The state of Michigan is represented by three teams in this year’s NCAA Tournament: Michigan State University, Oakland University and the University of Michigan.
After a disappointing season for the Spartans and uncertainties of another NCAA tournament bid, Michigan State University prepares for March Madness for the 14th straight season.
MSU was ranked No. 2 in the preseason polls, but this season it hasn’t looked like the physically dominant Spartans of past seasons as they fell from that No. 2 position after key losses to top-25 teams such as Connecticut, Syracuse, Duke and Texas. Due to the lack of success against ranked teams, the Spartans got the No. 10 seed in the Southeast Region and will play No. 7 seed UCLA.
MSU is 19-5 in the first round of the NCAA Tournament, and Spartan fans know Tom Izzo’s team plays its best basketball come tournament time. So, despite an underachieving regular season, don’t expect the Spartans to make an early exit.
Offensively, the Spartans will count on Kalin Lucas and Draymond Green to carry the load as they have been through the regular season. Defensively, the Spartans need to watch sophomore Tyler Honeycutt, who already has an NBA shooting stroke and can pass effectively.
Oakland University enters the tournament ranked No. 13 after winning the Summit League in a dominating fashion. But Oakland was matched up against a very tough team — No.-4 seed Texas in the West Region. Many believe Texas is an underrated team because it has five excellent perimeter players including the senior guard and Big 12 defensive player of the year Dogus Balbay.
Oakland also has a good frontcourt in 7-foot NBA-prospect Keith Benson. Benson has a lot of post moves that will make him tough to defend.
The key to victory for the Golden Grizzlies won’t be dumping the ball down low to Benson all game long, It will be getting fast-break points. The Golden Grizzlies average 85.6 points.
The University of Michigan enters the tournament ranked No. 8 and will take on No. 9 Tennessee in the West Region. The Wolverines can already claim some sort of small victory simply because they are in the NCAA Tournament this year. In the preseason, many put them at the bottom of the Big Ten because they don’t have one senior on the team. But the emergence of guards Tim Hardaway Jr. and Darius Morris in the later part of the season shut up a lot of those critics.
The Volunteers aren’t playing their best basketball as of late and might have matchup problems with a small, quick Wolverines team. But Tennessee plays good defense which will make this game close.
