M Basketball Snowflakes
Jones and Houstan need to have their minutes cut down for Collins and/or Bufkin/TWill. They’re both mental cases atm.
Hunter played a soft game tonight. Needs a bigger role in taking over the game despite not hitting outside shots.
Eli is doing Eli things, but he can’t carry this team night in and out.
Juwan is replacing 3 NBA players and a grad student PG in the best way you can ask aka recruiting the #1 class in the nation. Jones doesn’t seem to be the player Smith was unfortunately, but he has the pedigree. Houstan was supposed to be a shooter. I don’t see anything wrong with how Juwan approached his roster management. Most of these kids will be 2-3 year players with an occasional 1 and done. They’re just young.
November 22nd, 2021 at 9:48 AM ^
I am hoping Houstan's struggles shooting the ball are because he is just cold right now. The guy is supposed to be an elite shooter and a top 10 recruit because of it. I have to believe that he is going to come to form soon.
November 22nd, 2021 at 11:12 AM ^
If you have athletic cutters who can slice to the basket and finish at the rim. You can negate the double-teams in the post. The Lakers cut a 15 point deficit against the Pistons almost entirely with AD in the Mid-Post and Russ cutting to the basket when Detroit came to trap! Shooters would help as well…but better athletes would be perfect too!
November 22nd, 2021 at 7:24 AM ^
I think I'm most frustrated with the defense. Some of it is "freshman being freshman" but a lot of it is effort and there doesn't seem to be a lot of it. These guys are going to grow and by years end I do believe they will be a good team but there is a lot of work to be done and a good portion is mentality, effort, and focus.
November 22nd, 2021 at 7:54 AM ^
Definitely unrealistic expectations for this team coming into the season. Some of that was fueled by the media because they love to see Michigan fail. Need to turn things around quick or Michigan will miss the tournament.
November 22nd, 2021 at 11:15 AM ^
…Or it was fueled by Michigan returning 2 really good starters(1 a preseason All-American) & the #1 recruiting class in America.
November 22nd, 2021 at 8:14 AM ^
at least no one is calling for Howard to be fired, although another two losses and someone will....
November 22nd, 2021 at 8:25 AM ^
The Michigan coaching staff has a lot of work to do. Early signs for this Michigan team are not good.
Before last night, Arizona was unranked in the AP Poll; Michigan was ranked fourth. I don't know how far Michigan will fall in the rankings when the new AP Poll is released today, but I wouldn't be surprised by a drop to outside the top 20.
Despite the two losses, Michigan sits SIXTH in the latest kenpom.com rankings. (Michigan, 8th-ranked Villanova and 46th-ranked Clemson are the only two-loss teams in the top 50 of those rankings. Arizona is 20th; Seton Hall is 31st. Upcoming opponent San Diego State is 40th.)
Lacking a reliable point guard and outside shooters and often looking lost on defense, Michigan now sits at the bottom of the Big Ten Men’s Basketball standings, tied with Nebraska at 3-2. (No other Big Ten team has lost more than once.) Michigan's losses are against two currently undefeated teams, Seton Hall (3-0) and Arizona (5-0).
I continue to be reminded that Michigan lost four of the top six scorers from last year’s team (Franz Wagner, Isaiah Livers, Mike Smith and Chaundee Brown) and a significantly improved backup center (Austin Davis) that lost by two to UCLA in the NCAA Elite Eight, and still missing from the current lineup is a 6-5 guard who was expected to be a contributor this year (Zeb Jackson).
Of the nine who played more than three minutes for Michigan last night, there were four freshmen, two sophomores, two graduate students and a senior. The freshmen are not exactly Juwan Howard’s Fab Five.
Of the eight who played more than four minutes for Arizona last night, there were six sophomores, one junior and a sixth-year graduate student who played three years at George Mason and one at Georgia. Two of them, Canadian international Bennedict Mathurin (their second-leading scorer with 16) and Malian international Oumar Ballo (a Gonzaga transfer) played together at the NBA Academy Latin America in Mexico City.
November 22nd, 2021 at 8:57 AM ^
Solid take an analysis here
November 22nd, 2021 at 8:50 AM ^
Plain and simple, this team is not very good right now. They are uber talented but have really lacked a shooting threat thusfar, as many have said. Really missing Livers, Chaundee, Franz and Smith. Emphasis on Smith, as the point guard play has not been good.
This team reminds me of one of Calipari's Kentucky teams. Young and full of 5 stars, but can't ever seem to figure it out until midway through the year.
November 22nd, 2021 at 8:56 AM ^
Free Frankie!
November 22nd, 2021 at 9:01 AM ^
We're obviously a very flawed team but I think last night the jet lag and late games caught up with them. They looked a step slow from the start. That was a tough ask to play another late game after the 330am ending the game before. Scheduling nightmare for a young team .
November 22nd, 2021 at 12:18 PM ^
I guess I’m a little lost right now on Howard’s roster composition. All that I read is that Juwan wants size all over the court and to be athletic and push tempo. This team is the opposite of that. Other than Diabate, nobody else that plays has elite athleticism. We keep recruiting under sized point guards and our wings aren’t that athletic. This roster also can’t shoot to save its life so it really doesn’t have an identity unless it starts to lock in on defense as the year goes along. Frankie is a really good athlete for his size but who else did we recruit that is insanely athletic. Practice videos look like Barnes has bounce but he’s raw, Bufkin, Houstan and Cheddar don’t have it. Throw in Brooks, Hunter, T Will and Johns and you don’t have an overly athletic roster. As of now, neither Houstan or Diabate should go pro, which is a bad thing for us. If we want to do something this year, we need one or both of them to become a consensus five star player. Maybe if they stay for year two we will be better off next year. As I said, I don’t get the roster composition nor the direction of the program as of right now.