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Two teams that began the season with high expectations face off at the Crisler Center, as the SMU Mustangs from the AAC take on the Michigan Wolverines from the Big 10 at 12 PM ET on Saturday, Dec. 20, on ESPN2.
The Mustangs began the season 2 – 3, but have pulled off a run of five straight wins to save their season heading into conference play. SMU has the talent to make a deep 2015 NCAA Tournament run, but hasn’t been able to pull it all together against tough opposition. The game against the Wolverines will be a chance to get a big resume boosting win and avoid an extremely disappointing non-conference run.
Michigan began the season 6 – 1, but have fallen to 6 – 4 after three straight losses that includes upsets to NJIT and Eastern Michigan, and a blowout loss to Arizona. The Wolverines are firmly on the outside looking into the 2015 NCAA Tournament and need to win against SMU or they might be facing several must-win scenarios against upper-level Big 10 opponents like Ohio State and Wisconsin.
This match-up is about as close to an NCAA Tournament play-in game for these two teams as it can get, and it’s not anywhere near the more difficult portions of either teams’ schedules.
However, Michigan is spiraling downward at the moment and don’t have any players next to Caris LeVert and Zak Irvin who can put up double digit scoring game-in and game-out. SMU is slowly figuring things out, but still looks shaky at times. Expect this game to go either way depending on whichever team rebounds better, but I predict an SMU win.
Prediction: SMU 71, Michigan 67
Taylor Sturm is a Featured Basketball Writer for www.RantSports.com. Follow him on Twitter @TSturmRS, like him on Facebook or add him to your network on Google.
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