Prospect Matchup Reviews: Michigan vs Kentucky
On Sunday afternoon we got a matchup of two blue bloods: the Kentucky Wildcats met the Michigan Wolverines in London, England.
Both teams entered the game with records of five wins and two losses on the season. Kentucky was riding back to back victories after a tough loss to Gonzaga and Michigan entered the game coming off a two point loss to Virginia.
From a draft prospect perspective, each team had a mix of contrasting players: highly touted perimeter recruits and potential first round picks in Michigan’s Jett Howard and Kentucky’s Cason Wallace.
And multi-year upperclassman big men whose NBA potential may be questioned by some in Michigan’s Hunter Dickinson and Kentucky’s Oscar Tshiebwe.
Kentucky ended up walking away from the game with a four point victory in a very entertaining, back-and-forth, battle that gave some insight to all four of these prospects.
Cason Wallace (Guard - Kentucky)
The 6-foot-4 freshman for the Wildcats was the highest rated NBA draft prospect coming into the game and he showed why all game long.
Wallace lit up the box score with 14 points, eight rebounds, five assists, one steal and one block. This should come as no surprise as the Texas native came into the game with a score of 60 or better in all five of cerebro.com metrics and an extremely impressive 9.4 overall C-RAM score.
The No. 9 overall prospect on tankathon.com big board continually showed impressive passing flashes and the shot looked incredible as he was a four for four from behind the 3-point line including the game icing bucket when Kentucky was up just two points and looking to possibly let the game slip away.
The most impressive part of Wallace’s game is that he does it on both ends of the court. He scores an almost elite, 95, on cerebro’s defensive stats impact and this defensive acumen was on full display Sunday.
Jett Howard (Guard/Wing - Michigan)
While the 6-foot-7 Howard did not display the same level of all-around game as Wallace, he did impress on the defensive end in this game sans two early fouls that limited him to just seven minutes in the first half.
While Howard, the son of Michigan Head Coach Juwan Howard, did not have his most efficient scoring game of the season you could see his all around scoring potential. Should not be lost that he drew the defensive assignment of the aforementioned, Cason Wallace.
With the reputation as a 3-point shooter, much deserved as he is shooting over 40% from behind the arc this season, it can get lost what Howard is able to do inside the arc as well.
He was 5 for 12 in this game but was able to show his ability to score in a variety of ways that is sure to have NBA scouts excited.
Oscar Tshiebwe (Center - Kentucky) vs Hunter Dickinson (Center - Michigan)
While Oscar Tshiebwe will be the prospect you more often see show up on a big board, #35 for tankathon, it was actually Hunter Dickinson who may have looked more likely to help on an NBA court from this game.
Tshiebwe flashed some NBA translatable skills early as he attacked from the perimeter and had a couple really nice passes. As the game went on he struggled to knock down mid range jumpers and looked uncomfortable at times in DHO and driving situations.
The rebounding for the 6-foot-9 big man is just flat out ridiculous on both ends of the court and his post up game is so much fun to watch but easy to question how it translates to the next level.
You have to wonder what the offensive game is for him in the NBA and it was more than a little concerning hearing Jay Bilas repeatedly say on the broadcast, “Michigan should Tshiebwe in as many ball screen possessions (defensively) as possible.” We know the NBA is a ball screen league and if Tshiebwe is getting targeted in college, you have to imagine it will be the same in the league.
Dickinson has some of the same concerns as Tshiebwe but at the end of the day he is four inches taller and that showed up in this game. Dickinson struggled to back the Kentucky big down in the post but Dickinson was able to use his size to simply score over him.
Dickinson did get off to a slow start, and did finish less than 50% from the field, but the entire Michigan offense was running through him. Whether it was a post up that he looked to score, almost always over his right shoulder to score with his left hand, a post up that showcased his beautiful passing ability or a pick and roll the ball was going through Dickinson.
Since Dickinson will probably get targeted defensively as well, although there are some true center matchups where his size could definitely come in handy for an NBA team, it comes down to how much of his offense translates.
In this particular game, Dickinson was the better passer, pick-and-roll player, post scorer and just based on the form looked to have a better chance at becoming an outside shooting threat.
At the end of the day, neither of these players looked the part of a first round pick but more of a second round flier (Luke Garza, Pistons) or undrafted free agent.
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