After a strong ten-point victory over Creighton in a fast-paced game focused on the three-ball, Michigan will welcome in another team who enjoy shooting the three. Elon will be coming in with a 2-1 record but with both wins coming against non-Division I schools. Michigan has a pair of buy games before venturing to the Bahamas, so they will hope for this to be business as usual.
Elon -- An Overview:
Elon the second team that Michigan will be facing in their first three games with a new head coach. Mike Schrage joins Elon after having spent the past couple of years at Ohio State. He also has experience at Butler and Stanford, and as DoBO with Duke. He inherits an Elon team who finished last season with the fourteenth most three-point shots taken, but also (or perhaps in part because of) finished 342nd in free throws attempted. That does not seem to be changing as Elon took 93 threes in their first three games, including thirty against Georgia Tech and a whopping forty against Milligan.
This is a true rebuild for Schrage who does not return any of Elon's top five starters from last season. Four of those five graduated and the fifth, point guard Nathan Priddy, elected to retire from basketball. Two starters returned but, as we will cover, neither are in the starting line-up and this is a team with five new starters -- three of those being new to the program. Elon felt the doubts of the CAA coaches in the preseason polls as they were picked last in the ten-team conference by a margin that was not very close in terms of points received. They sit in the 330s in KenPom and Torvik ratings but will hope to build and grow throughout the season and prove the early doubts wrong.
Starting Five:
The early-season standout has been senior grad-transfer Marcus Sheffield II (#4). The guard/forward combo player is a 6'5" instant-impact starter who made the jump from Stanford to Elon after three years of being an important bench piece. Sheffield earned a CAA Preseason All-Conference Honorable Mention nod in the CAA's preseason coaches' awards vote. Schrage coached Sheffield in 2016 at Stanford when the guard was a freshman, a campaign in which Sheffield scored 35 points in one game against Arizona State before Schrage moved to Butler. Over the first three games, Sheffield has been the leading man with 15.7 points, 6.3 rebounds, and five assists per game. He's shooting three-for-ten from three and 38.1% overall from the field. As a bench piece at Stanford, he was never a huge scorer. He averaged 4.7 shots per game as a junior and 5.3 per game over his career. Already, over only these first three games, he has taken about 8.5% of his career field-goal attempts with Elon. He has battled foot injuries but when he is fit he is an explosive player getting to the basket.
Seeing the second-most minutes in the early stages of the season is freshman Hunter McIntosh (#0). A 6'3" guard, McIntosh is an Atlanta native who was named Atlanta Journal Consitution Class 3A Player of the Year in the 2017-18 season. McIntosh is the early leader in threes attempted with 23 put up by the freshman over the first three games to the tune of a 30.4% mark. He is averaging eleven points a game with three assists and 2.7 rebounds to go along with the second-most field-goal attempts on the team behind only Sheffield. The freshman struggled in his first taste of Division-I opposition going one-for-twelve from the field and one-for-seven from three against Georgia Tech. With Nathan Priddy having left school and Seth Fullergoing down to foot surgery, the roster movement opened the door wide open for McIntosh at point guard. Described as "a true point guard" by Blue Ribbon Yearbook, there is work to be done with the true freshman but a positive way of thinking is that he will be learning on the job. The 29.7% FG% could be better, and the assist numbers could be higher for a point guard, but there are plenty of positives like nine assists to four turnovers early in the year for the young player.
Federico Poser (#5) has shown some early-season promise after spending last season as a bench piece. The 6'8" sophomore forward is the biggest player on the team and has made his way into the starting five over the last two games. Poser is averaging 11.7 points, 5.3 rebounds, and 2.7 assists per game in 20.3 minutes. This is a big leap up from 3.8 points and 2.9 rebounds per game as a freshman in only about five minutes per game more. Now, of course, these are early numbers, but the sophomore has grown up plenty over the offseason. He spent a portion of the summer with the Italian National Team which is expected to help him grow as a player. He passes the ball well as a forward, he has a career-high six assists in one game and combines toughness with skill. Poser lives inside the arc with an FG% of 64% this season and 52.4% last season entirely from two. Especially after the Creighton game seeing Christian Bishop and Kelvin Jones stick entirely in the perimeter, I would expect the same from Poser and this to be a favorable match-up at least in knowing what to expect for Jon Teske.
