Busy Week!

It is a busy week in sports, so as a result it will be a busy week for me as well!  Today I offer the Michigan keys to victory.  Tomorrow a post about the Lions getting Cutler, Wednesday I will post my brackets, and Thursday through Sunday, I hope to live blog most of the tournament games as I hope to watch all games (with DirecTV's sweet service)

So, visit often!

Here are my reasons to be hopeful for a Michigan victory on Thursday evening:

1. Coaching.  Beilein has as history of success in the NCAA tournament, Prunell has lost every single tournament appearance in the first round.  Any sort of “chess match” between these two will clearly go to Michigan’s Beilein.
2. Clemson is not a team with tremendous size.  Everyone knows Michigan is a small team and any 4.8 rebounds per game type becomes a 8-9 rebound per game type.  That said, almost any team will have a size advantage against Michigan, but Clemson doesn’t have much of one.  Clemson is not like a Florida State or Ohio State that just could beat Michigan because of a clear size advantage.  Booker is a good player, but I think the size advantage is not enough to overcome Michigan’s defense and shooting advantage.
3. Pace of Play/Clemson’s press.  Michigan has never struggled with a press all year.  Because they are a well coached team that isn’t looking to run, Michigan’s three guard offense will not struggle with this press.  Michigan will look to get it over the timeline and set up their offense.  They proved my theory by beating strong teams.  UCLA tried to press us to no avail.  I expect Kelvin Grady to play a little bit bigger role in handing the ball, but walk-on CJ Lee has been fairly careful handling the point (only 19 turnovers all year, 2.8 assist/turnover ratio).   The pace of play will put Clemson in long defensive sets.  Michigan will confuse Clemson with their constantly changing defensive zones and looks, slowing the pace down even on Clemson’s side of the ball.  The UCONN had one of their lowest scoring games of the season against us, and expect Clemson to suffer the same fate.  The lower the total points, the more Michigan gains an advantage.
4. Free Throw shooting.  As with any NCAA tournament game, I expect it to be close and the winner will probably be the team that shoots free throws at the end of the game.  Michigan ranked first in the big ten with a 75.5% free throw shooting with one of the best free throw shooters in Manny Harris shooting almost 86%.  Clemson as a team shoots 68%.  Expect Manny to drive, get to the line, and convert.
5. Lastly, Trend.  Michigan is on a bit of an upswing in their schedule, while Clemson has been struggling more as of late.  Also, Michigan seems to really show up for big games.  They played their heart out against UCONN, Duke, UCLA and all their big games.  They needed a win against Iowa and destroyed them.  This is the biggest game of the year and I have no doubt they will play their hardest.  

Please add your own.  Talk to you tomorrow!