Tourney Preview: Texas Comment Count

Brian

THE ESSENTIALS

bieber-barnes
WHAT Michigan (26-8, 15-3 B1G) vs.
Texas (24-10, 11-7 B12)
WHERE Bradley Center,
Milwaukee, WI
WHEN 5:15 pm Eastern, Saturday
LINE Michigan -4 (KenPom)
TV CBS

YOU PICKED THE WRONG CANADIAN, RICK BARNES. THE WRONG, WRONG CANADIAN.

THE STAKES

Win or go home.

THE LINEUP CARD

Projected starters are in bold:

Pos. # Name Yr. Ht./Wt. %Min %Poss SIBMIHHAT
G 1 Isaiah Taylor Fr. 6'1, 170 75% 25% Very
Super quick PG shoots 40% from 2, does not take 3s. Main strength is getting to line.
G 3 Javan Felix So. 5'11, 195 64% 23% Sort of
Volume jump shooter hits 38%/34%. Takes ton of iso two point jumpers.
G 2 Demarcus Holland So. 6'2, 185 74% 16 Very
Lots of TOs, miserable FT% for guard, shoots 45% from two.
F 10 Jonathan Holmes Jr. 6'8, 240 54% 24 Sort of
Stretch-ish 4 is OREB guy and decent 3 threat. Low min despite high ORTG.
C 55 Cameron Ridley So. 6'9, 285 63% 22 Very
Post widebody is rebound machine, draws tons of fouls.
F 21 Connor Lammert So. 6'9, 235 52% 14 Sort of
Typical post backup, but does have range to 3. Efficient, but low usage.
G 24 Martez Walker Fr. 6'4, 185 29% 18 Sort of
Emerged into 20 min/G backup lately. Decent shooter, no standout skill yet.
C 44 Prince Ibeh So. 6'10, 250 35 16 Very
Generic large man.

THE THEM

Texas is an oddity in the college basketball world, an old-school, throwback two-post outfit that usually has two 6'8+ guys on the court at all times. NCAA teams have increasingly moved away from this paradigm in favor of a smaller, more offensively efficient one, and Texas's stats reflect their interior orientation. They're rebounding monsters who can't shoot.

As far as individual players go, the guy who makes things go is center Cameron Ridley, a Traylor-like post who has his own gravitational pull.

Ridley crushes the boards at both ends and has a top 25 free throw rate. Unfortunately, he's mediocre at best once there (62%) and is only decent from the floor at 55%. He does take care of the ball well for a big guy.

Texas splits its minutes at the four about down the middle between Jonathan Holmes and Connor Lammert. They're similar players statistically, both monsters on the defensive boards and very good on the offensive boards. Both guys have three point range (34% for both) that they don't use very much and shoot decently from two. They're Texas's most effective players at shooting, full stop.

When a post isn't taking a shot it's usually not good news for the Texas offense. Their two high-usage guards are not particularly efficient. Point guard Isaiah Taylor is a flash in the lane but has limited ability to finish once there. He's shooting just 40% on his 327(!) two point attempts, and he has only 19 three point attempts on the year. When he is on, though, he is scary:

He assists, of course, but his A:TO ratio is mediocre at best. Taylor's best asset is his ability to get to the line. That asset is one usually nerfed by Michigan's passivity on defense, but the tradeoff is that Taylor might be getting way better shots than he usually does.

Meanwhile, to envision Felix Javan, strip eight inches off of Zak Irvin and make him shoot 38%/34%. Oh and give him a bunch more assists. But basically short bricklayer Irvin. Only 14% of his shots are at the rim and most of his twos are not assisted; he dribbles himself into two point jumpers. He is Texas's primary three point threat. At 34%, yes.

The third guard, Demarcus Holland, is a really bad offensive player who must be on the floor solely to D up. He shoots 57/45/29 and turns the ball over a ton.

THE RESUME

Texas opened the tournament with a dramatic buzzer-beater win over Arizona State in a game that was shockingly efficient for the Horns, which put up a Michigan-like 1.24 PPP thanks to low turnovers and efficient two point shooting. That Holland guy I just trashed had 14 points on 7 shot equivalents, IE the maximum you can acquire without taking a three. He didn't try a three.

Before that game Texas was on a hell of a skid, 3-5 in their last eight with one of the wins over basketball nonentity TCU, and with all but one loss by 9 points. They went 11-7 in a very deep and tough Big 12, though, and boast wins against Iowa State, Baylor (twice), Kansas, and Oklahoma State.

