After watching some of Buffalo’s exhibition game against Medaille College, I have come to a few conclusions about this team.

Buffalo Defense: 3 Keys

Point Guard Pick up Point

Their defense is meant to up the tempo of every game as well. Buffalo’s defenders pick up the ball handler in the backcourt and try to force early mistakes or take their opposition out of their offensive sets. Notice in the following picture, that this is still early in the game; however, this early pickup point has multiple positive aspects for the team. They can force mistakes, but the primary positive aspect of this defense is to make the opposition run their sets with less time on the shot clock. Michigan will have trouble running longer sets because the shot clock will be drained.

Help Defense Positioning

The off-ball defenders appear to be glued to their man when they are guarding them. They do not deny passes to other players, however, they want to put pressure on each pass and force the teams to adjust their offense to Buffalo’s defense. This often pushes the offense out further away from the paint and the arc. This makes it harder to run sets properly and forces the

opposition to make riskier plays. However, the main trade-off is there are a lot more driving lanes for players that are primary ball handlers. Look for Devante Jones and Eli Brooks to take advantage of these lanes and find Hunter Dickinson in a lot of pick-and-roll actions. As evidenced by the following picture, this is how Buffalo might defend Michigan in this game.

They seem to be unwilling to give up the three point shot from the opponents, and are willing to give up contested 2 point shots. Michigan will have to run multiple actions and move well without the ball to get the 3s they want.

Double Teaming the Post

Although they did not show this part of their defense in the exhibition game, look for them to double team Hunter Dickinson and potentially Moussa Diabate in the post if they catch it there. I fully expect a 4 and 5 double teaming strategy from Buffalo to bother the height and vision of Dickinson and Diabate. Dickinson is one of the best post passers in the country, and hampering his vision with bigger power forwards in a double team will be important. In particular, Josh Mballa, arguably Buffalo’s best player will be key in bothering the passes with his length and athleticism from the power forward position. Look for them to force Dickinson into making short passes and not exploiting the defense with long passes. If Michigan can make simple plays and not force tough passes, they will force Buffalo to rotate which is one of the Bulls’ weakest parts of their defense.

Buffalo Offense: 3 Keys

Tempo

Buffalo is fast. This team pushes the tempo after a defensive rebound. They run breaks even if the other team makes a basket. Their philosophy seems to be if the game isn’t stopped, then we attack. Buffalo wants to capitalize on defenses that aren’t set and keep teams guessing. Their priorities are going to score in transition primarily with threes and drives to the basket with their athletic guards and wings. They take shots early in the shot clock in an attempt to score as many points as possible. Here is a snippet of when they took a contested three-point shot early in the shot clock. Even though this seems like a bad decision, this is what the staff at Buffalo preaches. Early shots mean more points.

Isolation Offense: Josh Mballa #34

Since this team runs a lot of transition plays and looks to score early, its natural they look for their best player Josh Mballa #34 to attack and be aggressive when he has a matchup that he can exploit. In the exhibition game, Mballa scored 19 points in just 18 minutes of play. A quick athletic power forward is difficult to guard especially since Mballa has shown he can step away from the basket and shoot three-point shots. Mballa is not a back-to-the-basket player, you won’t see him post up Brandon Johns and Terrance Williams too much. However, he is at his best when he has the ball in space at the top of the key. The following image shows where Buffalo will try to put Michigan into bad positions and give Mballa space to work.

Mballa will look to attack off the dribble from this playset that Buffalo runs. Look for Michigan to prevent his drives and make him a passer.

Turnovers

Buffalo’s tempo results in a lot of shots for the team. Its downfall comes from the offense’s inability to get the most shots it can because of the team’s turnover problem. Buffalo forces a lot of tough passes into small areas and tries to score through multiple defenders. Michigan’s defense needs to be active, using their length in the frontcourt and backcourt to deflect passes and slow down Buffalo. In the exhibition game, Buffalo had a total of 11 turnovers and many were preventable plays. Michigan’s defense will be able to cause more issues for the Bulls and give the Wolverines the best chance to win.

Summary

This game will be a good test of Michigan’s preseason development. Working around teams that pressure the ball and create turnovers is difficult especially for younger players. This is why the return of Eli Brooks is essential to the team’s success. His ability to control the pace of the game with his patience will be important in forcing Buffalo to guard Michigan for the entire shot clock. If Michigan can limit its turnovers and take advantage of its experienced guards, the offense should flow just fine.

Michigan’s defense should be predicated around contesting the difficult shots that Buffalo takes. Making Buffalo’s shots more difficult will force more misses and allow for Michigan to score in transition off of long misses. Forcing turnovers will be key for the Wolverines as well. Guarding

Josh Mballa #34 and Jeenathan Williams #11 will be tough, and I am particularly interested to see Michigan’s one on one defense this game.