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UConn 74, Michigan 60 Comment Count

Ace

Derrick Walton knocked down a three-pointer to cut the UConn lead to 14. For a moment, it looked like Michigan could perhaps claw their way back into a game in which they'd been dominated throughout.

But Caris LeVert's left shoe ripped open like a Ziploc, and his mark, Sam Cassell Jr., left him to contemplate the fickle nature of breathable fabrics while Cassell made an uncontested layup seven seconds later. It was that kind of night.

Michigan's zone defense briefly kept them close early while both teams tried to get their bearings. The Huskies settled in. The Wolverines never did. Caris LeVert and Derrick Walton combined to shoot 5/7 from beyond the arc; the rest of the team went 3/22.

The loss sends Michigan to the loser's side of the Battle 4 Atlantis bracket; they'll play Charlotte, defeated today by Syracuse, tomorrow night at 9:30 on AXS TV.

It's late Thanksgiving Eve during the week of The Game. I can't end a post on that note.

Much better. Happy Thanksgiving. There will be more, if probably brief, coverage of the Charlotte game tomorrow.

Comments

Tater

November 26th, 2015 at 12:21 AM ^

It's the same as always for Michigan.  When the threes go in, everything works and they're a great team.  When the threes don't go in, they suck.  As long as they can get 7 or 8 wins in non-conference play, they will be fine going into the Big Ten season.  

I am looking for this team to be much better in the second half of the season than the first, as is usually the case under Beilein.  It's just a matter of getting to the second half without leaving themselves in too big a hole.

This team will be fine.

Joined: 08/13/2008

MGoPoints: 30584

ijohnb

November 26th, 2015 at 6:31 AM ^

I don't think the issues here can be adequately summed up by shooting woes. There are some rather glaring problems I did not anticipate. I would have three off the top suggestions; 1) hold Irvin out until he is right because he is far from it, 2) Tell Caris to be very aggressive early in the game to gets teams keyed on him to open up space for other players, 3) shrink the rotation - to many players for any lineup to get a feel with each other.

Joined: 09/21/2009

MGoPoints: 69986

Shop Smart Sho…

November 25th, 2015 at 11:47 PM ^

Is it fair to say that Coach Beilein is the genius who doesn't have the common sense to come in out of the rain?  What I mean by that is that things that seem blindingly obvious don't seem to factor into his decision making.  This is demonstrated through two things that he has done for as long as we've known him, at the very least.

1.  Dude seems to hate centers that are good at the part of being a center that doesn't involve bombing threes or being hyper-active puppies.  I'm sure Doyle, Donnal, and Wagner are nice guys.  None of them would be starting for any contender for the B1G title.  (No, I'm not counting Wilson.  I don't think Beilein brought him in to be a center, but a true stretch 4.  Sadly, he's our second best center.)

2.  The auto-bench is probably the bigger concern.  We can argue til the cows come home that it lost Michigan a national championship.  What we probably can't argue is that it makes no statistical sense to bench your best player with 12 minutes left in the half, and then leave him there as the opponent rolls out to what becomes an insurmountable lead.  Caris sat down with 2 fouls, and then ended the game with 2 fouls.

Joined: 07/10/2008

MGoPoints: 9603

Bertello NC

November 26th, 2015 at 12:26 AM ^

Yup! Two great points. Agree the most with the first point. I've said it sense he's been here that the way he recruits 4 and 5s will get him burned eventually. He has 5th degree burns now. Bottom line is we've done a terrible job of reloading after horford, Morgan, and mcgary. I know he's a good coach but the guy has me scratching my head with some of his recruiting philosophies. You have athletic and very capable recruits at the 4 and 5 positions right in your own backyard, who could step in and be good for what ails you(rim protection, rebounding) yet we end up with weak, slow, finnesse type centers. It's not looking good.

Joined: 09/13/2011

MGoPoints: 958

Franz Schubert

November 26th, 2015 at 6:45 AM ^

I'll say it point blank, JB killed Michigan with his stupid 2 foul BS. Michigan was +3 for the game when Levert was on the court. Why would you disqualify your best player for over 8 minutes when you dont have to? Levert ended up with 2 fouls for the game. Coaching scared and the team plays scared. Coincidence?

