Michigan Basketball: 3 Keys to Wolverines beating Florida State

Win the 3-point battle

Winning the 3-point battle used to be essential for Michigan basketball to win games. That’s not necessarily the case this year, but in this matchup, winning the 3-point battle will be critical.

Florida State isn’t known as being a great shooting team but the Noles are ranked 16th in the country in 3-point shooting this year and have a number of sharpshooters.

With Isaiah Livers out, you could probably make a really good argument that Florida State is the better shooting team. But as Michigan showed last week, the Wolverines have enough shooters, they just have to make shots.

On Sunday, Michigan is going to get open looks. With the way Florida State switches things aggressively and the way U-M moves the ball, quality 3-point looks will be there, the Wolverines just have to knock them down.

That includes Brooks, Chaundee Brown, and Franz Wagner, as well as even Brandon Johns who is a better 3-point shooter than some realize.

Defensively, Michigan also needs to do a good job in transition defense, particularly when Barnes is in the game. He’s an elite athlete and even though he doesn’t start, he averages over 10 points and four assists per game. He’s great at finding shooters and creating.

So Michigan needs to do a good job of limiting transition points and forcing contested 3-point attempts in the halfcourt.