Michigan Basketball: 3 predictions for Wolverines against Minnesota

Michigan basketball will be back on the court Sunday against a scrappy Minnesota squad. Can the Wolverines win on the road? Here are three predictions.

Winning on the road hasn’t been easy for Michigan basketball or any team in the Big Ten for that matter. The Wolverines are 0-2 in Big Ten play on the road and they haven’t won a true road game all season.

The common factor in all three losses was a poor shooting performance from the offense. It didn’t help that Isaiah Livers was out against Michigan State, but it doesn’t appear the junior will return for Sunday’s tilt at Minnesota, so the Wolverines will need to adapt.

In the double-overtime win over Purdue, Juwan Howard did just that by switching to a smaller lineup that featured Franz Wagner at the four along with three guards: Zavier Simpson, Eli Brooks and David DeJulius. Jon Teske also played center.

The disadvantage is obvious since it puts three guys on the floor at 6-foot-3 or shorter, yet without Livers, the extra shot making is needed. The other thing the group did was take care of the basketball, basically eliminating turnovers down the stretch.

While DeJulius was an answer to teams forcing Simpson to become a scorer in the pick-and-roll, the move to the four also seemed to help Wagner. It allowed him to handle the ball a little less and become more of a shooter.

It will be interesting to see how much the lineup is deployed against the Gophers and simply how well it works.

Minnesota is a scrappy defensive team that rebounds really well and shoots a ton of 3-pointers, as in more than any other Big Ten team in conference play. The game will test strategies of Howard and with an eye on how it will play out, here are three predictions.