Game Wrap | Michigan 64, Purdue 91 | Purdue leaves no doubt
Purdue’s Fletcher Loyer took one dribble right to space and the ball careened off his foot towards the right corner.
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But on a night like tonight, in a place like Mackey Arena, after a loss like the last loss at Ohio State, Purdue didn’t need this kind of luck but they got it. The ball went straight to Camden Heide, who returned it to Fletcher Loyer who was wide open behind the three-point line.
Loyer would make the three to give #11 Purdue a staggering 41-15 lead over #21 Michigan in the first half.
In a lopsided, statement making victory, Purdue rolled Michigan 91-64.
It was Purdue’s defense that set the tone early for Purdue. Purdue’s Braden Smith, who was exception all game with 24 points, 7 rebounds, 10 assists, and 4 steals, stole a pass on Michigan’s first possession near half court and took it for an open lay up.
On the next play, Smith’s backcourt mate, CJ Cox would get into Tre Donaldson’s dribble and forc ea turnover. Cox would then get another steal before half court a few plays later and finish with a lay up. Then, Caleb Furst would force a steal and Smith would fire a pass ahead to Cox in the corner for Purdue’s first three of the game.
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The jumper gave Purdue a 13-2 lead and it was all Boilers from there.
Michigan’s offense couldn’t hold onto the ball and it couldn’t make a shot. Purdue forced 10 first half turnovers and Michigan shot just 1 of 16 from three.
At the other end, Trey Kaufman-Renn got going early, scoring 6 points before going to the bench for most the first half with two early fouls.
It was Smith who continued to orchestrate the offense for Purdue, showing off his mid-range ability while getting out in transition where he found both Camden Heide and Caleb Furst for alley-oop dunks.
Even Purdue big and true freshman, Raleigh Burgess, would get in on the scoring. Burgess knocked down an open three to give Purdue a 32-11 lead.
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Nine Boilermakers would score in the first half.
A turn to zone briefly slowed down Purdue’s offense at the end of the half, but Caleb Furst’s offensive rebounding got Fletcher Loyer a wide open three to give Purdue 51 points in the half.
Purdue would head into the first half leading 51-26 while Purdue held Michigan’s two bigs, Danny Wolf and Vladislav Goldin, to a combined 6 points.
For Michigan, this horror movie was a two parter because its play was plagued with poor shooting and more turnovers in the second half as Purdue extended the lead to 60-34 on a Myles Colvin steal that he turned into two points.
Raleigh Burgess added another three-pointer, and Braden Smith’s fourth steal of the game led to another transition lay up that had Purdue’s lead up to 70-42 with more than 12 minutes still to play.
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The only drama left in this one was if Braden Smith would finally get his triple-double, but Smith would go out with 4:29 to play, just a few rebounds and an assist shy.
Fletcher Loyer had a day shooting the ball, scoring 18 points on 5 of 10 from three.
Trey Kaufman-Renn’s production was steady in 24 minutes of play, scoring 15 and going for 3 rebounds and assists.
For Michigan, its best player, Danny Wolf, was limited from the jump, going just 1 of 7 from the floor and scoring just 4 points while failing to make a difference as a play maker or on the glass.
No secret to what worked for Purdue as its offense rolled, its defensive swarmed a Michigan team that committed 22 turnovers to Purdue’s 6 while shooting 37% from the floor and just 6 of 29 from three.
A 58-year-old woman is accused of driving a vehicle at the bottom of a ski hill near skiers and snowboarders in White Lake Township, Michigan, the Oakland County Prosecutor’s Office said Saturday.
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Prosecutors allege the Bingham Farms, Michigan, woman drove near guests of Alpine Valley Ski Area, including children, on Tuesday.
According to the prosecutor’s office, witnesses said they saw the woman smoking what appeared to be marijuana before the incident and wearing ski boots while driving. Officers attempting to perform sobriety tests reported that she “exhibited poor balance, slurred speech, and open hostility.”
Online court records show the woman is charged with operating while impaired for the third time. If convicted, she faces up to five years in prison, a maximum fine of $5,000 and “mandatory vehicle immobilization” for one to three years, the prosecutor’s office said.
“This defendant endangered children with her irresponsible actions,” Oakland County Prosecutor Karen McDonald said in a written statement. “There is no excuse to drive impaired, even once. If you’ve had too much to drink or are under the influence of marijuana or other drugs, call a friend, call an Uber, just don’t drive.”
The woman is scheduled to appear at a probable cause conference on March 12.
A long-lost silent film that’s believed to be the first depiction of a robot in motion pictures was rediscovered in Michigan. And it’s a great reminder for film history fans that you shouldn’t give up hope just because a film has been deemed lost.
