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Michigan 54, Rutgers 50 Comment Count

Ace

Caris LeVert is out for the year. Several players were sick. Zak Irvin sat most of the first half with foul trouble. Derrick Walton didn't hit a shot until the game's waning minutes.

Sean Lonergan and Andrew Dakich played—at the same time. Aubrey Dawkins led the team in made field goals—with four. The Wolverines were 8/26 from beyond the arc—and 9/23 inside of it.

Michigan beat Rutgers on the road.

It wasn't aesthetically pleasing. It didn't make a whole lot of sense. It was... kinda fun?

The plucky underdog role suits this team, unburdened from expectations. The missteps are much more understandable, while stuff like "WALK-ON LAYUP OUT OF NOWHERE" provides genuine joy. The offense remained disjointed and relatively ineffective, but there's hope to be found in Aubrey Dawkins scoring an efficient 11 points, Muhammad-Ali Abdur-Rahkman finishing a couple strong drives to the rim, Max Bielfeldt—Max Bielfeldt!—posting 8 and 8. While M didn't shoot the ball well from the outside, they generated a lot of good looks, and the defense—albeit Rutgers-aided tonight—continued to be pleasantly decent.

Losing the lead in the second half felt expected, not disastrous. Then Spike Albrecht scooped in a running layup, Walton drilled back-to-back triples, and Bielfeldt extended the lead with a three moments after he pulled down an offensive rebound. Walton and Irvin iced the game at the line, and just like that, Michigan is 5-2 in the Big Ten.

It's probably not going to last. Wisconsin comes to town on Saturday, and they're easily the best team in the conference. Then again, they lost to Rutgers last week. For tonight, let's celebrate the weird guys, in all their weird glory.

Comments

San Diego Mick

January 20th, 2015 at 9:14 PM ^

11 guys played and 9 guys scored 54 points, amazing.

 

BTW, I think DJ Wilson should play, screw the red shirt, get him some experience for next year. What's the point of holding him back if he turns out to be a good player he would leave before a 5th year anyway and also we can just recruit another stud cause Beilein would have it going on even more by that time.

Joined: 05/11/2011

MGoPoints: 50483

champswest

January 20th, 2015 at 9:36 PM ^

I couldn't get too upset with the errors and misplays tonight considering the situation.  They played hard.  It had to be difficult playing with some of those lineups that weren't used to playing together.

Joined: 10/04/2009

MGoPoints: 25910

bronxblue

January 20th, 2015 at 9:46 PM ^

5-2 is better than 2-5.  Sure, this team isn't going to the NCAA tournament in all likelihood, but winning on the road in the conference is tough and this team deserves credit for doing so.

Joined: 11/22/2008

MGoPoints: 170852

atrain

January 20th, 2015 at 9:58 PM ^

So proud of these guys for winning tonight.  5-2 after that 4 game losing streak is great.  Hats off, too, to the coaching staff.  Go Blue!

Joined: 10/13/2008

MGoPoints: 854

B-Nut-GoBlue

January 20th, 2015 at 11:30 PM ^

I know I'm in the minority in thinking of this tonight already, andI really am enjoying this victory, but oh my god Saturday is going to be baaaaaaaaaaaaad.  And those assholes at the Mothership decide to bring Gameday to campus that night...why would they do that?!  Kansas-Texas, Oklahoma-Baylor are also games that day (the latter already an evening game)...Austin or Waco seem much better places to go that night.

Is recruiting really going to benefit from this?  Do kids not see ass-kickings at home as turnoffs?

Joined: 09/30/2011

MGoPoints: 43651

thatsmyjam

January 21st, 2015 at 10:39 AM ^

GameDay is at 10am, so what does it matter what people think will happen 9 hours after that. They made the schedule long before all these things happened, and I'd rather see an ass-kicking from a ranked Wisconsin then from non-conference teams! At least GameDay will give us a chance to have fun and cheer, since that probably won't happen too much during the actual game. 

 

Joined: 12/14/2013

MGoPoints: 367

SAMgO

January 20th, 2015 at 11:34 PM ^

I'm going to the game on Saturday. I'm not expecting anything within 15 points, but winning this game made it way more exciting. The expectations aren't going to be sky high, but at the same time people are going to be looking forward to spike dishing it off to Dolye and MAAR tossing a dime to Dawkins. College basketball has never truly been about wins or losses in its core for me and the last few years have produces players I'll cheer for come thick and thin. I just want to see out guys play out of their potential. The game vs Wisconsin should provide just that and I'm excited.



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Joined: 07/15/2013

MGoPoints: 18746

Mannix

January 21st, 2015 at 12:32 AM ^

It looked, at times, like the offense was a bit crisper with harder cuts, good dribble action to the back cutters and generally speaking, movement w intent. Not just cutting for the sale getting somewhere else.

Not bad



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Joined: 01/15/2009

MGoPoints: 12243

Blue Bunny Friday

January 21st, 2015 at 1:03 AM ^

And lot less moving the ball around the perimeter needlessly.  The offense moved more away from the pick-and-roll tonight, which the team wasn't great at this year, and relied on motion with a few other set plays.  It obviously wasn't a huge success but did well enough.  Doyle was really struggling with the sick and it will probably look better when he and Spike are healthy.

Joined: 05/01/2009

MGoPoints: 698

BursleysFinest

January 21st, 2015 at 8:42 AM ^

Reminds me of Bill Simmon's "Ewing Theory".  When Levert was out there, everyone expected Caris to create all of the offense and may have deferred to him instead of being aggessive in creating shots for themselves.
We're going to be worse overall obviously, but I see a lot more (forced) development of the freshmen because they all know they have to step up and create more of the offense. 

*Bill Simmon's Ewing Theory:  A team improves because it's best player goes down, often because of either over-reliance on that one player (Caris Levert), that player not being as good as thought in the first place or that player's style conflicting with what's best for the team.

Joined: 08/24/2011

MGoPoints: 6391

DingoBlue

January 21st, 2015 at 4:24 AM ^

And I say that from his time at WVU.  His system was always built around seniors knowing the system better than their opponents could scout it and using it to their advantage.  We lost that the last few years because we had such good talent (a preferable situation), but we have a lot to look forward to with this team.  I say that both for development the rest of this season and looking ahead a few seasons.

I have to agree, the rutgers game was somehow enjoyable when you unburden expectaions from the equation.

Joined: 02/21/2012

MGoPoints: 1328

umfan83

January 21st, 2015 at 9:56 AM ^

...that things go south from here on out, I want to point out that Michigan is 56-20 in the Big Ten since January 22, 2011

 

9-4 the rest of 10-11

13-5 in 11-12

12-6 in 12-13

15-3 in 13-14

5-2 so far in 14-15

Joined: 03/10/2012

MGoPoints: 8446

Johnny

January 21st, 2015 at 10:10 AM ^

I thought it would be dead and nearly empty, but I was surprised by the energy and packed house.  At the end of the game, though, the Rutgers band played their alma mater with the team facing their students section, but most of them, unfaithfully, were already headed for the exits.  

Good to see a sizeable Michigan presence.  W/ so many alums in the area I could see the stadium decked out even more in maize and blue in the future. 

On a side note, the Rutgers football team was honored during the game for their bowl win over N. Carolina.  Of course, the announcer mentioned how their first Big Ten win was over Michigan back in October to loud applause.  By the end of the day Michigan, thankfully, did not become the first Big Ten team to lose to Rutgers in both football and basketball.  That 'distinction' may belong to Indiana next week. 

Joined: 01/21/2015

MGoPoints: 5