Notre Dame 70, Michigan 63
[Joseph Dressler/MGoBlog]
A five-minute scoring drought. A struggling star player. Iffy post play and equally iffy substitution patterns.
Michigan charged out to an early lead against Notre Dame and controlled much of the game. In the end, however, a familiar set of problems cost the Wolverines the game and capped the season in unfortunately fitting fashion.
Zak Irvin couldn't recreate his recent late-game magic, missing the potential game-tying three-pointer from the top of the key after a discombobulated final possession. Irvin finished the game 4/16 from the field and 1/9 from long range. Derrick Walton temporarily broke out of his shooting slump with a 4/7 first half and looked on his way to a great all-around game; he crashed to a halt in the second, going 0/6 from the field over the final 20 minutes.
The short version, via FiveThirtyEight.
For Notre Dame, forwards Zach Auguste and Bonzie Colson each went 4/5 from the field. Michigan's best counter to them in the post, Moe Wagner, hit all three of his shots but played only eight minutes; a questionable charge call for his fourth foul swung the momentum and quite possibly the game in favor of the Irish. The foul negated a Wagner layup that would've given Michigan a two-point lead with 5:39 to play; when Wagner finally reentered with 1:01 on the clock, Notre Dame had a three-point lead and the ball. In the interim, Mark Donnal blew a critical layup.
Clutch late shots by VJ Beachem (game-high 18 points, 7/7 FG) on the perimeter and Colson in the paint gave the Irish the margin they needed to advance. Michigan will be left to wonder: What if John Beilein gave Wagner a longer leash or at least played him ahead of Ricky Doyle? What if Irvin and Walton could play well in the same game? What if MAAR shifted to the point instead of sticking at the two while the team went two scoreless minutes with Andrew Dakich running the offense? What if that official called a block? We now have a long offseason to ponder the answers.
On the plus side, Michigan didn't lose to a 15-seed today.
Only MAAR could handle a Harbaugh talk at this point. Irvin would come out a shell of the shell he already is. I really don't understand what Beilein see's in him that earns so much trust. Is he just the best of a bad group of swingmen? (Well, maybe not "bad", per se, but young and undeveloped.)
I would like to see the bball team do some workouts with the football players, though. They really need to toughen up. Does Beilein even have a strenght program?
+0 Insightful.
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bring on Teske and Simpson. Hard to take it like a man...but I will.
Thank you Lavert and Albrecht.
Looking forward to the rest of the tourney as a disenfranchised fan. Somehow it makes it less stressful to watch.
Go Ducks!
It was still a solid season since we made the tourney without the 2 seniors.
Another game which shows we need to increase atheleticism in defense and offensive rebounding. We simply don't land enough of those players.
Also Beilein needs to abandon his stubborn policy of not offering players until after they visit. It's an orderly way of doing things, but that's not the ideal way to recruit blue chippers.
Sure Irvin's and Walton's 2nd half shooing woes hurt,
but listen to Beiein's halftime interview. in the first half, the team was playing great defense, and then they just stopped,.
we should have won. We needed to shut down ONE Player. You can let Auguste get his points. the ONE guy we obviously needed to shut down was V.J. Beachem. We should have shadowed him and SHUT him down. look back at the tapes. I saw one play where Robinson was on him and left him to drift over to the lane with the ball on the strong side. Why? i dont know, there was no reason to be an extra body in the lane. Beachem was on fire and killing us. we had to never leave him. he was the difference. Farrell did nothing but dish to open guys for shots. Notre Dame only played 5 guys for 20+ and Colson for 18. you can let Jackson and Auguste get their pts if you shut down Beachem you win. We didnt do it.
and we lost... our players do not play defense.
maybe LaVert hid that more when he was playing in December because hes a pretty good defender.
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Yeah, this team wan not going to Houston. But what's disappointing is that this was a game that they could have won, should have won, and indeed were winning until we started taking wild fade-away shots in traffic from 15 feet.
We were done in by one of our patented 6 possession droughts.
March 19th, 2016 at 12:26 PM ^
How is 4-7 not bad when the B1G was favored every game but one? With one of the biggest upsets in tourney history? That's actually beyond terrible.
Great, we made the tournament. I just don't get your lackadaisical attitude towards this game. Yes, we were losing sooner or later. Is not the Sweet 16 a much, much bigger acheivement than just winning a play in game and then getting bounced? Is it championship or bust for you? I highly doubt that.
