Illuminating Game @ Northwestern
As a Chicago-based Michigan fan, this was my first chance to see Manny & company in person. A couple things jumped out at me:
- We need to get Grady back in the mix, or some other ball-handler. Maybe even LLP could handle this. It's clear, however, that Lee cannot be trusted in late game situations under pressure. We also had a ton of turnovers in traffic in the paint in the first half. A legit ball-handler who can deliver a pass in traffic would do wonders for this offense. When Northwestern collapsed on defense, we couldn't make them pay because we kept losing the ball. Even when we managed to pass the ball out of congestion, the pass was often off-target. Their defense had the extra half-second it needed to recover, and our shooters couldn't catch and shoot in rhythm. I think poor passing to open shooters is a big reason why our 3PT% is so low this season. If anyone has highlights of the Duke/UCLA wins, I would be curious to see the quality of the passes that led to our made 3-pointers.
- We could use a Graham Brown. I know that this system prioritizes shooters, but we could really use a bruiser to rebound and set some tough screens. Is there anyone on our recruiting radar that weighs more than 220 pounds soaking wet? We had seats a few rows behind the Michigan bench, and Beilein was constantly screaming at the team to box out. Northwestern was a tall team, but they didn't have any gifted rebounders. Getting 15-20 minutes from one human wrecking ball with some infectiously physical play would have been helpful. Gibson didn't really get it done.
- The Maize Rage is traveling well. Keep up the good work.
- I didn't see a lot of the 1-3-1. I remember we went to it for one play (early in the second half?), got burned by a lob over the defense to Northwestern's lackluster, lifeless, gigantic center, and immediately abandoned it. Have we just totally given up on this defense, or was I not playing close enough attention?
- The officiating looked horrific in person. We didn't have the benefit of replay on a jumbrotron (because Northwestern's facilities are about the same quality as a 1970s-era health club), but a lot of the whistles on the perimiter seemed arbitrary and unnecessary. That changed towards the end of the game, when there were a handful of questionable no-calls that were totally inconsistent with how the game had been officiated to that point. Did the officiating look as erratic with the benefit of replays, multiple angles, and DVR?
- Finally: good God, please make Manny stay. Please. He could use another year in the weight room, and we could use another year of the give-it-to-Manny safety wheels on offense.
February 16th, 2009 at 5:35 PM ^
Why has Grady been riding the pine the past few games? I have not heard anything and would love to know. Thanks.
February 16th, 2009 at 6:09 PM ^
i'd recommend reading umhoops' post game. Grady cannot play defense and makes poor decisions with the ball (as does LLP). Although Grady and LLP a higher upside, Lee and Douglass are much better defenders and turn the ball over less. I wouldn't be surprised if Morris and Vogrich start as freshmen next year. If Ben Cronin pans out as an inside presence (he is quite large), we could have a much better team.
February 16th, 2009 at 6:21 PM ^
As was mentioned Lee had way too many big time TOs - I've watched every single game and I haven't been anywhere near as frustrated with Grady as I was with Lee's ball handling skills last night. Maybe he is in there for defense but if he is let Manny or Stu handle the ball but please, for the love of God, don't let CJ have the ball when the game is on the line...
February 18th, 2009 at 12:38 PM ^
Michigan commit Vogrich and his Lake Forest squad just slaughtered my alma mater. From what I hear, he is just the kind of shooter we have been looking for. I am hoping for J.J. Redick 2.0.
February 16th, 2009 at 6:58 PM ^
He's been playing horrible defense. I direct you to http://www.umhoops.com/2009/02/15/game-26-michigan-at-northwestern-post…
"The turnovers at the end of the game were frustrating and nearly cost Michigan the game. Fans want to see Kelvin Grady on the floor but John Beilein is learning just how important defense is to winning in the Big Ten. Michigan can’t afford to give up points in bunches if they want to stay in games. CJ Lee is the best on-the-ball defender on this team and that is going to keep him on the floor. When Grady got on the floor late he was matched up with Craig Moore and allowed Moore to get a wide open look from three that would have tied the game because he didn’t fight through a screen (this is a theme). Would I like to see Grady play a little bit? Sure, but I don’t think Beilein is going to let him sniff the court until he steps it up on defense."
February 16th, 2009 at 6:17 PM ^
Yes, the officiating was frustratingly inconsistent. For a 5-7 minute stretch in the second half (from around the 13 minute mark until the 6 minute mark), fouls were called on virtually every possession. One poster on the live discussion stated that the refs had reduced the game to a free-throw contest, and he/she was right. Some "fouls" involved clearly incidental or even no contact.
Then, in the final five minutes or so, the refs stopped calling anything. It was maddening to watch on TV.
I saw Beilein scream at one point after a no-call, "Be consistent!" He was right.
February 16th, 2009 at 7:14 PM ^
I thought the same thing about the officiating. It was terrible and I thought it was funny how the Big Ten announcers specifically commented about how great the officiating was in the second half. If you are a referee I should not know your name and I know Hightower as a terrible ref.
