Kinda hard to suck it up with my two black eyes from getting face fucked.
played 'em tight, no way they call a touch foul in that situation.
Work day is over, going straight to the bar. Who coming with me??through the quad and pass the gymnasium
Only if there is streaking involved.
And a Snoop Dogg concert. I need my Snoop-a-loop.
cannot make me smile right now
this is unconventional, but with 2.2 seconds left you put 4 dudes at half court to slow down the ball and have one guy under the basket ready to hack the fuck out of anyone, if they get close enough for a lay-up.
I may never forgive Beilein for that bit of non-coaching. Is it even possible that he has never seen the end of that UK/Duke game, where Pitino infamously chose not to guard Hill?
GRRRRR - and the WWL as usual showed its anti-UM bias: why the heck did they believe that a shot at Lloyd via a Tressel graphic had any place at all being on the air during that BASKETBALL game??
I don't think it was a mistake to not guard the inbounder, since after a made basket he can move laterally. I do think , however, that it was a mistake (1) not to call a timeout after seeing what OSU had set up (I think Michigan had one left) and (2) not to pick up man to man full court with perhaps 2 on Turner (assuming you're not guarding the inbounder.
I'm frankly surprised that Beilein blew both of these. I get that you'll take a 40-footer over a 2-footer after a 92-foot pass to Lauderdale, but there is a happy medium.
The fact that we are able to hang with a team as talented as osu is a testament to him.
That said, Beilein made one of the worst coaching decisions I have ever seen.
He made sure that if osu was going to beat them, it would be with a 3. Fine.
He made sure that Player of the Year Evan Turner would get the ball. Fine.
He let Turner dribble without anyone within a mile of him.
He put a 6'2" guy on a 6'7" guy. I don't know why Douglass was even in the game. They should have gone all length. Morris, Harris, Sims, Gibson (on the inbounder), and Wright. I have no idea why you would want a 6'2" guy contesting a big guy's shot.
So while anyone saying Fire Beilein is wrong, that was awful. fail
With the state of Big Ten officiating, I wouldn't have been surprised to see them call a foul if someone was within five feet of Evan Turner. That is all.
just in case you wondered what a dong punch felt like, wonder no more.
I'm so sick of our coaches finding new & agonizing ways to lose to those damn truckdrivers!!!!
That most of these critiques are off base.
The defense was not unsound. The bottom line is that a great player hit a 35-40 foot shot. You don't draw up a defense to prevent that shot. You give OSU that shot because, even for Evan Turner, it's only going in 1 time in 25, at best.
"We should have defended the inbounds pass."
I don't think so. After a made basket, the inbounder can run the baseline. It takes someone quick to stay with the inbounder. A quick defender (if we even have one) is more useful in the frontcourt or midcourt. If you put Gibson on the inbounder, Gibson's just going to get left behind. With two seconds left, you're better off guarding 4 with 5.
"We should have harassed Turner in the backcourt, to make him use clock."
Here again, we don't really have anyone who could be counted on to make Turner change direction and waste time in the backcourt. With Michigan's roster, chances are, anyone who tried to slow him down back there would draw a foul and Turner would have tied the game. Considering how the whole game went, if I'm Beilein, I don't want to go to overtime. Michigan was lucky to get the lead when it did.
"A taller player should have had a hand in Turner's face."
Here again, who? Ant Wright? Really? The last thing you want to do is foul a guy outside the three point line when he's making a desperation shot. I'd rather have Turner put up an uncontested 40 footer than have him at the line for three foul shots.
"Why were so many defenders around the paint?"
Because there's more risk from players within ordinary three-point range than there is from a guy at 40 feet.
Finally, think about what the defense would have been like if Beilein did what everyone seems to think he should have. Zach Gibson on the inbounder. Manny and, say, Morris doubling Turner in the back court to keep him from catching it. If you do that, Michigan has two guys guarding three OSU players in the frontcourt. Two guys who are both probably slow and/or small. OSU sets a screen or runs something simple to shake one offensive player who can receive a court-length pass for a clean look inside thirty feet. And, because the clock doesn't start until the ball is touched in bounds, the pass receiver has two full seconds to do something, which could include passing to a teammate for a game-tying lay up.
Ultimately, it's easy to think of something that could have stopped an incredibly improbable play like Turner's. But if you do something to make an improbable play impossible, you make it much more likely that your opponent will beat you with something less than an improbable play.
People will ignore this due to the crazy volume of idiocy, but you're absolutely right. Forcing a 35-footer by ANYBODY is not a bad plan. You can't foul there, and you can't allow a launched pass to a big guy and easy two (note: we cannot defend big guys). Maybe I put Manny on Turner instead of Stu, but jesus - it was a one-in-thirty shot at best, it's just bad luck.
Insanely, kill-yourself bad luck. But still.
March 13th, 2010 at 12:04 PM ^
Providing actual basketball knowledge at this point is a welcome sight. It's easy to make coaching decisions in hindsight, but you're absolutely right. I'll take a contested (yes, even a 6'2" guy guarding a 6'7" guy counts as contested) 37ish footer at the buzzer. He made the shot. Does it suck? Yup. But they did something to win the game, we didn't do something to lose it.
March 13th, 2010 at 12:26 PM ^
I think I'm in love with this post.
The biggest problem is that Douglass didn't set himself up to deal with the screen in the backcourt. He has to see it coming and put himself in a position to get around it.
If he gets past the screener he meets Turner before half court and forces him to crossover, which bleeds time off the clock and forces a tougher shot from farther away. If you watch the replay, he doesn't have a hand in Turner's face because he is just catching up to him when the shot is going up. Thats Douglass' fault for not seeing the screen. Any basketball player worth his mettle can put a half court shot very close with a straight on approach and a few dribbles. The defense needs to be there on the floor to pressure the approach and make the shot tougher.
The problem isn't the defense as it was set up, it is the way the defense was executed. If Stu gets past the screen and to Turner before half court, we are on our way to the next round of the B10 tourney, not nursing ourselves back from another epic dong punch.
Honestly, when you're talking about a guy hitting a 35-footer at the buzzer - a player who apparently had been shooting poorly all second half - it just wasn't your day (or school year).
March 13th, 2010 at 12:13 PM ^
STU DOUGLASS GOT SCREENED. THAT I WHY TURNER HAD A FREE RUN. IT WAS NOT BECAUSE BEILEIN DECIDED NOT TO GUARD THE BALL.
And fuck - Turner is a 28% 3-point shooter. We can't shoot the three for shit, and Turner would be like our 5th best 3-point shooter, to put that in perspective. He took a shot from 37-feet.
This is a bad plan?