Six Foot Six And Rising Comment Count

Brian

2/26/2014 – Michigan 77, Purdue 76 (OT) – 20-7, 12-3 Big Ten

Michigan-77-Purdue-76-30_thumb[1]

Dustin Johnston/UMHoops 

If you're wondering where I was last night on twitter, I was studiously avoiding it because I was in Auburn Hills watching Lydia Loveless refuse to stop playing music when the rest of you were watching Michigan play Purdue. Lydia Loveless is a machine built to play country music some people are now describing as "cowpunk."

There was no encore, just the increasing irritation of her band as the set went on and on and on. She gave them a break to play a couple songs by herself, and then eventually it became clear the show was over about three songs after she had clarified they had time for just one more. Then after the end of the set she asked the guy behind the bar if being out of time meant they had to stop. To his immense credit, the guy made a combo shrug/thumbs-up motion. Lydia Loveless donned a jacket and drafted her pedal steel guitar bandmate to cover

These were all transformatively great. It was insane, worrying—I asked the MGoWife if someone would have to tackle Lydia Loveless off the stage for the show to end—and ultimately awesome.

So I watched the Purdue game despite not watching the Purdue game, and then I watched it again. The second time only moved the swearing from the entertainment to the viewer, and concluded more strangely.

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It did not start strangely. It started like it always starts, with Michigan falling in a well. They have something like a 98% chance to hang a banner at the end of the year and they have ended up in double-digit first half holes in five games running. This has to be some sort of record. Someone sic a sports bureau on the combination of conference championships and consecutive games with double-digit deficits.

I'll be over here deciding not to throw a glass of whiskey either at the cat, or the TV, or going outside and throwing it as far as I can manage in the hopes it will turn into a CERTIFICATE OF MENTAL TOUGHNESS that will self-replicate 12 times and flit away into the hands of the Michigan basketball team. Perhaps then, assured that their grit and determination in the face of adversity has been demonstrated to the point of official, gilt recognition, they will f---ing stop it.

I don't know about you, but when the basketball team you are hoping wins gets down that much, the ensuing trudge back (if there is one) is an exercise in irrational hatred of everything. The OSU and MSU games were fine, as ten-point hole was ephemeral. Michigan quickly achieved near-parity and went from there. This one was an extended exercise in rolling around with a straight jacket on. I don't need them to play better or win more. I just need the points to be more evenly distributed across the 40 minutes of play. (I need them to play better and win more. More, always more.)

But hey, they won. On the backs of Glenn Robinson, Jordan Morgan, and Spike Albrecht, just like everyone expected.

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Robinson in particular played a complete game the likes of which he has not put together in a long time: 17 points on 13 shot equivalents, eight rebounds, three assists, and one turnover. He generated a good number of his shots himself, against a defense that was amped up and aggressive on the perimeter.

I've made no secret of my frustration at Robinson's game this year. He hasn't seemed to add anything; meanwhile LeVert and Stauskas are entirely different players. His rebound rates are pedestrian at best. (He's currently tied with Derrick Walton in DREB rate.) I am still suspicious of his awareness on defense—his dude, Rapheal Davis, had five offensive rebounds one game after multiple MSU baskets were directly attributable to Robinson not getting back in transition.

And then sometimes, Lottery GRIII appears. Sometimes he elevates for a jumper that cannot be contested because getting your hand in his face would require cutting it off and throwing it at him. Sometimes there's a lob in the direction of the basket and he continues ascending after he makes the catch. Sometimes, though. Just sometimes.

At Michigan's time of need they knew Purdue would overplay Stauskas and that they should try to hit something over the top, because they needed one measly point and they had 2.9 seconds to get it. They drew up a lob pass with Spike screening GRIII's guy, and executed—barely.

The pass was a rainbow that managed to get over an outstretched hand but took its target a step too far outside, a step too far towards the baseline. Robinson took a power dribble as he landed from the catch to reset his feet; he did not gain the requisite distance as Spike's defender came in to harass him. It looked grim.

But there are people who can make a One Direction song sound poignant, and there are people who can catch alley-oops and hang there, untethered. Some people can leap from behind the backboard outside the paint and still be in the air five feet later, just where they need to be as the clock strikes zero.

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Dustin Johnston/UMHoops

Bullets

Gotta shore up that free throw defense. If you screamed "MISS ONE FOR CHRIST'S SAKE" sometime in the second half with a Boiler at the line, you are not alone. The worst FT shooting team in the Big Ten hit 17 straight to open before the final, fateful miss; Michigan was a couple of shots behind their season average at 17/25. When all was said and done that was the difference between an extremely annoying but eventually comfortable win and TERROR IN CENTRAL INDIANA.

That business is just luck, pure and simple. At one point Stephen Bardo chalked it up to Purdue's "focus." Stephen Bardo could show up at a casino and praise the little old lady at the slots for her mental toughness when she hits a jackpot.

