Michigan Uconn snowflake thread
We've had teams start bad before and end up good but it is frustrating right now. Some of Beilein's recent recruits are not up to the standard of the championship teams but there's still time. Got to get better on offense, defense, and rebounding.
November 25th, 2015 at 11:35 PM ^
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November 25th, 2015 at 11:38 PM ^
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November 25th, 2015 at 11:48 PM ^
November 26th, 2015 at 11:36 AM ^
November 25th, 2015 at 11:38 PM ^
I expect the team to get better.
Auto Sub needs to end NOW
November 25th, 2015 at 11:43 PM ^
No worries. "Trader Jack" assured me Xavier is awesome because they beat a #13 and #11 seed last year to get to the sweet 16 (just ignore the fact they were 9-9 in their conf and lost to Villanova by 17 the week before the NCAAs). .... and then lost its top player and starting PG but became much better over the summer. They are a "great team.
And this UConn team that went to the NIT year will be a Final 4 team in his eyes.
So we are just losing because we are playing Elite 8 teams. Just ask him.
Lots of denial in Xavier post game by some peeps - see no evil, hear no evil.
http://mgoblog.com/content/xavier-86-michigan-70
By the way our 5 star Kam played 2 whole minutes tonight.
Donnal 0 minutes.
Its called 2 years of recruiting misses catching up to you, Walton not being Burke, and Caris playing by himself out there.
On top of all the normal "we dont play defense or rebound".
Next year should be great when the only NBA talent is gone.
6'4 Zack Novak would be the toughest guy on this team. And probably our starting center.
November 25th, 2015 at 11:47 PM ^
November 26th, 2015 at 1:00 AM ^
A lot of people saw this coming.
You can only recruit "diamonds in the rough" for so long until you hit reality without actual talent on the roster (outside of Caris).
Beilein might wanna consider whether Bacari Alexander is worth keeping around... Our centers and bigs have always been soft and plain poor compared to the rest of the team in years past. This year it's an abomination.
November 26th, 2015 at 11:39 AM ^
November 26th, 2015 at 10:50 AM ^
November 25th, 2015 at 11:41 PM ^
November 25th, 2015 at 11:47 PM ^
Neither guy is a plus defender. Not close.
We look so inferior athletically to Xavier and UConn. Like we are a bunch of 17 year olds playing 22 year olds.
Yes it will help the offense. The defense and rebounding issues will continue - there is no fixing the lack of athleticism on this team.
No interior offense - so its just going to be another year of raining 3s and then watching putback attemps and layups by opposition. Along with 3s (our perimeter defenders are mostly LOL level)
November 25th, 2015 at 11:40 PM ^
Beilein is a great coach, and he gets a lot of out of his players, but he has vastly underwhelmed in his recruiting the last 3 years. Simple as that. Just awful rebounding and if the 3s aren't falling, it's a loss. Team is going to struggle mightily this year.
November 26th, 2015 at 12:08 AM ^
November 26th, 2015 at 7:00 AM ^
All of these recruiting misses/blunders are starting to rear their ugly heads. We don't have any toughness or grit and the only person who can get a shot off or create for others is Levert.
The team is going to get better and the offense will probably start putting up points, but when you're weak, don't play defense, or rebound, you're going to lose more than you win.
I'm starting to really see the downfall of this philosophy.
November 26th, 2015 at 8:31 AM ^
there, now we're kentucky. next stop, final four.
/s
November 25th, 2015 at 11:41 PM ^
with a deep bench and no D and several good ball handlers, i almost think we should just try and run teams out of the gym. old loyola marymount style. we didn't hit 3s tonite, but that will get better.
have 2 lines; almost like hockey, sub every 3-4 minutes and run run run.
November 25th, 2015 at 11:41 PM ^
AXS TV SUCKS
November 26th, 2015 at 12:11 AM ^
lost Wrld Wr II
November 26th, 2015 at 12:29 AM ^
November 26th, 2015 at 2:04 PM ^
it was amazing how they invented a time machine to get that announcer from the 1950's
November 25th, 2015 at 11:44 PM ^
November 25th, 2015 at 11:42 PM ^
November 25th, 2015 at 11:43 PM ^
Zak Irvin can't go 1-10 with 2 points and we expect to win.
Duncan Robinson 1-8, 1-6 from 3
Aubrey Dawkins, 3-10
That's ass shooting...doesn't matter how good the team is. Those are Kobe 2015-16 numbers...and that's not a compliment.
November 26th, 2015 at 12:11 AM ^
November 26th, 2015 at 1:12 AM ^
They're in trouble when they do this all night.
November 25th, 2015 at 11:44 PM ^
I think we'll be OK.
Irvin is a shell of the player he was towards the end of last season and has zero confidence in his ability to make a shot. He'll round into form over the next month as he gets reps and be a plus player soon.
Levert can't be this great every night, but he's going to be a contender for Big Ten POY.
I'll eat a lemon if Robinson has a worse shooting night than he had tonight. He's adjusting to play at this level, but shooting is shooting is shooting.
As the rotation shrinks and becomes consistent, chemistry will build within the rotation.
I'd like to see:
Walton/MAAR and Spike on the bench until he proves he's 100% healthy
Levert/MAAR
Dawkins/Robinson
Irvin/Chatman
Doyle/Wilson
Wagner isn't ready yet. He is going to be good, and maybe even this year, but right now he's a liability.
November 25th, 2015 at 11:48 PM ^
November 25th, 2015 at 11:48 PM ^
November 25th, 2015 at 11:54 PM ^
If anyone out there is feeling less than optimistic about this season, do not watch Cal Bears highlights. I have, and I'll be scarred for life.