So frustrating to watch. Manny can't buy a foul in the lane. He definitely needs another year to bulk up, control the ball better in the lane and develop his shot. I hope they can pull it together for Minny. They play at or well below the level of most opponents. It would be nice to see them come out of the game gunning and play some lockdown defense. Minny showed they can implode and be terrible as they laid an egg against a potential big matchup against MSU. Go Blue!
February 16th, 2009 at 6:25 PM ^
Manny has emphatically told me that he will be back.... but he also guaranteed a victory over O$U in writing, so his credibility is a little shot. A healthy cronin next year will do wonders inside, the reason he was relatively ineffective when he played was he had a bum hip and was completely unconditioned. Jordan Morgan hopefully will be able to bruise down low though, but im seriously tired of the doubt that follows CJ just because he was a walk-on. CJ is one of our most valuable players, and we don't win at NW without him
February 16th, 2009 at 6:41 PM ^
Agreed. CJ has been the glue that has prevented this team from completely collapsing. Yeah, a few dumb TOs, but those are rare with CJ. For every TO CJ has, KG has a TO and a dumb 3pt shot.
Like a previous poster said, check out the UMHoops discussions for plenty of CJ vs. KG talk. I've been over it too much to rehash it here.
I'm excited for Minnesota. I guess we can consider it the Maize Rage's home finale (although I'll personally be there for Purdue). Can't emphasize enough how big of a win it would be to keep this good play of late rolling.
February 16th, 2009 at 7:22 PM ^
Dude plays sick and even barfs in front of Erin Andrews and still goes back out on the floor.
February 16th, 2009 at 6:40 PM ^
The officiating was just putrid on both ends to the point that the game turned into a pseudo FT shooting contest, which should have been a huge advantage for us but didn't really turn out to matter much.
I think they swapped refs for the last 5 minutes of the game when nothing was called, EXCEPT that pathetic foul on Sims when their big dork was stripped by Novak on his 3-point attempt. That blown call alone was enough to send the game to OT. I also thought that what happened to CJ twice in the last 90 seconds would have easily warranted a foul call to stay consistent with the first 35 minutes of the game, also allowing the OT to even happen.
Lastly pretty much all of Sims' fouls were just pathetic, twice I remember their guy simply falling down and Sims was the closest defender to call a foul on for the bailout.
Whew! Now I feel better.
February 17th, 2009 at 8:04 AM ^
To answer the original posters question, they have three more guys coming in next year that are taller than Sims. Whether they will be "good" or not is not clear, but I suspect that Cronin and Morgan will be able to play a few minutes and contribute some rebounding and defense.
To me, the interesting question will be who starts next year. I see two options:
1. Mimic 2009 - Start Grady/Morris, Douglas, Manny, Novak, and Sims. It would be undersized, but their best players.
2. Go big - Start Douglas, Manny, Novak, Sims, and Gibson.
If they go with #2, they can bring the freshmen bigs off the bench as needed and have Grady, Morris, and LLP in the back court rotation.
I also think Grady should play more. They won a lot of games with him out there. I think you limit his minutes, but he has to play. You're telling me his defense is worse than Merritt? Keep Lee on the court for defense, but get Grady in there against the press!!
February 17th, 2009 at 10:06 AM ^
The thing that bothers me about Lee most is that he absolutely flat out refuses to shoot the ball and basically lets opposing teams play Michigan 5 on 4 when Michigan is on offense with Lee on the floor. It's not like Lee is a great distributor either as his assist to TO ratio is right around 1:1. He's a solid ball handler and plays good D, but I'd much rather see LLP being developed in addition to him being an actual threat to, you know, shoot the ball.
February 17th, 2009 at 11:04 AM ^
I am not sold on the idea that Lee is a solid ball-handler. I think he's conservative, which limits his TOs to a point, but when pressured he seems to have a lot of problems getting the ball out safely. I certainly don't see him creating a lot of opportunities for other players. The first 3/4s of the game against Northwestern, they set up a soft trap just past half court. We were never able to dribble out of it, and we ended up making soft lob passes to escape the double-team. That was acceptable against half-hearted pressure, but later in the game you saw Northwestern's defense in the backcourt get more aggressive and we had a few key turnovers. When Beilein brought Grady in for a few plays towards the very end, he easily sliced through the double-team and put pressure on the defense to get back and recover.
Someone needs to tell Manny or Barwis or someone to get in Grady's face about his defensive lapses, because there's no way we can replicate what Grady gives us as a ball-handler. I could care less whether or not Lee is a walk-on. The bottom line is he's not a great point guard. I give him all the credit in the world for player hard, but an offense like Beilein's needs a playmaking guard, especially when we don't have the benefit of a big man with whom we can play inside-outside. The only time we ever stress our opponents' defensive spacing is on Manny's penetration, and we're never going to get anywhere offensively as a one-trick pony. Even freaks of nature like Stephen Curry need a little bit of help to make their team successful on offense.
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