Basketball Snowflakes

What a great and needed win, Go Blue!!!

What a great and needed win, Go Blue!!!

Many guys contributed big time, maybe we go on a sweet win streak!

How the fuck did that just happen.

This team really gonne give some glimmers of post-season hope?!  I'd rather they just didn't toy with my fragile fan emotions to be honest.  Missing "March" by a game or 2 is just really going to hurt.  Versus missing everything post-season entirely.

Like most college basketball games, it really comes down to hitting open threes when you get them. Houstan, Williams, Johns, Dickinson all hit most of their open looks. That hasn't been the case most of the year. 

Conference road wins are like gold.  Road wins at Assembly Hall are awesome and suggest good things ahead for this team. 

All aboard!  Back on the hype train!!

If this team keeps showing up, this year could get rather fun!!!

It's interesting that, despite the poor record, Michigan was still at #31 per Kenpom going in to the game.

Maybe Kenpom knows something we don't know?

Very much a schedule loss for Indiana. Third game in 7 days and coming off a court storming win over rival Purdue. Still, we played great on the road and got huge performances from a lot of players.

Going bombs away from 3 definitely helped, but the half court defense and effort were much better today. And those will carry over.

Of course, Dickinson was absolutely dominant, and what he's doing should not go unappreciated.

Great win and confidence builder, with another winnable game against Northwestern this week. Building all the right kinds of confidence before the showdown in EL on Saturday.

Houstan is gaining confidence 

Dickinson is playing his best ball and leading this team. He is growing his game inside and out.

Houstan is playing with confidence and getting his stroke back.

Diabate is channeling his inner Charles Mathews Junkyard Dog mentality.

This team is becoming fun to watch. 

Just finished watching the game - YESSSSS! I love it when a plan comes together!!!!

Not to mention Austin Davis.  Still wish we had him. Loved watching him play.  

Go, Blue!

Talent, hustle, toughness. It's great to see.

Liked Houstan's aggressiveness.  Really need Frankie to take a leap at some point.  Always seems like passes to our Big Men/Cutters/Roll men are a half a beat too late or too timid. 

Jones is what he is at this point and is serviceable, but to make some noise, our PGs (and guards in general) need to be making those passes in rhythm.

Big fan of how tough Devante played. Saw him get absolutely mugged over & over in the 2nd half with nary a whistle. No more gambling on the defensive end, he's showing that he's more than quick enough to guard. And most importantly he and Hunter were connected on 2-man plays on offense all game long. 

The amount of open shots generated today was something to behold - superb ball movement. And of course, actually hitting those open shots at a high rate is surely a recipe for success. If they continue to play like this, then a 11-9 or 12-8 B1G record is very doable. 

Eli Brooks becomes the first Michigan player to participate in three victories at IU in his career without a loss. The only other senior class with three wins at Bloomington is the ‘88 class — Gary Grant’s senior year — but they were 3-1.

Both the 4 in a row in Bloomington and the 9 in a row overall are program records. Sports Reference only goes back to 1950, but in that time, Michigan improves to 11-50 in Bloomington, meaning Eli has appeared in over 25% of the program’s wins in the last 70 years in that chamber of horrors.

I will never, ever, ever fail to appreciate a Michigan win at Indiana. This was exactly what this team needed, and here’s hoping they ride it to larger things.

houstan has been the guy we hoped the last two games. jones is playing better too. we crushed IU on the road with eli being non-existent.

even williams and johns played great minutes off the bench.

this all bodes well. this is the team that can compete for the big ten title.

Nobody wants to play this team in the Tournament if they make it in.

Absolutely thrilled to see the result today. Hopefully they’ve begun to put it together.

Any win at Indiana is good. Michigan has won 9 straight against the Hoosiers.

They really do have a deep team. When Houstan is on they are tough to beat b/c Williams, Diabate, HD1, and Eli bring it every night. Johns and Jones just need to be consistent and not be TO machines and they will be fine

If Hunter can be a stretch five, that changes the math entirely for the offense. They still need other dudes to hit shots, but if they can clear out the lane with Dickinson , that’s a big deal.

huge win for the team.

winning on the road in the B1G is always tough and Indiana has been playing well this year.

Not only happy to see Houstan doing well, but BJJ had an good game as did Williams. The team needed other guys to step up and they did today... 

Confidence building win... hoping that Michigan is able to continue to build on the last two games

I still think they've got an uphill climb but since they started playing more of the bench and guys like Jones settled in they've played much better.  Getting better defensive effort has been key, and it's been a couple games now where they can combine scoring spurts with sustained defensive effort, something they couldn't do earlier.

Just like they weren't as bad as their last December swoon made them appear (teams are in fact not hitting 75% of their 3s anymore), they probably aren't as good as their two most recent hamblastings would convey.  But they're rounding into form and I agree that guys are getting more comfortable and the staff is figuring out how to make this team work and not last year's squad.

NW is now a big game and UM has to keep the momentum going.

1. I give a ton of credit to Hunter and Juwan for leadership and poise. They realized the path to winning was through HD, and he's really stepped up. Well done.

2. They don't need to be a great 3-point shooting team, but they have to shoot well enough to keep defenses honest. HD, Jones, Brooks and Houstan are providing enough outside shooting to open things up inside.

3. Michigan is not a great defensive team, but Diabate and Dickenson can be damn tough down low. If opponents aren't shooting well outside, they're gonna have a tough time.

4. As good as Jones has started to play, we still need Collins to contribute - he's the only real speed we have. Only 3 fast break points today. Easy baskets make winning much easier, and Collins provides that transition game - at least for a decent run each half.

5. Once again, we underestimated how much kids can improve over the course of a season, especially freshmen. Houstan looks like a different player. It's great to watch the team rounding into shape, playing so much more coherently and confidently.

6. A team that was painful to watch has suddently become fun! Go Blue! Keep it up!

So you're saying there's a chance.

I don't want to jinx it but they appear to be turning it around .. 

Good win. Indiana is soft defensively and we took advantage with hot shooting. Would like to see us go into a top 4 Big Ten venue and perform like this. If we can do that , we are back in the tournament talk.