Big Ten Opener for No. 7 Michigan Brings No. 19 Purdue to Sold-Out Crisler

» Michigan hosts Purdue in an early Big Ten Conference weekend. The game will be the lone matchup of the season between the Wolverines and the Boilermakers.
» Michigan is making its 54th Big Ten opener at home and holds a 33-20 record in those games.
» The Big Ten has expanded its schedule to 20 games starting this season, with a home/away matchup around the conference's football championship game.
» Saturday's game will be the second straight sellout at Crisler Center.

NEXT GAME
Saturday, Dec. 1 -- vs. #19/18 Purdue (Crisler Center), 3:30 p.m. (Big Ten opener)

• Watch: Coach Beilein Media Roundtable - Purdue

The seventh-ranked University of Michigan men's basketball team (7-0, 0-0 Big Ten) will host 19th-ranked Purdue for the only time in the new 20-game Big Ten Conference regular season on Saturday (Dec. 1). With a 3:30 p.m. tipoff, the game will be broadcast on ESPN.

A Little Bit About Purdue

• Purdue comes to Ann Arbor with a 5-2 overall record. With the trip to Ann Arbor, the Boilermakers will have played five of their first eight games away from West Lafayette, Indiana.
• After wins over Fairfield and Ball State, Purdue was the runner-up at the Charleston Classic, suffering its first loss with an 89-83 decision to Virginia Tech in the championship game. The Boilermakers rebounded with a win over Robert Morris before falling at Florida State, 73-72, in the ACC/Big Ten Challenge. Trailing by one, the Seminoles stole the ball with 16 seconds left and made a layup with 5.2 remaining to get the last-second win over Purdue.
• Preseason Big Ten Player of the Year and junior guard Carsen Edwards leads three in double figures with his 25.1 points per game. Senior Ryan Cline adds 15.3 points, and graduate transfer (Dartmouth) Evan Boudreaux chips in 11.3 points per contest. Edwards and Cline are tied for the team lead with 28 three-pointers apiece and combine for 56 of Purdue's 84 total on the season. Boudreaux leads the team with 6.3 rebounds per game.
• Matt Painter is in his 14th season as head coach at Purdue and has guided the Boilermakers to 10 NCAA Tournament appearances, four Sweet 16s and two Big Ten regular-season crowns.
• Edwards was selected as the preseason Player of the Year in the Big Ten by the league's media and was chosen by Blue Ribbon Yearbook as its preseason National Player of the Year. Edwards averaged 18.5 points and 3.8 rebounds per game a season ago.

The Series with Purdue

• Michigan trails 70-89 in the all-time series with the Boilermakers, while U-M head coach John Beilein is 10-11 all-time against Purdue.
• Last year, Michigan and Purdue met three times and recorded three of the most memorable games of the season. In the first of two regular-season matchups, U-M trailed by as many as 14 points at Crisler Center before charging back in the second half to tie the game with five minutes left. In the furious final minutes, Purdue's Isaac Hass made one of two free throws to break a 69-69 tie with four seconds left to help Purdue escape Ann Arbor with the victory.
• In the second meeting at Mackey Arena, the game turned into an offensive show as Muhammad-Ali Abdur-Rahkman scored 26 points, while three other Wolverines hit for double digits. However, Vincent Edwards' 30-point night helped the Boilermakers edge U-M for the second time, 92-88.
• The final meeting was in the championship game of the Big Ten Tournament in Madison Square Garden. After battling the first 12 minutes of the game, U-M started to pull away late and extended its lead to as many as 18 in the second half. The Wolverines eventually closed the game with a 75-66 win to secure the program's second straight conference tournament title.

The Big Ten So Soon?

• After a condensed schedule last year led to an early December conference weekend, the league has expanded the regular season to 20 games, allowing for the early matchups to become a regular part of the schedule around the football championship game.
• U-M's early Big Ten schedule starts with this Saturday's game against No. 19/18 Purdue. The Wolverines will then head to Evanston, Illinois, for a matchup with Northwestern in the newly renovated Welsh-Ryan Arena on Tuesday night (Dec. 4) at 8 p.m. CST on BTN.

Make It Three Straight Games

• Ignas Brazdeikis has three straight games of 20-plus points. He had back-to-back 20-point outings vs. Providence and Chattanooga before scoring a career-best 24 points against North Carolina. During the run, he has shot 61 percent (22-for-36) from the field, 56 percent (5-for-9) from long range and 75 percent (15-for-20) on free throws.
• The U-M player to record 20-plus points in three or more consecutive games was Derrick Walton Jr., who did it twice during his senior season (2016-17) when he posted three straight during U-M's postseason run and five straight in the middle of the Big Ten season. That season Walton finished with 13 20-plus point games.
> Walton's second streak: Minnesota (29, March 11), Wisconsin (22, March 12), Oklahoma State (26, March 17)
> Walton's first streak: Indiana (21, Jan. 26), at Michigan State (24, Jan. 29), Ohio State (25, Feb. 4), Michigan State (10, Feb. 7), at Indiana (25, Feb. 12)
• Prior to Walton, Nik Stauskas had a string of five straight and 14 total during his Big Ten Player of the Year campaign in 2013-14. And before that Louis Bullock (1996-99) had the best run with seven straight 20-plus point games during the 1997-98 season.