The hand of fate. A lot of these early holes seem like a series of completely random misses and makes. Michigan fell down against MSU early because Denzel Valentine hit a 30-footer and a running transition 3 while Michigan's generally excellent three point shooting put up a bunch of bricks; here Purdue gave up a half-dozen quality looks from three early and Michigan started 1/7 behind the line.

Meanwhile, Terone "Ann Arbor's All-American" Johnson hits his first four. Purdue isn't quite the crew of bricklayers they were last year but they're still 9th in conference at making threes and 11th at taking them, and at one point Michigan was 1/7 from three while Purdue was 5/10. Things returned to normal for the Boilers by the end; Michigan, not so much.

A very distributed night. If it was hard to pick out anything in particular anyone was doing right, that's because Michigan spread everything out. Six players grabbed offensive rebounds; five had at least three assists; six guys had at least eight points. Robinson and Morgan were your best players in terms of efficiency, but everyone was setting up everyone for shots so it was a team effort to get to 1.12 PPP despite shooting 6/23 from three.

Call it, for pant's sake. Heard today from someone who talked to a MAC assistant. Refereeing came up and he said that refs have a really tough job because they do all kinds of games for all kinds of conferences and they're told to call games differently based on what conference they're in. It will not surprise you that the Big Ten tells people to let things go way more than others.

This is cold comfort to Nik Stauskas today, I'm assuming. By the end of the game he was plunging into the lane and missing layups badly because he wasn't getting hammered on them. The standard of refereeing shifted dramatically from Sunday, when Bill Raftery deployed "nickel-dimer" a half dozen times in the first half, to Wednesday, when you had to ride over a guy's foot with a lawnmower to get a call. Unless it's Jordan Morgan, who will be told to stop bleeding all over the court and get up.

Just one of those nights. I had almost no problem with the shot selection aside from a couple of possessions where LeVert dribbled around for 15 seconds and hoisted one; Robinson also had a couple of nononoYES long twos. The 23 attempts from behind the arc were almost entirely great looks, because Purdue gives up great looks from three quite a bit. They're dead last in conference by some distance at permitting three point looks. 

The crappy shooting got in Michigan's head. There was one transition opportunity on which Caris passed up an open corner three from the run-away-I-know-it's-good spot, whereupon Michigan turned the ball over. I exclaimed "SHOOT THE BALL"; the TV informed me that John Beilein had just exclaimed "SHOOT THE BALL" and I felt better.

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Dustin Johnston/UMHoops

Spike! Kept Walton stapled to the bench despite the terrifying prospect of a Spike-vs-pick-a-Johnson defensive matchup, and it paid off. He grabbed a rare two-point bucket, stole the ball twice, set up Morgan for two of his OT flushes, and had one bad ass alley-oop to Robinson.

Walton didn't do much other than shoot some threes against the persnickety perimeter defense of the Johnsons; Spike was better able to find shots for his teammates. "Luxury" doesn't begin to cover Albrecht's status on the roster.

Chances. Per Kenpom odds, Michigan has an 83% shot at an outright title and is 98%(!) for a share.

Comments

PburgGoBlue

February 27th, 2014 at 2:08 PM ^

Agreed, I was trying to rock and 8 month old to sleep and had a 4 year old tugging on my leg to play Ponies with her.

 

 

Anyways, I was wondering if that was the original play that was drawn up prior to the Purdue timeout or do you think JB drew up a new one???

Blue Since B.C.

February 27th, 2014 at 3:55 PM ^

I don't have kids yet, but I was holding my 9 pound shih-tzu in my arms for good luck when Gibbons lined up for the 33 yarder against Penn State.  It was then that I learned to avoid all creatures tiny and vulnerable while watching Michigan sports.

(I didn't throw her, FWIW, but it baffles me to this day how I was able to restrain myself.  An inanimate object would have been through the TV.)

freejs

February 27th, 2014 at 4:39 PM ^

My dog, who is otherwise remarkably well-adjusted (like the definition of bomb-proof) for whatever the hell it is she went through during the year before I adopted her cannot handle yelling in the house. Of any kind. She suffered terribly during that comeback. I'm afraid I told her, "daddy will be sane again in about an hour. Until then, you're just going to have to buckle up." Thank goodness that it's totally okay to use swear words around your pets. At least that's my understanding. 

MaximusBlue

February 27th, 2014 at 5:42 PM ^

Not taking nothing away from GR3 because he had to catch it, gather himself, and go up and put the proper english on the ball so it rolled around off the glass all while avoiding two defenders. But...without the pass from Levert, none of this is possible.

Willhouse

February 27th, 2014 at 2:09 PM ^

Still can't believe that pass made it to Gr3 without being deflected OR going over his head and out of bounds.

These bball game writeups have become my favorite posts of the week because they generally hold positive content, but Brian's writing style for these are brilliant and they seem to keep getting better. As a former and failed sports journalist, I applaud you, sir.

Voltron Blue

February 27th, 2014 at 2:12 PM ^

And in the "Spike!" section, you didn't even mention the charge he drew.  His contribution level as a freshman and sophomore is just outstanding; when he was offered, I think most would have been happy with this level as a junior and senior.