Joined: 07/20/2009

MGoPoints: 4453

ijohnb

November 26th, 2015 at 6:46 AM ^

bench is not just designed to salvage players, it is a punitive measure for fouling. Not fouling is not an accident, it is a philosophy. He is too inflexible with it though, and to use a Brian-ism, it is becoming a little "malpractice-y"

Joined: 09/21/2009

MGoPoints: 69986

WindyCityBlue

November 25th, 2015 at 11:52 PM ^

Well I'll said it before and got me negged almost to Bolivia...

But I had some good inside information that warned me about how mediocre our team is. Because of this, before the season I said we were an NIT team/ncaa bubble team. This is the team we have.



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Joined: 07/23/2008

MGoPoints: 40453

ijohnb

November 26th, 2015 at 6:42 AM ^

don't think offensive production from the 5 is that much of a concern. It is more the lack of cohesion with the rest of of the offense. Like, what exactly do we do on offense? What do we run? Dribble around and chuck it up is what we run. The rotation is too big. Nobody is having a chance to develop an identity. More Rawk,less Dawk is probably an idea. With Rank, teams at least have to cut him off when he drives.

Joined: 09/21/2009

MGoPoints: 69986

bronxblue

November 26th, 2015 at 7:34 AM ^

So you have inside info that the team would have bad shooting nights? What if they happen to get hot and shoot there way back into this game-do your sources still say that? Everyone knew they would have issues at the 5 and might take some time to gel with guys coming back from injury. This isn't new.

Joined: 11/22/2008

MGoPoints: 170936

WindyCityBlue

November 26th, 2015 at 11:15 AM ^

...to play like this?!  Despite having one of the easier non-conf schedules, I wasn't expecting us to win every game.  But considering our lofty (right or wrong) expectations this year (i.e. top 1-2 in the conference, top 25 ranking, sweet sixteen appearance), I hope that we can at least look competent in our loses.  Well, we don't look competent - these loses were not of the hard fought variety a la Villanova last year.  And a good shooting night is not necessarily going to turn this team around.

As mentioned, I have a friend who is close to the bball program and has been for probably over a decade.  I don't get anything too juicy from him, just his perspectives on how the team looks.  And he rarely calls out specific players or talks about JB.  So when I talked to my contact a couple months ago, here are some examples of his reply:

"Outside Caris, the team is of middling big ten talent"

"Not really a cohevise team yet, which could change, but I'm surprised since they usually are much farther along than this"

"There doesn't seem to be a leader on the floor, someone who can take over when needed"

"Team has no identity yet, they need to find that soon"

"This is a bubble team probably, maybe NIT for this team."

Have a great Thanksgiving

Joined: 07/23/2008

MGoPoints: 40453

MLaw06

November 26th, 2015 at 12:11 AM ^

I'm trying to be optimistic, but that game sucked.  I'm going to chalk it off to cold shooting, but come on, if Robinson is not hitting shots, then just pull him and put in someone who can dribble drive or move the ball around like Dawkins, MAAR or Spike (if he's not hurt). 

Zak looked hurt and not 100% so he should sit out against good teams.  Let him come in and warm up against lesser opponents.  Doyle was ok, but rough hands.  Donnal was benched the entire game, which makes it crazy to have not kept Bielfeldt around another year... I don't get that at all.

Joined: 02/29/2012

MGoPoints: 6223

MichiganMan20

November 26th, 2015 at 1:02 AM ^

Man Denard was something else when he decided to tuck it and run. Fucking legend! Oh and I don't really care that much about basketball right now that the football program is back in good standing. Wake me up when it's January when we start playing big ten teams, other than that these games just don't do much for me, especially when we play like this. Beat Ohio!



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Joined: 05/16/2010

MGoPoints: 4110

meeeechigan78

November 26th, 2015 at 4:18 AM ^

Beilein somewhat reminds me of Larry brown....has to do things "his way" or not at all. That autosub bs lost us a ncaa title 2 yrs ago. The best player on the court wore #3. And he could have and would have delivered if LEFT IN THE GAME. Ah well. This is Michigan. When the fb team is good, who cares about bb. Speaking of which....

We have the best coach in fb, and a LEGIT shot a natl champ nxt year with Okorn, essentially the same D, and......probably Rashan Gary.

Gary.....added to our dline with Mone coming back?!? Those are the types of things I think of when I watch Mich bb

Joined: 10/31/2015

MGoPoints: 87

ijohnb

November 26th, 2015 at 8:11 AM ^

get what you are saying but the Big Ten is deep and we have very few opportunities for pre conference resume builders. It would be one thing if we were losing these games close but we are getting hammered. We look physically overmatched and have no identity of any kind on either end. It is a long season but alarm bells are going off. I don't think there is any question about that.

