Michigan Wolverines Basketball: Montana Preview
For the second consecutive NCAA Tournament, Michigan begins its run in March against the Montana Grizzlies.
Last season in Michigan’s opening game of the NCAA Tournament, the Wolverines defeated Montana 61-47. This year’s matchup takes place in Des Moines, Iowa, and tips off at 9:15 p.m. on TNT with Kevin Harlan, Reggie Miller, Dan Bonner and Dana Jacobson on the call.
“It was a coincidence that we ended up playing the same team we played last year,” Michigan redshirt junior guard Charles Matthews said. “They are a really talented team and we are excited to play them.”
Montana was the Big Sky regular-season and tournament champion and enters the tournament with a 26-8 overall record, 16-4 in the Big Sky. The Grizzlies defeated Eastern Washington, 68-62, in the Big Sky Tournament championship game.
“They're going to present challenges, great guard play, great team and coaching staff,” Michigan junior point guard Zavier Simpson said. “So, I'm excited for the game."
The Grizzlies have two First Team All-Big Sky honorees in fifth-year guard Ahmaad Rorie and junior guard Sayeed Pridgett. Rorie averages 15.1 points and 4.0 assists per game. Pridgett adds 15.0 points per games and ranks 19th in the nation in field goal percentage, shooting 61.0 percent. His effective field goal percentage of 62.9 is the 42nd best in college basketball.
Senior guard Michael Oguine was named to the third-team All-Big Sky after averaging 13.2 points and 5.4 rebounds per game this season. His free throw rate of 58.6 ranks No. 65 in the country.
This season, Montana is shooting much better than last year. Its effective field goal percentage jumped 5.4 percent to 56.6, which is the seventh best in college basketball. The Grizzles improved by 4.9 percent from two and 4.4 percent from three off of last year’s percentages.
“The improved shooting this year is definitely going to help us stay in the game more,” Oguine said. We're going to rely auto that and get open looks and have confidence to knock 'em down when the time comes. So, it's definitely great to have this year as compared to last year.”
The Grizzlies leading scorer and rebounder, fifth-year senior forward Jamar Akoh, has played just 15 games this season due to injury. With him potentially out Thursday night, Montana lacks the size of Michigan.
“It's going to be tough,” senior center Bobby Morehead said. “We've dealt with size issues a lot this year, and it's going to be nothing new. I know their center is over 7 foot, so it's going to be a tough match-up. But it's been tough the whole year, so we got to get mentally prepared for it and do our best and I think when we have played our hardest and our best this year things usually work out. So that's what we're going to do. Just play our hardest.”
Montana head coach Travis DeCuire is hopeful in his team’s chances.
“We're a different basketball team right now and I think the way we're built could be advantageous to how they defend,” he said. “But on the flip side, they have advantages with size. We've got to find a way to keep that ball out of the paint and rebound. But we've done that with bigger teams this year and the question is if we can do it again tomorrow night.”
In last year’s game, Michigan got down 10-0 against the Grizzlies, but found a way to come back.
“I hope it doesn't go the way it did last year,” Michigan head coach John Beilein said. “They were ahead of us 10-nothing to the start the game, and they have a lot of guys back. I don't know if Akoh is going to play. I know he might. We have three guys that played any minutes in this type of game at all. We are a little brand new to playing in this type of game. They know Montana is even better than they were last year, and like you say, we were up by 3 at half and very fortunate to win by 13 points.”
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