Forgot About Trey Comment Count

Brian

3/23/2013 – Michigan 78, VCU 53 – 28-7, Sweet 16

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Bryan Fuller

It doesn't take long for people to forget who you are. One loss to a MAC team on the big stage seems to do it, even if that MAC team was an overtime away from the Elite Eight. The next year you might find yourself on a bit of a skid to end the year, facing down another mid-major star and instantly targeted by the talking heads as upset city, baby*. Rule one of sports opinion: the last thing that happened will always keep happening.

If you ever find yourself in this situation, I'll be surprised since that means you've been a head coach for a zillion years. You'll also be feeling like John Beilein has been the past week. Drinking decaf tea. Thinking about covalent bonds. Enjoying your grandchildren. Pissed off.

I mean… John Beilein, projected first-round upset victim. I don't know if you know this, head-talker,—I think you should since you will never stop referring to Michigan's 1-3-1 zone—but John Beilein has been around the block. He's made verbs. Have you made a verb? Does it mean "higher seed has just been blitzed out of tournament by three-raining center"? No. It means "seemingly has not watched college basketball since he played it, and probably not even then." Except your verb doesn't exist. "Pittsnogled" exists.

Even if your theory is that Beilein's March blitzes ended at the Big Ten's edge, you've got more evidence against you than in favor of you. In 2009, a ramshackle Michigan ten-seed took out #7 Clemson. At one point that game was a blowout before Michigan went into clock-kill mode. They held themselves in against Oklahoma despite deploying Zack Novak against Blake Griffin and having to rely on Anthony Wright as their primary scorer with Manny Harris stapled to the bench, in foul trouble. Two years later Michigan ran Tennessee out of the gym in an 8-9 game and was inches away from taking #1 Duke to OT.

Basketball's weird, randomness is random, bad things happen to chemistry teachers, yeah yeah. Going out of your way to project John Beilein doing poorly in the tourney is like pressing Trey Burke: once in a while you get lucky. Over the long run you're going to end up holding your intestines, thinking about a foolish life ill-lived.

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Don't even get the tiny slice of John Beilein's brain given over to his id (he keeps it between gluten-free pancake recipes and lamp instructions in a disused, dusty corner) started about what happens after you show Summit Trey Burke his intestines. If the tiny disused id could draw Beilein's attention for a fraction of a second, boy, would he be slightly peevish about VCU this, havoc that. About new hotness Shaka Smart and his defense with a name and everything and a two-year-old play-in-to-Final-Four run.

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The definition of whippersnapper (Bryan Fuller)

The gap between expectations of serious men—Vegas installed Michigan a slight favorite—and the chatter of VCU havoc-ing Kansas and whoever might come next was large.

"All we've been hearing was the VCU 'Havoc,' we didn't hear anything about us, and we wanted to prove we're no team to mess with right now," Michigan freshman Nik Stauskas said. "All you heard is 'how are they going to stop Nate Wolters?' Stuff like that."

The thing is: Shaka Smart is a great tourney coach. Entering Saturday's game against Michigan he was 7-1 against the spread during March Madness. He did that whole first-four-to-Final-Four thing. He is appallingly young to have done this. I have to tell you that when VCU's band was putting Akron's to shame on Thursday and their dancers were just kind of, I don't know, moving, you know, in a certain way and VCU came out and blitzed Akron it was intimidating. This was before I knew they had a guy with a Tim the Enchanter hat even.

Smart has created an aura. VCU's presence at an NCAA tourney site brings an electricity with it. This havoc thing will be a verb sooner or later. Shaka Smart is 35.

It's just that John Beilein's been doing this since Shaka Smart was playing with Legos. No, since Smart was gurgling out his first words. Dude was one year old when Beilein started his coaching career at an age even more appallingly young than Smart did. On March 19th, Beilein was 10-2 against the spread in the tourney since '05. He's since added two more ATS wins to his docket, the last one a deconstruction of Havoc™ so comprehensive that Michigan put up 1.2 points per possession despite hitting just 30% of their infinite wide-open threes.

