Michigan vs. Wisconsin B-Ball Snowflakes and Post Game Open Thread

Submitted by Mr. Yost on

Wisconsin I and Indiana II were disappointing ENDINGS. This was flat out a disappointing EFFORT.

(Slight Mod Edit - condensing snowflakes to one thread. This thread had more replies and discussion, but M-Wolverine won the "thread title" contest. LSA)

Naked Bootlegger

March 15th, 2013 at 5:03 PM ^

Devil's advocate...Trey average 7 assists per game.   He gets people involved.   His assist rate would be even higher if we could take care of finishing at the rim.   Not sure how removing 20 points and 7 assists will make us better.   You better hope we get exponential development from other players (which is completely possible), or the incoming freshmen are even better than this year's crop (also possible).

taistreetsmyhero

March 15th, 2013 at 5:11 PM ^

true, he gets everyone involved, and i don't think that burke is a similar player to manny at all (just brought that up because d-mo was an example of a player who was shadowed by a high usage player his first year, then made "the leap" his second year).

but our team is 100% reliant on burke for everything--scoring, assists, kinda leadership. next year, if we spread the offensive emphasis around more, we will possibly be a more steady and reliable team.

and you have to assume that at least a couple of the freshmen get better at defense and rebounding, because they can't really get worse.

randyfloyd

March 15th, 2013 at 4:52 PM ^

Has a Michigan team, coached by Beilein, ever made it out of the second round of a fucking tournament? (As I wrote this Michigan missed 9 more shots)

Muttley

March 15th, 2013 at 5:09 PM ^

Michigan making it to the 2nd NCAA round involved first round upsets, and then near second-round upsets of Oklahoma & Duke.

Way too negative on Beilein.  I get the frustration, but we don't have to take it out on the guy who resurrected the program from NIT-ball.

TWSWBC

March 15th, 2013 at 4:52 PM ^

Where is the offensive wizardry from Coach B? Why do we not run any plays? Pretty much everyone associated with the team has regressed in one way or another except for Mitch and Burke. If we make it out of the first weekend it will be a miracle.

Only guys that play hard should see the floor from here on out. McGary, Burke, and Albrecht. I'd rather lose playing 5 on 3 than putting zombies like GRIII and Morgan on the court.

Ponypie

March 15th, 2013 at 4:52 PM ^

... but I really have to blame myself for having unrealistic expectations. This is a team that should never have been ranked #1; does pretty much the same thing every game that it loses; has regressed over the course of a season; is easily exploitable inside; shows long stretches of minimal effort - and on it goes. These are the facts and, despite what I've seen for the past couple of months, I have yet to capitulate to them.

If we go beyond the second round, I will be pleasantly surprised - pretty shocked, in fact, unless the draw is highly favorable.

A Lot of Milk

March 15th, 2013 at 4:53 PM ^

Look, no one is going to want to hear this. But, we hired Beilein to get us out of the basement, to make us a respectable team and an attractive location for recruits. He did that. When he was hired I don't think anybody thought that we would at one point be ranked as the number one team in the country, but he did that. Michigan couldn't get a talented coach to take over Amaker's mess but we were blessed with John Beilein to make us attractive to top players and coaches. Beilein over performed at Michigan, he won us a B1G title and made some NCAA tournament appearances. I feel like Beilein helped bridge the gap from conference joke to national contender. But now I think Michigan needs to take that final leap forward. We need a coach with proven tournament success and a stable offensive and defensive scheme. I feel like Dave Brandon really needs to take a run at Brad Stevens. Obviously, he would be a huge get and Michigan needs a young coach with his whole career ahead of him. It was probably a poor idea to write this after a deflating loss, but it needed to be said. I hope John proves me wrong and makes it to the Final Four, but I think it's about time to start planning for the future. As always, GO BLUE!

ppudge

March 15th, 2013 at 4:57 PM ^

The problem is that Stevens loves Butler and has little to no pressure after getting to 2 national championship games. He doesn't need Michigan and what can we offer him that he doesn't have at Butler? Plus, if we get rid of a coach that has done this much for us, why would anyone want to leave a perfectly stable situation to come here? "Look, Coach B had them on the top 10 all year and they ran him off. Let me sign up for that!" It'll never happen. We need to appreciate what we have - Coach B is a good coach - and maybe temper our expectations just a little.

A Lot of Milk

March 15th, 2013 at 5:02 PM ^

I mean he doesn't have much time as a coach left. Honestly, I believe he has 5 years max before he wants to retire. Calling up Stevens now to say we're interested can't hurt. Stevens is young and I think at some point he's gonna want to make a jump to a major conference. Why not Michigan?

jvarg1

March 15th, 2013 at 5:08 PM ^

Just posted the same thoughts coach b has done his job. But it is now time for home to move on. We still don't have an outright big ten championship, we have plenty of dismal big ten tourneys , big game loss' and poor NCAA tourneys . What don't you get? he can not motivate his players. It's sad but true it's time for John to say goodbye

A Lot of Milk

March 15th, 2013 at 5:07 PM ^

All I'm saying is that this is as far is going to get. We can spend the next 5 years treading water, or we can try to use that time wisely. The fact that he hasn't gotten out of the second round of any postseason tournament in his time year, is a pretty good indication of how his teams have plateaued.

