We will obviously have a lot more on this game throughout the week!
No full game recap for MSU but will have some takeaways there.
They will create problems like last year with that on ball trap that they like to use! However, without their best big…that does not bode well especially because they have no one that can match up with Teske! Guarding their backcourt will be critical and Poole needs to step up on defense!
Michigan is significantly different than last year with Teske in the middle, and with Iggy playing wing. Different kinds of players than those they replaced.
Montana was 74th on KenPom to start the year.
Per BartTorvik: they ended up being the 129th best team in the country from the start of the season to Feb 7th (last game with Akoh).
After that (Feb 8 and on), they’ve been 149.
So, a very favorable matchup. The worst 15 seed and worse than a couple of the 16 seeds post-Akoh. Seems like this should be a comfortable win, particularly since we’ll have lots of familiarity guarding Rorie and Oguine.
Michigan will need to do a good job running Montana’s shooters off the 3-point line considering their long range prowess. Since Akoh went down they’ve been shooting 40% from deep though obviously caveats apply to the level of defenses they’ve faced.
My impressions: Montana is super small and given how Michigan has struggled against switching defenses, I imagine Montana will switch a lot of screens with like-sized players in its lineup.
However, a number of Montana’s defenders are poor in isolation defense (which Michigan has resorted to when facing this switching). The Grizzlies are in the 11th percentile as a team in iso defense. Sayeed Pridgett and Ahmaad Rorie, its two players playing the highest % of minutes, are especially poor in this regard.
Synergy’s individual defensive stats are near the top of the list of “things Dylan is most skeptical of”
I think defensive isolation statistics can be useful. I generally agree with you re: being skeptical on the other stuff, though.