Michigan has a chance to get back on track with only its third buy game of the 2021-22 season on Saturday evening (7:00 p.m., BTN), but it is in for another test. Southern Utah isn’t a typical guarantee game opponent dragging the 300s of KenPom’s homepage. Instead, Southern Utah is a top-125 team according to both KenPom and the NCAA’s NET rankings.
Sitting at 7-3 on the season, the Thunderbirds have won six games in a row including solid victories over four top-200 teams in Yale and Bowling Green (both on neutral floors), Utah Valley, and at Eastern Washington. Todd Simon’s squad fell short in two overtimes at Cal — a loss partially due to a scoring error — and lost by 19 at Saint Mary’s, which was its only game against a top-100 foe.
Southern Utah won the Big Sky regular season last year only to be upset in the conference tournament, and now is a favorite to win the league with its sights set on making the NCAA Tournament in 2021-22.
In this preview
- The Thunderbirds
- Personnel
- Matchups
- Keys
- Bottom Line
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