WTKA Roundtable 3/22/2018: He Chose the Weird Guys

Kentucky is coached in an Izzo-like fashion, so I’ll take Loyola.

Reminder that our Tourney Coverage is sponsored by HomeSure Lending. Are you Zillowing on your neighborhood walks? Might want to give Matt a call.

Things discussed:

• Michigan did not play well and won.
• What’s with the shooting? Was it the layoff? It did seem to just be one of those things: good looks. MAAR is 1/12 in the NCAA tournament, was an assassin in the B1G one.
• No other Beilein team wins that Houston game. Defense!
• Texas A&M: Matchup of contrasting styles. Another team with a four that doesn’t shoot.
• No Michigan isn’t going two bigs—they want to force A&M to take a big off the court to defend five out.
• Main takeaway for A&M-UNC: basketball is weird. Tar Heels got in a hole because of thruck, Craig: A&M was a physically superior team, UNC did the same to us.
• A&M’s best offense is to throw it into the post and try to bully Duncan Robinson, get some bad whistles called on Moe Wagner.
• Beilein does have a plan for zones even if Michigan tends to stare at them blankly. You can dribble into a zone if you’ve got a guy with quickness—you don’t have to just shoot over it (Tom!).
• From the A&M side: a very talented team that’s been not healthy. Our take: they’re still without their Marquette transfer point guard and didn’t exactly roar into the tournament.
• Tom Izzo is always a victim; Michigan State lost that game because of their coach.
• Craig thinks Michigan will lose to A&M, and if they don’t they’ll lose to Florida State or Gonzaga because those teams are really good.
• Final Four now? Brian: Nova, Duke, Michigan, Kentucky. Ed: Same except Gonzaga. Craig: Duke, Purdue, FSU, Loyola-Chicago.
• No idea why a lottery pick would ever go to Michigan State: Izzo is going to play a walk-on for 25 minutes and you for 15 minutes so people will think he’s a genius.