The Michigan Wolverines have a date with the No. 1 overall seed in the Auburn Tigers in the Sweet Sixteen. Here’s everything you need to know about the Tigers:
As March Madness reaches its second weekend, the Michigan men’s basketball is still dancing. The 5-seed Michigan will face the No. 1 overall seed in the NCAA Tournament, the Auburn Tigers, in the Sweet Sixteen this Friday around 9:35 p.m. ET in Atlanta.
After opening as a 9.5-point underdog, the 5-seed Wolverines are 7.5-point underdogs on FanDuel . Michigan’s moneyline is set at +260, meaning a $10 bet on Michigan to win would net you $26 in profit.
This is a tall task on paper, but if any team has proven they’re up for any challenge, it’s Dusty May’s squad.
Here’s everything you need to know about Auburn.
1-seed Auburn — SEC Champs
The SEC set a record on Selection Sunday with 14 teams making the 68-team field. In the best conference in the sport, the Tigers were unquestionably the best of the bunch.
The Tigers only lost four times this season, with all of the losses coming against top-20 KenPom teams: Duke, Florida, Texas A&M and Alabama. It’s important to note three of those losses came after Auburn had already clinched a share of the SEC Championship and was projected to be a 1-seed in the tournament, so the Tigers’ collective foot may have been off the gas.
Auburn spent 14 straight weeks at either No. 1 or No. 2 in the AP, including eight straight weeks at No. 1. Ranked No. 1 on KenPom for most of the season, the Tigers were the third-most popular pick to win it all in ESPN’s Tournament Challenge, just behind 1-seeds Duke and Florida.
Auburn is coming off double-digit wins against 16-seed Alabama State and 9-seed Creighton.
Key stats on KenPom
-Second in adjusted offensive efficiency, 12th in adjusted defensive efficiency.
-The Tigers take care of the ball really well. They boast a turnover percentage of 13.4 percent (fifth in the country) and a non-steal turnover percentage of 4.6 percent (second). They don’t give the ball over to their opponents, and the vast majority of their turnovers are not self-inflicted.
-The Tigers block shots at a higher rate than all but three teams in the country (16.2 percent). Auburn also does a great job covering three-point shots, with opponents shooting just 29.6 percent.
-Part of the reason why Auburn is so respected is because it posted a 30-4 record despite playing the second-toughest schedule in the country. And that wasn’t just because of SEC play — Auburn played the 18th-toughest non-conference schedule, which featured wins against Houston (1-seed in the tournament), Iowa State (3-seed) and Purdue (4-seed).
Key Players
Bruce Pearl’s squad is one of the deepest in the country, led by National Player of the Year candidate Johnni Broome. Broome is a transfer portal success story, starting his collegiate career at Morehead State before transferring to Auburn for the past three seasons. He’s gotten steadily better each year, developing into one of the best offensive players in the sport.
Broome’s versatile scoring ability and physicality inside make him a tough cover, even for a Michigan defense that boasts two 7-footers. He’s everything you’d want in a modern big — he can score out of the post, play-make inside the arc and knock down open threes. Similar to Vlad Goldin, Broome can make plays in the short roll and find cutters, adding another wrinkle to one of the best offenses in the country.
Chad Baker-Mazara, Denver Jones, Miles Kelly and Dylan Cardwell round out one of the best starting lineups in the country, a group where every member is between 6-foot-4 and 6-foot-11.
Baker-Mazara is Auburn’s second-leading scorer (12.5 points per game). He knocks down threes and free throws at an efficient clip (38.7 percent, 88.5 percent), but he’s a bit of a loose cannon. Notably, he got ejected from Auburn’s loss to Danny Wolf and Yale in the tournament last year after committing a Flagrant 2 foul, launching an elbow at a Yale player in transition . In his last home game at Auburn, Baker-Mazara was ejected again after launching an elbow to the back of an Alabama player’s head.
Kelly and Jones knock down three-pointers at an efficient rate, with Kelly shooting 39.4 percent and Jones shooting 41.7 percent. Jones also made the SEC All-Defense team and is one of the best three-and-D guards in the nation.
One other player Michigan will have to pay ample attention to is freshman guard Tahaad Pettiford. He is a microwave scorer who averages 11.5 points per game and shoots about 38 percent from beyond the arc.
Playing the role Tre Donaldson played for the Tigers off the bench last season, Pettiford is a blur in transition who can finish threes off the dribble and fully swing the momentum of games. He has great one-on-one scoring prowess; the dude is a bucket and he could single-handedly win Auburn this game.
Prediction
I have Auburn winning it all in my bracket because of its depth, scoring abilities and dominance in the best conference in college basketball.
Michigan’s going to need to be at the top of its game for this one. That means little-to-no turnovers, making layups and free throws at an efficient rate, putting together consecutive stops and knocking down threes.
Auburn’s got good size to combat Area 50-1, who are going to need to have big games for Michigan to pull this off. Donaldson will need to continue making tough shots late, and improved play from role players like Roddy Gayle Jr. , Rubin Jones and L.J. Cason will need to continue.
If Michigan is able to slow down Broome and prevent Auburn from going on big runs, it has a chance to advance to the Elite Eight. A lot of things have to go right, so I think this is where the journey ends in a successful first season of May’s tenure. Auburn is not perfect, but the Tigers are too talented to lose before the Elite Eight.