Michigan basketball vs TCU prediction: 3 things to watch

On By Littum

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Michigan basketball returns home to take on TCU Friday night (6 p.m., FS1) at the 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 jumped out to a 13-point lead in the first half, they couldn’t hold on as they suffered the first loss of head coach Dusty May’s tenure at UM.

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

“We’re a work in progress. That’s why we came to play this game, to find out some things about ourselves.”

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

New look, same expectation in Fort Worth

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

In addition, the Horned Frogs have four players 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) has 10 points and 6.3 rebounds, and former UM guard Frankie Collins, recently arrived from Arizona State, is posting 11.3 points, 3.7 rebounds and 4.3 assists in the start.

Although the Horned Frogs look different from previous years, they will still run. Under Dixon, TCU has been No. 1 in the nation the last 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. … His teams have always been really physical, really tough and the last couple of years they’ve been really fast.”

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

Rebounder across the board

The Wolverines have struggled on the glass in their first few games, which is surprising since the Wolverines have the sixth-highest roster in the country according to KenPom.

Obviously, height is not the biggest factor in rebounding.

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

Although 7-footers Vlad Goldin and Danny Wolf were scrutinized for their just seven rebounds in Sunday’s loss, coaches looked inside at guards and wings like Roddy Gayle Jr. and Nimari Burnett for more help in that area.

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

“We definitely felt a lot of (responsibility),” Burnett said of the guards. “Have been talking a lot internally, filming and then between ourselves. Cleaning those areas and we have the desire to do it, it’s not like we’re not doing it; so it’s just going in there and crashing the plates aggressively while our big box out and be physically as they have been all year.

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

To find oneself

Michigan is still learning from “good losses,” May noted.

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

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

Michigan vs. TCU basketball prediction

Those are two new rosters in an early-season Power Four matchup of teams hoping to finish the year in the NCAA Tournament. The Wolverines were nearly flawless in their season opener, then struggled with turnovers and rebounds against Wake Forest. TCU will have the edge on the glass, but a sharper UM offense is enough to get the job done. The choice: Michigan 84, TCU 80.

Next up: Horned Frogs

Matchups: Michigan (1-1) vs. TCU (3-0).

Tip off: 6pm Friday; Crisler Center, Ann Arbor.

TV/radio: FS1; WWJ-AM (950).