Michigan 73, Penn State 64
The Penn State student section is rocking. pic.twitter.com/gZuYDPnhbf
— Brendan F. Quinn (@BFQuinn) January 7, 2015
Michigan and Penn State both entered tonight's game coming off ugly losses in which their respective offenses disappeared. The Bryce Jordan Center crowd was anything but raucous. Both teams' lone offensive creators battled foul trouble throughout.
Surprise! This game was ugly.
The Wolverines overcame 15 turnovers to pull away late thanks to six straight points from Caris LeVert, who led the team with 18 points on 6/8 shooting, and a couple critical buckets from Zak Irvin, who added 17 and a game-high nine boards.
Derrick Walton once again struggled from the field, going just 2/7, though he went 7/7 from the line and made a big impact on the boards; he still didn't look close to healthy, having one seemingly open driving layup blocked when he wasn't able to cover ground and lift like he does at 100%. Michigan got just enough secondary scoring from Ricky Doyle and Aubrey Dawkins, who chipped in eight points apiece, to make up for Walton's scoring struggles and an 0-fer from Spike Albrecht, who started in place of Kam Chatman.
After getting crushed on the boards in the first half, Michigan evened out the rebounding battle in the second, and a late switch to the 1-3-1 zone gave Penn State fits as they were unable to keep pace. While DJ Newbill scored 20 points, he got no help from the PSU frontcourt, and the Nittany Lion offense stalled when Newbill—who often plays wire-to-wire—had to sit six minutes due to foul trouble. A surprising 16-point performance from backup John Johnson wasn't enough to overcome the frontcourt no-show, especially that of forward Brandon Taylor, who went just 1/10 from the field.
The bright spot for Michigan was their shooting—they went 9/15 from beyond the arc, and some nifty second half work from LeVert, Irvin, and Doyle managed to drag their two-point percentage up to 50% after it languished well below that for most of the game.
It wasn't pretty, but a road win is a road win, and this Michigan team will certainly take it.
January 6th, 2015 at 9:42 PM ^
Zak and Dawkin/Kam hit shots = competitive basketball.
January 6th, 2015 at 9:48 PM ^
They shot well. That's a nice change.
January 6th, 2015 at 9:48 PM ^
January 7th, 2015 at 12:16 AM ^
This. As you state, dude jumps and rebounds just fine...and pretty well at that for a pG. I'm not seeing Walton's being hurt like everyone else seems to be. I don't doubt that he is but I would doubt that it's inhibiting him like many think. I just don't think he's a great player (a good one, but not one that will take a team to the Final Four).
*Now, there could be something to the effect of, on offense and driving to the hoop one jumps and uses a different body mechanic than when rebounding, where rebounding is more of a leg (quads, hamstrings) lift-off and it's more straight up and down. I just made that scenario up in my head to play devil's advocate a bit, but I'm not sure I buy it. I know that he does rebound well and I'm not quite sure his offensive "woes" are injury related but more bigger, faster, longer, higher-opponents-related
January 7th, 2015 at 4:24 AM ^
He can't finish at the rim like he could last year.
January 7th, 2015 at 11:52 AM ^
As someone whose been injured a ton. Straight line speed, jumping straight up those things are easier to do. When making a ton of quick cuts or trying to be jukey, either you don't trust your body or you go to plant and you just don't get the power to do what you want to.
He's not 100% nor doing as well as last year and I don't think it's entirely mental/crew surrounding him.
Wish I knew more about his and Spike's "lower body injuries", or rather just that they were 100%.
January 6th, 2015 at 9:51 PM ^
At this point, I'm not so much looking for results this season - I think our chances at the NCAA tourney have likely come & gone - as I'm looking for signs of progress that point to better things next year. After the last three seasons we've had and the talent departures we've dealt with, there's no shame in spending a little time in rebuilding mode. A road win is a good step forward, and hopefully the team can keep progressing from here.
January 6th, 2015 at 10:12 PM ^
I would like them to develop the freshmen, which appears to be happening, especially with Dawkins.
January 7th, 2015 at 11:55 AM ^
I think that there is still a chance for us to make the tourney. I plan on selling my Final 4 tickets but won't count them out of playing themselves in late season until March. A coupe of upsets and if they can win the games they should in the Big Ten and SoS may luck us in.
Eastern and NJIT won't help though unless those teams go on a tear themselves.
January 6th, 2015 at 9:51 PM ^
I was following both of you on the twitters and it was like you were watching different games. Umichbball would post something like "Woo! That was awesome bay-bee!" You'd reply with, "Wow, that really sucked."
January 6th, 2015 at 10:04 PM ^
January 6th, 2015 at 10:08 PM ^
Penn States used to be a place you didn't want to play in basketball. The students were right on the floor and it was crazy there. It looks like that atmosphere is gone since getting their new arena.
