Wolverines don’t feel at home in Crisler Center takeover

As the final seconds ticked away, a question started to ring out inside Crisler Center.

Whose house?

The answer came from the sights and sounds of all the black-and-gold-clad Purdue supporters who showed up, showed out, shouted, “Our house!” and made Michigan feel like the visiting team in its own building.

“It felt like Mackey Arena in there; I ain’t gonna lie to you,” senior forward Terrance Williams II said after Sunday’s 84-76 loss. “It’s disappointing because we go on the road trips and their fan base, no matter what their record is, it’s going to be all their fans and a little bit of Michigan fans. But today, it felt like it was 75% Purdue fans.”

It’s the second straight game where opposing fans have raided Crisler Center, made their presence known and eliminated any sort of home-court advantage for the Wolverines. On Feb. 17, a sea of green and white invaded the arena and made up the most vocal chunk of the crowd in the rivalry rematch against Michigan State.

It’s one thing for Michigan State fans to make the short trip from East Lansing. It’s another for the Purdue faithful to make the four-hour drive from West Lafayette, Ind.

Just ask Matt Painter. He has seen plenty in his 19 seasons as Purdue’s head coach, but he said he had “never” experienced the Boilermakers having that kind of support on the road in the Big Ten.

“I told our guys at halftime, ‘This might never happen again, so give them something to cheer about,’” Painter said.

Zach Edey certainly did. Michigan didn’t have the size, the bodies or the answers to slow down the 7-foot-4 star and reigning national player of the year, who tallied 35 points and 15 rebounds.

Purdue fans were loud and proud from start to finish. They roared when the Boilermakers took the court for pregame warmups. Chants of “Let’s go Boilers!” broke out early in the second half when Purdue took its largest lead. A large contingent even stuck around to give Edey a rousing ovation after he conducted a postgame TV interview on the court.

“It was awesome,” Purdue’s Mason Gillis said. “We play with more pride when have our crowd behind us. At halftime, (Painter) told us he’s never seen that in 20 years, so use it to our advantage. Play hard, do the little things, get our crowd behind us and they’ll push us the rest of the way.”

Purdue’s Braden Smith added it was unexpected and “definitely weird” when he knocked down his first jumper and heard a loud cheer.

“I think it shows a lot about our program and our fans and how enjoyable we are to watch,” Smith said.

The same can’t be said for Michigan. As the Boilermakers took another step toward repeating as Big Ten regular-season champions, the Wolverines inched closer to securing their first last-place conference finish since 1966-67.

Sunday’s loss was Michigan’s 15th in the last 17 games and 20th on the season, marking just the third time in program history a team has reached that total.

While Williams lamented the lack of fan support and called it a “disgust factor,” senior forward Jace Howard gave props to Purdue for having a “passionate” fan base that travels well.

“It was definitely unique to see. Kudos to them,” Howard said. “But let’s call it what it is. We’re not having a great season ourselves. That might impact the way that fans view it. It’s not our job to really get into any of that. Our job is to go out there and play to win. Whoever’s in the crowd, we’re going to still play.”

Michigan coach Juwan Howard said he was “so locked in” to coaching that he didn’t notice the fan turnout for both sides. All he recalled was hearing the arena get loud when the Wolverines made a run in the first half to go up by seven and again in the second half when they tried to make a late-game push.

But in addition to the dreadful season, the cheap tickets on the secondary market and the fact the Wolverines are the only Big Ten team with a losing record at home, there was another factor at play. Michigan’s spring break started on Saturday.

“I’m sure a lot of our students are out enjoying (trips), whether it’s Cabo or Turks and Caicos or the Bahamas or Cancun,” Juwan Howard said. “If I was them, I would because it’s a nice time to get away from your academics, get a chance to re-energize yourself and enjoy your spring break, as college students should.”

Sunday, though, was no day at the beach for the Wolverines. They were outmanned, but they weren’t thoroughly outplayed like they were in last month’s 32-point blowout loss at Purdue.

“What does not show up on a box score is heart,” the elder Howard said. “Our guys played with heart. If they had heart here as something that was in this box score, I think we would’ve won when it came to heart.”

What also doesn’t show up in the stat sheet is how many opposing fans are in the house.

“Because if it did, Purdue would’ve had an advantage in that category, without a question.

“(Michigan fans) are going to support us when we’re up. They’re not going to support us when we’re down,” Williams said.

“I just hope it doesn’t happen again in the future because that was disappointing.”