today I learned it wasn't a touch-feel sport, either. Maybe the refs were determined to keep control of the game, but all those foul calls continuously interrupted a great up-and-down the court BB game between two very evenly matched teams (yes, I said evenly matched). But while our team is exceeding expectations, the other team seems to be slipping a bit, for which I am of course profoundly sorry (not!). Go Blue. 

 

 

 

The refs almost ruined this classic.

Bridges is right, Michigan is tougher. Zack Novack would have loved playing on this team.

All True Blues.

Beilein's best game in a long time. 

And YES, love the starting lineup.

The reffing may have been frustrating, but it's hard to argue with results--it seemed to hurt MSU as much as it hurt us, and the team did just fine with whatever players were on the floor.

I was really, really impressed with the defense the team played. Even Robinson, overmatched, was playing hard and winning 50-50 balls with hustle. Wagner was forcing bad misses from 6 feet out. Guys were intercepting passes and forcing TOs all over the place. That Livers foul on an inbound play might not have been the wisest effort, but I'll take it as a part of a mentality that plays championship D like this.

Michigan allegedly had no business being in either of the games this week. Instead, they win 1 of 2 with the loss resulting from a flukey bad call late. And they have a huuuuuge road win on the resume. And young guys are developing into serious contributors for the stretch run and beyond.

The present and the future both suddenly look very bright.

This isn't your older brother's Beilein team.  They rebound, play some D, score inside and out.  This team feels a half season of maturity at PG away from exceptional.

Let's see if Z and Brooks can take the 2H PG leap.

I thought TV Ted was really restrained (for him) and called a fair game. The other two bozos were ridiculous. They almost let Sparty back in the game with 4-5 minutes left. Cassius threw an elbow on Jackson's 3. That was a clear illegal screen but no call. Then, Livers made a clean steal but they called a foul. Before the game, I would have taken all 5 Spartans in their 1-on-1 matchups with our guys. I still might. But a healthy Mo >>> Ward. Izzo is such a lousy offensive coach. He couldn't design anything for Bridges, Jackson, Ward or Langford. If they aren't getting 2nd chances on offense, they are only so-so. I thought we were in big trouble in the first half playing Livers at the 5, but Izzo didn't take advantage of that. His one good coaching moment of the game was deploying hack-a-Z. But then he didn't take advantage by having his guys drive on the other end. Beilein is a better coach. In the words of Seth, I am VERY COMFORTABLE saying that. Go Blue. Go Ace. It's just such a great day to be a Wolverine.

So we beat them at their game (11 offensive rebounds to their eight) and destroyed them at ours (18 turnovers for them, seven for us).  It added up to us taking 11 more shots than them, even though they fouled us on purpose a bunch of times down the stretch.  Before the deliberate fouling, we had taken something like 17 more shots than they had.  

Beilein's been here long enough that it's easy to take it for granted how turnover-free we play.  To only turn it over seven time in a road game against a top 5 team - wow.  That's how you win big games.  

I wonder when's the last time we've had as many turnovers as MSU did today?  You might have to go back a few years. 

Looked exhausted with a couple of minutes left in the game, can't believe he played 39 minutes.

While I wish I was making up this story, it is still worth a share:

My non-verbal special needs 5 year old, who just spent 2 weeks in the ICU with severe respiratory issues, watched the game in his hospital room with my wife. She said he kept doing his sign language for “blue”.

Michigan wins. 5 years ago when he was gravely ill in the NICU he nearly carried Michigan to a national championship. Ya gotta believe.

1. It's been mentioned several times, but Z is just playing unbelievably well right now.  Outplayed Winston, came up with some huge buckets, played great D. This is now like 8 games in a row and is definitely A Thing.  Now about those FTs...

2. Livers into the starting lineup finally happened, and we were able to come right out and get some stops and jump out to a 9-4 lead to avoid an initial punch from MSU that we all figured would happen.  Livers forced a Bridges TO on the first MSU possession, and was outstanding on defense against everyone he guarded all game. 

He's become a guy that can guard every position (forced a Winston offensive foul early on) such that we even went with him at the 5 for a few minutes.  He's not the shot blocker DJ was but he can do everything else DJ could do.

And he was 3-5 from the field despite being guarded by Jackson (who is as good as the hype).

3. I've been critical of Wagner, but this was his best all-around game as a Wolverine.  Yes, he's gone off on offense before (first half of Purdue last year, second half of Louisville) and it was great to have peak Mo in a huge game (he does seem to get up for big games).  He's not going to hit 3-4 from three and fall away Dirk shots every game, and that's ok, we shouldn't expect that.  The most encouraging thing about his game was his defense. 

For the first time I can remember, he not only played hard but he played smart.  He came over on help side to block a Winston shot in the first half (he's never been a great or even adequite helpside rim protector), he stayed home and stayed straight up on Ward to give him problems.  Wagner has teased us with great games before, only to fall into extended funks.  But if his ankle is close to 100% (had to be, right?), and things are finally clicking on defense, sky is the limit for this team.

4. Theme of the day: Defense. Michigan is now 17th in kenpom defensive efficiency.  By far the best ranking in Beilein's 11 seasons. And that's with Duncan playing a percentage of minutes that won't continue going forward.  So we might be closer to the top 10 defense we've been the past few games than the top 30ish defense we were before that.  It seems like Beilein found the formula last year with the D coordinator, hired another to replace Donlon, and we should probably start talking about the job Luke Yaklich is doing. 

As mentioned above, Livers is already playing outstanding defense, Wagner is maybe starting to click, Z is as good as we thought he could be, MAAR and Matthews are solid, and Teske is playing great on that end of the floor.  17th!  And rising! Wow.

Logged in or made a comment here in years. Logged in only to say: Fuck Tom Izzo.

Looking like one of those patented "7th Seed You Don't Want in Your Bracket"® teams.

Defense was ranked #12 in points allowed going into this game.

Now just work on "Free Throws - You Makes Them"

Great win! But uggh, I still hate the end of BBall games. That last minute and a half always torture, especially with a couple of 52% FT shooters getting hacked, and our inbounding still gives me the Henie newbies (seems like that’s been an issue forever with Beilein).

Can’t wait to see what the team does for the rest of conference play.