Another player who has made themselves into an every-game starter after spending last year as a bench piece has been junior forward Simon Wright (#33). The 6'7" power forward has seen a jump from 8.2 minutes per game to 23.3 with starts in all three games in the early stages of this season. Wright is a player who Schrage noted how impressed he was with early in the season and that has paid off. Wright is averaging nine points and a team-high 7.3 rebounds per game. He has consistently rebounded well and even logged his rebound-high this season (eight) against Georgia Tech. Also working in Wright's favor is his ability to function as a stretch four in the offense. He's taken eight threes this year, hitting three, and he was 9-for-29 (31%) from three last season. His best performance was a seven-for-eight, sixteen-point, night against Milligan. That said, he does not need to be scoring double-figures to have a positive impact on the team. He rebounds well and stretches the floor to force the defense to respect his shot.
Rounding out the starting five is another freshman in Hunter Woods (#25). Woods is a 6'6" wingman who hails from Pasadena, California. Woods has played the third-most minutes in the first three games of the year (74) making that two freshmen in the top three minutes-getters for the Phoenix early on this year. Woods is another one of these lanky wings on this team that operate in between being a guard and forward. Woods has struggled offensively shooting just 26.1% from the field, largely due to a 15.4% two-point mark. He is four-for-ten from three, but he went zero-for-three against Georgia Tech and went just one-for-eight on the night. He has been able to impress when it comes to rebounding, though, as he has averaged seven a night. As a freshman, he is certainly learning on the job. This, like with McIntosh, though, should help make for a better player once he gets a full season of experience under his belt.
Bench Rundown:
Elon has a pair of starters from last season that are doing their damage off the bench. Chuck Hannah (#1) got the start in the first game but has been shifted to a bench role. Hannah is a 6'6" forward who was a starter as a freshman but now, as a sophomore, can sub in for the likes of Wright off the bench. Hannah has a ton of positives as a player -- Schrage likes his organizing ability to talk on defense, he is a tougher forward who weighs in at 230 pounds letting him muscle around some smaller small forwards, and he crashes the offensive glass incredibly well as 46 of his 107 career rebounds have been offensive. Where he has struggled, though, has been offensive. He is just three-for-thirteen (23.1%) from the field this year and that is entirely from two. He was only 29.2% from three last year, but that included going 14-for-48 over the season so he has shown a willingness to shoot from deep. The usage of Hannah will likely have to be more 'wait and see' throughout the non-conference season.
The second of these former starters now coming off the bench is 6'3" guard Kris Wooten (#10). A fellow sophomore, Wooten has seen the most minutes of all bench players thus far this season. Averaging twenty minutes a game, Wooten is shooting 40% from the field, up from 37% last season on more shots per game, and also shooting 38.9% from three on the second-most shots from distance (18) on the team. He hit 43 threes last season and is, in fact, the leading returning three-point attempter. He is averaging 7.7 points and two rebounds this season which, when combined with the improvements in shooting percentage, makes for a great start to the season. He was only two-for-eight from three against Georgia Tech but scored eight points coming off a five-for-eight from three, fifteen-point performance against Milligan. He is a quality option off the bench in the backcourt and will likely play decent minutes, especially if his shot is falling.
