We get into big turnover trouble when our guards over penetrate against congested defenses.

I think our approach should be malleable toward taking what the defense allows. Don't force the issue on driving the lane if they are sagging in. Take the mid-range and hammer the glass.

If they extend on defense, then by all means take it to the rim and force the issue. I just don't expect to see this approach defensively from Michigan. Bottom line, we can't afford to turn the ball over with too much dribbling and reckless penetration. We need to get shots on the rim whether they are threes, mid-rangers or at the rim.

Yeah Michigan likes to play fast and my guess is we're going to be okay with that in this game.

Kind of sucks that their coach and some of their players have faced us recently because our defense won't be quite as different for them, but I still think we're at a pretty big advantage on the two day turnaround.

I think offensively we have to be driving and always looking to setup a pass inside the paint! Let's get one of their 7 footers rotating for help and find a Payne/Coleman/Solo/Garcia cutting to the basket!

We need well timed cuts though. Fewer cuts when Payne already has the ball, more when our guards get past the primary defender.

Better figure out a way to keep Goldin from riding on the backs of our bigs (because the Refs didn't call it a foul in the UCSD game) or there is gonna be some 2-fisted Flagrant goin' down.. Book it.

Turn them over, don't turn the ball over, win on the glass. , Good Wade and Phelps on the same day.

Another interesting stat to watch imo… fouls against. If we have 5-10 fewer fouls called against us vs them I believe that to be a predictor of success.

Make them work hard for shots. That tends to wear teams down and allows us to pull away in 2nd half. Would like to see Garcia have a good ball handling day and pick up some assists. Manny O needs to drive to the basket when he has the lane. I will take 3-4 3's from Carter and/or Wilcher.

There were 4-5 possessions vs Yale where they split our 3/4 court token pressure and attacked immediately for easy baskets. We have to clean this up and get our half court defense set.

I'm not worried about goldin, their leading scorer, bc I know we'll double him as soon as he touches it in the post. The key will be whether we can get close enough to their shooters to make them uncomfortable when the ball comes out of the post and we're in rotations.

Not sure how good of a passer Golding is out of doubles.

I think they're a good, not great, shooting team which hopefully will mean they miss some open 3s.

But we have to do our part and fly around to get to those shooters.

Offensively, we'll have to do it without a big game from Payne. I don't think he can bully the two 7 footers like he did Yale.

Manny needs more minutes.

Phelps needs to not shoot 3s.

We should be able to take advantage of their bigs on the perimeter w garcia.

Phelps and Wade need to exploit the mid range game. Don't try to force it all the way to the basket with 2 7 footers down there. Pull up from the free throw line and take the jumper.

Shot selection.

Especially Taylor. If we attempt another 20-30 three pointers with a large portion of them deep heat checks by Wade and a bunch of contested others by Phelps/carter/hef etc we will lose imo

I'm afraid offensively it's gonna be kinda tough. We're gonna have to find some points to replace payne's production. I just don't think he's gonna have a big game vs those 7 footers.

Hopefully I'm wrong

Scoring more points

Go back in time and not bring up season long cyber bullying and racism in interviews. Then also have ESPN draw up an entire piece on it and slap it all for their front page and push notifications less than 24 hours before the biggest game of Buzz's career here at Texas A&M.

Again, I'm not condoning any of these alleged actions and not discounting anything they've said, however it just seems like a very interesting time for all of this to happen to me. I'd love to be wrong but distractions are distractions, right or wrong.

Gumption
A decided lack of two percenters
Sprinkling of Old Army

Well, our player decided to announce it to the national media immediately after our game. Don't think you can blame the media for covering it.

Take care of the ball
Get offensive boards despite Michigan's size
Shoot a decent amount of FTs at a decent rate 74%+
Get into the lane and finish or draw fouls
Payne needs to stay out of foul trouble because we have no other height (they are going to go at him)

Only shoot about 10 to 15 three-pointers, especially if they're not going in.

Drive to the hole.

Feed Payne.

