RTC Live: Michigan @ Utah
Posted by rtmsf on December 9th, 2009
Tonight RTC Live comes back to the Huntsman Center for a showdown between Michigan and Utah. Michigan is 4-3 so far in Head Coach John Beilein’s 3rd season and is still looking for a couple of good resume-building wins in the non-conference. The Wolverines’ four wins have come against some creampuffs (Average RPI: 209) and their three losses have come against some pretty good teams (Average RPI: 73). UM is led by junior forward Manny Harris who is your prototypical stat sheet stuffer. Harris leads the Wolverines in points (21.1 PPG, which is also in the top 20 nationally), rebounds (8.7), assists (5.4), and steals (2.0). On the other side of the coin, Utah is looking for some consistency. The Utes have pretty good wins against Utah State (in a previous RTC Live game) and in Las Vegas against Illinois, but also lost to D-1 newbie Seattle at home and to Weber State on the road. The Utes get it done with a lot of players (six players average at least 7 PPG) but the man to watch is Carlon Brown. Brown isn’t shy when it comes to shooting (11.5 attempts a game) but hasn’t shot the ball well so far this season (37%, down from 45% last year). Utes coach Jim Boylen used to routinely beat Michigan while working as an assistant under Tom Izzo at Michigan State, will he be able to continue the trend with Utah?
