Basketball Snowflakes
Any hope for the season is lost at this point.
Would like to see Dug become a semi-competent PG down the stretch. Idk what to think of TWill. Dickinson misses more layups than any 7 footer should.
I’d love to never see the Jett and Kobe disappearing act again.
Time for Juwan to broom out the assistants and freshen up the staff. Next year is hot seat time and I’m rooting for the guy unlike most of this forum, but going 0-6??? in crunch time games this year is next level sad.
February 11th, 2023 at 8:27 PM ^
Just the same old same old all year, can't call it a bad effort but not good enough. Not going to win many games when 4 starters essentially don't score in a half.
February 11th, 2023 at 8:33 PM ^
When your guards are young and lack big game experience, these things happen.
It appears Beilein teams had OOB plays rehearsed for end of game situations, but Juwan’s teams don’t. Izzo delegates this to assistant coaches.
It’s frustrating because you know more or less what the outcome of the game will be.
February 11th, 2023 at 9:47 PM ^
Are you kidding me? Beilein teams were the absolute worst at inbounds plays and it was almost a miracle when they were able to inbound the ball despite multiple times out to find something that worked!
February 12th, 2023 at 7:21 AM ^
Example- Jordan Poole scoring against Houston in the tournament in 2018.
February 12th, 2023 at 10:02 AM ^
One miracle, anything else?
February 12th, 2023 at 12:33 PM ^
Glenn Robinson vs Purdue. They even talked in the postgame about how they had run that play in practice
February 11th, 2023 at 8:28 PM ^
Team is close. Yet so far away. It's so frustrating watching this team. Good looking plays drawn up and executed by Juwann are countered with missed bunnies by a 7footer, Terrance Williams in general, possessions with zero ball rotation, piss poor free throw shooting. Our rebounding is ass, the ball isn't sought after strongly enough. 50/50 balls are somewhat chance and luck but also effort and aforementioned strong hands and the team doesn't seem to emphasize it. Defense overall has gotten better but again a 3rd year 7footer is generally a liability even against a guard with a head of steam. We'll lose a freshman and a sophomore yet again after so much on court shit that notion just makes me wonder why I put so much mental and emotional energy into this sport.
Don't even get me started on college basketball officials and whatever the fuck they're looking at nightly.
February 11th, 2023 at 8:31 PM ^
Good looking plays by juwan unfortunately do not happen after timeouts, particularly not at the last second. I have no idea what that last play was supposed to be but it was clearly terrible because Kobe took an off balance 3 when only down by 1. Coach Howard deserves a ton of blame for this one, beyond playing Williams way too much all season.
February 11th, 2023 at 8:33 PM ^
Oh I agree on all of that. That was a thought salad put into internet text that happened to start with a not-frequent-enough "positive" and I didn't even get back to the frustrating coaching issues.
February 11th, 2023 at 8:50 PM ^
I respect the positivity. Hard to have it after watching a decently talented team play below their level most of the season.
February 11th, 2023 at 9:59 PM ^
You don’t know what you were watching. The play was there and set up for Bufkin. UM is in double bonus and he has a path to the layup and needs to take it strong to the rack. Instead, he pulls it back out and we never get a clean look so Jett threw up last second junk. There’s a reason juwan was chewing some Bufkin ass after the horn.
February 11th, 2023 at 10:21 PM ^
Jackson Davis was ready to block him and yet Hunter wasn't in a position to get open. If that's the play you go to for the biggest game in the year, I'd hope you have the guys ready to pull it off. It ended up being a disaster.
February 11th, 2023 at 10:51 PM ^
Yep, exactly and that’s why Bufkin stopped. He had been stuffed by a trailing defender the entire second half. If you’re gonna go that way and TJD is coming over then a hard dive by Hunter would be the plan.
February 11th, 2023 at 11:36 PM ^
Hunter had more turnovers and missed bunnies than points. That’s your big plan?
You miss 100% of the shots you never take. Run the play, get fouled, double bonus, if you miss and no fouls, you’ve got teammates for the 2nd chance.
The missed 3 put back was only a couple of tenths of a second late.
