December 14th, 2013 at 2:14 PM ^
Snowflakes thread? I see what you did there.
December 14th, 2013 at 2:15 PM ^
Time to stop considering GRIII a star. Disappeared. Again.
December 14th, 2013 at 2:17 PM ^
December 14th, 2013 at 2:26 PM ^
Maybe I should change my post to say he went quiet, rather than disappeared. Would save me some down votes!
December 14th, 2013 at 2:32 PM ^
Hey, its a game of two halves. UM needs him to play the way he did in the first half for the entire game. Maybe disappeared is to harsh, but after a loss when you had the lead for most of the game, maybe not. He has struggle all year so far, and played much better overall today. But, UM needs him to improve if they are going to try and get back to an elite level. This will be a different team as March approaches.
December 14th, 2013 at 3:08 PM ^
strong rebounders. He is a shooters coach and against top teams unless his shooters are hot he will find it diffcult to win. Arizona had 9 offensive rebounds in the first half and only got two points from those rebounds. In the second half, they scored much better off their rebounds.
The great Marquette coach said to win NC you need an aircraft carrier in the center. Right now McGarry caanot do it on his own.
December 15th, 2013 at 12:16 AM ^
Rebounding bothers me too. I understand it's not a big part of how Coach Beilein coaches, but gosh darn it hurt to see Arizona getting 2nd and 3rd and 4th chances and UM hardly ever did! We were lucky they weren't making those shots in the first half, we could have been down by 10 at least at the half.
December 14th, 2013 at 3:40 PM ^
The troubling thing about GRIII is when things aren't going his way on offense, like in the second half today, there's a noticeable decline in the effort on defense. There were several instances in the second half when he looked disinterested on the defensive side of the floor- especially noticeable with his blocking out.
December 14th, 2013 at 2:18 PM ^
That's not really how it works. LeVert and Stauskas took over the offense in the second half. There's only one ball to go around and GR3 doesn't get to start the offense.
December 14th, 2013 at 2:22 PM ^
GRIII put up 20 on a quality opponent and helped put Michigan in a position to win. Not any one player's fault.
That sort of reasoning is ridiculous.
December 14th, 2013 at 2:33 PM ^
December 14th, 2013 at 2:28 PM ^
December 14th, 2013 at 2:14 PM ^
Beilein killed us by never playing McGary and Horford together. Just a terrible move when you're getting KILLED on the boards and the other team is making an effort to get the ball inside.
Stauskas killed us by trying to be the hero every time he touched the ball in the last 2 minutes.
Duke, I can take...that was on the road, the refs were awful, we looked like deer in the headlights.
We should've won this game, no question.
December 14th, 2013 at 2:16 PM ^
December 14th, 2013 at 2:20 PM ^
December 14th, 2013 at 2:30 PM ^
December 14th, 2013 at 2:41 PM ^
December 14th, 2013 at 2:44 PM ^
December 15th, 2013 at 1:08 AM ^
I really think their best possible lineup is
LaVert/Stauskas/GRIII/McGary/Horford
I think they would be fantastic on defense. LaVert and Stauskas tend to be liabilities on defense sometimes but they are almost always tasked with guarding bigger players. I think in this lineup we would be great defensively, great on the boards, and still have enough ballhandling and passing at 1-4 positions to have an efficient offense.
Albrecht is the perfect 6th man also. He thrives in big moments, brings great energy off the bench, and he can manage a lead, manage the shot clock, etc.
December 14th, 2013 at 2:15 PM ^
I can't really be upset with this team, they are young and will just get better throughout the year. Heck they already looked significantly improved from the Puerto Rico tournament. Just hate the foul on McGary, but that was a legitimate number one team.
December 14th, 2013 at 3:34 PM ^
this was a tremendous game to watch. Both teams very classy, hard working kids. Both coaches as well. It's always tough to lose, especially a game that you could have won. But, I'm proud of my Michigan team and love to watch them play, win or lose. I love the way Beilein coaches, and isn't a loud mouth or foul mouth. Very proud, hurts to lose, very proud.
December 14th, 2013 at 5:32 PM ^
This was so well said. Beilein's demeanor is great. More and more kids are seeing this, too. That and his ability to develop players will keep paying dividends.
December 15th, 2013 at 12:10 AM ^
I still think we should have/could have won, but I was proud of how the team played and I hope they learn some lessons from this game.
December 14th, 2013 at 2:15 PM ^
I am so sick of this shit. Period.
This year sucks so badly.
December 14th, 2013 at 2:20 PM ^
December 14th, 2013 at 2:24 PM ^
Paps, we have ZERO good non-conference wins. If you're a decent team, you don't choke away 11 point leads at home....