Andy Pack (#21) is another sophomore who comes off the bench and plays significant minutes. The 6'4" guard played an important role as a freshman off the bench but has seen his minutes make a slight jump to the tune of five minutes per game in these early stages. Pack is, like Hannah, a bench option that comes in and is a bit more sturdy, weighing in at 200 pounds. He shot 57 threes to 32 twos last season, but Pack is a good driver that can supplement his drives with outside looks. He shot 35.1% from three last season and 43.8% from two. This year he is off to a slower start, however, going just three-for-sixteen (18.8%) from the field with two-for-eleven from two and one-for-five from three being the breakdown. He is averaging 3.3 points and 3.7 rebounds in the early goings of the season, coming off a 3.5 point and 1.9 rebounds per game freshman year. He is a bench piece to watch and see how much and how well he will contribute.
Rounding out the four key bench players for Elon is freshman Zac Ervin (#14). Ervin is a 6'5" player who is yet another combo-player that is built to play on the wing. Ervin, thanks to a pair of solid performances against the non-D1 opponents, is off to a good start with an eight-point per game average. He is 215 pounds and can use his frame to get to the rim, but as a freshman, it seems that the focus will be on using him as someone to get in and take quality looks from three. He has taken fourteen of his eighteen shots from three and six of those have gone in. While all six have been against the non-D1 schools (he was zero-for-three from three against Georgia Tech) this is a valuable season of experience to get fifteen-to-twenty minutes per game.
Pre-Game Thoughts:
Games against new coaches are always a bit tougher to gameplan for. Schrage, with his experience at Ohio State, has a bit of familiarity with Michigan's roster, but Juwan Howard as Michigan's new coach means they will see a new gameplan. The keys to this game seems to be able to go two-fold. First and foremost, Michigan will want to stop Marcus Sheffield. He was the key dangerman against Georgia Tech finishing as the only Phoenix in double-figures with twelve. You can let him 'have his', so-to-speak, like the Yellow Jackets did, though, and still, get a win. That takes us to the second key, winning the battle inside. Federico Poser has been off to a nice start, but will still be undersized when compared to Jon Teske. Simon Wright can also stretch the floor or go down low, which will need to be prevented too. It will be interesting to see what Michigan can come up with to counter the strengths that Elon has to offer.
Follow me on Twitter @RMAB_Ryan for plenty more college basketball coverage, as well as AFC Ann Arbor and Liverpool FC coverage as well!
Elon -- An Overview:
Elon the second team that Michigan will be facing in their first three games with a new head coach. Mike Schrage joins Elon after having spent the past couple of years at Ohio State. He also has experience at Butler and Stanford, and as DoBO with Duke. He inherits an Elon team who finished last season with the fourteenth most three-point shots taken, but also (or perhaps in part because of) finished 342nd in free throws attempted. That does not seem to be changing as Elon took 93 threes in their first three games, including thirty against Georgia Tech and a whopping forty against Milligan.
This is a true rebuild for Schrage who does not return any of Elon's top five starters from last season. Four of those five graduated and the fifth, point guard Nathan Priddy, elected to retire from basketball. Two starters returned but, as we will cover, neither are in the starting line-up and this is a team with five new starters -- three of those being new to the program. Elon felt the doubts of the CAA coaches in the preseason polls as they were picked last in the ten-team conference by a margin that was not very close in terms of points received. They sit in the 330s in KenPom and Torvik ratings but will hope to build and grow throughout the season and prove the early doubts wrong.
Starting Five:
The early-season standout has been senior grad-transfer Marcus Sheffield II (#4). The guard/forward combo player is a 6'5" instant-impact starter who made the jump from Stanford to Elon after three years of being an important bench piece. Sheffield earned a CAA Preseason All-Conference Honorable Mention nod in the CAA's preseason coaches' awards vote. Schrage coached Sheffield in 2016 at Stanford when the guard was a freshman, a campaign in which Sheffield scored 35 points in one game against Arizona State before Schrage moved to Butler. Over the first three games, Sheffield has been the leading man with 15.7 points, 6.3 rebounds, and five assists per game. He's shooting three-for-ten from three and 38.1% overall from the field. As a bench piece at Stanford, he was never a huge scorer. He averaged 4.7 shots per game as a junior and 5.3 per game over his career. Already, over only these first three games, he has taken about 8.5% of his career field-goal attempts with Elon. He has battled foot injuries but when he is fit he is an explosive player getting to the basket.
