1/29/2019 – Michigan 65, Ohio State 49 – 20-1, 9-1 Big Ten

One of the most unexpected constants of the John Beilein era at Michigan has been the point guard's lip curl. The program has cycled between radically different styles of point—pick and roll pterodactyl man Darius Morris, all-conquering Trey Burke, pull-up assassin Derrick Walton, and now anger bulldog Zavier Simpson. But every single one of them could have said this:

Zavier Simpson: “guys are tough with their mouth but not with their play”

— Aria Gerson (@aria_gerson) January 30, 2019

May have taken Walton a while to round into his true Michigan point guard form, but he got there. Everyone else had that attitude from the drop. John Beilein's most unexpected talent is wading into the vast pool of available point guard talents every few years and finding the guy who is, in his heart of hearts, a Danny Trejo character. If I walk into a bar filled with former Michigan point guards I'm walking right out. Bullets and tequila are about to fly.

Even so, Simpson is the dogg amongst dogs. The dirtiest dude in town.

Handles colder than the polar vortex. ❄️

Sky hook silky like Kareem.@umichbball's @Xaviersimpson3, ladies and gentlemen: pic.twitter.com/9O1PIuhO6U

— Big Ten Network (@BigTenNetwork) January 30, 2019

When the Virginia-NC State game went to overtime I had to scramble through the usual "you haven't updated your Playstation, also you haven't updated this app, also please register this device, oh and if you click on the ESPN2 broadcast you get a null pointer exception" rigamarole.

By the time I got the game on it had already started and I was listening to the Spanish broadcast. Amongst rapid-fire Spanish my ancient high school classes can't keep up with came two phrases, clear as a bell: "sky hook" and "Kareem Abdul-Jabbar." They did not clap like seals. It sounded like they wanted to, like every announce crew, like everyone on twitter, like even Deadspin. Like me.

And sure why not:

Here's a funny one: most hook shots made by guys 6'5 or less: pic.twitter.com/vnRmqI1O8S

— Bart Trvik (@totally_t_bomb) January 30, 2019

The hook shot, while delightful and a key component of Simpson's evolution into a functional offensive player, is only the most visible facet of the bizarre whole. The guy who just put up a triple double makes no sense. But he just put up a triple double, so this is the time for Simpson-related message board recriminations, the time when some random guy pops on to scold people for writing Simpson off when he was a freshman.

It was entirely rational to write Simpson off! Simpson was a "6 foot" point guard who literally did not have a jump shot. Beilein took the unusual step of grabbing grad-transfer Jaaron Simmons after Simpson's freshman year because it looked for all the world like Michigan had no point guard. Nine games into his sophomore year Simpson had taken a total of six twos and had gotten benched for Eli Brooks. If at some point you did not write Zavier Simpson off you are his dad or insane.

Most folks who find themselves at that crossroad never recover, because they're there for a reason. Carlton Brundidge did not prove the haters wrong. Ibi Watson did not shove it in in the skeptics' faces. There are few dynamic lizard escapes once you're in the "change or die" phase of a career.

Simpson didn't really change, though. He doubled down on being Zavier Simpson. He's still a 50% free throw shooter and a 30% three-point shooter with a set shot. He's also the head of the spear for a 20-1 team. He's all the things a modern point guard isn't, and if he scores in the same way a 7'2" guy in goggles did that's total nonsense and perfect sense at the same time.

[Campredon]

[After THE JUMP: lotion is NOT MENTIONED]

BULLETS

I am ill! Sorry about the lateness. I have small children and they are putting my immune system through quality assurance.

[Campredon]

Well, then. Michigan's defense would be a Kenpom-era record if sustained through the end of the regular season:

Michigan’s current adjusted defense (83.8) is better than every single-season adjusted defensive team in the KenPom Era.

We’re 2/3 of the way through the regular season.

— Bryan Mac, Original Tweeter (@Bry_Mac) January 30, 2019

And Michigan is doing this in a strange way: they're shutting off three pointers without giving up much of anything on twos. And they're not fouling. Or giving up offensive rebounds. They're in the top 30 of eight different categories on Kenpom: eFG, 3P%, 2P%, DREBs, FTA/FGA, 3PA/FGA, assist rate allowed, and, uh, FT defense. They're also 345th in defensive tempo, which means teams struggle to find good shots.

There's only one factor they're not in the 90th+ percentile, and that's forcing turnovers. Which they're still pretty good at!

Michigan does everything well, the end. I've never seen anything like it.

RELATED. Presented without comment because I cannot think of anything to say that won't get me in trouble.

This thread describes, with surprising accuracy, my post game rituals. ‍♀️ https://t.co/I6Qw98PEvT

— Amy Yaklich (@mrsamyyak) January 30, 2019

Poole doing Poole things. He was Michigan's top scorer but also its least efficient player, which was a surprise to me when I checked the box score because it felt more like a "Poole is back!" game instead of a continuation of his recent funk. He was… variable. 3/10 from three felt better because the first three attempts were all on the same trip down the court. After long rebounds off two good looks, a third came and Poole, being Poole, wasn't going to let the previous misses affect him.

