Monday night… here we go.
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How many times in our lifetimes, will we get to see Michigan in a final playing for a championship? Beilein has given us 2 in 6 years.
I love this team.
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Gotta somehow limit their three point attempts. Then make some shots on the other end. Hopefully
Simpson and rahkman get their heads on straight for this one. Hard to imagine Michigan winning without a really good offensive performance.
So that is kinda terrifying. Just for comparison can you post Michigans?
I’ll have more in First Look… didn’t even post it with the categories, just hilarious that basically everything is 90+ percentile.
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Not much to say - they’re a better team. But this is a make or miss game, and it’s a single elimination tournament, so we don’t need to win 80% of the time - just this once.
Simpson has his own little PG graveyard that he’s planted all season - he’s got his chance to add his biggest tombstone yet in Brunson.
5 Likes
i hope that Nova comes out flat on Monday after playes a perfect game against Kansas. whichever team shoots better will win the Championship. I am glad it is down to Jay Wright and Beilein, in a season haunted by scandals.
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Villanova opens a 7 point favorite
Does Villanova do anything that will be particularly tricky to plan for in 2 days or do they just have awesome players?
Brunson post ups and their 3/4 court pressure stand out to me as the only two particularly tough things
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This is Villinova’s toughest matchup of the tournament. Michigan guards the 3 point line as well as anybody. Hard to take anything away from Kansas game because Villanova vs Michigan will be entirely different kind of game. Michigan can score on Villanova and Michigan can defend Villanova. Should be a great game.
You can’t defend Michigan or Villanova with a big man who isn’t comfortable defending on the perimeter. Kansas looked like Texas A&M did against Michigan: Helpless.
Michigan and Villanova are each facing the best team they’ve played all season.
I’m going with M in an upset
7 Likes
Gotta think that last night’s Nova game was equivalent to Michigan’s vs TAMU… everything was working and no one was going to beat them on that given night. I also think that Nova’s 3pt% comes back down to at least average and that Michigan falls up to their average shooting percentages for the season. It will be a dog fight and I have to believe that the karma of the Louisville vacatur from 2013 will get Michigan an indisputable national championship tomorrow.
GO BLUE!!
Yeo. I’d much rather face them in single elimination than a series. Don’t think we’d beat them in a best of 5 or 7. But one game? That’s doable
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Think the Purdue gameplan still works here. The problem is Spellman shoots 44% from three himself. But in terms of limiting 3PA and not helping off elite shooters all over the court, at least we’ve done that before.
Dictating tempo offensively will be huge. Can’t play this game in the upper 70s
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I am heading to the game! Fly out to SA this afternoon. Does anyone know where to get Michigan gear in SA before the game tomorrow?
I dare say that we have the country’s two best teams playing in the game.
Pick your spots but be willing to run, run and run. Don’t want a track meet at all, but on turnovers or long rebounds on 3s, hope they can get out and score early instead of deal with the Nova switching D.
Villanova is a very good team, but they’re totally beatable. It’s not like Michigan will have to play the game of its life. In fact, accoriding to Barttorvik, Michigan is still the best team in the land since the loss to the Northwestern, in which time Nova has lost 3 times.
Michigan may be a bad matchup for Nova too. Nova likes to play pretty fast - kenpom tempo 154 - but they’ll have a tough time doing that against Michigan. They rely pretty heavily on Brunson to get things going on offense, but Michigan has Simpson who may be able to slow him down. They rely heavily on 3s, but Michigan is one of the very best at not allowing 3s. (For comparison, Kansas was 10th in the B12 in defensive 3pt rate and 234 nationally, Michigan was 1st in the B10, 5th nationally). And most of them are assisted, which good defensive action could disrupt.
And Michigan has Wagner.
Nova is favored for good reasons, and UM likely can’t have another totally cold shooting night, but if UM plays well, it will have a decent chance to win.
2 Likes