A Lot of Milk

March 15th, 2013 at 5:32 PM ^

What did we have last year? Talent = Buke and Hardaway. Experience = Novak and Stu. What happened? We got blown out second round of the B1G tourney and upset in first round of NCAA tourney. Also, college basketball isn't like college football. Kids don't wanna hang around and learn how to play together. They want to show off and get to the NBA. Somehow, you've got to coach around that. Players are gonna leave as soon as they can and that is why it is so important for coaches to teach these kids how to play effectively. Beilein's system isn't made for young players, like it should be, it's made for teams that have 5 starting seniors and that is just not what college basketball is anymore.

enlightenedbum

March 15th, 2013 at 5:46 PM ^

One NBA lock as a freshman and a fringe NBA player is not the kind of talent I'm talking about.  This team is closer to that kind of talent, but exactly one of whom is an upper classman.  And we've got no seniors or people who had to take a leadership role before, because Novak was there to do it for them.  It takes time to learn to lead, in addition to the inclination.  As Novak, for example, has said, repeatedly.

Assuming everyone but Burke stays, and we see the same results next year (in addition to next month; getting out of the Big Ten will help us a LOT) when we add even more highly regarded talent, then you can start to complain.

Magnus

March 15th, 2013 at 6:22 PM ^

Hahahahaha!  Really?  Did you really think Douglass and Novak would be part of a team that could make a deep run?  Novak was a 6'4" power forward/small forward!  Douglass was just a guy!

"Experience" doesn't just mean an old guy.  You have to have guys who are old and have a little bit of talent.  I hate to knock a guy like Novak, but let's be realistic.  Anything we achieved with him as a starter was overachieving.

jmblue

March 15th, 2013 at 6:27 PM ^

The fact that he hasn't gotten out of the second round of any postseason tournament in his time year, is a pretty good indication of how his teams have plateaued.
What about the fact that he took WVU to the Elite Eight, the Sweet 16 and the NIT championship in three straight years? Before last year, Beilein's teams had outperformed their seed expectation in every postseason he'd been to for about a decade.

A Lot of Milk

March 15th, 2013 at 5:22 PM ^

Do you want to stay in the same place for 5 years just to honor a coach who took us from being the worst team in the B1G to an early tournament dropout? Look, if the team was just having a difficult year and we were underperforming then obviously I wouldn't call for Beilein's head, but this team has accomplished the same thing for the last 4 years: top half of B1G, early B1G tournament exit, early NCAA tourney exit. Good regular seasons don't mean squat if you lose early in the tournaments. I know we have the talent to be a final four team, but I don't think the coaching is there.

Magnus

March 15th, 2013 at 5:27 PM ^

If you think the team is in the same place it has been for the past three years, you're mistaken. Just because they lost to Wisconsin the afternoon after beating PSU in the Big Ten Tournament doesn't mean they're stagnant.  I mean, they were the #6 team in the country before this game and hit #1 earlier in the season.

Some of you people are going to be pissed off if Michigan doesn't win the national championship every year, even though there are 300+ teams vying for the same goal.

Michigan sucked for a while. They're working their way up.  It doesn't happen overnight. Recalibrate your expectations.

taistreetsmyhero

March 15th, 2013 at 5:30 PM ^

one other problem that is still too early to call a trend is that we are getting unlucky with the talent level of our players.

kentucky is all about 1 and dones. they get players who dominate in college for one year, then go get drafted in the first round.

msu is all about getting college basketball players who stay 4 years and excel as upper classmen.

michigan? we seem to be getting players that are in between. d-mo maximized his nba potential, but would never be a 1st rounder. it seems thj is the same as him. gr3 has time to improve but may leave after next year and follow this mold. burke is weird in that he is poy level player but isn't a lock to be an nba star (could have same career arc as derrick williams).

i don't think our current model is sustainable. players who could move us towards msu:  stauskas, mcgary, and maybe levert. 

taistreetsmyhero

March 15th, 2013 at 5:17 PM ^

Beilein's philosophy is tailor-made for taking a group of medicore level players and coaching them up to overachieve. He was THE PERFECT coach for taking us out of the darkness.

But I just don't see how anyone could predict that Beilein could produce a team that plays good defense and gets rebounds. Has he ever coached a team with a top 25 defense before? No.

I know that his job is safe for as long as he wants it, but I think we are destined to be a frustratingly soft team for as long as he coaches here.

cp4three2

March 15th, 2013 at 4:58 PM ^

We should play a weak 13 or a 14 seed and then beat whomever we have next because it'll be a middling Big East/ACC/Pac 12 team. 

The team just isn't that tough. Eventually they'll play a team that will punch them in the mouth and back down, give up O rebounds, and jack threes and hope they go in.

Gitback

March 15th, 2013 at 4:59 PM ^

This has probably been suggested before, but I'd really like to see TWO threads started after games, a RANT thread and a SERIOUS DISCUSSION thread.  That way all of you DB's who are bagging on these kids now (but LOVED them all after the OSU and MSU wins) can have your own little place to be pathetic reactionists while the rest of us actually have a place to voice rational critique and discussion.  This would allow the mods to simply direct RANTERS to the RANT thread when they take the time to post how they "don't have time to watch" losers, instead of handing out down votes and deleting comments and all that.  

There are so many good questions and comments in these threads, but they get drowned out by the noise coming from the kiddie table.  Let's give the kiddie table their own thread.

MichiganMan2424

March 15th, 2013 at 4:59 PM ^

Fuck this team so hard, I'm tired of their cocky bullshit. Learn to play some fucking defense, team as a whole, but specifically talking to you Glenn Robinson/Nik Stauskas. And learn to make some playups Jordan Morgan. Morgan is really getting on my fucking nerves lately, but I've never disliked a player as much as I dislike Glenn Robinson right now. Kid's a spoiled brat who is using Michigan as a 1 year stepping stone to the NBA and he couldn't care less how the team does.