Eastern Michigan vs. Michigan: No. 2 Wolverines host Eagles on Thursday

The Eastern Michigan Eagles (6-3) have already knocked off one Big Ten team this season -- they defeated the Purdue Boilermakers on Dec. 8, 47-44 -- but the No. 2 Michigan Wolverines present a much larger challenge for the Eagles on Thursday night.

The Wolverines have the offensive firepower to blow the Eagles out of the water, and an early push for domination will be in Michigan's plans.

The biggest edge for Michigan will come on the offensive end. The Wolverines are No. 6 nationally in True Shooting Percentage (60.4), while the Eagles own the No. 328 mark in TS% (46). At Michigan blog Maize-N-Brew, the staff believes this one should be over fairly quickly:

Michigan came out and derped around for a while against WMU, getting bogged down a bit in WMU's sloppiness and the general lack of flow throughout the first 10 minutes of the game. After the second tv timeout, Michigan was up 12-11 against the Broncos, having turned it over three times to that point (WMU had somehow accrued 7 turnovers in that span).

In short, this game will likely follow a similar path as the Western game. EMU will come out and play hard for a little while, but this should be a glorified scrimmage from the second tv timeout on.

Tip time is set for 8:30 p.m. ET at the Crisler Center, and the contest will be televised on the Big Ten Network. After this game, Michigan will get a holiday break and then return to action Dec. 29 against Central Michigan before the Big Ten season begins.