Joined: 09/21/2009

MGoPoints: 69986

bronxblue

November 26th, 2015 at 10:35 AM ^

I agree early returns aren't great, but i also don't think the conference is all that strong, and there will be wins for this team. It just looks like a team trying to figure itself out, and once it does the offense should click and the defense will reach competent, which is all they need.

Joined: 11/22/2008

MGoPoints: 170936

Don

November 26th, 2015 at 7:39 AM ^

but watching that video with Beckman's voiceover illustrates how woefully miscast Brandstatter is at doing play-by-play. To put it in coaching terms, Brandy isn't being put in a position to win. Michigan should say thanks very much to Dierdorf for his two seasons in the booth, move Brandstatter back to color, and get a real play-by-play guy to call the action.

Joined: 06/30/2008

MGoPoints: 148237

bronxblue

November 26th, 2015 at 7:40 AM ^

Meh, I look around college basketball and I see a lot of teams scuttling. IU has lost twice, Wiscy is reeling, same with OSU. UVa lost a game, and UM had lost to two ranked teams that seem to be the exact type of teams that can mess with them - big rebounding clubs. I don't like the look of the offense right now, but it is still 4 games in and we've seen this script before. My guess is that they'll bounce back tonight and then go on a nice little fun against some of the weaker teams in the schedule. This team never struck me as a sweet 16 team, but it still feels like a tourney one that can surprise you with the bright matchup.

Joined: 11/22/2008

MGoPoints: 170936

SteveInPhilly

November 26th, 2015 at 7:54 AM ^

While our bigs are not plus defenders, my biggest issue with the defense was all the open looks from three they gave up. This goes hand in hand with our struggles to contain dribble penetration, because the guards want to sag, and then they can't recover. The offense had an off night, which happens, but we gotta shore up that perimeter D.

Joined: 08/26/2010

MGoPoints: 606

ak47

November 26th, 2015 at 8:12 AM ^

With our shit non conference schedule and the big ten looking like ass we aren't giving ourselves much room for error. At this point need a minimum of 10 bug ten wins and probably 11.

Joined: 05/05/2011

MGoPoints: 33614

BuckNekked

November 26th, 2015 at 8:12 AM ^

I had a bigger issue with the offense. i knew the D wasnt all that great but what exactly is our offensive identity? What I saw last night was a disjointed O setting weak, half-hearted screens while mostly relying on 1 guy  to break down the defense 1v1 until a late pass out to guy who was covered for an awkward 3 that had little chance of finding the bottom. The offense was atrocious last night. 

Joined: 12/06/2013

MGoPoints: -1793

Wolvie3758

November 26th, 2015 at 8:41 AM ^

and I can say this...this is a BAD looking team..no offense no defense turnovers missed free throws no passion no enthusiasm and no leadership..This looked liked it would be a good year for Michigan but not anymore. They will have ZERO quality non conference wins and Its looking like this team will be nowhere near a tourney team...I know Irvin is recovering but really? he has NO BUSINESS on the court he looks AWFUL...Doyle looks slow and out of shape...This is not looking good at all

Joined: 12/12/2010

MGoPoints: 6338

AlwaysBlue

November 26th, 2015 at 10:14 AM ^

Michigan played them dead even the second half, and not because of some late game flurry because the game was out of reach. They shot horribly, that happens. (Robinson and Irvin went 2-18.) Shot selection in the first half was not good and won't continue under Beilein. Beilein will make adjustments based on what he sees this team can do in live action. We have seen this every season. Irvin and Spike are working their way into game shape. It hurts the team right now though.

Joined: 11/23/2008

MGoPoints: 7854

Jimmyisgod

November 26th, 2015 at 10:44 AM ^

As far as the 2 foul rule costing us the NC a few year ago, do people forget that Spike went bezerk from 3 while he was in for Burke? It did not cost us that game, in fact we built a nice lead because if it that time. But the 2 foul rule need to be more flexible. Izzo was doing the same thing for years and he changed it up last year at the prodding from his players. Now it's a case by case basis for them. Levert is a veteran player, he could have played and not picked up a foul, you have to trust your veterans to be smart. More times than not Caris wouldn't pick up that 3rd.

Joined: 01/24/2012

MGoPoints: 10342