When John Beilein left West Virginia to coach at Michigan, everybody talked about him as a master of X's and O's. His players compare his mind to a computer, churning out thousands of plays without pen and paper.

When Todd Lickliter left Butler for Iowa, everybody talked about his team's passion on defense. His players said that leading up to the season, defense was about all they worked on.

The two coaches, both in their first year at new schools, will clash tomorrow night at 7:00 p.m. when their squads square off at Crisler Arena.

Michigan's offensive style is different from anything else Iowa will see in the Big Ten this season. Beilein's offense is a custom version of the Princeton Offense that keeps his players on the perimeter. As Oakland coach Greg Kampe said about matching up against the Wolverines, "It's the only game all year when our 6-10, 6-11 guys are going to be guarding at the 3-point line."

In the conference season, when teams have just a few days between games, Beilein's offense requires a coach to spend a large amount of time on game preparation.

But because Beilein's players don't have the skill set to match his schemes, Big Ten teams haven't had trouble stopping the Wolverines. Illinois coach Bruce Weber said he spent extra time preparing for Michigan - and it paid off.

Against Beilein's uncommon 1-3-1 and other zone defenses, the Illini got the ball inside to big men Shaun Pruitt and Brian Randle, who had a size advantage over the Wolverines (1-5 Big Ten, 5-12 overall). The strategy proved sound, as the duo combined for 38 points in Wednesday night's 18-point Illinois win.

On defense, the Illini held Michigan's leading scorer, freshman Manny Harris, to a career-low five points.

The Hawkeye defense could be equally stifling tomorrow. At home against then-No. 6 Michigan State last Saturday, Iowa held the Spartans to a post-Sputnik-low 36 points - the team's lowest scoring total since the 1950s. In an 11-minute conversation on the Big Ten Media Teleconference, Lickliter described the performance as, "defense with a purpose."

But just a few nights later, in a loss at home to Purdue, the Hawkeyes (1-4, 8-10) allowed 67 points.

Injury update: Senior Ron Coleman returned to action Wednesday night after sitting out the Northwestern game due to a sprained ankle.

The senior checked into the game for the first time with less than 10 minutes to go in the first frame but was held scoreless.

"It's been a tough week for him," senior David Merritt said. "But it lifts the team up just to see him."

Coleman said his ankle was all right, but sounded unsure about what lies ahead.

"We still have a lot of work to do on it," Coleman said. "So we'll see what happens."

- Sports Editor H. Jose Bosch contributed to this report.