Beilein confirms: Depth is a real problem.

Submitted by stephenrjking on February 27th, 2019 at 5:05 PM

From his presser. HT to UMHoops for writing up the quotes. Regarding Poole:

I think that some young men, when they get tired, all of the sudden they don’t think as quickly. That’s what we have to watch with him right now. It’s important that we keep an eye on that. … He’ll have some tremendous moments, and then all of the sudden — he really had a tough game the other day. He’s better than that. We know he’s better than that.

It’s very difficult (to cut down Poole’s minutes). It’s very difficult. I think as we go forward, David Dejulius is gonna have to go in there and just play the ‘2’ guard. Just gonna have to play it some way, just to get (Poole) out of there, maybe get him to 30 minutes if that’s what it takes to get him there.

And regarding the 5:

Our big thing has been — we need some bench. And we’re trying like crazy, but it hasn’t happened yet. When we peak — when Moe Wagner got tired, Mark Donnal went in. Or when Moe Wagner got tired, Jon Teske went in. We still can’t find that, and we’re trying.

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Maize N' Ute

February 27th, 2019 at 5:14 PM ^

If JB wasn't developing all his 3* & 4*s into two-and-done guys, JB wouldn't be having this problem.

It was only a matter until time when the lack of a bench was going impact the starters.  As much as I would love to see the starting 5 out there the whole game, it's unreasonable to expect top-notch performances from them every game.  The fact that Nunez and DDJ haven't been able to get any meaningful minutes has been troublesome, and they were project players after all.

Joined: 02/01/2018

MGoPoints: 6332

northernmich

February 27th, 2019 at 5:26 PM ^

Nunez was a late addition that wasn’t even a composite top 200 player. Expecting him to have an extended role as true freshman is a little irrational. DDJ on the other hand, I thought he would be a decent back up guard this year. Him not even sniffing the floor for most of the year is a little concerning, but from what I’ve seen it looks as if he can play 8ish minutes a game and it won’t lose the game for us. Beilein has to let them learn a little bit while they are out there, game like minutes cannot he reciprocated in practice.

Joined: 10/12/2018

MGoPoints: 3032

ijohnb

February 28th, 2019 at 10:23 AM ^

They were both bigs though.  There are some things that were physically required of them that they simply could not do.  A backup five this year is a problem that is not going to fixed, this year.

Guards are a bit different.  Walton was not ready to play in 2014, but he had to, and by the end of the season he was a really solid player, already.  I don't think there is any question that it is a mistake that Dejulius and Nunez have not been part of the rotation at all.  You need dudes, and if freshman is what you have than those are your dudes.  A six man rotation is simply not practical, and it should have been obvious by now that Eli Brooks literally brings nothing to the table. 

Playing freshman in basketball is not like playing freshman in football.  There are freshman playing all over the country on every team.  DDJ is going to be an awesome college player and could be helping this team right now.  Nunez can shoot the ball, and that is one thing this team really struggles with. 

I think Beilein has the next four games to allow these kids to become part of the rotation and possibly really help this team with depth and shooting, and I think his decision whether or not to do that will determine if this team is capable of making a run this year.  Let them play!  Our starters need a bit of a break sometime and it showed last Sunday.  Izzo has willing to play some "weird guys," Beilein has not been thus far, and last Sunday it was Michigan who was gassed despite MSU being the team down two players.

Joined: 09/21/2009

MGoPoints: 69986

TrueBlue2003

February 28th, 2019 at 3:59 PM ^

Izzo has had to play weird guys.  He literally has no other option.

Beilein played Brooks as the backup 1 and 2 with perfectly fine results for the first month of the season.  He was averaging about 18 minutes a game and doing fine with those minutes.  He's completely lost all confidence in his shot though. 

In basketball, shooting is the one aspect of the game that can be drastically different from practice to a game.  Guys can be perfectly comfortable and hit a good percentage of threes in practice and then get into a game, cold off the bench and not be able to hit shots in front of thousands of people.  There's a lot of pressure there.  Brooks feels it every time he goes in.  He knows continued playing time probably depends on him hitting his one three that he'll be able to take.  It's a hard thing to do, and some guys can easily get in a funk. 

