Michigan Basketball: 3 predictions for the Wolverines against Illinois

Michigan starts slow but wins by double digits

As Beilein said Wednesday, having just a couple of days to prepare for Illinois can be tough, but thankfully, we all know Beilein has done much more prep work. However, you can still expect Illinois to have some success early when it throws the kitchen sink at Michigan.

Michigan Wolverines

One thing Illinois has not done is allowed teams to shoot a bunch of 3-pointers. Even in Big Ten games, opposing teams are shooting just 15 3’s a game. Part of that is by design and part of that is teams are getting inside and scoring so well inside the arc, it hasn’t mattered.

Fraizer and Aaron Jordan both average more than two 3-point field goals per game for Illinois, but outside of that, they are a middle-of-the-road shooting team and considering Michigan is holding teams to 38-percent from the field, Illinois, which shoots 42 percent as a team (277th in the nation) should find a tough time scoring the ball.

Illinois will keep things tight early, in part because it will take Michigan a minute to get comfortable on the road and adjust to some of the things it will see early from the Illini on defense.

However, the Wolverines have too many experienced passers and ball handlers to get forced into mistakes. Ultimately, Michigan will attack the bucket in the halfcourt and off turnovers. That success will lead to open 3’s and the Wolverines, who shoot 37 percent as a team from 3-point range, will take advantage of those opportunities.

It should be an up-tempo game and that will lead to more scoring. Illinois will also keep things tight as it has against other top teams like Gonzaga, but in the end, the Wolverines are too good, too fundamentally sound and too well coached.

Final score: Michigan 78, Illinois 66.