Michigan vs. Alabama Tactical Breakdown: How the Wolverines Can Beat the Crimson Tide

The #1 seed Michigan Wolverines have beaten Howard and St. Louis to advance to the Sweet Sixteen where they will take on the #4 seed Alabama Crimson Tide. Alabama beat #13 seed Hofstra 90-70, and then #5 seed Texas Tech 90-65 on their way to this game. Alabama is a very fast-paced team who really excels from beyond the 3-point arc. It'll be a tough game for Michigan if they want to advance in this tournament. Let's dive more into the three ways Michigan can beat Alabama below.

Defend the 3-point line

This is the first and most obvious one. Alabama is #1 in the country in both 3-pointers taken and made per game this year in college basketball. They shot a whopping 42 in their last game against Texas Tech, making 19 of them to help blow out what is normally a good defensive team in the Red Raiders. They aren't the most lethal from a shooting percentage standpoint, as they only rank 58th nationally in 3-point shooting percentage, but the fact remains, Alabama will push the pace and hoist up a bunch of 3 point attempts in this game. For Michigan to win this one, they will need to do a really good job of running their shooters off the 3-point line and forcing them into tough, contested looks from beyond the arc.

Dominate the glass and paint

As good as Alabama is from beyond the arc, they are very beatable from inside the arc. They are 268th nationally in defensive rebound % per game and 82nd in opponent shooting percentage. Those two statistics show that Michigan should have the advantage here on the inside and they need to get the most out of their big guys to win this game. They should be able to control the glass on both ends of the floor as well as being able to control the paint scoring, but just controlling it might not be good enough. They need to really dominate Alabama on the glass and inside the paint to overcome what will likely be a scoring deficit in terms of 3-pointers made in this game.

Make their 3-pointers

So far in this tournament, Michigan has shot 45% and 47% from 3-point range. Most of that is because their opponents have been scared of Michigan going inside, so they're willing to give up some open looks from beyond the arc and just hope that Michigan missed them. Well in those first two tournament games, that has not worked out well for their opponents. Michigan has been converting on those open looks and it's led to two 20+ point wins.

Alabama is likely going to take and make a bunch of 3's themselves, so if Michigan goes cold from beyond the arc, that could be a really tough thing to overcome. Michigan can dominate the paint all it wants but if Alabama makes 19 3-pointers (like they did against Texas Tech) and Michigan only makes seven, that's gonna be a really big hole to climb out of in other aspects of the game. For the Wolverines to avoid the upset and beat the Crimson Tide, they need to at least be close in terms of raw 3-pointers made in this game.

Michigan (who played Saturday afternoon) has the benefit of an extra day or so of rest compared to Alabama (who played Sunday night) and they also have a much shorter distance to travel for this game with it being in Chicago. Michigan's legs should be more well rested and they'll also have a big size advantage once again. It won't be as big of an advantage as their first two NCAA Tournament games, but an advantage nonetheless.

In order for Michigan to advance to beat Alabama and advance to the Elite Eight, they need to defend the 3-point line well, dominate the glass and paint, and make 3-point shots themselves. If they can do all three, they'll have no problem winning this game. Anything less than that could spell the end of Michigan's season against this red hot Alabama Crimson Tide team.