A ‘self-scout’ in March: Michigan faces mirror-image Saint Louis in NCAA Tournament

BUFFALO, NY – Saturday’s game between the No. 1 seeded Michigan Wolverines and No. 9 seed Saint Louis Billikens may as well be the Spider-Man meme of the two identical figures staring and pointing at each other.

The fact that the two programs are near-mirror images of each other, at least in terms of sets, philosophies and analytical profiles should not be a surprise. Michigan head coach Dusty May and Saint Louis head coach Josh Schertz are good friends, and spend a lot of time exchanging ideas and notes on the game.

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Both are stars in the profession, and both coached their squads to 100-plus performances on Thursday in Buffalo, which had only been done 11 times in the NCAA Tournament since 2011 coming into the day.

Now they have to use the intel they’ve gathered together against each other. In some ways, that makes the preparation for Saturday’s Round of 32 showdown a self-scout for both programs.

“When we’re watching the personnel and showing them what they do, we were able to say, hey, guys, what does this look like? Oh, that looks like ‘corn chef’s flip.’ What about this? Looks like ‘pistol flag,” May said Friday, in reference to some of the similar terminology and teaching points.

“They use different words for a lot of what they do. We have our coded language. But there aren’t any actions that they’re going to run that we don’t run in some capacity in our playbook and what we try to do. And most of it, I can watch it and say either he stole that from this team or I stole that from this team and then we shared it with each other.”

The coaches know each other well, and quick turnaround from Thursday might have expedited the process of getting the foes ready to play. Michigan and Saint Louis are not exactly carbon copies of each other, but enough is similar to make it feel that way.

 ”It’s incredibly a self scout,” Michigan senior guard Roddy Gayle Jr. told The Wolverine. “They’re pretty much a smaller version of us. They don’t have a 7-3 guy, but for the most part, very similar about the way we play. They shoot a little more threes than we do, but at the same point, it’s very similar as far as the offense part of it.

“So it’s just like a self scout knowing the things that we play each other all day, every day. So, understanding things they like to do on defense, I know that they like to switch, so being able to confuse them [defensively] and some of the other stuff. And being able to get good looks on offense.”

 Graduate forward Yaxel Lendeborg weighed in: “They have a couple of the same plays that we run, and they run a little bit better than us because they have more shooters.

“Honestly, we just have to do what we hate that people do to us, if that makes sense. Just play physical, play as hard as we can and try to deflect as many passes to make them shy away from those back doors and all that.”

Howard put Michigan on alert, and Wolverines feel they woke up

The No. 16 seed Howard had Michigan in a tight game for the first 20 minutes of play, trailing 50-46 at halftime on Thursday night and cutting the deficit to 2 points early in the second half. Once the Wolverines locked in defensively, it was able to take a 31-point lead with a little over 3 minutes to go before emptying the bench.

“I think we learned a lot from yesterday,” Michigan junior center Aday Mara said. “We learned that we cannot relax against these teams. I think we’re ready for tomorrow’s game.”

“…The talent that they have on their team, one through five, they all can shoot like the same. They are a very efficient team on offense. They know what to do, so they’re gonna be hard to guard. And they’re also a good defensive team. So we have to do a good job tomorrow to get past to the next round.”

Gayle and Michigan gave the Bison their flowers for how they tested them, with the knowledge that they earned their way into the field just like everyone else.

“ I think ultimately it was just trying to settle into the moment,” Gayle told The Wolverine. “I think playing the 1 vs. 16 game is very hard. We’re a one seed here, they are an HBCU school coming in. I think that, naturally, you overlook it. And that’s just something that you can’t do, especially in this tournament.

“Everybody deserves to be here. Moving forward, we have to approach every game with caution, an extreme focus because it can be your last and everything is possible in March. So that’s just what we have to bring.”

Lendeborg thinks one of the lessons learned over the course of recent games is getting back and playing the full court defensively. He and Michigan expect to do that in Saturday’s game in Buffalo.

“ I would say as soon as we score, even before we score, just guard full court,” Lendeborg said. “Get my blood flowing a little bit, start to break a sweat, get warm and just make everybody else’s life difficult. I find joy in that, and if I do that, then I feel like it’s going to flow into the team and it’s going to help me out as well, playing off the team’s energy.”