 

Space Coyote

February 27th, 2014 at 2:30 PM ^

That said, I never want to se ehim do that again. In my opinion, it worked out, but that puts a lot of pressure on the ref to call something (especially for the away team) that could have easily put someone at the free throw line late to win the game.

Still, he got the call, so that's what matters. But that was just as much of a nononoYES moment to me as a long two.

freejs

February 27th, 2014 at 4:41 PM ^

Yeah, he totally got that guy not paying attention and made him pay for it. 

At worst, that's a terrible no call, and it would have been a truly terrible no call at that. 

LordGrantham

February 27th, 2014 at 2:14 PM ^

I got a good chuckle out of this: "Stephen Bardo could show up at a casino and praise the little old lady at the slots for her mental toughness when she hits a jackpot."

TwoFiveAD

February 27th, 2014 at 2:25 PM ^

"I am still suspicious of his awareness on defense—his dude, Rapheal Davis, had five offensive rebounds"

Brian you do realize Michigan switches everything on defense right?  

Just because someone plays the 4 doesn't mean they are automatically guarding the 4 on the other team at all times.  This isn't a video game.

 

Space Coyote

February 27th, 2014 at 2:47 PM ^

But typically Jordan Morgan doesn't switch off his man. He hedges and then gets back. At times at the end of games they switch everything, or other times the floor gets spread and they are forced to switch because the bigs can't get back on their guy, but typically Michigan does not swtich everything, and that one instance doesn't change that.

3rdGenerationBlue

February 27th, 2014 at 2:50 PM ^

What do you expect from a guy that would rather see "cowpunk" live than watch the Michigan basketball game. The team is in the home stretch to win the first outright Big Ten title since Brian was probably in diapers and his priority is Lydia Lovelace? Is there going to be a UFR of the concert? Cook is probably more excited about the new Muppet movie than the NCAA tournament.

Yeah, I know you can still read this.

JonSnow54

February 27th, 2014 at 3:32 PM ^

As Space Coyote said, sometimes they switch, sometimes they don't.  But maybe Brian is making this statement based off actual game observations, not just a stat sheet?

Try watching individual players (not the ball) on defense, especially GR3 and Stauskas, and I think you will not be happy with what you find.  Mutliple times a game, they lose their men on defense.  Some of the times may not be entirely their fault (due to a miscommunication with a teammate, for instance), but often they just fall asleep watching the ball and lose their guy.

It is very frustrating, and I think a large part of the reason why this team has so many problems defensively.

Space Coyote

February 27th, 2014 at 2:28 PM ^

Everytime it seemed like Michigan had an opportunity to make a big move, they seemed to do something wrong to nix the opportunity. Run out to cut the lead to 7 right before half results in a turnover and next thing you know they are back down by 13. Big defensive stop results in a missed rebound and then Purdue scoring. Kick out for a wide, wide open three pointer to go up 6 in OT is missed badly. Yet, despite all that, they still managed to chip, chip, chip away until they got their first lead of the game in over time. And when they managed to lose that, they still found a way to win.

I dunno, but it's nice for the team to play like "crap" and come away with a win, something that they probably aren't yet good enough to get away with, but managed last night.

bronxblue

February 27th, 2014 at 2:33 PM ^

I don't think it's possible to not cover "Fireworks" well.  Eagles, on the other, is a testament to musicianship.

I missed most of the game as well with getting my daughter ready for bed and all the related events, but caught the replay on DVR.  What an insanely weird game to watch.  Purdue could not miss form the line, and while some of that is just dumb luck and small sample sizes, at some point I'd have wanted Morgan or GRIII just jump into the lane and block one of the FTs back even if it would have cost them a foul.  Just break the streak.

Agreed that Spike is a massive luxury.  Walton has potential, but having a steady hand behind to help out when he's off (and also initiate the offense) will serve this team well in the tourney.

mGrowOld

February 27th, 2014 at 2:33 PM ^

I go completely nuts watching team after fucking team make every free throw against us.  It drives me almost completely insane to the point where my wife last night said "maybe they just really, really want to win the game."  I asked her which games she thought the other team DIDNT want to win and she didnt have an answer for that one.

I have said it before and I'll say it again - the mere sight of the Michigan jersey on the court does something to the other team....ALL other teams...that no other jersey seems to be able to do.  It makes them better at everything but most notably better at free throws.

skurnie

February 27th, 2014 at 2:34 PM ^

Even my Dad, a MHSAA certified referee, who typically gives them the benefit of the doubt, called me after the game and said "Those guys were LOUSY. I thought Stauskas was going to have a black eye!."

It seems like they're getting worse as the season goes on. 

mistersuits

February 27th, 2014 at 2:35 PM ^

Home stretch, here we come.

Let's play unconscious versus Minnesota like they did against Nebraska at home instead of the "usual" see how far we can get down before coming back ploy.

Sac Fly

February 27th, 2014 at 2:35 PM ^

In four years at Purdue Terone Johnson has never hit 5 threes in a game. He hit 4 in the 1st half, but in the 2nd it seemed like all of his 3's rimmed out.