Anyone predicting VCU to do things forgot that this was a John Beilein team piloted by Trey Burke. I am almost certain the handshake in the aftermath did not feature Beilein telling Smart he was strapped with gats when Smart was cuddling a cabbage patch. But not completely. Kansas awaits; John Beilein sips tea with eviscerating intent.

*["Upset city, baby" patently unfair here since Dick Vitale in fact put Michigan in his Final Four. I enjoy being patently unfair to Dick Vitale. If you consider this a character flaw in me, I consider it a character flaw in you. So there.]

8586420091_1c3100311a_o[1]Bullets

McGary, of course. (Fuller photo, Ace photoshop, board suggestion at right.)

It will not be news if I tell you that Mitch McGary had himself a day: 21 points on 10 of 11 shooting, 14 rebounds, and even a made free throw. He earned Obligatory Wes Unseld references from the announce team and The Sporting News.

Oh, and he just might be the best outlet passer we’ve seen since Wes Unseld. Matter of fact, he’s built a lot like Unseld, too, with a hard-edged game like the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Famer.

He dove on the floor with Michigan up 20, because that is what a St. Bernard would do.

To cap it all off, he gave Kammron Taylor a flashback seizure so bad that Chris Rock (That Chris Rock) had a twinge:

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He and GRIII were the engines behind a blowout on the boards: 19% OREB for VCU, 41% for Michigan. He played 34 minutes with a single foul. It was a day. If he can go head to head with Jeff Withey… dot dot dot.

While I don't think that's super-likely, guys do have coming-out parties that suddenly announce they have reached the proverbial Next Level. Beasting on an undersized VCU team with their one quality post stuck on the bench for a big chunk of the game* might count. Going head-to-head with Jeff Withey and coming out even is indisputable. I'm saying there's as chance.

*[Reddic had 16 points on 13 shot equivalents in 24 minutes. His backups saw a total of 21 minutes, in which they attempted zero shots.]

Stat of the game. Michigan gave up all of four fast-break points to VCU and scored 15 of their own. That is the recipe for blowing Shaka Smart off the court.

Stat of the game, part II. Michigan had 12 turnovers, VCU 11. This number is of course under the 15 magic number, or 23 magic percent. VCU also managed just two more steals than Michigan.

Slash and burn. I got a lot of grief about this assertion when Michigan ended up in the same pod as the rams:

Whenever someone posts a bracket and says they like or do not like the matchups therein there is always the guy who says they will boil themselves alive if VCU is a potential second-round matchup. I say bring the Rams on:

John Gasaway@JohnGasaway

VCU 100% dependent on (huge) TO margin. A-10 opponents actually shooting better than Rams.

I'll take that strength versus VCU's many other weaknesses in the matchup game.

Now everyone will kill me if we lose to VCU in the second round. I should have said nothing.

I'm not usually a point-to-my-awesome-prediction guy, because predictions are stupid. (Remember "NC State is the #8 seed no #1 wants to see?") In this case, though, WOOOOOOOO.

Michigan's three and a half ballhandlers defeated virtually all attempts to run that 1-2-1 diamond trap. Except for a brief period right after halftime when Burke got run into a few traps—a couple times by his teammates—trying to heat him up was more loss than win for VCU. The 15 fast break points don't seem to include a number of possessions where the broken VCU press led to crushing GRIII/McGary dunks.

Those two were 17 of 19 combined on twos, and GRIII's miss was a chaotic attempt with guys falling all over the place that McGary immediately rebounded and put back. All but three of those attempts were at the rim. The press mostly set up dunks or layups or Kobe assists, not turnovers.

How did this happen? Why didn't the quick turnaround hamper Michigan's preparation? The program is based on ball control.

"Preparation for a game like this does not happen in one day," Beilein said. "If you came to our early drills in October, in the summer, we're catching on two feet, we're pivoting, we're passing the ball to the outside hand. We're valuing each possession. You play a team like VCU, if you don't value each possession and take care of the basketball, they're going to run points on you like crazy. (They're) averaging 75 points a game, 20 of those are off defensive transition off turnovers. We work on it daily.

