Close on two occasions to winning a National Championship as a player at Michigan, Juwan Howard now coaches a Wolverines team capable of winning a title with their season opener on Wednesday’s sports betting calendar against the Buffalo Bulls.
Let’s go ahead and break down the college basketball odds for this one.
Buffalo Bulls vs. Michigan Wolverines
Wednesday, November 10, 2021 – 06:30 PM EST at Crisler Center
Following a trip to the Elite Eight and East Region Finals last March, Michigan begins this campaign ranked No. 6 in the two conventional polls while the Pomeroy ratings have the Wolverines trailing only Gonzaga. Howard’s crew lost to UCLA in that Elite Eight matchup at Lucas Oil Stadium, and the Bruins are the only team other than Gonzaga to draw first-place votes in either the AP or coaches polls.
Gonzaga is also leading the college basketball futures as the team to beat entering the 2021-22 season, with Michigan part of a group that includes UCLA, Villanova, Kansas and others as the squads most likely to once again deny the ‘Zags the championship. Buffalo is part of a trio of schools picked to battle for the Mid-American Conference crown this season, the Bulls’ chief competition coming from Toledo, Akron and Ohio.
Schools Meeting on Hardwood for 1st Time Since 1935
The gap between Michigan and Buffalo is 91 on the KenPom list, and top sportsbooks are also carrying a pretty healthy difference in the spread for Wednesday’s matchup that will be televised by the Big Ten Network. The Wolverines are favored by 15.5 with 150.5 for the total.
Michigan and Buffalo met once before way back in 1935, a 41-20 Wolverines victory. Not much to go on there, so we will look at common opponents from a season ago. The Wolverines squared off against three MAC teams, beating Bowling Green, Ball State and Toledo as part of an 11-0 start. Michigan covered chalk lines in all three games and all three went ‘over’ the betting odds. Those contests were the Wolverines’ first against teams from the MAC since back-to-back games against Eastern Michigan and Central Michigan in December 2012.
Buffalo beat Ball State twice, covering each triumph as the favorite. The Bulls fell twice to Bowling Green and failed to cover either matchup, once as 5.5-point home favorites. Buffalo’s lone meeting with Toledo went to the Rockets 80-70, the Bulls closing as 2-point home chalk in that one.
Bulls’ Williams One of Top Mid-Major Talents
It isn’t easy to replace a coach like Nate Oats, who took the job at Alabama a couple of years ago, but Jim Whitesell has the Bulls pointing in the right direction. The pandemic cost Whitesell and Buffalo a shot at the NCAA Tournament in 2020 when the Bulls won 20, and they wound up in the NIT last season.
Whitesell stresses defense and rebounding, but he’s more than happy to have three of his top four scorers from a year ago back in the fold. That group is headlined by Jeenathen Williams, who led the Bulls with 17.6 ppg last season while pulling down nearly seven boards a game.
Williams is on the early watch list for this year’s Lou Henson Award given annually to the top player from a mid-major conference. Josh Mballa, last year’s MAC Defensive Player of the Year, also returns off a season in which he averaged a double-double (15.3 ppg, 10.8 rpg), and Whitesell is happy to bring in forward Maceo Jack on a transfer from George Washington.
Can Dickinson Build on Freshman Success?
Hard to believe that this is the 30th anniversary of when Howard and his four freshmen compadres thrilled college hoops fans as the Fab 5. Marking the anniversary by taking this group of Wolverines at least to the Final Four would make a great story; winning it all would not only mean a bit of redemption for Howard but also be the first team from the Big Ten to cut down the final nets since Michigan State in 2020.
Losing Isaiah Livers and Franz Wagner won’t be easy holes to fill, but the Wolverines have experience down low in sophomore center Hunter Dickinson and out on the perimeter in senior guard Eli Brooks to help ease those losses. Howard also brought in DeVanté Jones from Coastal Carolina to negate the loss of Mike Smith out on the point, and 5-star recruit Moussa Diabate adds to a very talented frontcourt.
This is a veteran Buffalo team that shouldn’t be intimidated playing in front of a pro-Michigan house. My free college basketball pick will be both defenses keeping the final under the total mark.
NCAAB Pick: Under 150.5 (-109) at GTbets (visit our GTbets Review)
*The line and/or odds on picks in this article might have moved since the content was commissioned. For updated line movements, visit BMR’s free betting odds product.
