Michigan Basketball: 3 Predictions for NCAA opener vs Texas Southern

The big men dominate

Michigan basketball has a definite size advantage going into this matchup, especially with 7-foot-2 Hunter Dickinson, the Big Ten freshman of the year.

However, Dickinson isn’t the only Michigan big guy that plays really well on Saturday. When Austin Davis comes off the bench, he’s been a scoring machine and no one on the Texas Southern roster will be able to handle big country down low.

Not only will Davis have a productive outing, somewhere in the range of 6-10 points, but Brandon Johns, who will start for Isaiah Livers, will also have a productive outing.

Johns was a top-100 recruit when he came to Michigan and the kid is supremely talented. He can score inside, he’s tremendous on the boards and he shoots the 3-ball better than expected.

When he was a starter for a short period in 2019-20 when Livers was injured, he averaged double figures and is capable of doing that in the NCAA Tournament.

For him, this game is really important just for confidence purposes and I think both down low and on the perimeter, Johns will hit some shots Saturday. Dickinson also dominates down low and tallies a double-double.