Yes it is the very same
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Iām just going by the matrix
Iād like to avoid teams that slow down tempo like Michigan.
Michigan seems to feast on teams that rely on transition offense. Itād be worrisome to play a team who also slows it down.
Not sure on high seeds but for possible future opponents, give me a West Virginia in their bracket.
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Iām not particularly worried about teams that can switch screens. I think weāve figured that out pretty well. Iām more worried about something we havenāt seen much. I do think a zone, and particularly an unusual zone, like Oregon last year or maybe Northwestern this year, is the most likely to make us uncomfortable and require decision- and playmaking in the 1-3 spots that could give us trouble. That combined with a team that takes away transition opportunities could be tough for UM.
On the other side of the ball, I worry about teams that can play out of dynamic bigs. Sure, Haas can get his, but PU canāt really base their offense out of him. Itās kind of either dump it into Haas or run screens. Sometimes the former leads to the latter, but Haasās assist rate is pretty low. A guy like Luke Maye, though, has an assist rate twice as high. Basically a 4 or 5 that can score and pass.
Oh, and probably Duke. Although, I do think that if we could make them play half-court offense, we might be able to get some TOs and transition buckets and it would turn on whether we could keep them off the boards.
I think with Duke if we used the Haas strategy on Bagley and just let him get his 20 points without doubling and focus on stopping the drives from the rest of them (rather than the three like with Purdue) they would struggle.
I would not want to face a high-powered offense. Nova and Duke are 1 and 2 in KenPom AdjOff. Duke also runs a junk zone AND has a top 5 player in the country at PF. As good as Duncan and Livers have been on D, Bagley is a different animal. Now Purdue is 3 so itās not like those games are unwinnable.
I will say that I think this team has become relatively match up proof. We thought switching teams were our problem, then tons of teams tried that and we killed Nebraska.
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Avoid teams that play zone
Everyone better buckle up for the opening round game then. Thereās a great chance they face a zone against the mid-major 13 or 14 seed.
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One thing that helps us with matchups is how well Simpson defends other teams PG. If the other teams PG is struggling, especially if heās a scoring guard, it plays right into our hands I think. That said I think our weakest link defensively is at the 4. Mo struggles against guys like Haas BUT he neutralizes the big slow 5s because they canāt defend us on the other end. And Teske gives us a whole different matchup defensively. A guy like Jaren Jackson (I know, not many out there) is probably another teams best way to attack us but heās basically the 3rd or 4th option in terms of usage by MSU, maybe even 5th. I think no matter what you have to have good guards, but a team with solid guard play whoās best player is a stretch 4 I think it could present some problems. For the record, Livers and Robinson did an outstanding job on Jackson last Saturday.
As far as we go offensively, Nebraska with their ability to go small gave us fits at their place because they did such a good job of defending the 3. We did a great job of countering and confusing them last weekend to the point where they looked embarrassingly lost at times. It does concern me a bit if teams can really take away the 3 but this weekend showed weāve gotten much better at countering teams who try and do that.
My biggest concern is actually ourselves and FT shooting. Just praying that doesnāt come back to haunt us in a close game.
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One interesting thing about our run lately has been the lack of close games. Other than the near loss to Iowa, everything has been comfortable with under 4 minutes to play. I guess that speaks to just how well the team has performed that they have been able to establish comfortable leads, but Iām still extremely scared of a game that could come down to a tie with 2 minutes left. I just donāt trust our guards to go out and make a tough shot down the stretch, especially if they have to create it themselvesā¦although MAAR has been phenomenal lately and would definitely be the guy to do it. That plus free throws makes me nervous for a deep run
A complete list of the 32 teams that are projected seeds 1-8, by Jerry Palm, that have only two top 50 RPI wins:
1 seeds:
2 seeds: MSU
3 seeds:
4 seeds:
5 seeds:
6 seeds:
7 seeds:
8 seeds:
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Iād worry about a team with the kind of talent MSU has, multiple scorers in the front court, at least one very good shooter in the back court, thatās actually well coached on offense. Aside from that, Iād like to avoid teams that slow the game down.
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Why would you not trust them to do it late in the game? Theyāve been doing it through the rest of the game so I see no reason they canāt do it at the end.
Yes, MSU with good coaching would be scary.
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Iāve always subscribed to the theory that what matters in March is a great defense and a guard that can just go out and carry your scoring for you. I fully believe in the defense but our offense is so balanced (not a bad thing) that we just typically can wear teams down and score off easy twos or drive and kicks to open shooters. Tie game, two minutes leftā¦teams tend to stop running their stuff and just clear out or send a ball screen.
The balanced offense approach will work in the tournament too for sure, but as we advance (or if our shooters are just cold one game) we will run into a great defense or a tight finish. And the only true weakness I still see with this team is the lack of a go to guy off the dribble that can create his own shot.
That said, MAAR is definitely the guy who would fill that role and he has done an admirable job hitting big shots to extend leads against MSU and Purdue last week. But it does scare me that heās really our only option to create for himself in crunch time.
A team that employs a philosophy that exploits a gap in three point and transition opportunities, if there are any 
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Any team with a guard that can exploit Zavier Simpson (not many). But LSUās guard did a job on Mich.
To be fair, the Zavier Simpson that went to Maui is a different player the Zavier Simpson that went to New York City.
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Syracuse is a team that Iād just as soon not see pop up on the 11 line if weāre a three seed.
By the way, in addition to the general rematch rules, thereās this one:
āEach of the first four teams selected from a conference shall be placed in different regions if they are seeded on the first four lines.ā
OSU is probably a 5, but presumably this means that UM wonāt be in the same region as PU or MSU, even if they could be but in the same region under other rematch rules.
http://barttorvik.com/bubble-guide.php?team=Michigan
I think you can only look at this for the dayās games, but still pretty fun.
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