Michigan basketball: 3 Keys to a victory over Colorado State

Contain David Roddy

Yesterday, Colorado State star forward David Roddy was named an All-American honorable mention. That means he is known by the media and he is a really good player. Not even Hunter Dickinson made honorable mention All-American (probably more due to the fact that Michigan is mediocre this year than Dickinson’s season performance) so you know the guy is good.

David averages 19.4ppg, so you know he is going to be a load to deal with. The good thing is, Michigan basketball has a massive size advantage, as no player on Colorado State is over 6’10, and all of their starting guys are shorter than 6’9, but David is 6’6 and 255 pounds, so he is a bigger small forward.

He likes to play in the post, kind of similar to Dickinson, as he loves backing guys down, so Michigan will probably put Moussa Diabate on him, hoping to neutralize him.

Diabate will need to play a clean game, without fouling, for Michigan basketball to hope to contain him. Force Colorado State to generate their offense through another player.

Michigan has really struggled, at times, containing opposing star players, as names like EJ Liddell, Keegan Murray, Jeenathan Williams, Christian Koloko, and Jameson Battle, to name a handful, come to mind.

The Wolverines need to do a better job of staying in front of these good players, and not foul. There needs to be a balance between playing tight defense, and sagging off just a touch, because we know how games can be ruined by ticky-tack foul calls.

Staying out of foul trouble is especially valuable in the tournament, because not having certain players for certain lengths of time can allow the opposing team to go on a big run.

In the NCAA Tournament, the #1 rule is that the referees aren’t your friend. They aren’t paid to be your friend, and have every call go your way, so Michigan basketball needs to show them (with actions) that they can defend without fouling, and if they do that, the whistle won’t be blown. I know it’s not quite that simple, but that’s the general idea.

This will be a tough assignment for whoever gets matched up with David Roddy.