Both Donnal and Kam showed their first real signs of contributing.  Donnal is soft yes and will remain soft but had some nice vision out there as a passer and looks like a guy who will improve.  Kam had his first game as a Wolverine where he made more than 1 shot.  So those 2 guys along with Doyle are the 3 guys I see contributing meaningfully out of the freshman/RS freshman.  Still holding out hope that Dawkins will be giving us 5-7 minutes a night by February but thus far he has not been a big piece of the rotation.

Wilson is going to get eaten alive by Big 10 physicality and on most Michigan team's would be redshirting.  He and Sanderson need a year together.  And MAAR is basically insurance on a catastrophic injury to one of the 3 guards.

Again to put in perspective that was a team tonight that didnt play 1 freshman in their top 7.  They had 5 SR/JR + 2 SO.  A team that lost 1 major piece from a 29? win team last year.  And it was a matchup of 2 even teams.  We looked a lot worse last year at this time with what probably was a team with more NBA talent on it. 

TL;DR In Beilein we trust.

I'm on a 2 hour delay watching this one.  Logging in to see what everyone else thought and oddly....you are all right.

• A lot to be encouraged about tonight.  Good fight, diffferent freshman contributing
• Tough, tough, tough whistle tonight.   From the post guy that had 2 blatant travels leading to a 3 point shot with about 17:00 minutes left, to too many ticky tack calls, to Walton being fouled with 10 seconds left.  (oh, and Caris earned a charge on that last key basket...make the call
• Shouldn't be complaining about that last block.  That was a great defensive play.
• Nova won the game in the last 30 seconds.  Tip your cap and move on.
• This is more fun than football has been.

for an up and under move right there.  He's right handed, it would have been a much easier play. . .

But a very impressive game by Michigan against a much more experienced team.  These two games were great experience builders for our young team going forward.  

"Admit it, that was a hundred times more fun than any football game this season."

Absofuckingly right.  I watched from the opening tip to the very last and all I could think (especially during the second half run) was "God it's nice to have a team that's well coached and GOOD."  It was such good basketball from both teams.

With Beilein on the sidelines you know you're never out of a game because at worst, you've got a push with the other team's HC and in most games you're clearly at an advantadge.  With Hoke it's exactly the opposite.

Came here to say that it's great to feel feelings about sports again.

... I find that my initial (over) reactions to bad calls were mostly off base homerism in the heat of the moment.  This was not one of those times.  Nor was the BS call on Trey's Siva-snuff. 

But still immensely encouraged by the performance.  Monday, my line was "if we get by Oregon" that's a good step forward.  Then it was "if we can make this competitive against" Nova, that's a good step forward.  Then it was "if we seal this comeback", that's a great step forward.

Expectations shift.  Especially with Beilein's teams in the past few years.  But let's not lose sight of the fact that they're pretty much always shifting forward.  That's a very good thing, and in pleasantly marked contrast to what we've become conditioned to during football season.

The mystery double post, although I'm so happy basketball is here it's worth a double.

I felt the officiating was terrible.  At the end of the day, Michigan did not play well enough to take the officials out of the game.  You can't expect to beat a top 25 basketball team when you go ten minutes of game time without scoring.  The fact that Michigan almost did anyway is a testament to the heart and resilience of the team.  I felt like Michigan took th brunt of several bad calls, but they also looked lost on offense for a full quarter of the game.

I mean, let's face it -- the offensive numbers for the game are just plain ugly.  0.89 points per possession, 6/21 on 3-point shooting, 3/5 from the line (after going 23/29 vs. Oregon), and a 17.7% turnover rate -- none of that is good enough to get the job done.

However, the defense is turning into an unexpected, and very welcome, strength.  Villanova has a KenPom adjusted offensive rating of 109.4, and Michigan held them to 0.98 points per possession, and even that's skewed somewhat by the four late free throws -- it was 0.93 points per possession for the first 60 possessions, when Michigan was playing defense, and then 2 points per possession for the last two, when they were just fouling to extend the game.  That is an excellent performance and one that will win most nights.

This team actually seemed to grow on the court from the first half to the second.  They're getting to know each other and learning their roles.  The freshmen are making freshman mistakes, but that's to be expected -- and, because John Beilein is the coach, they won't be making those same mistakes come January.  The team's youth is going to lead to inconsistency, but it also means that they may grow more between now and the tournament than anybody else save maybe Kentucky.

Michigan had three chances on the schedule to pick up a marquee non-conference win.  This was one, and they let it slip by.  @Arizona is going to be very tough, and I doubt any of us expects a win there.  Tuesday vs. Syracuse is going to be critical to the team's résumé come Selection Sunday.  Michigan beat Syracuse in the Final Four with McGary's assists from the high post.  I'm not sure that offense is likely to work Tuesday, since I don't see any of Michigan's frontcourt dishing out passes like Mitch; I'm curious to see what Coach Beilein has up his sleeve.

Go Blue!

This game looked like it would be a blowout starting the second half.  We seemed tired and baskets were not falling.  However, this team showed a lot of heart and nearly pulled it off.  The intensity was awesome.  This team will grow from the experience.  Fun to watch.

My only comment on the officiating was it didn't seem consistent for either team.  Either let them play a physical game or make the calls throughout the game. 

#GOBLUE

#BEATHOHIO

We took a team that has only 3 upper classmen and lost 4 starters from last year against the defending Big East champs with 4 seasoned returning starters and came out close to even?  Yeah, I'll take that.  As I said last night, this team will be a tour de force in the spring.  It's going to be another great hoops season!

Don't know how you can call that game enjoyable.  It was ridiculously frustrating, from the 10 minute drought to the questionable officiating to our still horrendous freshmen play (besides Doyle).  I'm impressed that we could play so horribly and still nearly win vs a talented, experienced team that had such a huge advantage in the post.  If our freshmen become solid contributors instead of 'oh god he has the ball something bad is goign to happen's we're going to be quite good. But as of now our freshmen (Doyle aside) are absolutely terrible and I have no idea what they saw in Donnal in practice last year because I see a slow, weak, clumsy guy who can't do anything right.  I have hope for the other freshmen, but not him.