TheWolverine.com's Clayton Sayfie joined BruinBlitz.com's Rick Kimbrel for a Q&A to break down the Michigan Wolverines ahead of their Elite Eight matchup with UCLA Tuesday night.
Read the five questions, five answers and one prediction below.
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Rick Kimbrel: How did the Michigan fanbase react to the hiring of Juwan Howard? How do they like him now?
Clayton Sayfie: After the shocking departure of John Beilein, Michigan's all-time winningest head coach, the fan base was cautiously optimistic about Juwan Howard's hiring. He's a legendary former Michigan player, a 19-year NBA veteran and was a top assistant coach with the Miami Heat. The question was whether or not he could get a quick grip on the college game (again), recruit and develop players and, of course, win big games. While there were doubters — and rightfully so — there isn't a guy that Michigan fans would want to root for more.
Fast forward almost two years, and the Wolverine faithful literally couldn't be happier with the job the 2020-21 Big Ten Coach of the Year is doing at this moment in time. He has completely exceeded expectations. Sure, he inherited a talented and experienced roster with a great culture intact, but he has put his own twist on it and only built the culture stronger, and he's made some tremendous moves with the roster, bringing in top recruits and transfers. In the last two weeks, he's proven he can build elite game plans on short turnarounds to beat dangerous tournament teams.The future looks bright.
RK: What are Michigan’s defensive and offensive strengths?
CS: Michigan's offensive strength is playing inside-out, with freshman center Hunter Dickinson being an elite post-up player (1.06 points per possession in such situations) and a capable passer. Going along with that, the Wolverines' ball movement has been key all season long, but especially during the NCAA Tournament where they've posted 63 assists on 80 made buckets.
Michigan has been known for breaking down defenses by getting the ball inside before kicking it out to its spot-up shooters. Not having future pro and senior forward Isaiah Livers, who shoots the three at 43.1 percent from long range, is a huge loss, but the Wolverines can still stroke it from beyond the arc.
Defensively, it's all about length and being able to lock up one-on-one. Sophomore Franz Wagner, a snub for the Big Ten All-Defensive team, is one of the best defenders in the country and constantly frustrates the opposing wing he guards. We expect to see him on UCLA sophomore guard Johnny Juzang. Senior guard Eli Brooks, who we think will be matched up against the much taller Jules Bernard, is also a fantastic on-ball defender.
While the Wolverines play solid help-side defense, they focus on not allowing open threes — or three-point attempts at all — so they stick on shooters at the three-point line more than most.
RK: UCLA has a lot of offensive weapons how is Michigan going to defend against a team that has so many capable shooters?
CS: As we just mentioned, Michigan is going to largely stick onto UCLA's shooters, not helping as much as a lot of other squads you see, when they don't have the ball and try to limit any open opportunities from deep. Michigan plays drop coverage against ball-screens and really lets opponents have the mid-range jumper. That will be interesting to watch since the Bruins are such a good shooting team from in between.
RK: Who are the Wolverine players and what do they bring to the table that Bruins fans need to be aware about?
CS: Michigan's top players are the aforementioned Hunter Dickinson, a Consensus All-American who leads the club in points per game (14.2) and rebounds per contest (7.6). Michigan posts him up quite a bit and lets him either go to work on the block or kick it out to shooters.
Franz Wagner, a future NBA lottery pick, will be put in side-ball screen actions in which he can either take it all the way to the rim or — at 6-foot-10 — can see overtop the defense to find an open teammate.
Fifth-year senior guard Mike Smith, a Columbia transfer, is undersized but is similar to UCLA sophomoe point guard Tyger Campbell in the way that he can control the flow of the game.
Eli Brooks can spot-up for three and get inside when coming off curls. Senior guard Chaundee Brown, who transferred in from Wake Forest last offseason, has added a huge spark off the bench in the last two games and is a streaky shooter and willing defender. And how can we forget junior forward Brandon Johns, who is filling in for the injured Livers and has really stepped his game up in the last few.
RK: What does Michigan need to do to be successful and win this game?
CS: I think if Michigan shoots how it normally does and runs the offense like it did against Florida State with a lot of ball movement and cutting, scoring 1.12 points per possession and a whopping 50 points in the paint, it should be able to score enough to pull out a win against a UCLA team not known for its defense.
That is, of course, if they can actually stop the isolation and ball-screen offense that the Bruins run so well. It will be a challenge for Johns, who is more comfortable guarding in the post, to check Jaime Jaquez, who can handle it on the outside. Howard may need to make some adjustments depending on how the game is going defensively.
RK: Do you have a prediction and how do you think this game is going to play out?
CS: Michigan's offense is getting more comfortable by the game playing without Livers, and it's returning to the form it had when he was in the lineup. I don't expect UCLA to slow that down enough to pull off the upset and stop the Wolverines from making their second Final Four in the last three NCAA Tournaments.
My final score prediction: Michigan 75, UCLA 65
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