The Michigan basketball team has been moving closer to being the unanimous No. 1 team in college basketball, trailing Arizona by a single point in the AP Poll.
Michigan is ranked No. 1 by the Coaches. The Wolverines also have one of the best Kenpom ratings of all time.
Next up for the Wolverines, who have won three games by 30 points or more over AP Top 25 opponents, becoming the first team to ever do that, is the Penn State Nittany Lions, a 9-5 team that has started 0-3 in the Big Ten.
Three of the top five players in terms of minutes are freshmen, although two of them are international players. Penn State has one 7-footer (Ivan Juric) in the rotation, but that's it. No one else is over 6-foot-9.
The Nittany Lions, as consequence, have one of the worst 2-point defenses in college basketball (329th), which isn't much better than their 3-point defense, which is 325th (36.4 percent allowed).
Penn State is good at forcing turnovers. They are ranked in the top 100 in takeaways and steals. They are also ranked 59th in terms of opponent offensive rebounds. Penn State has been a decent shooting team, ranking 80th in field-goal percentage (47.7) and 94th in 2-point percentage (56.1). The problem is they don't shoot the 3-point shot well, which will make it tough to beat Michigan.
The Nittany Lions have two former top-100 recruits, who are their two leading scorers. Kayden Mingo is a dynamic freshman who is averaging 14.9 points, 4.5 assists and a Big-Ten leading 2.7 steals per game. He's shooting 48 percent from the field but only 23 from 3-point range. Freddie Dilione is back and scoring 14.1 per game. The 6-foot-5 guard averages 1.4 3-pointers per game (33.3 percent). Eli Rice and Dominick Stewart are also solid perimeter shooters.
Penn State ranks 122nd in the Kenpom rankings. Here are three keys and a prediction. Tip-off time is set 7 PM EST on Fox Sports 1.
Just be yourself
Michigan doesn't have to do anything special to win this game. The Wolverines are the second-best shooting team in the country at 53.1 percent and best on 2-pointers at 65.6 percent. The Wolverines should dominante Penn State down low, on both ends of the floor.
Yaxel Lendeborg will be a game-time decision. But even if he doesn't play, Aday Mara and Morez Johnson should dominate Penn State. The Nittany Lions rank outside the top 300 in 2-point defense, which is a recipe for trouble when facing Michigan.
What's worse is that the Nittany Lions are just as bad at defending the 3-point shot, so unless the Wolverines have a rough shooting night, another 100-point outing isn't hard to foresee.
Protect the ball
One thing Penn State does well is force turnovers. That's also the one weakness of the Michigan offense. The Wolverines are ranked 225th in turnovers (12.6 per game). They are forcing 13.7 per game, so they have been winning the turnover battle.
If it's anywhere close to even, it's hard to see Penn State having a chance. The Nittany Lions need to cause havoc with their pressure.
Make sure defense travels
Defense travels. So does rebounding. Penn State is ranked outside the top 300 in terms of total rebounds. They just aren't a solid rebounding team. Teams are getting just nine offensive boards per game, but Michigan isn't most teams.
The Wolverines also boast the No. 1 defense, according to Kenpom. As long as that travels, and Michigan does work on the glass, this should be a rout.
Prediction: Michigan 103, Penn State 71