I’d let Nance shoot 3s honestly.
Nance is tough becuase of his ability to catch and drive out of the pick n pop. He also plays a lot of four though… NW will have one of Beran/Young on the court quite a bit.
Having the ability for Franz and Isaiah to trade off on big 3/4 matchups is such a luxury. When NW goes small with Nance at the 5, we know now that the team has ability to play decent zone for stretches.
I would agree with this, although I think there are some encouraging signs with how last night played out. Dickinson might be so good, that he can out-score most pick and pop bigs (since he’s going to have something like 6 inches on them and is such a phenomenal finisher through traffic).
Going up against Potter/Luka is definitely an open question though since they can match his size.
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Also I feel like the zone that slowed down Maryland won’t necessarily be as effective against NW. Maryland’s 2 most effective 3 point shooters are Scott and Hamilton, so the 2 guys who can you can run pick and pop 3’s with to get good looks. Going to a zone takes those looks away and means the majority of the onus goes to the rest of the team to make 3’s, which Maryland isn’t necessarily equipped to do.
NW has Nance and Beran who can make 3s as a big, but they also have Buie, Kopp and Berry who have all hit double digit 3’s this year on over 40%. They have plenty of guys who can and will hit 3’s, so playing a zone we rarely use (and may not practice a ton) against them feels like it may very well end up with us being shot back into man to man.
With Maryland, Scott/Hamilton going off from 3 was probably the most worrying part of their offense before the game. Once it happened, going to a zone made sense to stop it. With NW their 5 man going off from 3 doesn’t seem as likely or scare me as much as Kopp/Buie going off.
I feel like the game plan should be to try to play as much man to man as possible and let their 5 try and beat you. Young is a traditional 5 who Dickinson matches up favorably with. Nance is a lot more athletic than Dickinson and can drive on him like you mentioned (we saw Scott score on that a few times yesterday), but he’s also not a good 3 point shooter like Scott so hopefully you can get away with sagging Hunter a little more to prevent the drives and encourage him to shoot 3’s (minus 3/4 against Iowa last time out he’s a sub 30% guy from 3 this season and for his career). If NW’s best shots are Nance 3’s or Nance driving into a set at the rim Dickinson I think that could work out well for Michigan. It could also work out poorly if Nance is hitting shots, but I think it’s worth the risk at least early in the game. Beran is the real guy who would scare me at the 5 because he can hit 3’s consistently, so that may be a time to try and give Johns his minutes at the 5. Or just ride with Hunter again and hope Hunter from 2 is more efficient than Beran from 3.
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I wonder if there is some room to steal minutes with Livers guarding teams’ pop-5s (Nance, Potter) and having Dickinson guarding the their 4s when they’re a more traditional 4 (Beran, maybe Ford, Nunge)? Granted, all those 4s could run pop action, but they aren’t as much of a threat as their 5s counterparts.
Beran shoots a higher % from 3 this year than Nance, and did last year as well. He’s the bigger 3 point threat.
Who are the best post defenders in the Big Ten?
I really like Ryan Young this year but he seems like the kind of player Dickinson was born to humiliate.
Myles Johnson, Race Thompson, and Nate Reuvers IMO.
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Was Michigan recruiting Race Thompson at one point or am I misremembering?
247 shows an offer but I don’t remember myself.
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Yeah definitely were at some point. I liked his game
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