The film, titled “Gugusse and the Automaton,” is just 45 seconds long and was created in 1897 by French film pioneer Georges Méliès. It shows a magician named Gugusse turning a large crank to control Pierrot Automate, a child-sized robot. The robot grows bigger and bigger until it’s an adult.
Once full size, the robot does a little dance before hitting Gugusse over the head with a stick. Gugusse brings the robot down from his pedestal and then shows him what’s what.
Gugusse hits the robot over the head with a gigantic mallet, each swing making the mechanical man a little smaller until he’s back to his child-like size. Another swing makes the robot a small doll and then it’s just one more mallet slap before the robot disappears completely.
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With that, the film is over.
It’s a short film with a goofy, slapstick premise. But it’s also an artifact that can be interpreted similarly to so much robot-focused media that would come later in the 20th century. The robot harms a human, the human needs to destroy the robot.
We see anti-robot stories pop up especially during difficult economic times, like the 1930s and 1970s, something I’ve written about before at length. And if you’re wondering whether there were hard economic times in France during the 1890s, there certainly were—in the form of a double dip recession, no less.
But putting aside the potential message of the film (and the risk of taking it too seriously as a sign of broader social frustrations), the story of how this film was rediscovered is fascinating.
Bill McFarland of Grand Rapids, Michigan, drove a box of films that belonged to his great-grandfather to the Library of Congress’s National Audio-Visual Conservation Center in Culpeper, Virginia so that experts could take a look at what he had.
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McFarland’s great-grandfather was a man named William Delisle Frisbee who had worked jobs as a school teacher and a potato farmer in Pennsylvania, according to a blog post from the Library of Congress. But he also worked nights as a “traveling showman,” according to the Library.
“He drove his horse and buggy from town to town to dazzle the locals with a projector and some of the world’s first moving pictures,” the Library explains. “He set up shop in a local schoolroom, church, lodge or civic auditorium and showed magic lantern slides and short films with music from a newfangled phonograph. It was shocking.”
Frisbee died in 1937 and two trunks of his possessions were passed on through generations until they made their way to McFarland, who was unable to screen the movies from himself because of their condition.
The Library posted a video to Instagram talking about their acquisition of the film and how remarkable it is that such an old film was found. It’s estimated that as much as 90% of films made before 1930 are lost to history.
Other films in the trunks included another Méliès film from 1900 titled “The Fat and Lean Wrestling Match,” fragments of a Thomas Edison movie called “The Burning Stable.” Library technicians scanned the films in 4K to preserve them for future generations.
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The word “robot” wasn’t coined until 1920 for the Czech play R.U.R. by Karel Capek. But visions of artificial men date back centuries. And it’s incredible to see a robot from the 1890s depicted on film for the first time. Even if it’s just 45 seconds long.
Don’t give up hope if you’re longing to watch some movie that’s believed to be completely lost. You never know what someone may have in a dusty old trunk in Michigan.
Kylan Boswell (4) scored 15 points for the Illini but Yaxel Lendeborg (23) scored 16 in Michigan’s win. Geoff Stellfox / Getty Images
Michigan has left no doubt about Big Ten superiority — the No. 3 Wolverines’ 84-70 romp Friday at No. 10 Illinois gives them an outright conference championship with two regular-season games remaining.
The win gives Michigan its first outright title since 2021, and it’s another top-shelf win that gives Michigan (27-2, 17-1 Big Ten) a boost in its pursuit of the NCAA Tournament’s No. 1 seed. This matters for the Wolverines because they would be lined up for a potential Final Four matchup with the No. 4 seed rather than either of the two teams that are also in contention for No. 1 — Duke, which beat Michigan last week to gain the inside track, and Arizona.
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Friday’s lone meeting of the regular season between two purported national contenders left Michigan looking much the part, and Illinois looking a tier lower. This was domination, a comfortable second half for a Michigan team that led by as many as 21.
Michigan sophomore big man Morez Johnson Jr., who transferred from Illinois in the offseason, heard a lot of jeers from fans at State Farm Center and responded with 19 points and 11 rebounds. Big man Aday Mara also scored 19. Yaxel Lendeborg, the star of Michigan’s jumbo frontcourt, had 16 points and seven rebounds.
That interior helped the Wolverines to a 42-32 edge in points in the paint and 22 second-chance points. Keaton Wagler had 23 points to lead Illinois (22-7, 13-5), which projected as a No. 2 seed in Tuesday’s Bracket Watch but has lost two straight games and four of six. The Illini are trending in the wrong direction and potentially heading to the three-line.
The No. 1 seed also gets to choose its tournament path, and Michigan has requested Philadelphia as its first-weekend site. Otherwise, the Wolverines will likely be placed in Buffalo, which is closer to Ann Arbor.
