Wolverines Earn #4 Seed in NCAA Tournament

After a weekend of upsets, heartbreaks and the conclusion of all the conference tournaments, we now know the 68 teams that will compete in the NCAA men's basketball tournament and have a shot at a national championship. The 68 team bracket which is divided in to four regions was released on Sunday night, and our Michigan Wolverines were honoured with the #4 seed in the Midwest Region and are now on a collision course with the #13 seeded champions of the Mid American Conference (MAC), the Ohio Bobcats. The game will take place Friday, March 16th in Nashville Tennessee. The winner of this game will have a third round matchup with the winner of #5 seeded Temple and the winner of the play in game between South Florida and California. Many people had Michigan locked in as a #3 seed in the tournament, however after struggling to knock off Minnesota in overtime, and then getting run out of the gym by Ohio State in the Big 10 Tournament semi-finals, the Wolverines slipped to the #4 slot. Now that we know who Michigan will square off with in their second round matchup, I will now give a preview of the MAC champion Ohio Bobcats and I will predict how the game will shape out.

Ohio Bobcats

The Bobcats finished the season with a 27-7 overall record and an 11-5 conference record. This was good enough for them to place third in the Eastern division of the Mid-American Conference. The Bobcats then propelled themselves in to the NCAA Tournament by winning the Mid-American Conference Tournament after reeling off three straight victories over Buffalo, Toledo and finally, knocking off Akron in the championship game. There has only been one common opponent between Michigan and Ohio this year, and that opponent was the University of Oakland. Ohio beat Oakland 84-82 while the Wolverines beat Oakland 90-80. The Bobcats are lead by their junior guard D.J. Cooper(pictured right) who averages 14.6 points per game and 5.7 assists per game, leading the team in both categories. There are a few things about this Ohio team that could really cause Michigan to struggle. First off the Bobcats are an extremely good offensive rebounding team. They grabbed 433 offensive rebounds on the season, an average of 12.7 per game. Since the Wolverines are smaller team, who really lacks a dominant rebounder inside, the Wolverines need to make sure they put a body on someone when shots go up and not allow Ohio players to crash the boards. Also, as we know, Michigan is a team who loves to shoot the 3-ball. The Bobcats have played excellent perimeter defence all year and only allow their opponents to shoot 29.7% shooting from beyond the arch this season. Michigan will have to utilize the shot fake to try and create and open up lanes where Trey Burke and Tim Hardaway Jr. will be able to drive to the bucket. This inside pressure will allow for more open, and better percentage shots from the outside. However on the flip side, there are some things about this team that Michigan can take advantage of. First off is the fact that the Bobcats are very susceptible to turnovers. They average 13.3 turnovers per game, so if Michigan can turn up the full court pressure, they will be able to generate some turnovers in the back court which will lead to easy transition buckets. Also the Bobcats struggle from the free throw line. As a team, Ohio shoots just 68% from the free throw line, and has only one player who shoots better than 75% from the stripe. Therefore, if Michigan gets caught out of position on defence, hard fouls that prevent the Bobcats from scoring and sending them to the line may be an efficient strategy for the Wolverines. As much as I like the Bobcats, I feel that they just do not have the offensive fire power to be able to match the Wolverines, and if Michigan can start to heat up from the field, look for them to run away with this one.

Prediction: Michigan- 65 Ohio- 53

As the last part of this blog I will now provide you with the top 4 seeds from each region for this years NCAA Tournament:
South Region
#1 Kentucky (#1 overall seed)
#2 Duke
#3 Baylor
#4 Indiana

East Region
#1 Syracuse (#2 overall seed)
#2 Ohio State
#3 Florida State
#4 Wisconsin

West Region
#1 Michigan State (#3 overall seed)
#2 Missouri
#3 Marquette
#4 Louisville

Midwest Region
#1 North Carolina (#4 overall seed)
#2 Kansas
#3 Georgetown
#4 Michigan

For the complete bracket filled with all 68 teams and all the matchups check out this link!
http://espn.go.com/mens-college-basketball/tournament/bracket

Be sure to check back later in the week for my full prediction of this years NCAA Mens Basketball Tournament.