Nope
2/12/2013 – Michigan 52, Michigan State 75 – 21-4, 8-4 Big Ten
![tumblr_m9xtvkKyil1qa84kso1_1280[1]](https://mgoblog.com/sites/mgoblog.com/files/images/a7a290d3478e_9413/tumblr_m9xtvkKyil1qa84kso1_12801.jpg "tumblr_m9xtvkKyil1qa84kso1_1280[1]")
HERE IS A PICTURE OF PAD THAI. NO YOUR PICTURE SELECTION DOES NOT MAKE SENSE. I HOPE YOU ARE HAPPY PEOPLE WHO COMPLAINED ABOUT BO RYAN PICTURES. NOW THAT I AM STARING AT THIS PAD THAI AND THINKING ABOUT WHAT ELSE THIS PICTURE COULD BE, I FIND MYSELF ON THE SIDE OF THE BO RYAN COMPLAINERS. GOOD JOB BO RYAN COMPLAINERS. LET US ALL ENJOY THIS PICTURE OF PAD THAI, A JOB WELL DONE.
A few weeks ago, this space batted around the shocking revelation that Michigan was something like 338th in average experience, and asserted that this certainly didn't seem like the case. It does now. Michigan has built first-half deficits of 21, 15, 9, and like a billion in their losses, all of which came on the road. They managed to avoid that fate against Northwestern, Minnesota, and Illinois, which does count for something. Not enough of a something to file this team as elite, or a national championship favorite, or even particularly likely to beat MSU and Indiana at home.
And I guess that's fine. Most Michigan fans entered the season leery of the top-five ranking bestowed on the Wolverines because Trey Burke, and if you'd handed them this…
…before the season they'd have snatched it from your hands gleefully, especially if you'd mentioned that the Big Ten was obviously the toughest league in the country and that three-games stretch in November was against a couple of teams on track for Sweet 16 seeds and a third not too far off.
This perspective is brought to you by gritted teeth and turning off a game like Brian freakin' Ellerbe was on the sidelines. It is hard-won. Stupid everything.
So… yeah. This is not a miracle team like last year's all-the-freshman Kentucky outfit, and now we know that. Michigan played ten guys before walk-on time kicked in (with eight minutes left): six were freshman of some variety, and zero were seniors. This is no longer a cleverly obscured fact. It's a thing that becomes obvious when the pressure turns up on hostile courts, and separates Michigan from being a truly elite team. They probably aren't getting a one seed; they probably aren't winning the league. Here is a picture of pad thai.
![io-PadThai2[1]](https://mgoblog.com/sites/mgoblog.com/files/images/a7a290d3478e_9413/ioPadThai21.jpg "io-PadThai2[1]")
NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOODLESSSSSSSS
It could be a lot worse. Getting teased like this is still teeth-clenching.
Bullets
Well, at least one guy came to play. I can't say I liked a lot of Burke's shots early, but once it became clear that he was the only guy on the floor who could do, like, things. He put in 18 points on 11 shots and had four of Michigan's six assists.
Things went from bad to worse in two periods when he was on the bench. The first was a generic get-this-guy-rest period in the first half that featured two bigs, Albrecht, Levert, and Hardaway. That did not go well. The second was a brief period after Burke picked up his third foul early in the first half on an over-aggressive three closeout that looks exactly like every other overaggressive three closeout that knocks the shooter over. By the time Burke returned a pretty-much-over game was over.
And poof like that he's gone. Glenn Robinson III's cliff-dive is now undeniable. He'd put up at least eight points in every game this season other than a couple of low-major blowouts; in the three recent losses he's acquired 2, 4, and 2 points. Michigan stashed him on the bench for half of this one, choosing to go with a clumsy two-big lineup for large chunks of the game. Robinson has to score if he's going to be out there against Adriean Payne, and as soon as he put up that ugly brick on one of those pass-up-a-set-open-three-for-a-pullup-two shots that are just the worst, you could see that Michigan wasn't getting anything from him.
Part of that is the permissivity of Michigan's defense in these games. It's hard to get into transition, where Robinson has made a lot of hay, when you're picking the ball out of the basket every time down the court.
Stauskas defense: actually impactful. In the wrong way, obviously. He was checking Gary Harris; Gary Harris hit 5 of 9 threes because each was a comfortable look. That was the first time his guy had really gone off.