Seeing the second-most minutes in the early stages of the season is freshman Hunter McIntosh (#0). A 6'3" guard, McIntosh is an Atlanta native who was named Atlanta Journal Consitution Class 3A Player of the Year in the 2017-18 season. McIntosh is the early leader in threes attempted with 23 put up by the freshman over the first three games to the tune of a 30.4% mark. He is averaging eleven points a game with three assists and 2.7 rebounds to go along with the second-most field-goal attempts on the team behind only Sheffield. The freshman struggled in his first taste of Division-I opposition going one-for-twelve from the field and one-for-seven from three against Georgia Tech. With Nathan Priddy having left school and Seth Fullergoing down to foot surgery, the roster movement opened the door wide open for McIntosh at point guard. Described as "a true point guard" by Blue Ribbon Yearbook, there is work to be done with the true freshman but a positive way of thinking is that he will be learning on the job. The 29.7% FG% could be better, and the assist numbers could be higher for a point guard, but there are plenty of positives like nine assists to four turnovers early in the year for the young player.
Federico Poser (#5) has shown some early-season promise after spending last season as a bench piece. The 6'8" sophomore forward is the biggest player on the team and has made his way into the starting five over the last two games. Poser is averaging 11.7 points, 5.3 rebounds, and 2.7 assists per game in 20.3 minutes. This is a big leap up from 3.8 points and 2.9 rebounds per game as a freshman in only about five minutes per game more. Now, of course, these are early numbers, but the sophomore has grown up plenty over the offseason. He spent a portion of the summer with the Italian National Team which is expected to help him grow as a player. He passes the ball well as a forward, he has a career-high six assists in one game and combines toughness with skill. Poser lives inside the arc with an FG% of 64% this season and 52.4% last season entirely from two. Especially after the Creighton game seeing Christian Bishop and Kelvin Jones stick entirely in the perimeter, I would expect the same from Poser and this to be a favorable match-up at least in knowing what to expect for Jon Teske.
Another player who has made themselves into an every-game starter after spending last year as a bench piece has been junior forward Simon Wright (#33). The 6'7" power forward has seen a jump from 8.2 minutes per game to 23.3 with starts in all three games in the early stages of this season. Wright is a player who Schrage noted how impressed he was with early in the season and that has paid off. Wright is averaging nine points and a team-high 7.3 rebounds per game. He has consistently rebounded well and even logged his rebound-high this season (eight) against Georgia Tech. Also working in Wright's favor is his ability to function as a stretch four in the offense. He's taken eight threes this year, hitting three, and he was 9-for-29 (31%) from three last season. His best performance was a seven-for-eight, sixteen-point, night against Milligan. That said, he does not need to be scoring double-figures to have a positive impact on the team. He rebounds well and stretches the floor to force the defense to respect his shot.
Rounding out the starting five is another freshman in Hunter Woods (#25). Woods is a 6'6" wingman who hails from Pasadena, California. Woods has played the third-most minutes in the first three games of the year (74) making that two freshmen in the top three minutes-getters for the Phoenix early on this year. Woods is another one of these lanky wings on this team that operate in between being a guard and forward. Woods has struggled offensively shooting just 26.1% from the field, largely due to a 15.4% two-point mark. He is four-for-ten from three, but he went zero-for-three against Georgia Tech and went just one-for-eight on the night. He has been able to impress when it comes to rebounding, though, as he has averaged seven a night. As a freshman, he is certainly learning on the job. This, like with McIntosh, though, should help make for a better player once he gets a full season of experience under his belt.