"The prep was really minor (on Friday), as far as 90 minutes of walking around, doing things."

This was a draw of doom for VCU, playing a team that basically spends every practice defeating your system.

Spike. Hello. Spike Albrecht's 14 minutes came with a made three, a missed two that really should have been a Kobe assist (he drew Reddic and threw one off the backboard to Horford; Horford managed to biff the putback), and a couple of assists. The second blew the roof off the Palace:

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nooooooooooooooo! ohhhhhhhhhhhh! lolllllllllllllllllll

(Watch the bench, BTW.) This is the bit where you started cackling madly because this was officially a replay of Tennessee 2011, and bitterly wished Gus Johnson was doing this game—oh my God Gus Johnson doing this game.

Anyway, Spike has a nasty habit of dribbling 25 seconds off the shot clock but eventually teams get irritated that this little white kid is running around the court on them and foul him. I do not think this is a sustainable strategy, but there are worse backup point guards to have.

One thing he's got in common with all Michigan point guards since Darius Morris emerged: kid is unflappable. He showed that today and during a stabilizing cameo after Michigan had gotten run early at Ohio State. Contrast his play with a clearly rattled Caris LeVert, who cost Michigan a few points in four minutes in the first half and then ceded the rest of his time to Albrecht.

A HUMBLEBRAG CHAMPION IS YOU. Hardaway on his reverse two handed slam:

"Coach (John) Beilein always said if you're going to do something flashy, it better work," Hardaway said after the game. "I just tried to do the easiest dunk that I knew how to do.

"It ended up being that."

Supporting cast turnovers. VCU got to Burke a bit, forcing seven turnovers out of him. A couple of those weren't his fault—in particular I remember one ill-fated backcourt trap that Nik Stauskas led Burke right into—but that's a high number. It's offset by the 5 the rest of the team picked up. Hardaway and Stauskas operated as press relief and auxiliary ballhandling, finishing the day with a 4 to 1 A:TO ratio. Add in Spike's one TO in 15 minutes and that's an impressive job of TO avoidance.

It's an expected job of TO avoidance, mostly. The exception: Hardaway taking the ball up the floor for big chunks of the game without incident was a bonus. It helped that VCU couldn't put one of their flypaper PGs on him with Burke out there and Theus in foul trouble.

A series of missed lane floaters. VCU was hurt early by a series of possessions that ended with their guards—I guess they're all basically guards—getting into the lane, whereupon McGary would help but not really challenge. The resulting short floaters went clang clang clang.

Looking at the box score, might this have been the gameplan? Rob Brandenberg, Melvin Johnson, Briante Weber, and Troy Daniels were a combined 9 of 24 from two, and if you look at those dudes' season averages and squint away a fast break adjustment, that's not far off what you'd expect from that collection of mediocre midrange shooters.

In compensation, VCU suffered a 3/16 night from three, with designated sniper Tony Daniels going 1/9, and got to the line just 6 times, all of those attempts from large-ish folk Treveon Graham and Juvonte Reddic. Graham, VCU's highest-usage player, was limited to eight shot equivalents in 35 minutes. As a team, VCU picked up six assists on 23 made baskets. Michigan had 17 on 31.

The problem with Michigan's D is that they kind of have to give something up. If those are lane runners without a Kobe Assist waiting, that doesn't seem too bad.

Behold the power of a withering tourney blowout on Kenpom. VCU rocketed from 22nd to 14th thanks to their Akron annihilation; Michigan providing the Rams the greatest two-game swing in tournament history bounced them up four spots. They are now ahead of Kansas(!) even after the Jayhawks' crunching second half against North Carolina.

All of this is poisoned by Akron playing their game against VCU short four players and the three-standard-dev matchup advantage Michigan had against the Rams, but you guys we're totally beating Kansas! You guys.