A question. So, let's say Tom Izzo is three feet onto the court as his team is trying to play defense and Mitch McGary barrels into him at top speed, sending him flying into the bench. Is that a technical on Izzo? On McGary? On both? What would happen if someone went out of their way to make the presence of a basketball coach on the damn court a problem? I assume that in the rules leaving the approved coaching box is a technical foul, but basketball doesn't really have rules, it has easily-ignored suggestions.
All hell would break loose, at least.
How you lose by 23. Michigan got doubled up on the boards (18% to 37%), in turnovers (16 to 8), tripled in FTAs and assists, and gave up 55% shooting from two. I have lost all motivation to discuss this game right now. Just now, it happened. I was going to keep putting words in there about how this performance was ass, just comprehensive and disillusioning ass, and now I feel that this is so beyond pointless that I don't even think I'm going to finish this sent
February 13th, 2013 at 11:53 AM ^
February 13th, 2013 at 12:19 PM ^
Calm down brah, no need to let pictures of Pad Thai get you all worked up.
February 13th, 2013 at 12:25 PM ^
friend. This attitude from internet morans who "aren't gonna take it anymore" that THEIR team somehow has the gall to LOSE games is damned silly. Lot of it around this morning.
February 13th, 2013 at 12:31 PM ^
Anybody else getting visions of Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade where the evil Nazi picks like the shiny, bejeweled cup and then turns to dust and the knight looks at Indy and simply says "He chose poorly."
Just me?
February 13th, 2013 at 12:48 PM ^
February 13th, 2013 at 11:35 AM ^
They have talent and I hope they grow up a bit down the stretch. Minus this game, it sure beats the 15-20 year drought of pathetic basketball we had to endure! I still enjoy watching this team and I bet in the next month they will improve!
February 13th, 2013 at 11:36 AM ^
A big loss to a highly ranked team certainly does not spell doom or mean the losing team is bad. I'm not saying that this is for sure what's going to happen, but look at the 98-99 Maryland-Duke games. Duke won the first matchup by 18 points but then Maryland won the next won by....18 points.
Obviously there are other examples, for instance Duke getting destroyed, but just chill out. It's one game. Wisconsin's half-court miracle was a fluke, and Michigan fought back at hostile crowds at Indiana and OSU -- they didn't come back in a hostile environment ONE time when Burke was the only won not off.
February 13th, 2013 at 11:45 AM ^
that all-the-freshman kentucky team from last season? got outscored 17-4 by vanderbilt in the last 8:04 to blow the SEC championship.
i'm not saying we're anywhere near that good. obviously. but very, very few teams go whole seasons without a bad loss, especially when they're this young.
i'm still feeling it.
February 13th, 2013 at 1:02 PM ^
February 13th, 2013 at 11:37 AM ^
I happen to live about 15 minutes from states campus. This unfortunately means any bar I go to happens to be a sparty bar. I got more than a few glares from other people at the bar when I screamed why is Izzo on the court get him off the court! It was a long long night!
February 13th, 2013 at 11:38 AM ^
I read this while eating my salad, wishing the entire time that it was a pile of spicey Pad Thai. Thanks Brian. Thanks a lot.
February 13th, 2013 at 11:38 AM ^
Needs more vitriol for big ten conference schedulers giving michigan 4 games in 9 days against the top 4 teams (3 on the road) followed by a 15 day period that sees michigan play just 2 games total, both at home.
I was wondering that about Izzo too being on the court next to the players in the middle of the action like wtf.
Stauskas played well on offense on the road. He had that one play where he got a rebound, pump faked, got his man in the air and then got clobbered with no call.
Hope this team responds well to adversity!
February 13th, 2013 at 12:22 PM ^
Agreed. This schedule stretch is brutal.
February 13th, 2013 at 11:39 AM ^
Things are pointless and stuff and I don't know I'll just shrug it of but why am I oh so sad just kill me now but I like pad thai and everything is pointless so i'll probably just eat cake.
February 13th, 2013 at 11:40 AM ^
In the 2nd advent of the "Guess the Score" thread, I predicted a 10-point win for MSU. Little did I know we would struggle to keep it under 30.
NOW!
