Brunson turned into a Potato
Simpson again crushed a top point guard- this time the NPOY- Brunson. Here was Brunson's stat line
26 minutes, 4-13 shooting, 1-5 3PT, 2 AT, 2 TO, 9PTS, 80 ORTG
If DiVincenzo hadn't been on fire or if we would have had an answer for him the game would have been much more winnable.
Villanova| STARTERS | MIN | FG | 3PT | FT | OREB | DREB | REB | AST | STL | BLK | TO | PF | PTS |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| E. PaschallF | 27 | 2-5 | 1-3 | 1-2 | 1 | 7 | 8 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 2 | 4 | 6 |
| O. SpellmanF | 29 | 3-8 | 0-2 | 2-2 | 4 | 7 | 11 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 3 | 8 |
| M. BridgesG | 36 | 7-12 | 3-7 | 2-2 | 2 | 2 | 4 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 2 | 2 | 19 |
| J. BrunsonG | 28 | 4-13 | 1-5 | 0-0 | 0 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 0 | 2 | 4 | 9 |
| P. BoothG | 23 | 1-4 | 0-3 | 0-0 | 1 | 1 | 2 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 4 | 2 |
| BENCH | MIN | FG | 3PT | FT | OREB | DREB | REB | AST | STL | BLK | TO | PF | PTS |
| D. Cosby-RoundtreeF | 4 | 0-0 | 0-0 | 0-0 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 |
| T. DelaneyF | 0 | 0-0 | 0-0 | 0-0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| J. SamuelsF | 0 | 0-0 | 0-0 | 0-0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| C. GillespieG | 16 | 0-0 | 0-0 | 4-4 | 0 | 5 | 5 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 4 |
| D. DiVincenzoG | 37 | 10-15 | 5-7 | 6-10 | 3 | 2 | 5 | 3 | 0 | 2 | 4 | 1 | 31 |
| TEAM | 27-57 | 10-27 | 15-20 | 12 | 26 | 38 | 7 | 5 | 3 | 12 | 18 | 79 | |
| 47.4% | 37.0% | 75.0% |
if frogs had wings... blah, blah, blah
we would have hit our shots. Not going to win too many games when you have your worst shooting performance in 5 years.
There were a couple times they had wide open 3s to bring the game from 9 to 6 or from 6 to 3 after great defensive stops that they just weren't hitting. They were also surprisingly bad at the corner 3 in this game. Probably still lose if they make those, but they had opportunities to make runs, and just couldn't hit.
I know nova made more threes than any team in a tournament ever but did Michigan miss more threes than any team ever in one tournament? Not many teams who are totally ice cold really go that far.
Don't think we missed the most. Might have had the lowest percentage. But MSU missed more against 'Cuse than we did the whole tourney.
/s in case it's not obvious.
Even before that, when UM had a 7 point lead with Nova on their heels on both ends, there were several open 3's missed, and a couple of and-1 opportunities that just wouldn't fall. Still tough to say how the rest of the game plays out, but at that point if we build on the lead a little, and prevent them from only focusing on taking away anything going to the rim, who knows how things flow from there.
If we had say a 10-12 point lead, and weren't in the middle of a 10 minute drought on offense, those early DiVincenzo 3's aren't absolute killers.
Imagine if alligators had wings. Fucking horrifying...
we should ask Taylor Anderson
every beast has wings. Now, if we'd had The Rock on our side Monday night, who knows maybe would have withstood the Nova Rampage. (See what I did there, gratuitously naming the stupid movie he's in that was hyped beypnd Capitol One three stooges ads duriing the tournament).
100% agree, but I also believe this conversation was basically just calling attention to how great of a defensive player Simpson is. Unforunately, he can't guard all five players at once. That's how a Villanova team can really hurt you, which is sort of to your point. Unless you have five elite defenders on the court at one time, good luck stopping that offense. And while MAAR and Charles Matthews are really good defensive players, they don't have the combination of reaction time/hands/toughness of Z, which is where the quickness of some of these Villanova players really hurt us.
It's going to be very difficult to keep Z off the court these next two years regardless of how good David DeJulius is offensively - Hopefully Beilein can work some of his wizardry and improve his shooting.
is very important. As wonderful as his defense is, in order to become a complete player, he must improve his shooting - both from the floor and at the line. If he can't DeJulius can and should get more minutes from him next season. (or Brooks)
Ahhh. Yeah, that's a solid point. And I agree with you for the most part. I do think a lot of the other players fed off his confidence and success. That's why other guys started making shots in the second half as well. Success breeds confidence which feeds to teammates - makes the game a lot more fun which can lead to playing a lot more loose on the court. I don't necessarily think another player would have gone off like him though. They all had their shots and were all for the most part not having even close to the success of Donte until later in the second half.
Even if another "Donte" wouldn't have showed up, however, it still doesn't mean Michigan would have won. Just would have been a lot closer. Michigan just straight up needed to make shots like they have many times before. That was the main issue. And that was a Michigan problem - Not a "Donte" problem. Either needed a Spike Albrecht performance out of one of our guys to combat the Donte effect or have a collaboration of made 3's from across the board. Point is, the offense was terrible. And it wasn't just Villanova's defense. We shot ourselves in the foot. Need more consistently offensively next season. That's why a Virginia squad seems to constantly lose early in the tournament despite having almost a year after year #1 Defense - If you don't have offense, you're not going to make it in the tournament. Michigan's offense only showed up one game, and that's ultimately why we crumbled when we finally faced an elite Offense, especially one with a guy who just shot the lights out of the ball.
that theory played out. But what became obvious is that Brunson is not the head of that snake and their band of snipers.
