Despite bad injury news regarding Caris LeVert this week, the Michigan Wolverines have held together solidly, scoring a 54-50 win over the Rutgers Scarlet Knights.
Such games will be considered must-win if the Wolverines are to hang on to their tournament hopes. Additionally, the team will have to score an upset or two along the way, and that opportunity presents itself in the form of the Wisconsin Badgers on Saturday night.
Will they get the job done? Wolverine Walkthrough previews a big night for both the Wolverines and the rest of the Big Ten.
How Michigan Wins: More Derrick Walton leadership.
Arguably, the only reason the Wolverines survived a road scare against Rutgers was the play of Walton, who scored 12 points and also led the team in assists. Without LeVert, the team has to turn to someone, and lately, it’s Walton. If Walton is able to rally the troops and come up with his second big game, that will be a good sign. It’s tough to score with Wisconsin, so the Wolverines need a scorer to step up and do some serious damage. Naturally, being he is one of the better players on the team when on, that task will fall in the lap of Walton against Wisconsin. If he leads and inspires, Michigan will be in good shape again.
How Wisconsin Wins: Pound the post.
Much like years past, Michigan lacks a pure post presence. Rickey Doyle has been good, but he’s still growing. Other than that, the Wolverines need to depend on Max Bielfeldt, Zak Irvin and Aubrey Dawkins down low. Knowing this, the Badgers have to hammer the Wolverines in the paint and get their players in foul trouble. It will be an easy task with players like Frank Kaminsky, Sam Dekker and Nigel Hayes. If the Wolverines cannot stop or at least limit the Badgers in the paint, they will be in for a very long night.
The X-Factors: Aubrey Dawkins and Bronson Koenig
Dawkins had 11 huge points against the Scarlet Knights, and considering Wisconsin’s heft, he will be called upon to do much of the same down low while perhaps knocking down a few three pointers to stretch the floor. How well Dawkins plays will likely tell the story about Michigan’s night, seeing as scoring without LeVert is an issue. A good game from Dawkins would go a long way towards helping the team.
The Wolverines must not leave Koenig alone, because he can make them pay from deep. In essence, the threat of Koenig is what makes Wisconsin so dangerous. They can suck teams in with their shooting down low, then kick the ball out to Koenig, one of the more dangerous shooters on the team. He chipped in 13 points in a blowout of Iowa shooting 3-6 from three point land. More of that against Michigan would be huge
Wolverine Stat To Watch: 10, the difference in the number of turnovers Wisconsin had in their last game (1) compared to the Wolverines (11). Sloppiness isn’t going to cut it playing one of the top teams in the country let alone the Big Ten, so Michigan will have to avoid tossing the ball away carelessly to win. If the Badgers take care of the ball and turn Michigan over, the game could get ugly fairly quickly for the home team.
Prediction: The Badgers simply have too many athletes down low. The only thing that could possibly slow them is bad shooting or a stretch of injuries. Without Kaminsky, they’re vulnerable, but all signs point to him playing a role on Saturday. Without LeVert, Michigan will have a very tough time keeping up. The rowdy home crowd will play a role, but the Badgers will pull away and avoid a road upset that could help the rest of the league claw back into the Big Ten race. Wisconsin 72, Michigan 59
Max DeMara is a senior editor at The Detroit Sports Site. You can find him on Twitter @SportsGuyTheMax