Trey Burke And The Art Of Standing In A Corner

Looks like Beilein is taking a page out of Chip Kelly's book with the double stacks.  Hopefully the playcalling posters are next.

Great analysis. My question for the basketball-literate: It seemed that the offense against WVU was basically all Burke and Hardaway. The bigs and even Stauskas seemed to have off days, never really getting a lot of touches to get in rhythm.



Obviously it worked, but when WVU was chipping at the lead and Burke was on the bench there was suddenly nobody else that seemed capable of stepping up. Which hasn't been typical this season. Is this a function of one game where two guys were hot and the others off, or WVU's defense leaving the guards open... Or could our reliance on Burke's brilliance be stunting the wider play of the team?



I'm legitimately interested. Small sample size and all, but Michigan is a better team if all five guys on the floor are threats.

Who would've thought that Jared Sullinger and Trey Burke, who grew up as best friends....would BOTH be stars at the D-1 level? As in first-team All Americans?

Pretty cool

That first set is really great with Michigan's players. 1. It pulls the bigs away from the basket and eliminates help down low that can step in to draw a charge. 2. Given Hardaway and Stauskas on the wing, it compromises the ability of the wing defenders to help, lest they give up an open 3 or, if they peek too much at Burke, a back cut. 3. All this is premised, of course, on the ability of Burke to pretty much go by his man at will.

WVU compounded the implicit difficulty of Belein's sets all night by being totally irresponsible defensively, though. On that first play, I have no idea what the guy guarding Morgan is doing pulled so far from the hoop against a 5 that can't shoot from distance. He should be sagging back behind the stack, unless he's supposed to provide immediate help on Burke, either by hedging off the high screen or by closing off the lane in the case Burke turns the corner. If he is supposed to do that, he completely blows his responsibility. When Burke starts to turn the corner, instead of helping, he turns his back on Burke to maintain contact with Morgan, allowing Burke a clear lane to the short bank. Just awful stuff. No wonder Huggins was so upset.

It'll be interesting to see how well these sets work against more responsible defensive teams like OSU and MSU. It'll also be interesting to see where Indiana tries to hide Hulls, who is too short to cover the wings but way to slow to check Burke.

I am anticipating a very heated match-up between Burke and Craft when Mich and Ohio get together.  Of note, this is probably the biggest matchup in determining who will be able to call themselves Big10 champs at the end of the year.  I see Burke being able to find the open shooter, however I think it could be difficult for him to find his own shots.  Are there any similar PG's to Craft that Burke has faced already this yr, or will face before Ohio St. that would give us some kind of indication on how Burke will fare against tough D?

"This alignment leaves plenty of room on both sides of the court for Burke to maneuver."

This comment reminded me of when the Bulls head coach responded to a reporter's question about the play he had drawn up for Jordan's winning shot, which went something like this: Give Michael the ball, and everyone else get the f*** out of the way.

Great analysis ace, this is going to be a special year.

We simply have too many weapons we you have a player like Burke. If you help on the drive, he's going to kick to the open man. There is no way both THJ AND Stauskas is going to be off in the same game. Not to mention we have GRIII, Levert and even Vogrich if they ever were both off.

If you stay on the wing, you're giving up layups to Burke or dunks to morgan all game. That's not going to work either.

Burke puts sooo much strain on a defense, because he's a scorer that is a willing passer.

IMO, the only way to beat Michigan is #1 - Have personnel that somewhat matches up (aka be a ranked team). #2 Pressure/Trap the ball with zone presses all game.

You can't man press, Burke will beat it off the dribble. I'd zone full court or 3/4 court press Michigan and try to get the ball out of Burke's hands. Try to make them use some clock and force Michigan into a situation where Burke has to create or jack up a 3 late in the shot clock.

IMO, that's the only way. Because if you get us in a half court game - you're dead. Indiana and Duke may be the only two teams that can stay with us in the half court. MAYBE.

You have to extend your defense, know that you're going to give up some easy dunks to Morgan or GRIII, but you also may turn us over enough to match that.