Michigan Basketball: Who are the Texas Southern Tigers?

The Michigan basketball team now has its opponent solidified for the first round of the NCAA Tournament. The Texas Southern Tigers stand in the way of Juwan Howard’s crew as they look to begin their journey toward hanging a banner in Crisler Center.

Texas Southern took down Mount Saint Mary’s 60-52 on Thursday night in the opening matchup of the 2021 NCAA Tournament. As celebration and jubilation overtook the Tigers, their focus now must turn to a Michigan basketball team that has earned its first 1-seed in March since 1993.

These Wolverines will be without star senior Isaiah Livers, but as Livers said himself, “In the middle of chaos lies opportunity.”

The collective of Brandon Johns and Chaundee Brown will look to seize that opportunity, and propel Michigan basketball to another Final Four appearance. Before the Wolverines get there, they must dispatch the Texas Southern Tigers.

So, who are these Tigers?

Starters

Texas Southern is led in scoring by senior guard Michael Weathers at 16.5 points per game. Weathers also averages a stout 5.2 rebounds and 3.5 assists per game and is, statistically, the Tigers’ best player.

Flanking him in the backcourt is a junior from Houston, TX, Jordan Gilliam who only averages 5.6 points per game, but has scored in double figures in four of his past five games, including 12 points in the First Four matchup against Mount Saint Mary’s.

The Tigers lack a true center in their frontcourt, but rather choose to deploy three forwards on the wings and inside. The tallest players in the starting lineup are John Walker III and Joirdon Karl Nicholas who both stand at 6-foot-9. Walker III and Nicholas are the second and third-leading scorers for the Tigers at 11.9 and 11.3 points per game respectively.

The final piece of the starting rotation is a 6-foot-5 senior wing, Justin Hopkins. Hopkins is the best outside shooter of the starters, however, he only shoots it at a 29.3% clip for the season.

As a team, Texas Southern shoots 27.4 percent from the 3-point line and only makes 4.6 threes per game which is dead last in the nation.

Bench

Like Michigan, Texas Southern has a 6-foot-6 scoring wing coming off the bench in senior forward Galen Alexander. Alexander doubles as the Tigers’ best 3-point shooter at a 33.3 percent clip on 75 attempts.

Also coming off the bench are a couple of other solid shooters in John Jones and Yahuza Rasas. Jones went scoreless against Mount Saint Mary’s but averages 4.3 points per night and shoots 31.4 percent from three on 70 attempts this season. Rasas doesn’t step outside as much as Jones does but still has made six threes this year on just eighteen tries, so he is someone Michigan must account for.

Only two other players have played in 15 or more of Texas Southern’s games this season and they are forward Chris Baldwin and guard Quinton Brigham. Baldwin’s season-high in points is 10 while Brigham’s sits at just 6 points. Neither is much of a scoring threat but Baldwin consistently rebounds well and has turned the ball over at least once in eight of his past nine games.

Style

The Wolverines and the Tigers like to play at vastly different speeds. Coming into the matchup, Michigan averages 66.8 possessions per 40 minutes according to KenPom, while Texas Southern averages 71.7 possessions. Those metrics rank 260th and 47th nationally, respectively.

The Tigers’ offense revolves around running in transition and getting to the rim in the halfcourt. They also struggle to keep the ball moving as they only assist on 44.1 percent of their field goals made this season, good for 324th in the nation.

Defensively, they are very good in the paint as they limit opponents to 45.1 percent shooting on two-pointers and have a block rate of 12.2 percent, which ranks 25th and 38th nationally, respectively.

Conclusion

At the end of the day, the majority of these numbers came against Southwestern Athletic Conference foes, although Texas Southern’s nonconference schedule was challenging with games against three teams in the tournament (Oklahoma State, Auburn and BYU). The closest of those matchups was a 16-point defeat at the hands of BYU on December 21st.

Texas Southern was able to out muscle, out hustle, and run its conference opponents into the ground. I don’t see that happening against the Wolverines. With Hunter Dickinson and Brandon Johns inside, the Tigers will find it difficult to score at the rim like they typically do.

Against Mount Saint Mary’s, the Tigers did convert several mid-range jumpers when they were cut off en route to the rim, so Michigan will need to be cognizant of that.

The Tigers have also never faced a big man as skilled at scoring on the block as Hunter Dickinson so I expect him to play a large role in this opening matchup, as he has all season. His minimum of a four-inch height advantage over every player on the Texas Southern roster should allow him to score and rebound much as he has against Ohio State in two games this season.

All this is to say, Michigan should have no issue advancing to the Round of 32 where they will face either (8) LSU or (9) St. Bonaventure.

Be on the lookout for another opponent preview for that matchup, as well!