Moral victory, after moral victory, after moral victory...
December 14th, 2013 at 2:27 PM ^
Without a quality run in the B1G and a semi-final appearance (at minimum) we're looking at a 9 seed.
December 14th, 2013 at 4:47 PM ^
December 14th, 2013 at 5:06 PM ^
Not disagreeing with you that there is a lot of season to go and I don't perceive myself among the torch and pitchfork set. Realistically, Michigan's best non-con win is Florida State to this point so without a quality performance through the B1G sched would probably lead to this type of seed.
December 14th, 2013 at 2:29 PM ^
When Michigan came out with no good OOC wins in the year they didn't make the tournament under Bielien when they had Manny Harris and Sims, it was obvious they were undersized and overmatched. I don't get the same feel of the team this year. I think the pieces are there, and as good a coach Bielien is, (finally a Michigan coach with a track record we can trust) I think we will rebound with a nice win over Standford, and set our sights on Big Ten play
December 14th, 2013 at 2:35 PM ^
FSU's three losses are to Michigan (by 2 points), at Florida (by 1) and at Minnesota. They may yet be a good team.
December 14th, 2013 at 2:41 PM ^
I'm not writing off the season or anything.
I think this team has the potential to put it all together, but it's just a frustrating process, I guess.
I don't really know what my expectations are for the season anymore. There are some super encouraging runs every now and then, and if the team puts it together, I could see them making a Sweet 16 type run....
December 14th, 2013 at 2:15 PM ^
December 14th, 2013 at 2:53 PM ^
Michigan is breaking in two freshmen in the backcourt. They lost the player of the year in Burke and a second guy in Hardaway to the first round of the NBA draft. Even Kentucky, with all their one and dones, can't expect freshmen to mesh immediately with the rest of the team.
If you think about it, both MSU with Izzo and Duke with Coach K schedule lots of difficult OOC games, which helps them finish strong in the conference, and also in the NCAA's.
I'd much rather have the losses now, and play stronger in the Big 10 and in the NCAA, than have a perfect record now and falter later.
December 14th, 2013 at 4:51 PM ^
December 14th, 2013 at 3:02 PM ^
are all doing it just to screw with you. What did you do to make them all so mad at you?
December 14th, 2013 at 4:49 PM ^
I don't know what it was, but it was a very, very bad thing.
And this whole screwing with me thing, whoever is behind it, well, it's working like a charm.
December 14th, 2013 at 3:30 PM ^
December 14th, 2013 at 2:16 PM ^
If there is a bright side, non conferance bball games are pretty useless in the long run
December 14th, 2013 at 2:19 PM ^
December 14th, 2013 at 2:22 PM ^
December 14th, 2013 at 2:25 PM ^
Yeah, I can remember a bunch of seasons where Sparty was like 7-4 at Christmas because they played a ridiculous schedule and then won like 13+ Big Ten games. Team is improving by seeing all these teams.
December 14th, 2013 at 2:16 PM ^
BOX OUT!!!!!
December 14th, 2013 at 2:17 PM ^
Fuck that fucking bullshit touch foul. There are my snowflakes.
We're fine. Playing two bigs is basically playing into Arizona's style and clogging our offense. I'd rather risk it the way Beilein did. If we don't get a bullshit foul called on us, we're shooting free throws to beat #1.
December 14th, 2013 at 2:22 PM ^
I am with you here. Often I see people on this board talk about "one call shouldn't beat you, play better" or some such comments.
In this case, I feel that it is pretty obvious that one incredibly questionable foul call changed the outcome of this game. Can't blame the players, they played well enough to beat #1.
December 14th, 2013 at 2:31 PM ^
The foul call was obviously bad, but so was the OOB play on the previous possession that clearly went off McGary. I'm not really in the business of blaming the refs most of the time, when it's so easy to look over the game and pick out bad calls for both sides.
December 14th, 2013 at 2:56 PM ^
I certainly see where you are coming from. To me, the difference here is that the ball went out of bounds. Someone had to make a call, and maybe no ref had a good angle. I can get that kind of call, because there was no option to swallow the whistle if you arent positive that you saw something.
But to blow your whistle and stop play when you dont have to, to me, makes it a bit less excusable.
December 14th, 2013 at 7:42 PM ^
when the shot clock is running down and there is less than 1 minute to play. That call and the 2 free throws changed the entire strategy at the end of the game. Yeah - they missed the one off McGary, but NS was called for a charge that was an obviously block too.
In close games the fers need to swallow their whistles ...
Go Blue!