Michigan hosts Penn State at the Crisler Center tonight (7:00 p.m., BTN) in a matchup that will set a marker for either program as we roll into the thick conference play.
A third conference win before the second week of January would provide a jolt of confidence for either program ahead of a pivotal month. A loss would shine a spotlight on the issues that both programs are hoping to disguise.
Michigan and Penn State are ranked just two spots apart in the mid-40s by KenPom and Micah Shrewsberry and Juwan Howard have the type of teams that the other has nightmares about defending.
Michigan has one of the worst ball screen defenses in college basketball, and Penn State has one of the best ball screen offenses. Penn State is one of the worst post-up defenses in college basketball, and Michigan has Hunter Dickinson.
It’s a battle of two teams that know what they are on offense and then sit back and hope that their defensive vulnerabilities won’t be exploited on any given night. Tonight, they come up against opposition tailormade to attack those weaknesses.
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