January 6th, 2015 at 10:27 PM ^
January 6th, 2015 at 10:27 PM ^
Students are all on winter break, so that probably explains the lack of energy
January 7th, 2015 at 8:30 AM ^
Even still, the Bryce Jordan Center is one of the most stale, disinterested environments in major college basketball. It's way too big (15,000+) for the amount of PSU hoops fans (basically none) and thus has little energy even when it's not winter break.
January 7th, 2015 at 9:03 AM ^
Rec Hall was a smaller venue but it fit the amount of fans that go to PSU basketball games. It's better to have unmet demand than excess capacity when trying to generate buzz. They did play a few games at Rec Hall recently and I wonder if they are exploring a return?
The crowd last night was probably close to 50/50 Maize&Blue/Lions. I scored my tickets over the weekend. The lady that sat next to my wife was reading a magazine. Talking to her made it clear to me that PSU basketball isn't an event so much as something to do. We were in the section that should have been full of donors. Instead the fans behind and to my left were all Michigan people. The group in front of us was just basketball fans not really committed to either team.
January 7th, 2015 at 9:39 AM ^
It opened in 1996. A friend worked in the PSU SID at the time .... one of the facts on the press release when Bryce Jordan Center opened was "it has among the largest square footage floor space of any arena in America."
Translation: "the seats will be among the furthest away from the action for any arena in America."
I do miss Rec Hall. PSU basketball has never been great in its B1G run (we've very rarely even been good), but Rec Hall was right-sized and a very nice atmosphere for the product.
Bryce Jordan Center does provide an arena that allows Central PA to get a few random WWE events and country music concerts though. :-)
January 7th, 2015 at 10:09 AM ^
I was probably a little too harsh in my estimation of the PSU basketball following, but I really have to wonder what the administration was thinking when they decided to open an arena of that size for a program that has little tradition in a lightly-populated area.
January 7th, 2015 at 11:04 AM ^
Since it is geographically in the middle of the state it's supposed to serve for anyone that doesn't want to drive to Pittsburgh or Philadelphia for an event. It's really a horrible arena. The sound for concerts is terrible and the atmosphere for sports is more like a funeral home. To give you an idea how big it is, when my son was really young I took him to see monster trucks there because little boys LOVE monster trucks.
I go there occasionally not to see PSU but whomever they are playing. We go to more basketball games at Bucknell which has an arena that is pretty much the same as the lower bowl of the BJC without the upper deck and is mostly sold out for all games. Of course, the product on the court is generally better too.
They wanted a big shiny arena and the got one. It's just not good for very much.
January 6th, 2015 at 10:20 PM ^
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January 7th, 2015 at 2:18 AM ^
TCB at home and split on the road: that works out to 13-5 or 14-4 and 20-10 or 21-9 before the Big Ten Tournament. That will be enough to get them into the NCAA Tournament despite their bad non-conference record.
January 6th, 2015 at 10:23 PM ^
The number of missed "easy" shots is frustrating. And the number of turnovers was surprising. But, the fight was good and by making shots they won.
January 6th, 2015 at 10:25 PM ^
Take it and run. Especially a road win! Go Blue!! :)
January 6th, 2015 at 10:27 PM ^
Debbie Downer. There were some positives today--turnovers aside. The "Big 3" played well. Penn State is a decent team that will beat some NCAA qualifiers along the way. A road win is a road win. I'll take 2-1 to start--given how we were playing before conference play.
January 6th, 2015 at 10:27 PM ^
To be fair to Penn State. They are still on break,
January 6th, 2015 at 11:11 PM ^
January 6th, 2015 at 11:29 PM ^
Was Penn State's football messiah introduced at tonight's game?
January 7th, 2015 at 9:04 AM ^
If you mean the Hockey Team then yes.
January 7th, 2015 at 12:20 PM ^
PSU doesn't draw many fans, period. Last season their best attendance was 10,428. This is in an arena that seats 15,261.
Their largest home attendance this season is 9,991 against George Washington.
January 6th, 2015 at 10:37 PM ^
January 6th, 2015 at 10:44 PM ^
We're back!
January 7th, 2015 at 11:23 AM ^
Is that a Trading Places quote?
January 7th, 2015 at 12:01 PM ^
It's actually from Coming To America, with the Dukes making a cameo from Trading Places. Two fantastic movies!
January 6th, 2015 at 10:48 PM ^
But there were some good signs. When the game got tight in the second half, UM (mostly) kept running the offense, stopped turning the ball over, and maybe most importantly, showed some good effort on defense.
Young team, but looked (tonight at least) like they're getting better.
January 6th, 2015 at 11:31 PM ^
I followed the game through Brian and Ace's tweets. Figured we were losing by 20 the entire time.
