Michigan v UCLA

Submitted by dpowell7 on

There is 2 minuetes to go in the game and michigan is up by 3. Stu Douglass, a true freshman from Indian has just hit a huge three pointer while not facing the basket. As the teams go to commercial I have to think to myself, even if the wolverines dont end up pulling this one out of the bag, man do they have a refreshing attitude and style of basketball. They are aggresive on D. They force steals and tournovers like crazy. They need to work on their fastbreak a little bit but they certainly know what they are doing while shooting the ball. Simms Stepped up big in this game being a leader on offense and defense. Recieving a ton of praise from Dicky V. I personally dont care if he comes off the bench or starts as long as he is on the court. This is a big moral victory for the mens basketball program, even if they dont pull it it. It has been fun to watch and a great game. The Wolverines definatily dont look like an unranked team that only won 10 games last year. Quite the conterairy, thye look like an experienced team that is playing with tremendous swagger. SIMMS JUST PUNISHED THE RIM!!!!! MICHIGAN BASKETBALL IS BACK!!!

Comments

wooderson

November 20th, 2008 at 11:56 PM ^

Wow how about that defense?? I know UCLA has had some turnover problems already this year but man that zone defense was absolutely suffocating. Like some people were saying earlier let's hope the football team was watching, anything is possible!

Sparky79

November 20th, 2008 at 11:59 PM ^

Am I excited? Yes! Great win tonight! We played a very smart, efficient game at both ends of the floor tonight. It definitely showed what teamwork and hard work can accomplish. DeShawn Sims is a beast. Why is he starting the game on the bench?

That said, I'm not trying to be too much of a wet blanket, but lets not jump too far ahead of ourselves. I won't proclaim "we're back!" by one victory over a good opponent. That'd be like proclaiming Michigan football was back after their thrilling win over Wisconsin. Will you still be proclaiming "we're back!" if Duke destroys us again tomorrow?

The season is young and there's a long way to go, but the future certainly looks promising.

turbo cool

November 21st, 2008 at 12:11 AM ^

count me as one thinking/hoping that if bball did well it would take the focus off our our football team. also, it would give us mich fans hope that all we need to do is be given time within our respective systems and lets our old WV coaches work their magic. hell yeah, go blue.

Yinka Double Dare

November 21st, 2008 at 1:39 AM ^

The big difference between this and the football Wisconsin win is that the cagers won their first two games by 20+ points as well, and Northeastern, while not a power, isn't a pile of crap either as evidenced by their follow-up win over Providence.

This is a team that has started to adjust to the system and is getting it. They may not beat Duke tomorrow, but it's a great starting point, and a huge win if they end up doing fairly well in conference play and end up on the tourney bubble -- neutral court wins over tourney teams are a big point in your favor in that situation.

And we're not even paying our players this time!

MGoAndy

November 20th, 2008 at 11:59 PM ^

Let us hope this isn't Wisconsin victory 2.0.

Great game by the boys though, defense was very good, very exciting to watch.

I Blue Myself

November 21st, 2008 at 12:07 AM ^

It felt so good watching a Michigan team that looked competent and knew how to execute its system.

You can say that Beilein (or Rodriguez) is a good coach and that his system always worked in the past, but until you see it work at Michigan, there's always a little bit of a nagging doubt. This game removed that doubt about Beilein, and (irrational as this sounds), it made me have a little more faith in Rich Rod, too.

Obviously the basketball team can't make the football team better, but the parallels between Rodriguez and Beilein are so striking that I can't help but think this win will spill over a little in people's perceptions of Michigan football. It's a little easier to believe there's a light at the end of the tunnel, and no need to panic.

Yes, I know I'm reading too much into one win over a team that probably isn't actually a top 5 team right now, and I know there are no mystical connections between Rodriguez and Beilein. It just feels really good to feel like the wheels aren't coming off for once.

jsimms

November 21st, 2008 at 7:56 AM ^

i realize that michigan has less b-ball talent than most teams. however, it is exciting to see that a coach who sticks with his system can succeed [even when that same system led to a terrible 2007-2008 record] when the players start to "get it". this does not mean the team will make the ncaa tournament [in fact, i think they won't], but it does mean that michigan can at least compete with major-league, for-real b-ball schools. so, is this analogous to football, too, let's hope so.

Bielfeldt's Calves

November 21st, 2008 at 9:12 AM ^

Does this win give anybody else a little pause about unleashing his venom on the football team and RR?

Now I think it's easier to turn a BB program around. Be patient Wolverine fans, be patient DEATH BUTTERFLY is coming.

bigkegs

November 21st, 2008 at 11:16 AM ^

I was at the game and let me say this it was just awesome, and in some tiny part took the sting off the difficult football season. The crowd was definitely favoring Michigan, we had your Victors chants, a few Go........Blue.........Go.........Blue chants. For a game where I was just happy to see Michigan keep it close and be within 6 at halftime, it was surreal to see Michigan pull it out. They were getting absolutely destroyed on the boards all throughout the game, but they kept making enough plays here and there to pull it out. Neither team played particularly well and I wasn't that impressed with UCLA (Jrue Holliday is gonna be a very good though).

The emotion when Stu Douglass hits that three was unbelievable. Coming off a screen when he put the shot up I was screaming "Nooo...WTF are you doing!" and then it goes in and Michigan has the lead with a couple of minutes left. Watching Duke before Michigan I wasn't overly impressed with Duke (I sort of lost interest in the middle of the 2nd half when Duke was up by 8 or so, then I turned around and they were up 25), but I would say Duke is definitely a better team than UCLA after watching both. If Michigan can try and improve it's rebounding and not get killed on the glass, they'll have a shot against Duke.

PS. There were 4 UCLA cheerleaders at the game (none from Michigan), and they were ridiculously hot.

allezbleu

November 21st, 2008 at 3:39 PM ^

sure, we should keep this win in perspective, it was against an overrated UCLA team that lost 3 NBA players and was still ranked #4 in the country. they looked way out of sync against the 1-3-1. But even as a chronically optimistic fan, I think its not a stretch to say we have a reasonable shot at the tourney. assuming sparty and purdue are locks, there's no way we can't compete with indiana/illinois/minnesota/ohio state/wisco for the other 3 or so spots. Hopefully we keep improving and my wishes come true.

Beburns3

November 21st, 2008 at 3:41 PM ^

It's weird that we face Duke tonight and again in two weeks in Ann Arbor. At least if we lose tonight, we get a shot at redemption (or futher humilation) on 12/6. That being said, I think we can win tonight if we have the same defensive performance and just a little bit better on offense (like not missing those 2 fast break opportunities). If we beat them tonight on a neutral court, we should definitely beat them on our home court in two week. Plus, we play three more games, including Maryland inbetween. Should be a fun couple of weeks. If we come out of that unbeaten, we gotta be a top 20 team if not top 15. Okay, now I'm getting carried away. Need to calm down...