Double-digit road victories have become the norm for No. 2 Michigan, which has won five straight away from home within its eight-game winning streak entering Wednesday’s clash with Northwestern in Evanston, Ill.

Complacency is another story for the Wolverines, though.

After rallying from a halftime deficit at Maryland to win their first conference road test in mid-December and surviving a scare at Penn State three weeks later, the Wolverines (22-1, 12-1 Big Ten) take nothing for granted.

“Those close games really shifted our mindset,” said Michigan forward Yaxel Lendeborg. “We’re not invincible, even though we feel like we are. And it just proved to us that we’ve got to be more mature in everyday approach.”

Michigan led throughout Sunday’s 82-61 victory at Ohio State by remaining centered and steady.

The conference-leading Wolverines plan to apply the same principles against Northwestern (10-14, 2-11), which has lost three straight and nine of 11.

“We know in the Big Ten, every road game is going to be really tough,” Aday Mara said. “But I think our preparation and just being ready and having a good intensity from the beginning, it makes the difference.”

Wildcats coach Chris Collins also has focused on his team’s mentality as Northwestern aims to avoid the league basement.

The Wildcats are one of five schools with double-digit conference losses — joining Maryland, Rutgers, Oregon and Penn State. Of that group, the Wildcats clearly boast the best power ratings. They opened the week at No. 69 in KenPom and No. 79 per the NET rankings.

While he insists Northwestern is “not a moral-victory program,” Collins sees progress amid the losses. On Sunday, fielding a starting lineup with three freshmen just four days removed from a 40-point blowout loss at Illinois, the Wildcats challenged host Iowa throughout a 76-70 defeat.

“When you get throttled like that, you worry about how that’s going to affect them going into the next game,” Collins said, “but I thought our effort was great, I thought our fight was great. I thought we gave ourselves a chance to win this game (Sunday).”

While Big Ten leading scorer Nick Martinelli paced Northwestern with 21 points, freshman point guard Jake West continued his development with a career-best 18 points, including a 4-of-5 effort from long range.

Collins lauded West’s poise as he goes against a deep roster of Big Ten point guards.

“Put yourself in his shoes as a young kid trying to go through this gantlet,” Collins said. “I’m proud of him. He’s learning a lot. But I think what you see about Jake is, he’s a competitor. He’s not going to back down. He’s going to play against these guys, he’s going to give his best. He’s learning with each game. He’s growing with confidence. We’re putting him out there.”

Collins cited Michigan’s Elliot Cadeau as the next point-guard challenge West will encounter, but the Wolverines are solid in the frontcourt as well.

Mara, a 7-foot-3 junior, scored a career-high 24 points on Sunday while connecting on his first two 3-pointers.

“I’m confident with my shot. It’s in my game,” Mara said. “It’s just that I haven’t (shot) it for two years, but I know it’s there, so I’m just going to keep taking the good shots.”

Meanwhile, Lendeborg (14 points, 14 rebounds) and fellow forward Morez Johnson Jr. (11 points, 12 rebounds) each registered their fifth double-double of the year.

–Field Level Media

No. 14 Florida, sitting alone atop the Southeastern Conference, will try to duplicate its defensive effort from the weekend when they travel to play high-scoring Georgia on Wednesday night in Athens, Ga.

The Gators (17-6, 8-2 SEC) shut down Texas A&M’s prolific, frenetic attack and rolled to an 86-67 road win on Saturday. The Florida defense, No. 2 in the SEC at 71.2 points, put the clamps on the Aggies, who entered the game leading the SEC with 92.0 points per game.

The Gators limited Texas A&M to 17.1% shooting in the first half that included 23 consecutive missed shots – highlighted by five blocked layups as the Aggies went 10:25 between baskets.

Florida needs to bring the same defensive effort against Georgia (17-6, 5-5), the SEC’s new leader with 91.9 points per game. The Bulldogs are coming off an 83-71 win at LSU that ended a three-game losing streak.

The Gators have won four straight conference road games, something they had not done since 2017.

“Obviously, we’re really pleased where we are right now, but we’ve got eight more league games left and a lot can happen,” Florida coach Todd Golden said. “There’s a lot of teams with three and four losses and it’s all about us taking care of our business. We’ve got to take one game at a time, as cliche as that sounds.”

Florida’s Rueben Chinyelu leads the SEC in rebounding (11.5 per game) and double-doubles (14). Thomas Haugh, who scored a game-high 22 against the Aggies, ranks seventh in the SEC with 17.8 points per game.