The peanut gallery who’ve never played, never had kids play at a high level, nor coached at any level sure have a lot of opinions while drinking Pepsi and eating Cheetos on their couches.
February 12th, 2023 at 12:03 AM ^
Except the final shot was an ugly 3 that was way off. Don't put the ball in the hands of a guy that's too afraid to take the shot. That's on Howard.
Fans are apparently not allowed to have opinions because coaches know more. Maybe Hoke should be the football coach because he knows more? What are you talking about?
It was an ugly play call. Not sure why you are choosing to die on this absurd hill. You think Howard drew up Joey Baker to catch a horrible miss and lay it up at the last second? Just a foolish take.
February 12th, 2023 at 10:06 AM ^
In other words, because you don’t understand what happened, you resort to name calling. Please yell at mom for the meatloaf.
February 12th, 2023 at 11:31 AM ^
Wait a second. Where is the name calling? Are you claiming that 'Just a foolish take.' is name calling? I see people playing this card all the time these days but to be clear, telling someone they are wrong or that what they are saying is foolish is NOT name calling.
And this from the guy that broadly characterized those criticizing as "peanut gallery who’ve never played, never had kids play at a high level, nor coached at any level sure have a lot of opinions while drinking Pepsi and eating Cheetos on their couches."
February 12th, 2023 at 11:52 AM ^
Ironically seeing as most of your replies are just petty insults towards members of this board you are the one that sounds like the pepsi drinking cheetos eating couch potato. Probably should check the mirror there, smart guy.
February 11th, 2023 at 8:30 PM ^
Oh well. Put a fork in this season. Our only chance to get into the Tournament was to win this game. And we couldn't score a basket in the last 5 1/2 minutes at home in a one point loss. That says it all. I hope you all have a wonderful spring doing other things like I will.
February 11th, 2023 at 11:39 PM ^
This is unequivocally false. WIN THE BIG TOURNAMENT.
Albeit unlikely, but this was not the “only” chance…
February 12th, 2023 at 8:47 AM ^
Winning the BTT isn’t the only chance still. Go win at Indiana.
February 12th, 2023 at 10:10 AM ^
I mean there’s the whole overall win loss record thing too and I don’t know how the committee evaluates the didn’t win but exciting games factor, but isn’t consensus at this point BTT win or bust.
February 12th, 2023 at 2:46 PM ^
No. If they go 4-2 to close and win a game in the BTT they will be in. They made it much harder on themselves yesterday though for sure.
February 11th, 2023 at 8:30 PM ^
Ugh...I think T-Will getting a lot late minutes was baffling, in part because the plan seemed to be to force feed HD. But T-Will is below 30 percent on threes, so you had three non-shooting guys playing around Hunter. Reed or Baker present more issues for the defense. That said, Bufkin needs to shoot the ball when he catches for an open three. He hasn't shot it great, but it messes up the offense when he doesn't take the open look. Reed was cutting well off the doubles of HD.
Coaching staff has struggled with drawing up plays in key situations and substitution patterns. Not sure how many shots Dug needs to get blocked before he thinks of using the drive to get someone else open as opposed to trying to finish over length. But here we are. Weird team.
February 11th, 2023 at 8:30 PM ^
Michigan is awful at end-of-half situations under Howard. They never have a good play or good execution. Benching Reed for Williams to end the game lost Michigan the game. Going scoreless at home in the final 5 minutes of a must-win game that you lose by 1 point is as brutal a way to get knocked out of tournament consideration as you can possibly get. And it's stretches like that why Howard's seat should at least be lukewarm next year. The program is in decline.
February 11th, 2023 at 8:30 PM ^
This is....pretty damning.
February 11th, 2023 at 8:32 PM ^
Indeed, having experienced PG’s is useful. Damning to have a new one each year.
February 11th, 2023 at 8:38 PM ^
Of all things to be frustrated with, that stat isn't that bad?! The fact we've been in one-possession games with highly ranked teams, for one, is a good thing.
Now when it becomes 3-24, we'll, that's not good and maybe an issue.