No silly turnovers.

Run the same offense we saw against Auburn.

Not look like a bunch of goober ogres like they do

Rec said:

---

Not look like a bunch of goober ogres like they do

---

Sorry bro. I read this wrong.

zooguy96 said:

---

Only shoot about 10 to 15 three-pointers, especially if they're not going in.

Drive to the hole.

Feed Payne.

No silly turnovers.

Run the same offense we saw against Auburn.

---

Yea and with Payne, have a plan as a team to handle and exploit the double teams they will run at him

Detmersdislocatedshoulder said:

---

bobinator said:

---

I think it's as simple as making Michigan work on offense. No live ball turnovers for easy points, don't blow defensive assignments and just leave guys wide open, etc.

I don't even think we need our 'A' game to win this one as long as we play good defense.

---

i would agree with you bob, i think we play good aggie basketball with high level of defensive and rebounding intensity and we pull this one out. i think our quickness will give us an edge similar to michigan st vs michigan matchups. i also thinks this being the 6th game in 9 days for michigan against good competition could finally catch up to them. throw in a little altitude and i like our chances.

---

good point

Rule#2 said:

---

Go back in time and not bring up season long cyber bullying and racism in interviews. Then also have ESPN draw up an entire piece on it and slap it all for their front page and push notifications less than 24 hours before the biggest game of Buzz's career here at Texas A&M.

Again, I'm not condoning any of these alleged actions and not discounting anything they've said, however it just seems like a very interesting time for all of this to happen to me. I'd love to be wrong but distractions are distractions, right or wrong.

---

This isn't the 2017-18 team. This team is tighter and is more of a distraction to you than to them.

GrayMatter said:

---

Rule#2 said:

---

Go back in time and not bring up season long cyber bullying and racism in interviews. Then also have ESPN draw up an entire piece on it and slap it all for their front page and push notifications less than 24 hours before the biggest game of Buzz's career here at Texas A&M.

Again, I'm not condoning any of these alleged actions and not discounting anything they've said, however it just seems like a very interesting time for all of this to happen to me. I'd love to be wrong but distractions are distractions, right or wrong.

---

This isn't the 2017-18 team. This team is tighter and is more of a distraction to you than to them.

---

Good to hear this.

GrayMatter said:

---

Rule#2 said:

---

Go back in time and not bring up season long cyber bullying and racism in interviews. Then also have ESPN draw up an entire piece on it and slap it all for their front page and push notifications less than 24 hours before the biggest game of Buzz's career here at Texas A&M.

Again, I'm not condoning any of these alleged actions and not discounting anything they've said, however it just seems like a very interesting time for all of this to happen to me. I'd love to be wrong but distractions are distractions, right or wrong.

---

This isn't the 2017-18 team. This team is tighter and is more of a distraction to you than to them.

---

I love to hear this. And if by some chance they lose, I won't blame it on this. I just think it's odd, and if I could alter my bracket, I might.

Drive at their bigs and get them into foul trouble early…foil them out as fast as possible

We don't need to drive to draw fouls, we need to drive to score and the fouls will come. That might seem obvious but Manny and Phelps especially need to just attack the basket.

1. Aggies need to limit turnovers. Please value the ball and every possession, Aggies!

2. Our normal tough defense - including at the three-point line - WITHOUT FOULING!

3. Feed ball to Payne with lots of Aggie big to big interior passing for dunks and layups by OUR bigs - forcing their seven footers to foul us - early and often.

4. Get to the BONUS way before they do - like when they are at only 3 or 4 fouls - and reach the double bonus way before they do both halves! (and make at least 75% of our free-throws)

5. Their players admitted they were "winded" in game one. I think that all the minutes they had to play to win their conference championship and more limited rotation - with all starters playing long minutes in a tough game Thursday MIGHT set them up to get worn down by the second half - especially at the mile high altitude. Hoping that means our Fightin' Texas Aggies pull away in the final 10 minutes.

BTHO Michigan!!!

Refs calling a fair game