I promise you, Brooks inability to shoot in games was almost certainly not obvious.  I bet he hits 10% more of his threes in practice.  But at this point, Beilein is giving up patience that he'll start doing it in games.

So now they'll turn to DDJ and have to live with him playing out of position and making freshmen mistakes.  It's not ideal but they're looking for the least bad option.

I still don't know why Michigan doesn't play a Matthews/Iggy/Livers 2/3/4 lineup more often.  It gets Livers on the floor and he's the one guy that isn't getting nearly enough minutes for Michigan.

Joined: 01/05/2010

MGoPoints: 38075

TrueBlue2003

February 28th, 2019 at 1:36 AM ^

MAAR was a four year player.  I don't think Michigan recruited a two guard between him and Poole and hasn't recruited one since.  That's a pretty big gap.  I'm considering Ibi Watson as a 3, FWIW but he could play some minutes at the two and his transfer is still a little puzzling.  He probably could have played 10 minutes a game backing up Poole.

Joined: 01/05/2010

MGoPoints: 38075

LostInACoinToss

February 28th, 2019 at 4:40 PM ^

I would say DDJ "has more potential." Brooks is who he is at this point. I think Coach B sees the potential DDJ has and is trying to squeeze that out before tournament time.

i.e. DDJ has the potential to be a big x factor down the stretch if things really start to click for him. I don't see Brooks having that same potential.

Joined: 11/05/2015

MGoPoints: 328

L'Carpetron Do…

February 27th, 2019 at 5:38 PM ^

I know those guys aren't quite as ready as they would like but Coach Beilien has to take a risk and play them. They have a lot of potential and throwing them in the fire may be the only way to get them ready. 

Donnal was pretty awful and the drop off was noticeable when he was in, so sometimes you just gotta pull the trigger and put someone in for a gassed starter. Also - I remember cringing when Caris Levert would come in during his freshman year because he was so bad. He was just lost out there. But look how Caris turned out - those minutes were valuable to the team and his development.

Also - even if they hemorrhage some points with the bench guys on the floor, those valuable rest minutes could be beneficial for the starters. M needs them on the court, but they also need them as close to 100% as possible.

Joined: 03/15/2010

MGoPoints: 8572

LKLIII

February 28th, 2019 at 1:17 PM ^

I don't know a lick about basketball, but my own layman opinion is exactly this.  A few points:

  1. For both DDJ and Castleton, just something about their body language tells me they aren't "playing scared."  Yes, they'll screw up.  Especially in a complex JB system as freshmen.  And also where neither one has gotten a lot of "live fire" minutes, which I assume are far more valuable than practice minutes in terms of building experience.  But the body language alone indicates that they'll push through the rough patches and be very servicible--potentially excellent.  So I say, let them do the baptism by fire thing.  Also, force Castleton to both drink a gallon of whole milk per day (none of that candy-assed skim) and bunk at Jon Sanderson's house this summer.
     
  2. From my layman's perspective it seems like it's way too early to make any kind of judgments about Johns or Nunez.  Nunez has been a ghost all year & Johns to my untrained eye just seems gangly.  But the fact that Johns gets put out there indicates that JB sees his potential & it's mostly about him bulking up & learning the system.  
     
  3. Again, maybe it's just body language, but Eli Brooks reminds me of that sabre-tooth squirrel "Scrat" from those Ice Age movies.  I can smell the fear eminating from him through my television. 
     
  4. My understanding is that Z is really tough on the guys in practice, so my pet theory is that Z is almost like a younger basketball version of Jim Harbaugh in terms of intensity.  As a result, I think Z basically broke Brooks in practice between last year in this year.  Not "broke in," but "broke."  Conversely, (again from my totally untrained dye), it looks like Z may be doing the same thing with DDJ, but instead of breaking, DDJ is getting stronger.

     

Joined: 11/06/2013

MGoPoints: 8927

footballguy

February 27th, 2019 at 5:40 PM ^

Too few minutes for some guys in the beginning of the season when we were playing terrible teams. Gonna be tough this late in the season for these bench guys to develop when every game now is either critical for our B1G hopes, or a single elimination game. 

Joined: 10/04/2018

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