February 11th, 2023 at 8:44 PM ^
well, the tweet did say high major; not highly ranked.
February 11th, 2023 at 8:39 PM ^
Zach Shaw's tweet implies a Juwan Howard vs John Beilein era comparison and it's not good for Juwan. The players make the plays on the court but not having the right plays called in crucial times is just as critical in crunch time.
February 11th, 2023 at 8:42 PM ^
That mostly tracks with Michigan having experienced, multi-year starters at guard. It covers upperclassmen Walton, senior MAAR, and Simpson. And in Simpson's first year as the lead ballhandler the team had upperclassmen like MAAR, Robinson, Wagner, and Mathews to handle a lot of that pressure. This year they don't really have anyone outside of Dickinson who's played a lot of minutes in meaningful games and it shows.
February 11th, 2023 at 8:46 PM ^
the tweet covers the past 4 years. so basically all first year guards the past 3 years.
February 11th, 2023 at 9:15 PM ^
Also, as I noted above it is basically "Michigan has been really bad in 1-score games this year" because the previous 3 seasons they'd basically been .500 in 1-score games. Which, let's been honest, is long-term how these numbers tend to go.
February 11th, 2023 at 8:48 PM ^
We’re long enough into Howard’s tenure that the roster is his now. If it lacks experience or talent at key positions, there isn’t anywhere else to point fingers.
February 11th, 2023 at 9:14 PM ^
But he recruited Collins and told him he'd be the starter and he still bolted. I don't know what else you can do there with a guy. And when you consider COVID was one of those seasons plus you had another where Howard came in late to take over from Beilein it's not like he's had a huge number of recruiting cycles. And the less said about UM not letting Shannon enrolled at UM the better since that absolutely would have helped address some of these late-game/playmaker issues.
I also can't quite tell what that stat is based on. Here's UM's record in 1-score/OT games (and who they were) over the past 4 years:
- 2020 - 3 Losses (Oregon, Illinois, OSU), 1 Wins (Purdue in OT)
- 2021 - 2 Losses (OSU, UCLA), 1 Win (Oakland in OT)
- 2022 - 1 Losses (Seton Hall), 2 Wins (NW, PSU)
- 2023 - 4 Losses (UVa, CMU, Iowa, IU), 1 Wins (Ohio in OT)
So if anything UM has been trending toward fewer close losses and more close wins over Howard's time at the helm until this year when the bottom fell out because, again, his starting PG was lost to injury and he's playing one of the youngest teams in the country (307th per KenPom in terms of experience).
I think Howard hasn't done a great job coaching this year and if you want to warm up his seat going into next year you aren't going to get a complaint from me but this stat is basically "Michigan has been very bad at 1-score games this year".
February 12th, 2023 at 7:26 AM ^
Regarding Collins: In this era of the transfer portal, taking anyone that attended two high schools is a big yellow flag to me. Three or more high schools? I personally would want nothing to do with them unless they’re an instant impact 5 star. Collins was not and with his track record I can’t see how anyone is shocked he left.
Big picture wise, the only way you’re going to be a successful basketball program in this era is if you can master constant turnover year after year (the prime years Kentucky model) or otherwise you have to recruit players that are not on NBA radars after high school and live with the growing pains of developing them. Maybe that’s what this year is, and if so, fine. But, if Jett and Kobe leave…This train wreck of a season was all for nothing.
February 12th, 2023 at 1:23 PM ^
Sure, but something like 1400 players entered the portal last year and on a list of 100 top transfers 14 were freshmen; they weren't all flight risks coming out of HS but things happen. Yes, in hindsight Collins bouncing around was a red flag but he seems happy at ASU and I'd be surprised if he left after this year and Howard basically offered him the same opportunities coming into his second year. Some of this analysis feels like hindsight.
What killed them was last year their two all-world freshmen played like freshmen and then left. So you got shit performance out of guys because they were getting acclimated to college basketball and then you got nothing for the second year, after the growing pains. Bufkin is a great example of how you get a bad first year and a solid second year. And don't look now but Kentucky, Duke, etc. aren't handling year-to-year turnover well; UK might not make the tourney this year and that would be 2 misses in 3 years with the other a first-round exit.