January 6th, 2015 at 10:50 PM ^
January 6th, 2015 at 11:03 PM ^
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January 6th, 2015 at 11:04 PM ^
January 6th, 2015 at 11:07 PM ^
January 6th, 2015 at 11:29 PM ^
Idk if we will be better....we need another dribble drive guy. Maybe MAAR or Kam make that leap.
Also would love to add a shotblocker to backup Doyle. Donnal won't cut it.
I see Zak and Walton as 4 yeae guys so 2016 should be awesome.
January 6th, 2015 at 11:48 PM ^
but it seemed like the 5's were setting better screens?
January 7th, 2015 at 12:13 AM ^
Meh. Could be I missed a few that you did see (I was forced to take some breaks from this one) but for the majority I saw I wasn't seeing any great screening.
There was possibly one early on where we had a back-door and whatever Freshman (MAAR I think) had the ball at the point threw it too late toward the block...I'd guess a good screen broke him free.
January 7th, 2015 at 12:10 AM ^
Need better transition opportunities though I understand why they don't push it...because they aren't good at it, which obviously also needs to improve. There's a lot, not so good about this team but I won't detail my own lame opinions, people this this is a negative OP as it is. Yes there are good things and we've to realize these guys are young...and maybe we've been spoiled the past few years. But I wasn't, and I know damn well most everyone else, wasn't expecting such a drop off this year.
January 7th, 2015 at 12:42 AM ^
I only saw the second half, but I felt much better about the team today than I did after the Purdue game. They are certainly a Dr. Jekyll/Mr. Hyde type outfit at present. Give Beilein some time to figure out which combinations work, and hopefully we can get the shooting percentage back up and we may surprise some people. Nobody thought the original Beilein surprise team with Novak and Douglass was going to do anything. The goal for this year should be to finish middle of the pack (7th or 8th out of 14 teams) and build for next year. I guess Levert is gone after this year, but it would be nice to see him come back and lead a deep tourney run next season. What this team really misses is Morgan's ability to finish at the rim. I invented a drinking game where you take a drink everytime the announcer says, "unable to finish" or "can't convert". I was really surprised to hear Doyle's FG pct was so high (I heard 71% during the Purdue game, can that be right?) but I guess they don't get credited with a missed shot when they (Doyle and Donnal) get fouled. Still, I'd much rather see them completing three point plays than going 1 for 2 from the line after failing to convert.
January 7th, 2015 at 4:46 AM ^
I wouldn't call this one ugly at all.
January 7th, 2015 at 7:59 AM ^
January 7th, 2015 at 9:38 AM ^
This is the first I've seen Michigan Basketball in person in a few years. These are the things that stood out...
- John Beilein exemplifies class. When Irvin got called for a very questionable call his 'working' the refs consisted of him calling them by name and not swearing. "Tom, he never travels and if he did why would he do it there? There's no reason to travel in that situation." The PSU coach was a volcano of F-bombs almost from the start of the game. When I mentioned that JB worked the refs properly to my wife the people in front of us said their kids don't like hearing Chambers swear all the time.
- The coaches are teaching basketball fundamentals to players that should know them by now. Lots of time Bacari and JB would be yelling at the whole team, Doyle in particular, to get their hands up. In zone when they played 2-3 and 1-3-1, JB emphatically kept yelling "Touch the Ball" to get them up on the player they were guarding in the zone.
- The offense struggles because several of the players don't know the plays or how to execute at speed. Aubrey Dawkins was the clearest example. JB yelled to Spike, "You 4 have to help Aubrey out there". Dawkins was frequently out of position to receive the ball or with the ball didn't know what to do. Spike or Walton would have to break off the set and go out to receive the ball from him. When 1 or 2 players on the floor don't or can't run the offense it looks disjointed and that's what we've seen this season.
- Walton is playing tentative on offense. I don't know if it's because of how disjointed they are but the coaches singled him out. "Quit swinging the ball. If the play is designed for you to take the shot you need to take it"
- There is zero inside game offensively. It may be related to not being able to run offense at speed and it not being as obvious for a Big as it is a guard. PSU didn't have to respect the inside game very much so they could come out and contest the jumpshots.
- DJ Wilson is the tallest player on the team. Is he hurt or just redshirting?
- Chatman doesn't look as bad in person as on TV. I think he has the same problems as Dawkins but his skill set makes them more glaringly obvious.
I think all of the struggles this season are because of the youth (duh!). They will get better as the season goes on but this is an NIT team this season. I think they should make a huge leap next year as I don't think the draft is going to clean the roster after the season.
*My son's team beat their league rivals 60-35 last night. Had to mention that since he couldn't come with us.
January 7th, 2015 at 9:47 AM ^
DJ Wilson sprained his knee in late November and hasn't played since. It was mentioned at the time that he was a candidate for a medical redshirt and that seems more and more likely with each passing day.
January 7th, 2015 at 9:54 AM ^
Thank you
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