I hate it when people say Beilein/Rodriguez can't run their 'gimmicky' system in a hard nosed big ten. I have disagreed with those points vehemently and argued with many an unenlightened sparty that Beilein and RR are good coaches who have succeeded at every stop blar, blar, blar.
But, I can't help but compare out non-conference and conference success and wonder...
are back-cuts being impeded by B10 officiating/general style of play?
I think shooting the ball
Not to mention having no size
Not to mention having no size whatsoever to play down in the paint. That's why I have a difficult time in judging Beilein right now. I will admit that I'm not the biggest fan of Belein's offensive philosophy, however. I do think that he will adapt to Big Ten play over time, though, once he recruits some more size.
"I'm Leslie E. Miles and I approve of this message."
My dad is not a UM fan and he
My dad is not a UM fan and he watched a couple of their hoops game and he summed them up like this:
They're small
They take a lot of dumb shots (inexperience)
They play like they don't quite understand the game (youth)
They are really small
They play hard, but not smart (youth and inexperience)
Again, a non-UM fan can observe exactly why they struggle.
we shot "like crap" in wins
we shot "like crap" in wins against Duke and UCLA as well. It is more than just poor shooting.
To be honest, we did get some easy baskets against MSU (particularly the Zone Read Keeper play). The 'clutch and grab' game that really sticks out to me is Purdue. Every time someone made a cut, Purdue put the grab on them.
We didn't shoot well against
We didn't shoot well against UCLA, but against Duke we were terrific. We scored 81 points that day.
RR's running game worked just
RR's running game worked just fine with Minor. It's hard to judge the passing game given the lack of experience at QB. I figure this year we should have a pretty good running game...until Minor gets hurt.
The speed he's brought to our team is something I wouldn't trade for anything. OSU and PSU still can't run with certain teams. I thought our D-line was vastly improved with it's lateral speed. Can't wait to see how they look this year.
Big Ten refs
Big Ten refs always call basketball like football. Consequently, Big Ten basketball teams are built like football teams. UM is not. That is why they look better in noncon play than BT play.
UM needs more size and more strength if they are to climb back to the upper half of the Big Ten. I think this will take a couple more years.
As for RR, the spread has won Florida two of the last three NC's. PSU only lost one conference game with it last year. The spread will work great when RR has enough personnel to execute what he wants done.
I think shooting the ball like shit has really hurt them the most.