That confidence also led to three turnovers and some high degree of difficulty shots. This is the tao of Poole. Oh and also:

What a dunk denial! pic.twitter.com/m6Uz740UO5

— College GameDay (@CollegeGameDay) January 30, 2019

Bet Kaleb Wesson didn't expect to get thunderblocked by Poole and Simpson in the same game.

[Campredon]

Yellin'! Whole lot of nothin' after Simpson complained about a screen Kaleb Wesson set that he felt was too elbow-to-the-temple for his tastes. Immediate techs for Simpson and Wesson without much of anything happening probably means that there were Words Exchanged, which is of course in the great and fine traditions of Michigan point-guardery.

They did tell him. I mean, you'd have to:

ANN ARBOR -- At the final media timeout, two of Michigan's assistants whispered the same thing to Zavier Simpson: "Get another rebound." …

After Simpson was made aware he was close during the timeout, he glanced at the scoreboard, which shows player stats. “That’s when I looked up and was like, ‘Wow, this is real,’” he said. Asked if he was hunting for that last rebound, he said, “In a way, yeah, I was. But I didn’t want to hunt too much. But then again, I didn’t want to miss out on this opportunity. My teammates told me to get it. Two of 'em could’ve gotten the rebound. I said, ‘Ay, I’m here!’ and they kind of let it bounce to me.”

Assists have only been tracked by Michigan since 77-78 so several Michigan luminaries were not capable of registering a triple-double. Even so this was only the sixth in Michigan history and one of just three to do it against a real opponent:

Add him to the list. Zavier Simpson is the sixth Michigan player to ever record a triple-double. 11 pt, 11 ast, 10 rb

He does so against Ohio State, his home-state school, where his uncle attended, and he thought he might attend. https://t.co/KXVJQQ56LX pic.twitter.com/oWQJheKKfO

— Brendan F. Quinn (@BFQuinn) January 30, 2019

Five of the six have been in the Beilein era.

Okay but also. Zero turnovers! That should be its own thing. If you get a triple double with zero turnovers that's the difference between a no-hitter and a perfect game.

Coaches on Simpson. An excerpt from an extensive Brian Snow column on Michigan:

In talking with a few Big Ten coaches over the past few weeks, it is clear how much respect they have for Michigan’s starting point guard, Zavier Simpson. In fact, one coach told me, “He totally changed their program”.

…Simpson is someone who can take the opposing offense out of their flow with his pressure on the ball handler, and then also he has the ability redirect the opposing point guard without being called for fouls.

Being able to do those two things is huge in disrupting an offense, and it shows in Michigan’s defense. …

Opposing coaches absolutely love Simpson. They think he is far and away the most indispensable player on the roster, and someone who totally changed Michigan from what they were 13 months ago, until now.

He's also relatively down on the current roster's NBA potential after talking with NBA scouts. Would be nice to get Poole and Brazdeikis back.

Checking in with nonconference foes. Michigan's a bit fortunate that the Big Ten is what it is this year because despite two marquee nonconference foes their overall schedule was still meh. Kenpom has their NCSOS at 300. NET is much kinder, ranking it 157th. That still might be a problem since most of the other teams around them are in a significantly better spot and the committee loves to over-value NCSOS. So it would be nice if the wins Michigan had held up.

They're mostly doing so:

• Villanova is 7-0 in Big East play and 21st in Kenpom. They're projected to finish the regular season 24-7 and 15-3. Down Big East but that might be a four seed.
• UNC is 6-1 in ACC play and projected to go 23-8, 13-5.
• South Carolina's in the midst of a bizarre season: they were 5-8 in nonconference play with losses to Stony Brook, and Wyoming, amongst many others. But they're 5-2 in the SEC with wins against tourney-bound Florida, Mississippi State, and Auburn teams. They're not going to the postseason but that's a nice bonus.
• Providence is a disappointment, 3-4 in the Big East and probably not headed to the tourney.

Also Michigan's December win against Purdue is looking better and better as the Boilers ignited, Beilein-style, in January. Michigan does not have to travel to Mackey to face the Trevion Williams and Functional Bench Guys version of the Boilers, which is probably for the best.

Check your inner ear. Kaleb Wesson falls down and stays down more than anyone else I've ever seen on a basketball court. Also Michigan was apparently content to let Wesson shoot from three and after a couple duck-in buckets in the first five minutes Teske teske'd up and held him to 1/6, with the two recovery blocks from Michigan his other two misses.

The flop-ish. It's bad for basketball that the only way to get an offensive foul call is to set yourself up to go down like Poole did. I wouldn't call it a flop because there was no way Poole could stay on his feet given how much contact he took but he was doing one thing and one thing only there. Meanwhile we're coming off a game against Minnesota where Teske got bulled into by Jordan Murphy over and over again and it was only a call once. I dunno, man.

Meanwhile, Poole's other two fouls both looked like completely fine plays where he was in legal guarding position and took a bump to the chest with his hands up. Isn't that the point? On ball players shouldn't get called for taking contact in the center of their chest, ever.

And yes, Dan Dakich was extraordinarily irritating after that call considering the fact that he had just bemoaned Brad Davison not getting a much clearer flop in the Wisconsin game.