“The great thing about being in this position is we don’t have to worry about anybody else,” Golden said. “Just see what’s in front of us, one game at a time. And we’ll be ready to go against Georgia on Wednesday.”

Georgia is coming off one of its best defensive efforts of the season. The Bulldogs forced 14 turnovers and limited the Tigers to 5 of 23 (21.7%) from 3-point range.

“I thought we were pretty sharp for 40 minutes defensively,” said Georgia coach Mike White. “Proud of the effort. A lot of carryover from practice. These guys worked hard and their attention to detail was pretty good against an LSU team that’s capable of beating anyone in our league. That was a big win for us.”

White said the Bulldogs need to continue to get better on the boards. Florida leads the nation in rebounding margin (plus-15.2 per game) and owns a height advantage over the Bulldogs, who outrebound foes by just 1.5 per game.

“We made a significant improvement with our desire to compete on the glass,” White said. “Now here comes another SEC opponent who is prolific at rebounding the basketball. If we can just stay in the fight. We can’t get demolished on the glass. We’ve got to keep it close.”

The Bulldogs continue to share the offensive load. On Saturday it was Kanon Catchings, who finished with 23 points, including five 3-pointers — tying his career high in both categories. He averages 11.2 points to join Jeremiah Wilkinson (17.1), Blue Cain (13.2) and Marcus “Smurf” Millender (11.7) in double figures.

Florida leads the series 127-102, but Georgia is 62-47 in games played in Athens. That includes an 88-83 win on Feb. 25, 2025, that marked the Gators’ last loss on their way to the NCAA title.

–Field Level Media

The Los Angeles Clippers’ impressive climb up the Western Conference standings, from 15 games below .500 to a spot squarely in the play-in tournament, outwardly seemed undone by the jettisoning of James Harden and Ivica Zubac at last week’s trade deadline.

Clippers forward Kawhi Leonard and his unyielding teammates appear to believe otherwise.

Behind another sensational performance from Leonard, the Clippers thumped the Minnesota Timberwolves 115-96 on Sunday despite the absences of Harden and Zubac, as well as the players they received back in those separate trades.

The Clippers anticipate Darius Garland, Bennedict Mathurin and Isaiah Jackson will make their debuts Tuesday in the first of back-to-back road games against the Houston Rockets.

Leonard posted 41 points, eight rebounds and four steals in the road victory over Minnesota, marking his career-best fourth 40-point game this season. Despite being short-handed and presumably disinclined to make a playoff push following the departures of Harden and Zubac, the Clippers proved they have plenty of fight remaining for the stretch run of the regular season.

“We’re always ready to go,” Clippers forward John Collins said. “We’ve got great guys ready to step up and take advantage of their opportunity, as well as Kawhi Leonard. What more can I say?”

A sweep of the two-game set in Houston would lift the Clippers to a .500 record at the All-Star break. Such a mark seemed improbable in mid-December, but moxie is difficult to measure.

“We’ve got a good group,” Leonard said. “Guys are levelheaded, they love to play basketball, so we’re just going out and competing every night. That’s all we’re doing.”

The Rockets are also seeking to carry momentum into the break. After dropping consecutive home games to the Boston Celtics and Charlotte Hornets last week, Houston rallied to claim the finale of a three-game season series with the Oklahoma City Thunder 112-106 on Saturday.

The Rockets have displayed a tendency to play to the level of their competition this season, often saving their best for their most challenging opponents. Houston has labored against inconsistency, with vacillating effort and intensity addressed during last week’s back-to-back.

“That was the message even before the Charlotte game,” Rockets coach Ime Udoka said. “We wanted to play well these last five, didn’t do so in those first two, but it was good to get back to playing with the effort and intensity it takes to win a game against Oklahoma City.

“And that’s the case with the Clippers. We want to finish on a good note. We got two days off to recover really quickly, get this back-to-back in, and obviously, it’s a race to the finish, those 29 games. Good to get us into the All-Star break on the right foot and then build off of that.”

Against the Thunder, the Rockets received critical contributions from Tari Eason and Jabari Smith Jr., who combined for 48 points and 18 rebounds in support of the All-Star tandem of Kevin Durant and Alperen Sengun.

If the Rockets are to meet their lofty preseason expectations, they will require similar efforts from their role players during the closing sprint to the playoffs.

“We’re going to have to deal with that throughout the rest of the season,” Durant said of the attention opposing defenses focus on himself and Sengun. “It was a good test for us.”

–Field Level Media