Talking Basketball: IU mismatches

After seeing craft do a great job on Burke i expect Oladipo to be guarding him and how putting a good defender on Burke killed our offense in the first half. Either way that leaves either Hardaway or Burke being guarded by a weaker guy.

I haven't seen anything stellar in defense from IU, as long as we don't go on a huge cold streak like we did against Ohio, it should be a really close game.

1. I think we learn from the OSU game, and IF Burke is slowed down, we adjust a lot quicker this time, and they're crazy if they don't put Oladipo on Burke

2. Morgan's loss hurts, but I believe Jon Horford has stepped up in a big way and  the Horford-McGary combo (HorGary??) can handle Zeller down low (they won't shut him down, but they  can limit him enough to win this game)

I'm thinking close game all the way through but Blue by 5 at the end 

I think they will go zone on us, to protect their smaller guys (hulls and yogi). Also, zones kind of alter the traditional pick and roll game. The one main issue (for them) of taking oladipo off of the wing and putting him on the point guard is that one of oladipo's greatest strengths is jumping passing lanes and getting steals/deflections, which is harder to do if you are guarding the primary ball handler, in my opinion. If they do put oladipo on burke, then the onus falls on stuaskas and thjr to exploit their 6-7 inch height advantage over yogi/hulls. 

Michigan started slow and finished strong against Ohio. I seriously doubt IU will have the same success that Ohio did against us the first half (no Craft). I see Michigan winning by 7. Burke will have to be great both halves of the game.

This game is so intriguing. So many matchups and styles of play to consider.

You have to think that if Oladipo guards Burke, that would leave Hulls on Stauskas. That appears to be a mis-match, but I'm not exactly sure how we beat it. Hulls would stick to Stauskas like glue and then it would come down to whether or not Hulls has the footspeed to stay in front of Stauskas. I would probably venture a "yes" guess on that - at least enough to give the rest of the team time to rotate.

I think this is a game we really need Stauskas to be a set-up man in. We need to force switches with ball reversal, so when we hit Stauskas on the wing it needs to be a shot over Hulls or a show and drive. Either take it to the rack if the defense hasn't recovered, or find a wing that is open.

I would expect they'll use Zeller to help on everything, leaving our big as the guy open. Zeller is athletic enough to do this and then still recover to block/defend a shot from the big man he left. Therefore, it comes down ot what CBB always comes down to: do we hit open 3s?

There has been some talk comparing Michigan to the Dee Brown-Deron Williams Illinois team that nearly won it all. Statistically the teams are similar, but a big edge Michigan has is depth of big men; Illinois only had two of any quality, and when their starter (don't have the name, typing on mobile from memory here) drew a couple of early fouls against Sean May in the title game, everything changed.



Michigan's big man production may be statistically similar, but between the team's ability to avoid fouling and the depth of quality, a healthy Michigan team is a lot less likely to get in that kind of trouble.



Unfortunately, Michigan is not healthy at that position. I think Zeller, at home, will have his way down low. And there will be a lot of hand-wringing about Michigan's interior defense. But the complaints will ignore the difficult matchup, lower depth, and inevitably biased officiating, and the team will be fine in the tournament.

Yogi is a good defender, but he's only a freshman. It will be interesting to see how he handles the pressure of defending against the #1 team in the nation and possibly Burke if they play a lot of man to man. Oladipo will come fired up and prepared to play no question about that. I think the key matchup will be whoever is matched up with Hulls. He is a terrible defender and we have to take advantage of that. On the other hand, we can't let him even get a LOOK at a 3 pointer. If we play at the high level I know we can, we will win this game. I think it will be very very close, maybe even come down to a last second shot. I think it's all Michigan though, predicting 87-85.

I witnessed Trey Burke destroy Ferrell on the AAU circuit every time they matched up in high school. Trey won't have a challenge doing it a few more times.

All I am saying is that if you lose to Wisconsin at home, you can lose to 55% of D-I basketball teams at home then. Overreaction? Maybe, but it helps me sleep at night.

I've said several times and wll continue to say it.  Playing at Assembly Hall, as the #1 team in the county, at night, nationally televised with B1G officials scares the living hell out of me.  I have watched SO many games there through the years starting in the early 1970's with the great Henry Wilmore, through the increadible teams of the late 1970's (I think we are a LOT like the 1976-77 team BTW), through the mid to late 80's Frieder squads, the 89 National Championship team, the Fab 5 and all the way through the dark years and one constant remains through it all. 

No matter the year, the team, the coach, the style of play.  No matter the record, the relative skill level of the players or what the game meant one thing was for sure.  We got FUCKED (excuse my swearing but I'm pissed thinking about it) from the officals there.  Every year and every team got FUCKED and FUCKED HARD by the calls.  

So I'm expecting - no I'm sure of - Burke will get two quick fouls in the game Saturday.  Both will be ticky-tack - one a charge and one an off the ball call.  Two or more key players will be sitting and sitting early becaus of foul trouble.  It's just what the officals do there and they do it every year to every team.

So don't be surprised when all the favorable match-ups listed above go straight out the window by the 8 minute mark of the 1st half.  Don't be shocked when the team with the least fouls called on it IN THE NATION gets in severe foul trouble early for some odd reaosn.  I've seen it  too many times to expect anything else.

People forget that it was actually Christian Watford who was matched up against Burke primarily last year at Indiana and he did a pretty solid job (Burke was 4-15 shooting, 4 turnovers).  With Watford on Burke and Oladipo on Hardaway, it still leaves a mismatch with Stauskas but that's where a guy like Will Sheehey could see some extended minutes (he's been playing well as of late).