Michigan basketball vs. TCU: Game prediction and 3 things to watch in good test

Posted by Admin November 15, 2024 Basketball

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Michigan basketball returns home to take on TCU on Friday night (6 p.m., FS1) at Crisler Center after a hard-fought 72-70 loss to Wake Forest on Sunday in Greensboro, North Carolina.

The game, technically a neutral-site matchup, was played just more than 30 miles away from the Demon Deacons’ campus in Winston-Salem. Although the Wolverines got out to a 13-point lead in the first half, they could not hold on, suffering the first loss of head coach Dusty May’s tenure at U-M.

“We learned a lot this game,” May said afterward on radio. “Our physicality, we have to become more physical. We have to embrace the contact. … We didn’t have great timing on our sets and some things we were trying to do offensively.

“We’re a work in progress. This is why we came to play this game, to figure out some things about ourselves.”

Here are three factors U-M is focusing on ahead of its matchup with TCU. U-M won the only other matchup in this series history, played in Ann Arbor on Dec. 13, 1962.

New look, same expectation in Fort Worth

Much like Michigan, TCU turned its roster over via the transfer portal this offseason. Head coach Jamie Dixon has just one returning player from a year ago: center Ernest Udeh, who is averaging eight points and 9.3 rebounds per game.

Beyond that, the Horned Frogs have balance with four players who are scoring in double figures, all from the transfer portal: Vasean Allette, who averaged 17.4 points and 5.7 rebounds at Old Dominion, leads TCU with 13 points and four rebounds per game; Noah Reynolds (Wyoming, Green Bay) is averaging 11 points and a team-high 5.7 assists; Brendan Wenzel (Utah, Wyoming) is at 10 points and 6.3 rebounds and former U-M guard Frankie Collins, newly arrived from Arizona State, is posting 11.3 points, 3.7 rebounds and 4.3 assists in the early going.

Though the Horned Frogs look different than years past, they still want to run. Under Dixon, TCU has been No. 1 in the nation the past two years in fastbreak points.

“Proven coach, proven winner, had success everywhere he’s been,” said Michigan assistant Mike Boynton Jr., who also leads the defense “Took him a while to get TCU going but he’s been to the tournament I think three years in a row now. … His teams have always been really physical, really tough and the last few years they’ve been really fast.”

“The way they want to play, way we want to play could lead to a very entertaining game, lot of points scored — the defensive coach won’t be too happy, but they’ll be well prepared, they’ll be tough and disciplined.”

Rebounding across the board

The Wolverines have struggled on the glass in their first few games, surprising as the Wolverines have the sixth-tallest roster in the country, according to KenPom.

Clearly, height isn’t the biggest factor in rebounding.

“A lot of times, it’s kind of, you either do it well or you don’t,” Boynton said. “You don’t really teach guys to become good rebounders. … (It’s about) the will to go find the ball. We don’t necessarily have a bunch of guys who have that, so you have to teach them how to conceptually rebound.”

Although 7-footers Vlad Goldin and Danny Wolf caught scrutiny for their mere seven rebounds in Sunday’s loss, coaches on the inside looked at guards and wings such as Roddy Gayle Jr. and Nimari Burnett for more help in that area.

Watching the tape, they said, often there are one or two bodies on U-M’s biggest players, restricting their room to move. When that’s the case, it’s up to the rest of the players to chip in on rebounding.

“We definitely felt a great bit of (responsibility),” Burnett said of the guards. “Done a lot of talking internally, film and then amongst each other. Cleaning those areas, and we have the want-to, it’s not like we don’t; so it’s just going in there, crashing the boards aggressively while our bigs box out and be physical like they have been all year.

“It’s up to us to clean up those little boards, dive in there and finish possessions.

Finding themselves

Michigan is still in the process of learning from “good losses,” as May noted.

“Losses are lessons” has become a bit of a catch phrase within the program, but that works only if there is true progress afterwards. Boynton said as much Thursday, adding that with so much turnover on teams, the first month is often about finding out about yourself.

“When was our first game, Nov. 4?, It won’t be exactly Dec. 4, but I think around that time we will have played enough games,” Boynton said. “Home, neutral, high-major, mid-major, different styles; saw some zone against Oakland, pressure against Wake, sure we’ll see something a little different from TCU. … I think we’ll have enough entry points of data where we can say, ‘OK, this is how this team needs to become good over the next month.’ “

Michigan vs. TCU basketball prediction

It’s two new-look rosters in an early season Power Four matchup of teams which hope to end the year in the NCAA tournament. The Wolverines were nearly flawless in their season opener, then struggled with turnovers and rebounding against Wake Forest. TCU will have the edge on the glass, but a crisper U-M offense is enough to get the job done. The pick: Michigan 84, TCU 80.