I don't think we're going to beat Kansas you guys. They've struggled for 60 of their 80 minutes in the tourney so far, sure. That doesn't change their season-long performance and the looming terror that is Jeff Withey. It seems like their shot is dependent on whether Kansas is a funhouse mirror version of some fourth graders like they were for about 22 minutes against North Carolina or a lethal death machine like they were the final 18 more than anything Michigan does.

I say that in part because turnovers are a persistent Kansas problem. They don't really have a point guard per se; facsimile Elijah Johnson's assist rate is barely above his TO rate. But Michigan does not force turnovers much. Unforced errors from Kansas seem to be make or break for them in this one.

But there's a reason Kenpom has this even. Just as soon as I figure it out I'll let you know about it.

Second small downer thing. Michigan couldn't have put Jordan Morgan out there for like five minutes? I'm worried that his mental state is haywire right now and Kansas looks like a team that will demand more post rotation from M. They play a two-post system with 6'8" senior Kevin Young (season 3PA: 6; season 3PM: 0). Young is a top-100 OREB guy and almost-top-200 DREB guy who shoots 56% from two. Meanwhile, Withey draws 5.2 fouls/40.

With the prospect of McGary foul trouble looming and the possibility Michigan will want to run two posts out there in the event Young is beating up GRIII on the boards, you'd expect Morgan to get 15 minutes or more in this one except for the fact he disappeared almost entirely last weekend.

Elsewhere

Rothstein on McGary:

McGary almost shrugged discussing the hit, with a sly smile yet insisting it was unintentional. That is part of what makes McGary a question mark for how good this Michigan team could be in the final two weeks of the season.

“Mitch, his confidence was incredible today, easy drop-offs and offensive boards that he got and he just kept going,” said Michigan redshirt freshman forward Max Bielfeldt. “He can go on a run, and he’s just very talented. When he gets his game going, he’s really, really tough to stop.

“He’s a guy, when he gets going, he’s going to keep going, and his enthusiasm keeps his game at a high level.”

Gary Parrish on… McGary.

"We're an even-keeled group," Stauskas said. "Except for Mitch."

The Daily's Everett Cook on… McGary.

“He came in weighing in the 250s, ballooned up a little bit, you know, enjoying the cafeteria a bit too much,” Alexander said. “Then he got back, recalibrated with his discipline.”

John Niyo on… McGary. (And other stuff.)

McGary had 20 pounds on VCU forward Juvonte Reddic, and probably 40 pounds on just about everybody else the Rams could throw at him. Funny what escaping from the rough-and-tumble Big Ten can do for a guy, isn't it?

"I mean, I guess it was easy to grab rebounds," he said.

Easy for him to say. But hard to do justice to his energy level — "He went down and chased all the loose balls," Smart said — that never waned despite his playing a season-high 34 minutes.

"That's Mitch McGary," Burke said. "That's what he does. He's the guy that gives us the spark and makes our engine run."

Baumgardner on McGary!

"Mitch was at the LeBron James Skills Academy the summer before he (committed to Michigan), and he was out of the game and he was getting cups of water for his teammates," Alexander recalled earlier this week. "That, in essence, gave us an idea of the type of person he is.

"A selfless spirit that allows our culture to grow."

Burke broke Darius Morris's single-season assist record in the game. Talking head recap. Beilein says things. Clownfrauds no more, doubters silenced, welcome to the jungle amirite. Trey would be relieved if he could feel hoo-man squishy emotions, but clearly he cannot so this is probably a misquote.

Five Key Plays. Mitch, destroy.

Michigan-Kansas is primetime Friday on CBS. McGary talking trash to Charles Barkley. Beilein on the Morgan situation.

Comments

Soulfire21

March 25th, 2013 at 1:25 PM ^

I was feeling good heading into our matchup with Kansas, but with every preview I read I feel less likely that Michigan will win.  *sigh*

I'd like to think we can have McGary and Morgan in together and have them dominate defensively and get some boards [put me with the 'worred about Morgan's psyche' folks].  I also hope Beilein mixes in some 1-3-1 zone. It might just do the trick to throw Kansas off balance for a bit. 