November 25th, 2015 at 11:48 PM ^
Michigan fans don't fucking cheer enough when the team is down.
I thought there was nobody for our side there at the arena that whole first half. We finally make a run and holy shit, it turns out there are some Michigan people in the crowd.
It's not good enough to just rise up when the team finally gets going. Sometimes you have to try to encourage the guys even when it's not going at all.
I'd love to see a lot more toughness out of our team, but I sure as shit would love to see a lot more toughness out of our fans.
I'll never forget how passive the crowd was at The Game 2007 - hope we have a much fiercer and committed crowd on Saturday.
As for the team, as I said in the game thread, one thing to remember is that a bunch of guys are either readjusting to high D1 game speed or adjusting for the first time. With that said, we'd better see a hell of a lot more out of the guys I'm referring to or we are well and truly boned.
November 25th, 2015 at 11:53 PM ^
November 25th, 2015 at 11:54 PM ^
You expect the Michigan "crowd" to be loud at a tournament played during Thanksgiving week in the Bahamas? You sir, are insane.
November 25th, 2015 at 11:58 PM ^
November 26th, 2015 at 12:21 AM ^
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November 26th, 2015 at 12:00 AM ^
you go to a fucking basketball game to cheer.
I will never forget the balding twenty something curmudgeon who was preciously offended by my loud cheering at the Barclay's last year.
It's you, sir, who have something seriously lacking in the heart department.
UConn fans were plenty loud in the first half. Sounded like a UConn home game.
November 26th, 2015 at 12:12 AM ^
It's a fucking neutral site game in the Bahamas played in literally a grand ballroom with bleachers around it.
Same goes for the Barclays Center. Neutral site early season tournament when a good portion of the fanbase is still in Football mode, thus, not being at the game. UConn would know nothing about football.
This thread would be 100 deep right now if it was February.
November 26th, 2015 at 12:17 AM ^
I'm cheering my ass off.
Amazed that you wouldn't understand that.
Same goes for the Barclays my ass. There were tons of UM fans there last year.
November 26th, 2015 at 12:19 AM ^
Exactly. You need a fucking boat to get to it. It's thanksgiving and we have a massive football game on saturday and we were down the entire game.
November 25th, 2015 at 11:54 PM ^
We didn't even make the NIT last year.
There are fundemental things that are just flat out wrong with this team...and sure, they're going to beat 2-3 good/great teams and you're going to say "SEE!! LOOK!!! I Told you so!!" But it's not going to make up for the rest of the year.
I still have hope we pull out that #7 - #10 seed I predicted and make it to the Sweet 16 with a hot shooting upset over a #1 or #2. That's the bar for me.
But...
- Beilein has recruited like shit the past few years...the "In Beilein We Trust" bullshit doesn't work if you want to be elite. It only works if you want to be a dangerous underdog that can knock off the big boys. This is basketball. Two elite players can make an elite team.
- Beilein either refusal to press the big man recruiting or lack of ability in that area - minus McGary is catching up. Doyle is a quality backup C who would be a serviceable starter as an upperclassman on an elite team. Jordan Morgan if you will.
- Along those lines...you can't play a PG, 3 SGs and 1 post player (for half the game)/1 PF (for the other half) and expect to beat teams consistently - Not unless you have Steph Curry, Draymond Green and a bunch of solid role players.
- I've said for 2 years now...we have no toughness. No one that has that "DOG" in him. J-Mo was barely enough and he didn't even get us over the hump. Beilein should always have 2 guys on the team that aren't going to be pushed around - they don't even have to be post players. But you have to have some toughness...we have none. We have a bunch of nice guys.
- There is no reason Max B shouldn't be on this team.
November 26th, 2015 at 12:17 AM ^
Well, we did recruit the #25 player in the country, Kam Chatman... who unfortunately is not playing like that...
November 26th, 2015 at 12:24 AM ^
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November 26th, 2015 at 1:47 AM ^
November 26th, 2015 at 9:30 AM ^
He's a SF playing out of position like GRIII.
November 26th, 2015 at 12:39 PM ^
You act like there's a 5-star center for every team in every recruiting class.
Finding elite big men is not easy. It's exponentially harder to get them to commit to any particular team.
November 26th, 2015 at 9:41 AM ^
...if your goal is "average" ...those pre-Trey Burke Michigan teams, then we're fine, all is not lost. We can still be "that team."
But if this wants to be a championship program, an elite program, not happening. Just missing too many essential parts. I don't care who the coach is, the roster just isn't good enough and isn't put together the right way.
The nice thing is, you can turn it around quickly...the bad part, we don't have room.
This team still can beat anyone...no question. That's not what I was saying, so if you read the "hot takes" and think I'm saying we can't win. No. We can beat anyone, especially anyone in the B1G. But consistently? Not happening. The pre-Trey Burke teams were good for 1-2 quality wins. This team can do that easily...but not enough of them, and there will be just as many shit losses that hold us back.
November 26th, 2015 at 12:41 PM ^
There's a huge gap between "average" and "elite," n'est pas?
November 25th, 2015 at 11:54 PM ^
I have confidence that we will shoot and run better offense as the year goes on as we have every year. Defense and rebounding I'm not sure. I'd love to have someone like Deyonte Davis but we have never been able to get those guys since McGary.
November 25th, 2015 at 11:58 PM ^
I'm still grieving over the passing of Chad Carr.
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November 25th, 2015 at 11:59 PM ^
You can't always have great classes but the last few have been real stinkers. We just don't have the talent and unfortunately it doesn't look like we'll be getting much talent next year. Beilein doesn't have many years left to coach so it worries me that this is going to be the way he goes out. There is time to improve but this team has shown absolutely nothing to make me believe we'll even be an NCAA tourney team this year.