Quick Montana Basketball Preview
I'm impatient and wanted to learn a little more about our Thursday opponent, so here is a quick snapshot. If anyone else has any good information, feel free to share it.
Overall Record - 26-7 (16-2)
Common Opponents
Penn State
Montana 57 @ Penn State 70
Michigan 72 @ Penn State 63
UC Riverside
UC Riverside 61 @ Montana 77
UC Riverside 42 @ Michigan 87
Starting Five (name links to ESPN profile)
6'8" 253 lb. Junior
13.1 PPG. 6.7 RPG. 2.1 TO
6'8" 239 lb. Senior
7.5 PPG. 5.1 RPG. 1.5 TO
6'7" 182 (?) lb. Junior
7.5 PPG. 5.0 RPG. 1.2 STL
6'2" 171 lb. Junior
15.8 PPG. 5.5 RPG. 1,5 STL
6'1" 175 lb. Junior
17.2 PPG. 3.8 RPG. 3.7 APG
Main two off the bench
6'5" 195 lb. Sophomore
8.5 PPG. 4.4 RPG. 22.8 MIN
4.5 PPG. 42% 3PT. 17.1 MIN
Conclusion
Not a very big team, but per the rebounding numbers it appears they all crash the boards pretty well. They only have two main contributors off the bench, otherwise a guy might get a minute here or there. Their two big guys don't shoot 3s, but the other three starters are between 34-36% on the year from 3. As you can see a lot of their scoring comes from their guards, and that just happens to be our strongest defensive unit. On paper this seems like a good matchup overall.
March 12th, 2018 at 11:12 AM ^
We can attack pretty much any defense - as this year has proven down the stretch. We are versatile and will be hard for any team to guard.
March 12th, 2018 at 12:31 PM ^
Apparently Montana has the reputation in their league of playing very aggressive physically—lots of hand contact, pushing, bumping, etc. and they get away with it. Might explain their create turnover numbers...
If you subscribe to the theory that physical teams like that have trouble with less forgiving refereeing in the tournament, then Montana will have issues. We'll see.
I'm not taking any game for granted—I've seen a few too many games over the years (going back to the '70s) where talented Michigan teams stumbled against lesser opposition in the tournament.
now, unless you are a legit one seed playing a team with literally no talent, you rarely see or 2 or 3 seeds run away and hide early on against anybody. The "little guys" of the world that highly seeded teams see in the first round are a lot more competitive than they used to be. I rememeber when a 3 seeded Michigan team almost lost to Pepperdine in the first round in 1994 and it was like "no way!" Now It is not uncommon for a 3 seed to be losing at halftime of the opening round only to kind of pull away late.
If you have seven or eight really capable players, you can get pretty far in basketball, and if you have just one true difference-maker on the floor, it can be a great equalizer.
In football you need several times that number to be truly elite, and just one difference-maker doesn't mean squat.
Indiana State got to the championships game against MSU because of Larry Bird and nobody else; the only teammate of his on that '79 team to play in the league was Carl Nicks, and he didn't even play three full seasons.
No shit. I remember the game in the '80s where we, as a top seed, almost lost in the first round to Fairleigh Ridiculous and then got bounced in the second round. Anything is possible; but this team is focused, and once it gets its joints greased up again, it will be just fine.
I remember Roy Tarpley making fun of the name of their school in the Michigan Daily and we almost lost. We went on to lose to eventually national champion Villanova in an upset 59-55 I believe. That was a talented Michigan team that got derailed in the tournament.
March 12th, 2018 at 10:47 AM ^
Bounced in the second round by a Villanova team that beat Georgetown with Patrick Ewing for the national championship. That was a team of destiny if I ever saw one. They played a perfect tournament start to finish.
The refereeing tightens up and things like bumping cutters, pushing off, and getting handsy get called more often than they do in the regular season. Or at least that's how it feels. Either way, sounds like they still get called for a lot of fouls since their FTA/FGA ratio is one of the worst in the nation.
Bottom line, I don't think Beilein and company are taking anything lightly.
March 12th, 2018 at 10:25 AM ^
March 12th, 2018 at 11:22 AM ^
Yeah but isn't that like a normal regular season basketball game in the Big Ten where you get called for the foul if you breathe too hard on someone?
That's kind of the norm. Especially for Wagner.
March 12th, 2018 at 10:09 AM ^
So pretty much, they are Wisconsin..
March 12th, 2018 at 10:51 AM ^
Unlike vintage Wisconsin, Montana gets called for a ton of fouls: 21.1 per game, 17th most in D1 hoops.
Kenpom has them as #71, 14 spots behind Nebraska, 3 ahead of Wisconsin, for reference.
#82 in Adjusted Offense, #65 in Adjusted Defense. I believe Ace said they are 0-4 vs the Top 100 this season.
March 12th, 2018 at 12:50 PM ^
How do you get a top 75 ranking with no top 100 wins? Do they run up the score during "Kenpom time"?
Their conference efficiency margin was nearly +19 so overall they consistently destroyed the Kenpom spread in league play which led to their high KP rank despite no top wins.
Unranked by Kenpom.
March 12th, 2018 at 10:01 AM ^
March 12th, 2018 at 10:12 AM ^
Check out the end of this video, at about 1:45. I love how Beilein talks about how "we capture so much stuff that goes up in the sky," which is either the way the kids talk about it these days or a delightfully grampa way of explaining what "the cloud" is.
March 12th, 2018 at 12:44 PM ^
with each other. Tha'ts common practice.
It doesn't matter if they don't get on TV because they always have someone running the camera at every game no matter what the venue is.
March 12th, 2018 at 12:47 PM ^
There are video-sharing services that all the teams use nowadays.
March 12th, 2018 at 11:46 AM ^
1988, 63-58 win over Boise State. Michigan was a #3 seed, that game was the last game on a Thursday evening. U-M were in the West Regional, in the same "bracket of eight" as a #2 North Carolina team.
Not that any of that means anything to 2018, but it's very similar to 30 years ago.
This is a favorable matchup for us. Their bigs will have problems with the way we spread the floor. They do play aggressive defense though. In their conference tourney championship they shut down Eastern Washington on 18 of 19 possessions during a stretch in the second half. Z will need to shut down their PG and if we avoid foul trouble and we should be fine.
March 12th, 2018 at 12:58 PM ^
If we block out like we did against Purdue, we can beat anyone.
Its just so mentally difficult to stay that focused for 6 games in a tournament setting.
That said, I see us easily making the sweet 16 and if I were a betting man, I'd bet we make it to the Elite 8.
Only concern is the long layoff. We'll see how the BiG does overall. Cue "Delaney sucks" chants.