Kansas' size is worrisome, but they're also one of the fast-paced teams, which favors Michigan.  They average 67.7 possessions per game, more than anyone in the Big Ten, and I think that faster pace will allow us more transition points than we get in Big Ten matchups, and given that we've been "in" every loss (except Michigan State) this year, that bodes well for us.

If I could see a game where even 3 of our 5 starters are really on, damn, we'd be near unstoppable.

Indonacious

March 25th, 2013 at 1:48 PM ^

Kansas ran a 7 man rotation essentially against UNC...



Withey 7'0

Young 6'8

Releford 6'6

Johnson 6'4

McLemore 6'5



Tharpe 5'11

Ellis 6'8



We have.. 



McGary 6'10

GRIII 6'6

ThJr 6'6

Burke 6'0

Stauskas 6'6



Horford 6'10

Spike 5'11

Caris 6'5

Morgan 6'8



I don't think we are at a huge size disadvantage. We will certainly have to play disciplined basketball and boxout etc. but it's not like we are terribly small.

taistreetsmyhero

March 25th, 2013 at 6:12 PM ^

We're significantly smaller at the two positions where size is a huge deal. The only way you do not think we were at a size disadvantage in this game is if you didn't think we were at a size disadvantage against MSU and Indiana.

We have our own advantages, but size is definitely a huge advantage in Kansas's corner.

TWSWBC

March 25th, 2013 at 2:14 PM ^

I'm glad Mitch is on our team. I would hate to have to go up against a guy like that for the next 2-3 years. I think other B1G teams will have a Craft like hatred for him

UMAmaizinBlue

March 25th, 2013 at 2:40 PM ^

This was possibly the most entertaining basketball game I've seen from Michigan all year. Dismantling a good team is one thing, but to watch it with pure cackling glee on various occasions based on pure entertainment value is another. It was a good day all around.

M-Wolverine

March 25th, 2013 at 2:41 PM ^

 

It means "seemingly has not watched college basketball since he played it, and probably not even then."

Was meant to be about Charles Barkley, but I can't imagine there's a better description of him out there.

And Shaka's probably been to the Final Four when I was playing with Legos. Legos are cool.

Your moment of Zen (finally)-

AtkinsDiet

March 25th, 2013 at 2:49 PM ^

Brian is such a neurotic person sometimes.

If you want to fret about the matchup on paper, fine. But Michigan is simply better at what we do than Kansas is at what they do.

MidnightBlue

March 25th, 2013 at 2:59 PM ^

Some salient comments....

1.  McGary is a star-in-the-making, and is the personality needed to bring the program back.. Why? Because we've need charismatic big men for what, 20 years now?  And its gonna be nice to have a great post-up player like Doyle... am looking forward to seeing them play together.

2. Albrecht is gonna really suprise next year....  sure, Walton is coming.. but when Albrecht is out of Burke's shadow, you'll see others become better because of his style.   And lets not forget he wasn't intimidated at all in Columbus like everyone else...Burke surely was.

3. Burke needs to get an insurance contract, and stay one more year, period.  Who cares if hes gonna be a lottery pick.. he'll be even higher in a year barring injury.

4. Stauskas needs to toughen up, the American way.. hes soft in every way, and I'd like to see him bulk up.

 

AtkinsDiet

March 25th, 2013 at 4:11 PM ^

Here's a stat:

Kansas starts four seniors. Michigan starts five players who have all displayed so much talent it is a question in each case whether they will even be around for their senior year or not.

Make no mistake about it, Michigan has the more skilled squad of the two.

 

gwkrlghl

March 25th, 2013 at 5:10 PM ^

I'm not expert, but it seems like a big thing we did to confuse VCU's havoc was to slowly bring the ball up the middle of the court and at all costs avoid going to the sidelines. If you watch clips of the game, you can see THJ, Spike, Burke, etc all do their darndest to stay in the middle (often doing a little dribble behind the back to keep it so). You could also see VCU's "2" guys of the 1-2-1 wanting to move in for the trap but being hesitant to do so because it never went to one side.

