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thewolverines24
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6:30 PM Eastern on BTN. Opponent preview:
Why the Mastodons? Mastodons roamed the southern Great Lakes region more than 10,000 years ago. In 1968, four years after PFW was founded, Jack Sunderman, PFW's chair of the Department of Geology, identified a leg bone of a mastodon found just south of Angola, IN. Sunderman and his team of faculty and students subsequently unearthed the entire mastodon skeleton along with the skull of a baby mastodon. The following year, a student committee selected the mastodon as the university mascot. The student body president wrote this to encourage the vote for the mastodon:
?It sounds different, strange. That?s exactly why [we should choose it]. I?m tired of slavishly copying what Bloomington, West Lafayette, and other big schools do. Let?s have the courage to be a little different.?
PFW is experienced and returns most of its Horizon League winning roster from last season. They run a unique motion offense that prioritizes pace and shooting. The Mastodons have finished in the top 50 in effective FG% six of the last eight years. They will shoot a lot of threes. They were 43rd in 3-point volume a year ago. They can be turnover prone (247th last season) and their system doesn't lead to many FTs (266th FT volume).
Their defense is pretty weak. They struggle to force missed shots. They were 317th in effective FG% defense, 317th in 2-point defense, and 275th in 3-point defense a year ago. Somehow this was still the best defense in the Horizon League. That's mostly due to the Mastodons forcing turnovers on 21/6% of possessions (31st). They also finished top three in defensive rebounding and FT rate in the Horizon.
Michigan is bigger, more athletic, and more talented than PFW, but the combination of experience, shooting, and ball pressure should give us an idea of how ready our Wolverines are ready to play this season. KenPom puts Michigan as an 83-66 favorite, giving the Mastodons a 7% chance at the upset.
GO BLUE!
Why the Mastodons? Mastodons roamed the southern Great Lakes region more than 10,000 years ago. In 1968, four years after PFW was founded, Jack Sunderman, PFW's chair of the Department of Geology, identified a leg bone of a mastodon found just south of Angola, IN. Sunderman and his team of faculty and students subsequently unearthed the entire mastodon skeleton along with the skull of a baby mastodon. The following year, a student committee selected the mastodon as the university mascot. The student body president wrote this to encourage the vote for the mastodon:
?It sounds different, strange. That?s exactly why [we should choose it]. I?m tired of slavishly copying what Bloomington, West Lafayette, and other big schools do. Let?s have the courage to be a little different.?
PFW is experienced and returns most of its Horizon League winning roster from last season. They run a unique motion offense that prioritizes pace and shooting. The Mastodons have finished in the top 50 in effective FG% six of the last eight years. They will shoot a lot of threes. They were 43rd in 3-point volume a year ago. They can be turnover prone (247th last season) and their system doesn't lead to many FTs (266th FT volume).
Their defense is pretty weak. They struggle to force missed shots. They were 317th in effective FG% defense, 317th in 2-point defense, and 275th in 3-point defense a year ago. Somehow this was still the best defense in the Horizon League. That's mostly due to the Mastodons forcing turnovers on 21/6% of possessions (31st). They also finished top three in defensive rebounding and FT rate in the Horizon.
Michigan is bigger, more athletic, and more talented than PFW, but the combination of experience, shooting, and ball pressure should give us an idea of how ready our Wolverines are ready to play this season. KenPom puts Michigan as an 83-66 favorite, giving the Mastodons a 7% chance at the upset.
GO BLUE!