Bench Rundown:
Elon has a pair of starters from last season that are doing their damage off the bench. Chuck Hannah (#1) got the start in the first game but has been shifted to a bench role. Hannah is a 6'6" forward who was a starter as a freshman but now, as a sophomore, can sub in for the likes of Wright off the bench. Hannah has a ton of positives as a player -- Schrage likes his organizing ability to talk on defense, he is a tougher forward who weighs in at 230 pounds letting him muscle around some smaller small forwards, and he crashes the offensive glass incredibly well as 46 of his 107 career rebounds have been offensive. Where he has struggled, though, has been offensive. He is just three-for-thirteen (23.1%) from the field this year and that is entirely from two. He was only 29.2% from three last year, but that included going 14-for-48 over the season so he has shown a willingness to shoot from deep. The usage of Hannah will likely have to be more 'wait and see' throughout the non-conference season.
The second of these former starters now coming off the bench is 6'3" guard Kris Wooten (#10). A fellow sophomore, Wooten has seen the most minutes of all bench players thus far this season. Averaging twenty minutes a game, Wooten is shooting 40% from the field, up from 37% last season on more shots per game, and also shooting 38.9% from three on the second-most shots from distance (18) on the team. He hit 43 threes last season and is, in fact, the leading returning three-point attempter. He is averaging 7.7 points and two rebounds this season which, when combined with the improvements in shooting percentage, makes for a great start to the season. He was only two-for-eight from three against Georgia Tech but scored eight points coming off a five-for-eight from three, fifteen-point performance against Milligan. He is a quality option off the bench in the backcourt and will likely play decent minutes, especially if his shot is falling.
Andy Pack (#21) is another sophomore who comes off the bench and plays significant minutes. The 6'4" guard played an important role as a freshman off the bench but has seen his minutes make a slight jump to the tune of five minutes per game in these early stages. Pack is, like Hannah, a bench option that comes in and is a bit more sturdy, weighing in at 200 pounds. He shot 57 threes to 32 twos last season, but Pack is a good driver that can supplement his drives with outside looks. He shot 35.1% from three last season and 43.8% from two. This year he is off to a slower start, however, going just three-for-sixteen (18.8%) from the field with two-for-eleven from two and one-for-five from three being the breakdown. He is averaging 3.3 points and 3.7 rebounds in the early goings of the season, coming off a 3.5 point and 1.9 rebounds per game freshman year. He is a bench piece to watch and see how much and how well he will contribute.
Rounding out the four key bench players for Elon is freshman Zac Ervin (#14). Ervin is a 6'5" player who is yet another combo-player that is built to play on the wing. Ervin, thanks to a pair of solid performances against the non-D1 opponents, is off to a good start with an eight-point per game average. He is 215 pounds and can use his frame to get to the rim, but as a freshman, it seems that the focus will be on using him as someone to get in and take quality looks from three. He has taken fourteen of his eighteen shots from three and six of those have gone in. While all six have been against the non-D1 schools (he was zero-for-three from three against Georgia Tech) this is a valuable season of experience to get fifteen-to-twenty minutes per game.
Pre-Game Thoughts:
Games against new coaches are always a bit tougher to gameplan for. Schrage, with his experience at Ohio State, has a bit of familiarity with Michigan's roster, but Juwan Howard as Michigan's new coach means they will see a new gameplan. The keys to this game seems to be able to go two-fold. First and foremost, Michigan will want to stop Marcus Sheffield. He was the key dangerman against Georgia Tech finishing as the only Phoenix in double-figures with twelve. You can let him 'have his', so-to-speak, like the Yellow Jackets did, though, and still, get a win. That takes us to the second key, winning the battle inside. Federico Poser has been off to a nice start, but will still be undersized when compared to Jon Teske. Simon Wright can also stretch the floor or go down low, which will need to be prevented too. It will be interesting to see what Michigan can come up with to counter the strengths that Elon has to offer.
Follow me on Twitter @RMAB_Ryan for plenty more college basketball coverage, as well as AFC Ann Arbor and Liverpool FC coverage as well!
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