half, the Terps never got it closer than 17. Purdue was down

13 after 20 minutes of action. And remember, Purdue came in with two 11-point rallies in the last

four games at Michigan State and then most recently on Tuesday at Ohio State.

So it was a 13 point margin of the half. Boilermakers never cut the deficit to single digits

in the second half. This Michigan team is not allowing the circumstance to dictate its

efforts. Up 20? Die them up.

Tie game, let's go.

Get a stop.

Down late?

...