Final Four 2018: Michigan vs. Loyola

You are right. Between the extended media timeouts and longer half time the bench becomes significantly less important in the NCAA Tournament.

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So thereā€™s an advantage to the tediously long games! I still think the stop and start quality prevents teams from getting into rhythm, but that may be to a well-disciplined teamā€™s advantageā€“youā€™re less likely to get steamrolled. And I continue to think this may be one reason why great guard play is more important. In addition to their stellar D, MAAR and Zā€™s ability to protect the ball looms large.

I shouldnā€™t be surprised, but I have to :roll_eyes: at the talking heads that talk about Loyola looking to spread Michigan out. Maybe they know that Loyola will spread with four out, but do they know Michigan will spread with five out? Iā€™m hoping that the folks who will call the game are spending the week doing their homework but I fear that weā€™re gonna get more scorching hot takes instead.

Loyola plays 5 guards as mentioned in the first section here.

But , we still want to rest the starters as much as we can for Monday night.:slightly_smiling_face:

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I think you want to play your best players as much as possible to make sure you win games.

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Going to be very interesting to see what Michigan does when Loyola goes small and how both coaches approach that position. Do you try to sync Teske and Krutwig if youā€™re UM? Iā€™m not so sure. And Iā€™d note that while Jackson has a decent 3 pt shooting %, heā€™s made 8 3s in his last 28 games and 1 in his last 7, only attempting 6 in that span. I wouldnā€™t be surprised to see UM goes extra small, but I also wouldnā€™t be surprised to see some perhaps counter-intuitive moves, taking advantage of our advantages and seeing if they can match.

5 guards is a bit of a stretch. Their backup center is 6ā€™5 and not an outside threat and not a good rebounder. Imo, height doesnā€™t determine your position, skill set does. If they play someone else at center then maybe, but Iā€™ve seen Aundre play the position and heā€™s not one Iā€™d be worried about.

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Okay, thatā€™s fair. An undersized center who can hit the occasional three. Jackson might not be a guard, but heā€™s a smaller quick guy who slips to the rim very effectively and can finish. Theyā€™ve also played a few possessions without Jackson or Krutwig on the floor in the NCAA Tournament, I believe Ingram would probably be the 5 in those cases.

Basically, Iā€™d expect Jackson to play 30 minutes vs Michigan and Krutwig to play closer to 10. My main point was just that this is a team that is easily as perimeter-oriented as Michigan.

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No doubt they are. The difference is we spread the floor with 5 guys who can shoot and they have 4. Wagner should be fine to play 30+ because if theyā€™re putting him in pick n roll with Aundre, let him shoot all the 3s he wants. Us over-rotating and or helping off of anyone else would be a bad idea. Ingram at the 5 would be a problem because heā€™s a great shooter but I havenā€™t seen him there but I believe you and he probably has. Wouldnā€™t be surprised to see him there a lot if theyā€™re not scoring.

From what Iā€™ve been told, this lineup will be experimented with this week.
PG - Simpson
SG - MAAR
SF - Poole
PF - Matthews
C - Livers/Robinson

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Probably a bigger advantage for Loyola in matchup with Michigan. Maybe? I have hardly watched any Loyola but I donā€™t think they are as deep as M.

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Yeah, thatā€™s kind of the question. They play small, but are they ā€œas perimeter-oriented as Michiganā€? Or maybe they are but in a different way. Their 3 point rate is much lower on offense. Theyā€™ve attempted 20 fewer 3s than Michigan in the tourney. But if they have lots of actions starting on the perimeter, even if they end in 2s, whatā€™s the best way to combat that ā€“ and take advantage on the other end?

Like I said, going to be very interesting. I wouldnā€™t be surprised to see a lineup like the one johnmiller put out there ā€“ certainly would be nice to have that available ā€“ but I also wouldnā€™t be surprised to see a fairly normal substitution pattern if itā€™s working. You want to be flexible, but if you adjust to what they other team is doing, sometimes thatā€™s already a win for them.

I mean, you say we spread the floor with 5 instead of 4, but Charles shoots 32% and takes 5.4 3PAs per 100 possessions. Zavier shoots 30% on 4.7 3PAs per 100.

Aundre Jackson shoots 37% on 4.7 3PAs per 100.

Jackson is just as much of a floor spacer as two players in our starting lineup.

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Playing Robinson at the 5 is a lot more intriguing for me than Livers in that lineup. That being said, Iā€™ll take as many Wagner minutes as he can handle. Also think Iā€™d prefer Teske minutes at the 5 over Livers all things considered

They donā€™t shoot as many threes as Michigan, but they all can shoot and their offensive actions are mostly on the perimeter. They space the floor very well, run high ball screen, etc.

You are correct. Iā€™m mainly speaking of the 5th man who will be playing center and being involved in the pick n roll. Their game be Tennessee is on currently and no player whoā€™s been at C for loyalo scares me at all. Tennessee player an awful game and that can be for two reasons. The one I believe it to be is that they just played awful. Got open looks and just missed them and on defense kept over helping. Tennesseeā€™s help defense was awful as well, people blowing by their defender and not a soul in the correct position.

Is anyone else of the belief that when this Michigan team shoots 37+% from 3, they are clearly the best team in the country and will beat anybody including Nova? The problem is that we can very easily shoot 18% instead, lol.

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the advantage to Livers @ 5 is mobility on defense, i.e. M can switch all. The rest are hopeless 18+ feet away from the basket and it sounds like thatā€™s where LC runs their action.

And on offense, at least heā€™s taller and more athletic than their 5 men so he poses some matchup problems, albeit not nearly as many as Mo does.

A couple points:

(1) As I noted out above, Jackson really hasnā€™t been making, much less taking, 3 pointers for most of the year and certainly not recently. 13 of Jacksonā€™s 20 makes were in the first 9 games of the season. Both Simpson and Matthews have attempted and made significantly more 3s than Jackson in the last 10-15 games.

(2) Iā€™m not sure that smart defensive teams worry too much about Simpson or Matthews taking 3s. I mean, they might not want to leave them wide open, but theyā€™re not concerned about sagging a little off those guys. But you do need guys who can match up with their slashing. So who matches up with what Jackson is actually doing?