Looking at yesterday's box score
https://mgoblog.com/content/michigan-86-lsu-78#read-more
Well, there is an "I" in Tiger but not in advance.
This was a close game but the two teams took totally different approaches. No Michigan player took more than 11 shots, and the team racked up 22 assists (!) on 28 made baskets.
Meanwhile, Smart and Thomas each jacked up 23 shots apiece. LSU managed a meager eight assists for the game.
LSU took 17 more shots than we did, but we made one more. We shot 54% to their 39% and our bench outscored theirs 26-2.
Classic example of one side playing as a team and the other as individuals.
March 23rd, 2021 at 11:49 AM ^
The thing that stuck out to me last night is that UM had 5 guys on the floor, almost all the time, who can contribute offensively. LSU just had a couple extra bodies banging in the post who weren’t really a scoring threat. Not that they’re given much of a chance with the high volume guys.
This has stuck out to me all season and I even mentioned it to one of my buddies early on that the thing I love about this team is every game its a different player or players who take over.
Every Michigan player can dibble and pass and the wings and guards can all drive and shoot the three. Add Hunter to the paint and it’s a brutal offense to defend.
I know this may be a total pipe dream but can you imagine a 1-2 punch next year of Dickinson and Kessler?
March 23rd, 2021 at 10:55 PM ^
I am thinking of poor kids trying to drive to the rack against Hunter and Diabate.....ouch.
March 23rd, 2021 at 11:49 AM ^
I would say both teams executed their game plans.
That's how LSU has played all season and it has worked (mostly). The shot selection was awful (in my opinion) but every shot is a good shot when it goes in. The thing that scared me is that in a single game sample that strategy can work and in a tournament setting can carry you to a NC if you can stay hot. Luckily they cooled off a bit in the 2nd half and M executed.
March 23rd, 2021 at 11:58 AM ^
Luckily they cooled off a bit in the 2nd half and M executed
I think you mean they were worn out!!
If I’m not mistaken, didn’t LSU start out 3/3 from 3 then finished 6/21...
they cooled off long before halftime.
Are you saying they punched us in the face so many times that they got worn out?
So they Nebraska on us and out hit us!
This is the sensible take. A few bounces in the other direction and we’d be lamenting our lack of athleticism and one and done players. This was a great game with two different approaches executed pretty well. Lsu had two turnovers all game. That’s incredible. They also shot poorly overall which allowed our more team oriented, low variability, approach to stay close and eventually pull away. But in a single elimination tournament, the LSU model is pretty frightening to play against.
To me, that's the biggest outlier - LSU's lack of turnovers. Whenever I watched them this year they were incredibly sloppy with the ball.
If they'd had their usual dozen, and we converted on half, it would have been a far more comfortable margin.
LSU played really well. It's especially gratifying to beat a team at their best.
You're goddamn right.
March 23rd, 2021 at 11:51 AM ^
Kind of what youd expect from LSU whose coach just PAYS the best he can get then rolls out the BBs and says shoot
The scary thing is if wade would of been able to buy one or two more better players! I'm sure that will be wades pitch to the boosters! I got this far with two studs! If you give me the money for 3/4 just think how far we could go!
Wade could "buy" another elite player or two but that would not ensure more success. I am confident he would not have the ability to get mitigate the emotional fallout that would exist with coddling two additional prima donnas.
I believe Juwan can pull this off.
I think Juwan is making it clear to kids that there are no "free-rides" at Michigan. No matter how many stars you have, you're going to close-out of 3's and your going to pass the ball, or you will sit.
Calipari coaches LSU?
March 23rd, 2021 at 11:52 AM ^
Re-watching some highlights what really stuck out to me was LSU's amorphous blob defense when the ball would go down to Dickinson. They'd send a double, but then another 1 or 2 guys would also kind of wander away from their guy or completely turn to watch the ball. Then the scramble drill would happen and they'd have 2 guys close out on the first kick out leaving Brooks (usually) alone on the wing. You'd think they would have corrected it or done something later on, but they just kept having multiple guys wander around and then chase the ball. Michigan did really well to make simple movement on the outside create space so when the LSU defenders had to quickly find their guy, they were 10 feet away all of a sudden and had no chance to recover.
March 23rd, 2021 at 12:21 PM ^
^^^This^^^
There were a quite a few possessions where Dickinson was practically quintuple-teamed. I don't know if this was part of LSU's actual gameplan or if some of their players were just lackadaisical with their defensive assignments. Exhibit A of why they had the worst defensive efficiency rating of all the at-large bid teams in the tournament.
I do want to compliment the individual efforts of Watford and Smart on defense though. Watford drew Dickinson as an assignment at points throughout the game and was actually able to deny Dickinson some deep-post positions and a few post-entry passes. Smart also was doing a decent job of playing help-side defense at the post-entry, snagging a steal during one such play.
