Utah 68, Michigan 52

And if that comes to pass, that's a very bad thing overall.

A tradeoff has been described here between one season and the next:

Experienced players in exchange for depth, talent, and another year in the system.

In basketball, this is used as an excuse. In football, this is used as justification for optimism (for the D at least.) This seems inconsistent.

I've bought in to all the rationalizing for football - new system, recruiting, attrition, youth, etc. And while I don't disagree that the basketball team is young, I don't buy the excuses here. This was a ncaa tourney team last season and lost nothing but walk-ons. They got older, deeper, and more talented since last year, but they're failing badly.

I realize Lee and Merrit (and Grady) made some key contributions, but they were still walk-ons who are, IMO, getting too much praise for last year's success. I think the team probably played over its head a bit last season and read a few too many headlines over the offseason (especially Sims, who hasn't seemed nearly as driven). The D has been awful, but a lot of the losses can be blamed on the shots just not falling.

Its not just Lee and Merrit is my point. This team is young, but was even younger last season. Its shallow, but it was even more shallow last season. They're just not getting it done. Maybe you can point to leadership and blame that for a decline in effort but it seems like a too-easy answer. Things just aren't going their way early in the season. I still think this is a better team than last season.

But if you choose to buy into the logic presented for the bball team falling, losing seniors and adding talent and depth does not portend good things for the immediate future of Michigan football, at least on defense.

No akunne sucked

Their is no excuse for this team, this was suppose to be the year we were going to have a good team.

I agree with the first comment. Why was Akunne out there for so long? Tim's recap says that he actually got first half minutes, but that omits the relevant fact: he was playing in the second half, when it counted, costing us points. He was constantly beat off the dribble and he looks far too slow to create anything on offense. "Working his ass off" sounds like giving a fourth grader an "A for Effort," hiding the fact that skill and execution were absent from the performance.

The bright spot, I think was Manny. He took a couple of bad shots early, but this looked like the first time he was back to his former self. Quicker, draining threes in Mormon eyeballs, taking it to the basket hard. That's vintage Corperryale.

Can someone explain to me how we go 11-20 from the free throw line? To me, that's a bigger problem than the shooting particularly be cause of it's hints at lack of focus.

I live in Missouri and have the opportunity to buy tickets and drive 4 hours to go see our guys play against Kansas. Should I?

this team isn't going anywhere unless sims and douglas improve dramatically. their digression is troublesome. sims is throwing away a great opportunity at the nba. he's sleepwalking out there. 3 rebounds; 2-7 from 3 pt land is embarrassing. if held tomorrow, i doubt he would get drafted.

i personally think it's time to transition douglas' minutes until he proves he can shoot. he barely hit 30% last year from 3. down near 20% this year. that's not going to cut it. i would give vogrich and morris more of those minutes. they have much better upside, imo. and more minutes would make them better down the road; even this year. douglas makes the occasional good pass, but his 2 assists/game doesn't warrant the PT he gets.

So I just moved to Salt Lake City. I went to last night's game. It was the first time I've ever walked out of a Michigan game early. Tim's bullets are spot on.

1. I agree w/ UMChicago. Sims looks MISERABLE out there. Sleepwalking is a great description. I realize he is a bit shorter then those Utah boys, but he looked dead. I actually asked some of the other alumni around me if something was wrong.

2. Manny was Manny. He has the ability to take over a game at any point. However, these are the types of games we need him to be a leader. He needs to motivate. I think his form of leadership is scoring, rebounding, hustling, etc. That's fine, but I want some vocal leadership too.

3. The team as a whole looked like they didn't want to be there. Like they had other things on their mind. Lackluster is an understatement. I realized we are small, but some of the missed rebounds had nothing to do w/ size; rather - a lack of effort, will, desire, etc.

4. The refs were bad, but we didn't deserve to win that game.

5. Totally agree about Anthony Wright. I said the same thing to my wife. He's never been good and never will. He had one game last year (Big 10 Tourney?) where he played out of his mind. That's it. Bench him.

Fired up...

dj

With all due respect, "Sims only scored 10, but that's not too bad against such a tall lineup." is a pretty uninformed thing to say. First, he is often going to be playing against front lines bigger than ours. Secondly, the beauty of our offense is that pulls big guys out to guard him thus allows him to take advantage of the size difference. He played poorly. Period.

Minor quibble with the article: Akunne isn't a walk-on. Eso Akunne was awarded a scholarship for this year.

FWIW, I thought he provided more than Wright during his minutes.

Playing without Novak most definitely hurt us. It's a depth issue if nothing else.

played pretty bad in my opinion. He made two three but thats it. The 7'3" utah center that was gaurding him was starting to step out on his shots and Simms did not take advantage of this at all. He hit Manny on a backdoor cutter but thats it, the center was big but was so slow simms should have tried beaten him with the dribble and if help comes pass it to the open man and if not finish the play. Im not sure if thats a coaching issue or Simms fault.

Also manny played better becuase he made some shots from the outside, but i would still like to see him drive to the basket more. I realize the center was 7'3" but at least try and egt him in foul trouble, and it would give us better looks on perimeter.