Game 10: Michigan at Illinois Preview

2 Likes

Don’t have a great feel for this one, what do you guys think?

I know sports don’t always work like this, but I wish Illinois won that game against Maryland. Illini coming back home in a must-win scenario now after that devastating loss is not a great spot for Michigan, IMO

4 Likes

I like Michigan in this one. I think that we have a solid transition D to limit Ayo and that their post game is limited by Teske when there is one big on the floor (Garza was an aberation IMO). When there are two bigs, Livers goes to work. I just dont think their D is going to be nearly enough to stifle our offense while i think we can largely contain most of what they do. I think that we have seen what is going to be our krytonite this year with Louisville but that is largely not replicable, especially by Illinois.

3 Likes

I don’t like Michigan’s chances. State Farm will be rocking, Illinois will be motivated (“must-win” mentality), and basically, it’s really really really tough to win on the road in the B1G. Really.

That said, this will be an impressive win for U-M if they can take it. Road mettle is the one box they’ve yet to check this season, in my eyes.

I look at this a lot like Louisville. I have zero expectations from Michigan in the game. If we win it’s a huge bonus, but if we don’t I chalk it up to the first Big 10 road game against a quality team. I think Livers and Brooks are going to get their open 3s. If they shoot like they have been in our big wins we can definitely take this one.

Yeah, I’m guessing much is going to come down to if shots are falling. If we hit some threes and Teske can knock in some of the open shots he gets we’ll be in good shape. Those Ayo numbers against good teams are very encouraging, I have a lot of faith in this defense.

2 Likes

I’m nervous about the whistle. Pleased as I was by the contributions of Davis and Johns last week, I’m not prepared to predict their leading M to a road win if Teske and Livers both get in foul trouble.

4 Likes

An interesting battle. Michigan’s big defensive strength is limiting 3s, which Illinois forgoes so that kind of neutralizes a normally big advantage for Michigan. Then again Illinois’ perimeter players thrive in transition which Michigan should be able to limit. The game will be won/lost in the 4/5 battles. If Cockburn is having his way, Illinois wins. If Teske wins that matchup, I don’t see how Illinois wins outside of a wretched shooting performance from M (which is certainly possible on the road).

4 Likes

I think that Teske is too wily and proud to let the freshman have his way, and that our three-point shooting and X’s play-making will carry the day. I’m also interested to see what Johns provides in the minutes he obtains. Look to Franz to finally become red-hot. (Okay, taking a flyer on that last sentence.)

My concern is definitely Teske staying out of foul trouble. Normally I’m comfortable with the center depth, but this team has a couple quality bigs that Teske is going to need to stay on the floor to help contain.

Michigan was about a 1.5 point favorite this morning, now I’m seeing Illinois favored by 1.5 points.

1 Like

That’s what I’m seeing (M +1.5) via CBS Sports (which I’ve found to be immensely more reliable than the nonsense perpetrated by Yahoo Sports).

I really like UM here. I agree keeping Jon Teske out of foul trouble is important. I think UM will play quite a bit of 2-3 zone in this game to help with Jon’s foul situation against the 2 big look like they did against North Carolina.

I see UM making 9-13 3 pointers in this game and winning by around 8-10 points.

UM + 1.5 seems like a smart play if the line is true.

Need our guards/wings to be effective rebounders in this one. I expect a lot of frustrating moments that will have the game thread on here churning, but if we are within striking distance in the last 5 I trust X/Teske to really lead us down the stretch. Wouldn’t put a dollar on it, but I think UM will win a close one

Decided to take Michigan straight up (+115). It’s a big ten road game versus real competition so it’s always loseable… BUT, Michigan is not Maryland. They aren’t Indiana. They aren’t going to absolutely completely collapse on the road mentally. I have complete faith in X, particularly since Illinois is not going to try and force turnovers. Michigan has lost games over the past couple years when their opponent plays phenomenally (sometimes with a great gameplan to contain X) or they miss every shot (sometimes both). It’s rare that Michigan just loses because of road mojo like we saw with other Big Ten teams this week. If Michigan loses this game it’ll come down to some combination of Michigan missing an inordinate number of three point shots or Illinois playing out of their minds on the offensive end. I don’t see it. Give me Michigan by 6.

6 Likes

Franz and Isaiah combine for 35+ tonight

What I want to see is X and Teske being less handsy on the defensive end. If they don’t pick up any of those cheap handsy fouls that have gotten them into trouble in some games this season, I like our chances.

3 Likes

I wonder if you could argue that X had a couple of fouls to burn and that experimenting with being a little more aggressive could pay off, if not now then down the road here. Complete speculation on my part, but what if Eisley said, “Hey, I think you can come up with a couple more steals per game?” I know that took him out of one game. . .

FWIW X’s steal rate is down and fouls per 40 is up.

2 Likes