NOW we find out what kind of men we have on this team. There are 3 winnable games before they face this same MSU team. I'm not expecting a victory against the Spartans on March 3, but I'm expecting some kind of fight.
February 13th, 2013 at 11:46 AM ^
I thought the same thing as I watched the game. Izzo was on the court, just a few feet from the action. If I were a player I'd be tempted to dribble right at him and plow him over. It'd be hilarious to watch a ref make a confused-looking-blocking-call against Izzo. It's one thing to be barely on the court, but Izzo was too far out there. I'm a little surprised the ref didn't stop play and issue a warning - OK not surprised at all actually. (And it's possible they warned Izzo later I suppose.)
Regardless, the coaches didn't have the players ready last night. Burke proved to me once again that he is an elite player but also some leadership as well. Overall the team played sloppy and indecisive. The coaches didn't have an answer to MSU's perimeter defense. The coaches didn't have an answer to MSU's post play. The players didn't match MSU's hustle to rebounds and loose balls. The players didn't take care of the ball. Complete failure on Michigan's part. MSU was prepared and out-worked Michigan. End of story.
February 13th, 2013 at 11:45 AM ^
This is a Chicago Hot Dog
When's lunch....
February 13th, 2013 at 12:12 PM ^
but I prefer the Original.
/Lafayette'd
February 13th, 2013 at 1:02 PM ^
that makes me seriously hungry. my fave dogs place in the burbs is Weiner Take All in Buffalo Grove, what's yours?
February 13th, 2013 at 1:23 PM ^
but I grew up on WTA since my cousin is the owner, so I'm not exactly an impartial judge on this one.
February 13th, 2013 at 3:47 PM ^
The owners of Superdawg are family friends...
February 13th, 2013 at 1:58 PM ^
February 13th, 2013 at 11:45 AM ^
Game was disappointing all around. I said it after Duke got pasted by Miami, but true national title contenders just don't get waxed like that so we'll need to recalibrate expectations. I do also wonder if Beilein's relative lack of in your face-ness contributes to a lack of defensive intensity. Matta and Izoo scream at their players, but they seem to feed off of that and they play defense like their pants are on fire.
February 13th, 2013 at 11:50 AM ^
I don't think a screaming coach is necessary to play good defense. These kids are all very competitive and, especially in a rivalry game, don't need any extra motivation.
February 13th, 2013 at 11:57 AM ^
If screaming at your players resulted in great defensive play, Rich Rodriguez would be coming off his second national championship at Michigan.
February 13th, 2013 at 11:45 AM ^
That pad thai looks 10x better than No Thai!'s version.
February 13th, 2013 at 11:46 AM ^
It was if they knew they were going into EL to get their asses kicked, and couldn't wait to limp out of their with their tails between their legs. Every loose ball, every rebound, there were three MSU guys jumping in to take it, with our guys standing around watching.
Quite frankly, I don't see how everyone still has such high hopes for this team. It seems like they're a one trick pony and have been figured out. It's as if we have the same team as last year, minus the leadership of Novak and Douglass.
February 13th, 2013 at 11:52 AM ^
They're tired. Beilein implied after the OSU game in Ann Arbor that they fought through exhaustion having played two games a week for awhile, and they've had two brutal road games in the week since then. Are these guys as good as they looked a few weeks ago? No. Are they as bad as they looked last night? No way.
February 13th, 2013 at 11:57 AM ^
It's not as if we're playing more games than anybody else.
February 13th, 2013 at 12:15 PM ^
But how many guys in the rotation are used to this grind? 2 (Burke and Hardaway) or 3 (if you count Morgan, who isn't playing much right now).
These kids have just played four tough games (3 of which were on the road) against very physical opponents in the last ten days. I think it would impossible for them not to be exhausted.
They weren't up for the challenge last night. They'll learn from this, and get better. Sparty might win the rematch, but I'd be very surprised if UM looks outclassed again.
February 13th, 2013 at 12:57 PM ^
Teams will get a week off every now and then (e.g., play one weekend and then not until the next weekend). We get one after the Penn State game, for example. We just hit a really brutal stretch here.