Texas didn't have a lot of high quality opponents in the nonconference slate. They beat autobids Mercer and Stephen F Austin early, lost to BYU on a neutral floor, and go run by MSU at home. Their main selling point a road win against mercurial North Carolina in an 80 possession game.

THE TEMPO-FREE

13311290334_740d8efa66_o[1]

Texas shoots miserably from everywhere and tries to make up for it by crushing the offensive boards. They also get to the line a fair bit, though they're only 67% there. Texas is relatively uptempo and not particularly efficient when they go uptempo, so that's a push with Michigan's problematic transition D.

THE KEYS

Keep it tight and slow. Texas tries to get out in transition because their half court offense is poor. This doesn't go that much better (Texas transtion eFG%: 52%; Michigan: 64%; Michigan halfcourt eFG%: 53%), but the increase in their efficiency is approximately as large as Michigan's increase in efficiency. If Michigan can make this into a shooting contest, the only thing that will save Texas is a blizzard of offensive rebounds.

When in doubt, help. Texas's best three point shooter is mediocre and the rest of the team is hesitant to even launch one. The Horns are in the 300s at taking threes and 251st at hitting them. Texas's bigs have miniscule assist rates. Double the post every time.

Meanwhile, when someone's driving, perimeter players should feel free to sag off most Texas players in an effort to get the driver to pull up and kick it back out or take a floater. Allowing the driver to engage the big is bad news, as a missed shot that draws Morgan or Horford over looks to be as good as an assist against the burly Longhorns.

This may be a situation where a zone can help you out. Tight turnaround, lots of drivers without much shooting, team that couldn't really prep much for you with a 7/10 game looming, coach regarded as a bit of a lightweight… this could be a situation where the 1-3-1 can make a major impact. The threat of the offensive rebound veritably looms, but it's a curveball you can test out some to see if it works. The rarely seen 2-3 also seems like an option if Michigan can't stay in front of Texas's waterbug guards.

Crash the boards a bit yourself. Texas is mediocre at defensive rebounding because their bigs try to block everything. While there's not much hope Michigan can hold Texas off the offensive boards, they can mitigate some of that possession advantage by having Morgan/Horford mitigate that.

THE SECTION WHERE I PREDICT THE SAME THING KENPOM DOES

Michigan by 4.

Comments

Everyone Murders

March 21st, 2014 at 2:23 PM ^

A few years ago I gave my daughter a singing Justin Bieber toothbrush as a reward for her giving up sucking her thumb.  The toothbrush "sang" two songs, and provided a good way to time how long she should be brushing her teeth. 

The bigger point is that if you want to get some strange looks, go to your local Best Buy and buy a Justin Bieber toothbrush as a grown-ass man.  I slapped it down on the counter with aplomb, because it seemed the best approach given the circumstances.

Everyone Murders

March 21st, 2014 at 2:17 PM ^

It seems that our biggest issue may be keeping Morgan and Horford out of foul trouble.  Fortunately, B1G refs won't officiate the game, so I think that Morgan's ability to be charged may result in ... you know ... actual charges being called. 

Boom Goes the …

March 21st, 2014 at 3:01 PM ^

Texas strongest inside, us strongest outside.  Im gonna go with a high scoring thriller 82-80 Michigan

gwkrlghl

March 21st, 2014 at 3:12 PM ^

This team generally seems to be focused when playing top teams. I wonder if playing down to Mercer just never gave us the kick in the pants we needed to put it in gear, only when Mercer brought it 7 was the team like 'oh ok' and shut the door.

A better Texas team will equal a better Michigan team

Yinka Double Dare

March 21st, 2014 at 4:09 PM ^

I don't know if I want to be in a world where a team coached by Rick Barnes beats Beilein.  It can't happen.  KenPom therefore must be correct, KenPom be praised.

I should note that potential Sweet 16 opponent Tennessee is actually even higher on KenPom than Duke.  Which, yikes.  Yeah, they and Iowa really didn't belong in a play-in game.

BlueRoses

March 21st, 2014 at 4:13 PM ^

I hope we don't settle for too many jump shots and try to attack inside.  We are a very good free-throw shooting and we should attack their bigs a bit.

M-Dog

March 22nd, 2014 at 11:19 AM ^

Hack-a-Ridley if we get too far behind, ala the St. Louis - NC State game?  Trade some missed TX free throws here and there for some threes from Michigan to make up some ground.

As long as we don't do it with Morgan.  Hello:  Max.