3/8/2020 – Michigan 70, Maryland 83 – 19-12, 10-10 Big Ten

Maryland is not known for looking particularly… uh… coached even when they're pretty good. Your author has taken in many of their games this season, one in which they won a share of the title in the toughest Big Ten ever. Despite the results the number one thing I've thought during these games is DO SOMETHING! RUN A PLAY!

This is a common experience.

Mark Turgeon is one of the better coaches in college basketball. Also, he has like three plays, maximum

— Alex Kirshner (@alex_kirshner) March 1, 2020

Does Turgeon not have, like, plays

— Drew Magary (@drewmagary) March 1, 2020

In situations like these it's always wise to self-administer a Dunning-Krueger check. I am not a basketball coach. I am an amateur internet basketball sleuth.

Am I out of touch? Nope! It's the children who are wrong.

Mark Turgeon: "Guys, we've played six [games] in 13 [days.] That was a tough stretch for us, okay? So we haven't really had a lot of practice time — and I'm not making excuses, better team won — but we have like five plays that we can run."

— Andy Kostka (@afkostka) December 11, 2019

The perception is in fact reality. Matt Painter takes guys who look like NAIA dudes and has them run in Mandelbrot loops until some guy's open in the corner; Mark Turgeon runs pick and roll, the end.

So it felt pretty bad in the first half when Michigan was struggling to find shots against a Maryland team that was doing some things on offense that weren't "I dunno dribble around and jack something up." Then the TV cut to a Maryland huddle, which featured DeAndre Haynes exhorting the Terrapins about something or other while Mark Turgeon looked on. He was probably thinking "man, DeAndre is doing a really good job."

Cold comfort, but at least the world made a little more sense.

[After THE JUMP: same old story]

don't make me hold the picture again [Sherman]

Another five out offense. Jalen Smith's only make from three was the runner at the end of the first half—shakes fist in general direction of universe—but this was another mobile stretch five setting Michigan's defense on fire with his gravity even if he wasn't personally lighting it up from behind the arc. Maryland shot 66% on twos largely because they were 13/16 at the rim. Smith got up a decent look on a pick and pop on Maryland's first possession (Eli Brooks came over to get a hand in Smith's face), and then Michigan went away from drop coverage for a long time.

The hedging went poorly.

Very poorly.

Michigan's lost the defensive cohesion that they were so good at last year, and seemed to have back during their February run where drop coverage worked just fine against centers with no stretch.

This extends beyond just five out stuff. Michigan gave up multiple buckets at the rim on which Michigan guys got lost because they don't know what they're doing:

It has the feel of a team that's scrambling to get something together. Wisconsin rather looms in the second round of the Big Ten Tournament if Michigan is able to beat Rutgers.

went well until the shot went up [Sherman]

Tough shots are tough shots even if they go in. Poor damn David DeJulius got matched on Anthony Cowan for a fair bit of this game; Cowan took CowanShots™ that happened to go in.

This happened to Michigan once before, during the Stoneface MAAR game. X chased Cowan around the court only for Cowan to raise up and hit a bunch of off the dribble stuff that the observer files under "bullshit that went down." Cowan took contact on the way up on this and still hit it:

This is still Cowan's MO. He's shooting 46/29 in Big Ten play. He gets stuck with a lot of the garbage Turgeon's lack of an offense heaps on his players, with almost a quarter of his FGAs in the last five seconds of the shot clock. He is shockingly efficient given his average quality of look because he doesn't turn the ball over much and gets to the line a ton, where he converts at an 81% rate.

Michigan didn't let him get to the line until Eat Your Liver time and forced a majority of his shots into the midrange, where he's hitting 24% on the season. He hit 4/6 there, because trident's cursed. Only one of his three shots at the rim was against DDJ and that was the spinning drive on which Cowan took heavy contact and still finished.

This was a notably good defensive performance from DDJ against a tough customer even if the shots went down.

Also in DDJ. He had 20 points and singlehandedly kept the game from turning into a blowout in the first half. None of his shots were off-the-dribble threes, and he drove the lane for a floater or two. Zero assists but zero turnovers.

DDJ is a bit like Johns in that you don't really know what you're going to get out of him on any particular day. In the three previous games he had 1, 2, and 2 points on walk-on usage. He'll be a major X-factor next year.

cumong man [Sherman]

Trident cursed part XXVII. Ayala and Wiggins, who are collectively shooting under 30% from three on the season, went 6/8. Ayala's were particularly goofy, with a pull up almost from the logo stuck in there. Michigan had a little fortune that Smith went 1/5, except for the fact that the 1 was a running pull up from 30 feet just before the half.

On the other end of the floor Michigan went 6/20 and had Brooks and Livers go 0/8. Michigan hasn't cracked 30% from behind the line in six games. They're #1 in two point shooting and #13 in three-point shooting in conference play. Howard should start holding up a picture of Duncan Robinson?

Basketball needs advantage calls. This should be a bucket for Davis.

A foul on the floor that is immediately followed by a shot attempt should count. If you don't want to give a free throw, fine.

Post shootin'. Slight adaptation on the first possession, which turned into a Teske elbow jumper that was way short. He hit the opener against Nebraska, but even that game was kind of a negative referendum on Teske's post efficiency. He ended up 5/9 from two in that game, which is fine. The issue is that aside from one shot where he turned to the baseline and got to put something off the backboard everything was the hook. The hook is… fine, but it says everything about Teske's post game that he ended up with zero shots at the rim against Nebraska. (Even if I think he got shorted that baseline one.)