DENVER — After surviving the upset attempt of No. 12 seed UC San Diego in round one of the NCAA Tournament, the No. 5 seed Michigan men’s basketball team turns around to face another opponent that will challenge its weaknesses in No. 4 seed Texas A&M. The Aggies are the strongest offensive rebounding team in the nation, snagging a staggering 16 per game, while the Wolverines place 34th nationally in total rebounds per game.
The answer seems simple for Michigan, as the 7-footer duo of graduate center Vlad Goldin and junior forward Danny Wolf have the height to clear the boards, but the fight isn’t going to be height-on-height. The tallest player that sees the floor for Texas A&M is its starting center Pharell Payne, who’s listed at 6-foot-9.
This means that the Aggies’ offensive rebounding prowess doesn’t come from their height, rather their athleticism and desire to crash.
“It’s obviously point number one on the scouting report,” Wolverines coach Dusty May said Friday. “The way we’ve chosen to attack it is just like we did with the turnovers (against) UCSD. We have a couple flaws that are things that we haven’t done well this year. … There’s an extremely heightened awareness to fix it or you’re going home.”
Against the Tritons — another team that Michigan had a big size advantage against — the Wolverines gave up 10 offensive rebounds for 11 second chance points. This wasn’t as big of a point of emphasis for Michigan Thursday, but it proves that there is work to be done in the short turnaround before the game against Texas A&M.
One aspect of the rebounding game that May noted as well was guards rebounding down, alleviating some of the pressure on the bigs and helping start the fast break quicker.
Further, the Wolverines are going to be tested by the Aggies’ depth and defense. Texas A&M runs a 10-deep lineup of players who play over 10 minutes per game, and it has time on its side as well.
“Maybe, maybe,” Aggies coach Buzz Williams said when asked about having an advantage on the quick turnaround. “I think this will be Michigan’s fifth game in nine days, this will be our second game in nine days. Does that play a part? I don’t know.”
With a deeper roster, 10 deep compared to the Wolverines’ typical eight-man rotation, Texas A&M could have the fresher legs going into Saturday’s contest. But like the question Williams posed to himself, it’s still to be seen if that plays a factor. By this point in the season every team is beaten and battered to some extent, it’s purely about how they show up on a given day to determine who wins.
What helps the Aggies in that aspect, though, is their defense. They are willing to give up the deep shot while packing into the paint and helping aggressively. This plays into Michigan’s goal of shooting a high quantity of threes, but hinders the Wolverines’ ability to get jolts of energy with shots at the rim. Especially on tired legs, this defense could be hard to penetrate for Michigan, and cause its offense to become one dimensional if executed well by the Aggies.
“We’ve seen their type of defense before,” graduate guard Rubin Jones said. “It’s nothing we aren’t prepared for, the coaches do a real good job preparing us for each and every game. I think we’ll take advantage of whatever opportunities we get.”
As UCSD did in the first round, Texas A&M is going to present the Wolverines with some unique aspects of the game to hone in on. Rebounding hasn’t been a strength for Michigan all season long, but it’s going to be zeroed in on a bit more Saturday afternoon. In terms of fighting tired legs and an interesting defensive philosophy, the Wolverines’ offense likes what it sees, it just has to execute to dismantle the Aggies in this second-round matchup.