February 13th, 2013 at 2:40 PM ^
But playing 4 very good teams (3 on the road in very hostile environments) in a row demands you play at or near your best for all 4 games. And that's a very difficult thing to do. It's not just physical exhaustion, it's mental exhaustion. There's a reason why freshmen crumble with that sort of pressure, they're just not used to it yet. They don't have the experience. But even the most experienced of teams have their off nights, and it's not surprising when they come at or near the end of a very tough batch of games.
February 13th, 2013 at 12:27 PM ^
Exactly. Just be thankful this four game stretch happened in early February rather than early March.
February 13th, 2013 at 12:39 PM ^
Not sure if the NCAA has the same rule, but as Jason Kidd demonstrated, a coach-player collision on the floor gets the coach a T in the NBA. Funny that the coach he smacked is now his coach.
http://espn.go.com/blog/truehoop/post/_/id/31531/when-jason-kidd-ran-into-mike-woodson
[Edited to remove shamefully incorrect apostrophe.]
February 13th, 2013 at 11:49 AM ^
You're right that Burke came to play, but is the team relying on Burke too much? I haven't really seen Burke blow past defenders much recently (other than in transition), and he seems more interested in shooting long distance jump shots than driving to the basket. There doesn't seem to be much of an inside-outside game, and the offense isn't spreading out as well as before.
All of my comments are anecdotal, at best, and are not directed solely at Burke. It just looks like teams are playing extremely aggressive defense against him, and the team hasn't figured out a consistent method of hurting teams that do this.
February 13th, 2013 at 11:50 AM ^
well out onto the court with play going on on that end. Two players within a couple feet of him. He was, what, 10 feet from a ref? No call.
I almost hollered as loud at the ref for that as the no call on Stauskus. Nik did a double move by the basket and got landed on and damn near thrown out of bounds on the shot. Ref blows the whistle and I'm thinking "finally, an obvious call but at least it's a call". Ref then proceeds to call oob on Nik. Staee ball. I almost died.
February 13th, 2013 at 11:50 AM ^
It hurts to go from happily drinking Kool Aid to violently choking on said Kool Aid. A few short weeks ago, I thought we really were the best team in the country or at least one of the best with a legitimate shot to go to the Final Four. The harsh reality is that we're probably the 3rd or 4th best team in the conference. Like I said, that realization hurts and it's something we're all dealing with. What concerns me is the lack of toughness. Rail on Izzo all you want, but he's a football coach in basketball coach's clothing and I think there's something to that.
February 13th, 2013 at 12:05 PM ^
our pitiful showings in road games doesn't bode well for us down the stretch, regardless of all this "but we win at home and on neutral courts" talk. The team just doesn't handle adversity and high pressure situations very well, and what's more high pressured than the NCAA tourney? In the Big Ten season, the team has just been soft and easily frazzled. Doesn't help that we have a below average defense at best.
February 13th, 2013 at 11:53 AM ^
-I prefer Gang Gai.
-That game last night really sucked.
-Pasadena Fan is crazy and likes the Caps Lock key.
-they put (a little) paint on Kate and took pictures.
February 13th, 2013 at 12:04 PM ^
Even though it was mostly spent ripping this team a new one, the end of this post made me laugh.
February 13th, 2013 at 12:07 PM ^
This happened in the NBA while a back. The player purposefully ran into the opposing coach (who was then on the court). The coach got a tech. This is the rule, and lo, it shall always happen.
That being said, I think the only time someone would purposefully run into the opposing coach would be when he's pissed at the coach, thus making it a "poor-sport" play. Or, a REALLY heady player could do it in the last few seconds of a close game, to get that game-clinching tech. Still, it seems like a deutsh thing to do.
February 13th, 2013 at 12:13 PM ^
February 13th, 2013 at 12:10 PM ^
I picked a good night to turn in early and skip the game once my date bailed. Mmm, Morpheus.
February 13th, 2013 at 12:12 PM ^
The second picture looks like the worst pad thai ever
February 13th, 2013 at 12:13 PM ^
I haz a sad face today. MMB, Y U do this to me?
February 13th, 2013 at 12:23 PM ^
February 13th, 2013 at 12:15 PM ^
For what it's worth, Burke's 3rd fould was not sure the close-out - that was a no-call. Appling immediately got up and drew a charge from Burke.
February 13th, 2013 at 12:18 PM ^
Poot-tee-weet.
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