I think Jett is gone but my guess is Bufkin isn't going to get enough NBA talk to be a first-round selection and NIL should be able to bring him back for another year.
February 11th, 2023 at 11:56 PM ^
Agree 100%. Juwan was probably hired more for his connections to AAU talent than any scheming ability. He had 0 experience as a HC, but after 4 yrs it looks like he hasn’t found the scheming ability to win tight games.
He also has a talent issue - this roster is a mess. Part of the issue is Llewelyn’s injury that left the team in the hands of a frosh PG, but there are clear issues at the 4 and 3.
February 11th, 2023 at 10:21 PM ^
BUT BUT BUT JUWAN HAS NBA EXPERIENCE AND WRITE UP ANY PLAY FOR LEBRON!
February 12th, 2023 at 10:19 AM ^
Except that every young team has to learn how to win on the way up, in almost every sport.
When you think about why Beilein left to go coach a roster disaster in Cleveland, didn’t he essentially get out before the portal and NIL exacerbated what he tired of dealing with before it got to where it is now?
Seems unfair to judge a coaches from one era against others…see, e.g., 7 years for Harbaugh to adapt after winning everywhere at prior coaching gigs.
For all the gnashing of teeth and rending of garments, who’s the alternative?
February 11th, 2023 at 8:30 PM ^
Too bad the refs and UM couldn’t make the story how badly TJD choked the game away
terrible goaltend to give UM the lead. Choked FT barely off the front of the rim to tie it up. Also, could have allowed a dunk on that last play if Kobe had payed up the right pass.
February 11th, 2023 at 8:40 PM ^
Well the goaltend wasn't called so...
Now it was close but even biased I gotta say you blow the whistle on that and count the bucket.
February 11th, 2023 at 8:31 PM ^
To have the last play be what it was coming off a timeout was atrocious. Just brutal. Why shoot from outside when that hadn’t worked the last 3 min of the game. Should have gone inside. Geesh.
February 11th, 2023 at 8:33 PM ^
Plan A and B weren’t for an outside shot
February 11th, 2023 at 8:33 PM ^
that wasn't the play call. bufkin biffed it for sure.
February 11th, 2023 at 8:44 PM ^
Yeah, I think there is valid criticism of Howard and his playcalling but that absolutely was not the play Howard drew up and you could tell because Jett seemed surprised the ball swung back to him that quickly.
February 11th, 2023 at 8:31 PM ^
There will be staff changes regardless of how this game went, or at least there better be.
Williams just isn't a viable starter; he hasn't been all year and even if Reed can't hit a FT at least you've got a guy with some plus side on both ends of the court. Williams seeing the court 10-15 minutes a game would maximize his strengths and limit the impact of his weaknesses.
Jett still seems like he's limited a bit from an ankle injury and so he's settling for 3s and not driving to the hoop or generating offense. When that shot is falling he's still dangerous but since PSU he's taken 21 2-point shots and 42 (!) 3s. That's not going to cut it even if he's hitting them at a good clip (40%) because he's not getting his defender into foul trouble, isn't setting up for offensive rebounds, etc.
Anyway, this is an NIT team and it sucks but at some point you can't lose games like this one, @Iowa, @MSU, @UNC, vs. UK, Purdue, UVA, and CMU and expect to make the tournament. One their best day they could beat almost anyone in the country but they rarely play like that. What's going to suck is they'll probably get one of these road wins they need, against someone like Illinois or Rutgers, and it won't matter because you can't hang your hat on one win.
February 11th, 2023 at 9:41 PM ^
My only concern with Reed is, I don't think he could play more than 20 minutes w/o fouling out. I have a feeling that's why Williams continues to start.
February 11th, 2023 at 9:43 PM ^
Yeah, it's not optimal but my general sentiment with players is that them fouling out or you benching them so they don't foul out is, ultimately, the same result and at least with the first option you get them on the court for the maximum number of minutes.
February 11th, 2023 at 8:32 PM ^
knock down open 3s against Neb but go 5-20 against IU. season in a nutshell.