Tarris Reed discusses advantage of playing alongside Hunter Dickinson

Michigan men’s basketball has started to show off a bigger line up with center Hunter Dickinson and power forward/center Tarris Reed on the court as of late. It’s something Michigan hasn’t leaned into until now, but with Reed more experienced by the game and a thin guard rotation, it makes sense.

And Reed thinks it’s going to provide Michigan plenty of benefits. On offense, he and Dickinson have the ability to work confidently out of the low post — and Dickinson has proven range as a spot-up shooter. Defensively, a lot of the benefit is obvious by playing two players taller than 6-foot-10.

“Definitely in the low post rebounding, defensively. Like I said, I’m able to switch and guard the one through five. Make up for other peoples defensive mistakes — especially shot blocking,” Reed said. “Shot blocking is going to be big, rebounding, and on the offensive side down low, we’re going to be a handful.”

It’s taken a while to get to playing Reed and Dickinson in tandem, but the recent stats back up the usage and show it’s likely to stay.

In the past five games, the lineup with Reed and Dickinson on the court together is the second most used lineup by the Wolverines, on the court 7.5% of the time. The only lineup on the court more is the starting five, which plays a vast plurality of the minutes: 38.6%.

If it keeps working, the Reed and Dickinson pairing will likely get more and more time on the floor.

“I knew it was eventually going to come. I didn’t know it was going to be so soon. It was fun have two bigs out there, me and Hunt, for the first time,” Reed said. “I know there were some ups and downs, of course. It was our first time. But, overall I’m looking forward to doing it again later in the season.”