Bad game plan in 2nd half, bad coaching in 2nd half, time to look forward to football.
Same problems that have plagued this team all year.
Post player stone hands, inability to catch passes and secure rebounds.
Post inability to finish at the rim (I got tired of screaming just dunk it).
Mindless turnovers.
Scoring draughts that happened too frequently and lasted too long.
Offense that breaks down into 1 on 1 playground ball with hurried shots late in the shot clock.
On the plus side the defense showed improvement late in the year and was generrating many more steals.
Tough year with the losses of Caris and Spike, the bench wasn't deep enough to compensate and the starters had to play way too many minutes as a result. I'm sure the fall off in FG% in the last month was due to fatigue. I thought they looked tired starting by mid-Feb.
Great they got into the dance and won one. All in all not a bad year with the hand they were dealt, always a fun, if frustrating (at times) group to watch. Go Blue.
But they didn't actually win one. They won the play-in game and lost in the first round of the tournament.
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Said the guy with zero MGoPoints EDIT - like all of us...
Well, see you all in August.
Sports season for me starts with August football and then through March madness and Wings playoffs. Looks like the wings will either not make it in or get crushed first round.
Time to start getting outside!
Like everyone else, I'm curious why Beilein didn't call a timeout at the end and let the team's top bricklayer jack it up there for the L. Maybe he calculated the chances of them successfully inbounding the ball..
Anyway, very disappointed with the 2nd half. We need bigs who don't get pushed around.
March 19th, 2016 at 12:29 PM ^
Isn't the new rule that coaches can't call time out? wonder if he was trying to get the to or not. Either way, on him to get that message across.
March 19th, 2016 at 12:40 PM ^
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March 19th, 2016 at 10:03 AM ^
March 19th, 2016 at 10:03 AM ^
March 19th, 2016 at 10:11 AM ^
One positive thing about the end of this season is that people will have to find something else to irrationally bitch about.
March 19th, 2016 at 11:01 AM ^
March 19th, 2016 at 10:14 AM ^
March 19th, 2016 at 10:42 AM ^
March 19th, 2016 at 12:45 PM ^
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March 19th, 2016 at 10:10 PM ^
UM's ability to penetrate and break a defense down off the dribble is almost non-existent, especially when playing good teams. It's the reason why they don't get a ton of open looks. No one can beat their man off the dribble so no one on defense needs to rotate over and help.
March 19th, 2016 at 10:48 AM ^
Irivn and Walton shot 8/29 (28%). Sure, there are other reasons we can harp on that were issues throughout the entire season, but those two guys haven't developed into the players we were hoping they'd become.
March 19th, 2016 at 11:07 AM ^
pretty good after reading how awful the coaching and players on this team are.
March 19th, 2016 at 11:56 AM ^
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March 19th, 2016 at 12:05 PM ^
It's not about the X's and the O's it's the Jimmy's and the Joe's.
He recruited players that can't execute his sytem. He continues to recruit shitty centers. That's on him. Maybe after three decades he'll finally learn his lesson you need a competent center to play basketball.
March 19th, 2016 at 12:31 PM ^
Doyle had by all rights a regressed season but his apnea sounded like a serious issue. Donnal needs to live in the weight room this offseason. If Moe can add 15 pounds while still maintaining his quickness I look for him to make a leap. Duncan could stand to gain another 10 and get stronger as well. Hopefully Simpson and Watson can come in and help right away. Even with the buzzer beater vs IU I can't see Chatman playing a big role next year. I feel he's reached his ceiling. He's just not athletic enough to contribute at this level and if you can't shoot I can't see what he's going to bring to the table. You'd think Dawkins could develop a bit more especially on D but the jury is still out on that. I don't even know what to think about Wilson other than weight room and get tougher. There's a lot to improve on obviously but I think they'll be fine. Added quality depth and another offseason to get tougher, and stronger. A lot of seniors leave the conference so it could be wide open.
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Sounds like we just ran outta steam. Injuries, lack of depth hurt.
Time to lick wounds, heal, figure out what worked & what didn't, and start gearing up for next year.
We've *got* to improve recruiting.
They lost the second they came out of the tunnel. Those had to be the worst looking uniforms I have seen so far in the tournament and yes worse than Oregon because those were hideous as well. I hope Nike can put a sharp uniform on the bball players next year, because they (uniforms) recruit as well. I am sure whatever Nike comes up with will be better without even trying.
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