What surprised me though was their poor effort at game's end with our pressure. I mean if Michigan had sped up the game with that fullcourt pressure, putting in the youngsters to keep the energy high...oh never mind.
Agree with stats, but this one is kind of misleading. Even though I cannot stand how he does it, Brunson got people in foul trouble and really bullied his way down low. He missed several bunnies that he normally gets in his sleep.
Despite a bad statistical performance, he was still pretty effective on the floor. And that's what makes them so flippin good.
Conversely, Brunson himself got into foul trouble. That was an interesting development. I personally thought he should have been in foul trouble earlier, or at least some our early fouls against him should have been no calls due to Brunson initiating the contact.
Simpson is a strong defender - maybe he threw Brunson's game slightly off kilter by forcing Brunson to *think* that he had to be more forceful near the basket. Some of the easy shots Brunson missed were too strong, which indicates that Brunson recognized the need to be strong in order to launch shots against Simpson (and others).
Major overanalysis here. But Simpson's strong defense mentally forces opposing guards just as much as he physically does.
I thought Brunson was allowed to hook, push, travel, and bully his way into the paint. On the Robinson foul, DR poked the ball loose but Brunson theatrically threw his arms up and drew the call. I hate to see the refs call a game against a star differently than everyone else.
and it made me go back to 2013. Burke was NPOY and he wasn't afforded that luxury on the block.
Agree. Jumping into the defender's chest, as Brunson did, should be an offensive foul. And yes, Simpson's defense does seem to get into the heads of opposing point guards.
He bullied his way down low and got into foul trouble himself.
If your argument is that he got Duncan Robinson in foul trouble...um, okay. Robinson was 0/3, had 1 rebound, and 1 steal in 22 minutes. Those fouls that he earned didn't turn into much.
Brunson didn't play like the NPOY. Maybe he had a bad game, but considering Michigan's defensive statistics and performance, I tend to think that Simpson (and a couple others) had a big part to do with it.
He was great. I just thought he still was pretty darn effective, despite a poor shooting performance.
Simpson did a good job on him, but he still bullied him a lot. He's got a very good old man game.
He was off due to Simpson and the quick on off double teams. Simpson constantly got him off the 3 line ( I think his 1 3 was from 30 feet out), and when he was in the lane he constantly had another quick hand to worry about getting into his handle causing him to not get clean looks at the lane. Not sure why you would not credit Simpson with Brunson's poor play seeing that Brunson had a great tournament and each of the point guards who also had great tournaments before Michigan had similar poor play against Simpson.
Problem was that Nova had too many options on offense for Michigan to completely shut down. I loved Simpson's play and the overall game plan. Just needed to have a season avarage or above shooting night to match.
remember he score Nova's first 4 points ... then did almost nothing the remainder of the game. I can't beliieve the way the ref's fell for his "acting" on the court. That was fucking rediculous!
Go Blue!
because there were multiple times when wind from an arm movement was able to throw his head back violently. Hope he gets that checked out.
Are you saying that Robinson's first half foul troubles were not an issue because he ultimately played close to his average minutes per game, and wasn't productive in those minutes? If so, that completely ignores the reality of basketball. Robinson played about three minutes in the first half, didn't attempt a fg, and never established himself in the game. The foul trouble goes a long way towards explaining his poor statistical performance.
Obviously it is hard to directly attribute causation in basketball, but when Robinson picked up his second foul, we went from up 5 to down 9 at the half. Our offense bogged down in this time period at least partially because, without Robinson, we couldn't spread defenders out as efficiently.
Also, FWIW, TBS (I believe) flashed a graphic that showewd Brunson with NPOY type numbers when being guarded by Simpson, and terrible numbers when guarded by anyone else. That's not suggesting that Simpson is a bad defender or anything, just that attributing Brunson's performance mostly to Simpson may be offbase.
That's what makes Brunson so "flopping" good. I also can't stand how he does it, but this was the first time I've watched him extensively. Was the "put your head down, bull into the lane, and then snap your head back to try and draw a foul when someone is nearby" move a consistent one throughout the year?
For awhile now, it's nothing new. Why refs fall for it? No idea.
That's Z's game though. It is not a coincidence that every single PG he plays against misses shots they'd usually make in their sleep. Fuck with em, get in their head, take away the easy shots, and let physics take care of the rest.
Unfortunately, Villanova was uniquely prepared to beat Michigan. Other teams don't have a sixth man who can come out and shoot 70% from 2 and 3 point range, get 5 rebounds, and 5 assists. Divincenzo won that game for them.
I just think there are times when stats don't tell the entire story.
Simpson did a fine job on Brunson, but he didn't completely neutralize him. Brunson still put his stamp on this game, even though it wasn't as big as it usually is. I think it's unfair to say he turned him into a potato.
To hell with Villinova.
Brunson and everyone else saw who was hot and they fed him. Props to Brunson for being unselfish and doing what he needed to do to win the game.