Michigan Basketball: 3 Predictions for Wolverines against Oakland

Michigan basketball will play its second game of the season against Oakland Sunday and here are three predictions for the Wolverines.

Following a brutal loss on the football field Saturday, it will be nice for Wolverines fans to have something else to focus on and that’s the Michigan basketball team.

The Wolverines will be playing their second game of the young 2020-21 season in what will be the second of five non-conference games for U-M.

Michigan basketball was impressive in its first outing, beating Bowling Green, the preseason favorite to win the MAC, 96-82. Now, the Wolverines face an 0-3 Oakland team that is ranked outside the top 300 in the Kenpom rankings, about 200 spots behind Bowling Green.

So as far as the keys to victory are concerned, showing up is a big one for the Wolverines. And I don’t mean just coming to the arena, but if they show up in any normal way, it should be an easy win.

However, with few opportunities left before Big Ten play starts and with a number of new pieces still growing together in this new lineup, it’s still an important matchup.

And we break down what to expect between the Wolverines and Oakland with three predictions starting with a bounce-back game for Franz Wagner.

Wagner finds his shot

Through three games, Oakland, which has had a number of issues with players and coaches testing positive for COVID-19, which limited practice time via UMHoops ($), has struggled to defend. The Grizzlies allowed Xavier to go for over 100 points last week and for the season, they are allowing teams to shoot 60 percent from the field and 44 percent from 3-point range.

Oakland is a team that uses more zone concepts, so that will be a little different. Normally, ball screens aren’t quite as effective and ball movement is important, which is something the Wolverines excelled with on Wednesday.

Michigan shot well from deep against the Falcons, with one notable exception — Franz Wagner, who went 0-for-4 from deep.

The sophomore scored nine points but he isn’t going to have another shooting performance like that. He probably tried to do too much and Sunday, he will find his rhythm.