San Diego Mick

January 7th, 2024 at 1:47 PM ^

I just came here from my Lions' thread on Maize n Brew to say that get ready for another loss after leading by double digits for most of the 1st half, this is so pathetic.

Joined: 05/11/2011

MGoPoints: 51067

bronxblue

January 7th, 2024 at 1:48 PM ^

Yeah, this team has absolutely lost the will to win another game, it seems.  I don't know what happened to them from even a month ago but there's no reason they should be losing a game like this against PSU.  Just dreadful.

Joined: 11/22/2008

MGoPoints: 172170

NJblue2

January 7th, 2024 at 1:51 PM ^

I think a lot of people expected them to be this bad. I couldn't see a way that they don't finish in the bottom 4 of the conference even before the season. They're just a badly coached team with even less talent than last year to raise their floor.

Joined: 08/08/2010

MGoPoints: 30996

bronxblue

January 7th, 2024 at 2:02 PM ^

I never expected them to be the worst team in the conference, which they are.  I assumed they'd be a grinding, defensive-focused team that maybe snuck onto the bubble if things broke right.  Instead they're an all-offense, no-defense outfit that can't hold onto the ball to save their lives.  They have more talent, on paper at least, than PSU, Minnesota, Rutgers, and arguably Maryland and Iowa and yet are significantly behind all of those teams even with the win over the Hawkeyes.  I get that this isn't good defensive coaching but you see that offense make strides and yet the defense has fallen off a cliff even compared to last year.  

I've been a big proponent of Howard as a coach but this losing streak is just awful and I can't imagine there's a way out of this nosedive.

Joined: 11/22/2008

MGoPoints: 172170

NJblue2

January 7th, 2024 at 1:48 PM ^

I pray Dug doesn't transfer at the end of the year, but I feel like there's no way he stays. He's way too good to be on a team this bad with no direction. 

He hasn't played great the last couple of games but he's the only fun part of watching this team.

Joined: 08/08/2010

MGoPoints: 30996

NJblue2

January 7th, 2024 at 1:59 PM ^

They just happened to shoot incredibly well in the beginning of the season, that was all. It wasn't sustainable since almost every player on the roster is not a good shooter. They were relying on Dug lighting it up from 3 and other players doing the same. Now they're an average-ish shooting team and all their other problems remain.

Joined: 08/08/2010

MGoPoints: 30996

mtzlblk

January 7th, 2024 at 1:56 PM ^

This team is so hard to watch sometimes, because they fall prey to such solvable problems. 

Honest question, Belein is still around and even if you don't want to consult him directly, his team for a decade before was the poster child of no turnovers and decent/great defense (yes, Yaklich....I know), is there no way to tap into that? I mean.... Ask somebody how they accomplished that? Watch the film? Anything?

Even in the first part of the first half when Michigan was up by 13, I'm watching it and thinking this has nothing to do with how Michigan is playing, it's just Penn State missing shots they should make and not sustainable. Here we are down 6 against Michigan and looking completely terrible.

Joined: 01/20/2009

MGoPoints: 5049

mtzlblk

January 7th, 2024 at 2:10 PM ^

Seems like a dumb approach to me, go ahead and neg all you want I couldn't give a shit.

I run startups for a living and if I had a team that was completely unable to effectively develop code that was bug free because they sucked at QA and I had a friendly ex colleague in the same building who was a master at QA, I would have that person on the phone and or in the building within a week. This goes triple if my job and career basically depended on it, which it probably would. 

I'm not trying to say Beilein would be a great coach right now I don't think he would. The game has changed and he was already fading when he left, so in no way am I going to purport that he would come back and save the program as a full-time head coach. But a conversation about good ways to make a team better at not turning over the ball seems like a pretty fucking good idea to me. I mean, I'm watching the game......the season. There is a resource there why not use it?

Joined: 01/20/2009

MGoPoints: 5049

Hensons Mobile…

January 7th, 2024 at 2:22 PM ^

What exactly do you think he's going to be able to do? He built a program through scouting, team chemistry, a very specific style of offense that he implemented through a practice regimen that people thought was silly due to its focus on the basics and fundamentals, yet it led to incredible discipline on offense and then also ended up translating into great discipline on defense.

There is nothing, literally nothing, that can be copied by Howard at this point.

Joined: 09/12/2019

MGoPoints: 50362

mtzlblk

January 7th, 2024 at 2:39 PM ^

First of all..... I never used the word "program" and wouldn't expect any sweeping giant changes...... I'm talking specifically turnovers.

So focusing on turnovers, you can't tell me that a coach that consistently had the lowest turnover rates talking with a coach that has one of the highest rates doesn't have anything valuable to offer. Especially when it was a strategy that he came to over time and didn't start out with day one. He changed something to become good at not giving away the ball. What was that?

What drills or things did you do in practice that helped cut down on turnovers? The answer to that question is valuable.

How did you adjust your offensive sets to make them less vulnerable to turnovers? The answer to that question is valuable.

How did you work with players to foster a mentality that helped them to focus on not doing things that turn over the ball? The answer to that question is valuable.

Are there any other things that you and your team did to help produce the actual turnover results that you had? The answer to that question is valuable.

These are things the current team has no clue about. These are things that Belien clearly did have a clue about.

A one to two hour conversation about these things, perhaps a few hours at a practice demonstrating or working through a few drills or adjustments has a s*** ton of value, sorry to say.

I mean, there's really nothing to lose, and everything to gain here as even a minor uptick in the turnover rate would actually benefit this team in a big way. 

What's the downside?

Joined: 01/20/2009

MGoPoints: 5049

HarBooYa

January 7th, 2024 at 2:03 PM ^

This is exactly it.  We are not up tempo or move the ball in sets that quick.   We just attempt ill advised passes and our guys movement without the ball is awful.  Some personnel issues, but that is coaching when it’s so consistent season after season.  

Joined: 06/22/2011

MGoPoints: 3168

NewBlue7977

January 7th, 2024 at 2:14 PM ^

Whether Howard is coaching or not, this is his team that he put together.  This is season 5 as the head coach and the team is getting worse each year since his second season.  Warde should make the decision to relieve him from being the coach after the season.  I understand Warde gave Harbaugh some time, but Harbaugh's teams were never this bad in his first 5 years.  Covid year is irregular and shouldn't count.  If you take away the Covid year, Harbaugh's worst record as Michigan's coach is 8-5.  This Michigan basketball team will not finish 500 unless a miracle happens. 

Joined: 04/25/2018

MGoPoints: 3342