Purnell versus Beilein

So this isnt really all that fair to Purnell but I think its important to note that Beilein has been an absolute genius in the NCAA tourney. I got to say that Peter Tiernan has an interesting thing going with his Bracketscience.com but too much gives me a headache. He is doing four articles for cbssports.com now that espn has gotten rid of almost all their outside contributors, I really enjoyed this one but I digress...

Beilein is perhaps most known for taking a West Virginia team with a white kid named 'the Great Gansey', taking them to the brink of a final four birth as a seven seed in 2005, they were up against Louisville by 2o at one point, effectively turning them into repeat "Cinderella" disruptors. I really think that Michigan beating Duke early on had to do with a Duke team still finding itself...and a coach who can impressively gameplan given adequate time to prep. Beilein may be the best thing about this Michigan team.

Some of the strengths of this Michigan team and points Clemson needs to plan for are:

• Main guard Manny Harris--17 pts a game, 7 reb, 4 asts. That is impressive and we know how Clemson has trouble with scoring guards-Douglas, Downey, Clinch etc. Ft shooting is a crazy 85%-the entire team shoots a good percentage at 74%--could be pivotal down the stretch.
• This team loves to take three pointers. They arent the best or the worst three point shooters but everyone on the team can shoot. Thats classic Beilein style--think about that Pittsnogle guy, so we might be giving up a lot of easy threes in transition off of the press. If the press is porous and they are hot from three land we are one and done.
  
• What we have going for us is that as stated before is that we have a height advantage against this team especially when Michigan goes to its bench, everyone on the bench is short. Beilein likes to go nine deep, sometimes even 11 deep--so we arent going to wear them down. OP if the press aint working lets go full court man to man...
• Lastly Michigan cant rebound ranking 275th in the nation. That has to do with the 1-3-1 zone but also because they launch threes and dont get a lot of offensive boards. It would be absolutely criminal if Clemson allowed itself to get outrebounded.
  

Ultimately I think we can win if we have the right gameplan and then do some damage to a Oklahoma team that doesnt handle pressure as well. Got to have faith in this season! I feel a tiger rag coming on...Go Tigers!!