Just watch a few of the posessions on umhoops clip:

Maybe that's just Point Guard 101 but it seemed to keep VCU from ever getting their havoc setup

Jonesy

March 25th, 2013 at 7:24 PM ^

Kansas is going to be tough, hopefully Burke can just come up short in the lane and nail 10 foot tear drop floaters over and over.

 

I don't know why everyone was picking VCU over us, we were their nightmare matchup.

Mr. Yost

March 25th, 2013 at 7:41 PM ^

Has Withey played against anyone this season as active as McGary?

McGary's played Zeller twice, Nix twice...I don't think he'll be afraid.

Withey was GASSED after 3 minutes of the UNC game. I'm not saying McGary is better, but I wouldn't want to deal with Mitch for 30-35 minutes.

I personally like the matchup, the fouls is the biggest concern, we're going to need Morgan and Horford because McGary is going to pickup fouls. But when he's on the floor, I don't think don't see "advantage Kansas."

Mr. Yost

March 25th, 2013 at 7:46 PM ^

Say what you want about his February...he was big for us in that win vs. MSU.

If he can come off the bench and play the way he's capable of playing...there is no drop off in McGary to Morgan. They're completely different in style of play, but Morgan is an anchor on defense and he's skilled offensively when he's on.

These are all big "IFs" but the last game was full of "IFs."

I hope our 3 main post players take offense to all of this Withey slurping and really come to play on Friday.

All that said, this game feels like it's going to be about Trey Burke. He hasn't had a truly good game well over a month. Not since we played Illinois at home. We need Burke to be the Burke for the first 2/3 of the season, leading, smiling and having fun, dominant. We get him back and I truly think we find ourselves in a WAR vs. IU in a week and a half.

Jeff09

March 25th, 2013 at 7:59 PM ^

This is one of the best posts I've seen on this site in awhile. Big middle finger to the doubters, exactly how I felt post game



That Stauskas quote is awesome btw

steve sharik

March 25th, 2013 at 10:59 PM ^

...that's how down on us they were coming into the weekend.

Admit it, the teams we played were a great fit for our style.  They liked to run, and we kill teams in transition.  What gives us trouble?  Slow tempo, inside game, and great rebounding teams.  SDSU and VCU were anything but.  GRIII and McGary went nuts b/c there was no inside presence to turn them away.  GRIII is our 4 and he didn't have to go against a 6-9 B1G bruiser, so he excelled.  McGary got his lunch handed to him by Zeller and Payne/Nix.

Kansas, Florida, etc. will be very tough for us.  I pray that Kansas won't try to slow the game down, and we should pack the paint against them.  If we box out, we in.  If we don't, we lose.

ESPN doing their ESPN brilliance thing again, re-seeding us #2 overall b/c we beat a low-major and a mid-major with no size on either team.

I think we can beat anyone in the country, but I'm not going to be thinking we're the shizzle now just b/c of 2 games in which we beat small teams who tried to run with us.  Our issues have not magically gone away nor have our problems been solved.

With the exception of @MSU, no one has blown us out, and I think the game(s) will be close, but expect some frustrating moments next weekend.

Der Alte

March 26th, 2013 at 9:34 AM ^

Of the VCU starting five, Reddic is 6'9" 235. The other four starters (Theus, Brandenberg, Daniels, Graham) average 6' 3 and 1/2". This goes a long way in explaining McGary's (and GRIII's) field day on the boards.

Kansas, of course, is a much different team. Besides Withey the Seven Footer, Young is a 6'8" 195-lb senior. Both board very well --- McGary and GRIII will find the going a lot tougher Friday.

The other part of Kansas's threat is experience. Of the starting five, four are seniors. They've been around for four years, they've been to the "dance," they know what it's all about.

Even given all that, however, I'm more than happy our team has made it this far.