The post entry denials were 2 parts. 1, Watford did relatively well against a more physically gifted player (height and strength wise) but Michigan's guards also had problems getting the ball in at times. They had to lob balls over Smart/Thomas to give Dickinson a chance, which gave LSU enough time to move and poke the ball out or at least contest the catch. Wagner and Johns' height make those entry passes a lot easier.
There was also one from Wagner in the 1st half where he double clutched a pass because LSU's double team was already coming over to Dickinson. They had, I think, Smart playing underneath Dickson and Wagner saw him so he didn't pass right away. And then for some reason he decided to throw it down there anyways and Smart poked the ball loose because he was a foot away. LSU was committed to not letting Dickinson get anything easy, which was great when Michigan started to rotate the ball around and (eventually) get it to shooters. There were some open looks that guys passed up that were a bit too unselfish (not a bad problem to have), but it usually worked out.
March 23rd, 2021 at 11:52 AM ^
It seems to be that LSU could have improved significantly by just getting Thomas some rest. Why would you leave him out there all game to get run down? Just give him some breaks along the way.
Oh right, that would require coaching.
March 23rd, 2021 at 12:30 PM ^
Whoever they brought in to spell Thomas (or Smart, for that matter) was going to be a HUGE liability until the starter went back in. Any replacements weren't going to stay in front of Smith or Brooks, and would have been offensively useless. Ergo, Michigan was going to find it much easier to score, and simplistic to guard 4 guys who can't score.
Wade did what he could against better competition than LSU normally see's. He let his two guys do their thing and rode it to the end. That's good enough against most college teams that may have 2, maybe 3 guys that they can counter with. Michigan has 7-8 guys they can counter with...
Except I would argue that Thomas might have gone for 40 had he gotten some rest. Same for Smart. They were both totally gassed down the stretch and it showed.
I'm not talking about a 10 minute break. Just get them out of the game for a minute or two each half to give them a second wind.
Yeah, sub them out a little before a tv timeout is coming up.
Yeah, the fact that Wade wouldn't even let Smart sit a moment after getting his dong punched was very telling. It looked like Smart was moving toward the bench but Wade motioned him to stay on the court.
Why leave him out there? As others have pointed out, it was LSU's only chance to win. Michigan probably wins by 15+ if Thomas was even rested for 5min.
I dunno. How many shots did Thomas miss because his legs were shot? He didn't make a single shot down the stretch.
The defense may have had something to do with that. Maybe, I don't know.
I can kinda understand what Wade was thinking, that he really didn't have a reliable bench. But it seems like you tell Smart to run iso for five minutes when Thomas rests, and tell Thomas to run iso for five minutes when Smart rests.
OTOH I guess Smart and Thomas can take plays off when the other is doing his thing.
March 23rd, 2021 at 11:53 AM ^
Looks like one stat kept LSU in the game: turnovers. They had 3, we had 12. A big reason why they had so many more shots than us.
I can't believe LSU finished only 29% from 3. They were on fire to start the game.
March 23rd, 2021 at 12:06 PM ^
My thoughts exactly. If the turnovers were limited, we would've won by 15-20 and it wouldn't have been so dramatic at the end. They need to fix that before moving on to better competition.
March 23rd, 2021 at 12:11 PM ^
12 turnovers isn't all that bad of a total - except that we had several live-ball turnovers that led to transition points for them. Losing it out of bounds is one thing, but having your pass picked off for an uncontested layup the other way is another.
Three turnovers for a game is fantastic. (I suppose it's easier when your team rarely passes the ball.)
March 23rd, 2021 at 12:51 PM ^
In my book, a turnover is a turnover. Which leads to additional opportunities for the opposing team to score. Live ball or dead ball out of bounds, if we give up points either way, it's not good
A steal that leads to a fast break dunk is 2.0 ppp. A pass out of bounds where you can set up your defense leads to an opposition play around 1 ppp. Not all turnovers are the same.
~1.99 ppp, but yeah. Pretty much the most hilarious/infuriating (depending on if it's your team or theirs) play in basketball is when a player biffs a wide open breakaway dunk/layup...
2 points is 2 points...whether it's from a fast break turnover or a set play coming from out of bounds. It's still scored as two points.....
March 23rd, 2021 at 12:16 PM ^
FSU is a horrible matchup with that in mind. They pressure all game long and turned Colorado over 19 times. Michigan needs Mike Smith's best game to survive.
March 23rd, 2021 at 12:43 PM ^
At the same time, FSU has some meh losses. They're not some 20-1 team.
March 23rd, 2021 at 12:46 PM ^
FSU might be a pressure team, but LSU was for signif parts of the game but had to give it up b/c we were so good at breaking it and getting easy baskets.
We have all week to work on this..I like our chances
Smith seems like a mentally tough guy. Hopefully he will be eager to redeem himself from what was probably his worst game of the season.
March 23rd, 2021 at 12:38 PM ^
Hitting 3s gets alot harder when your legs are so tired you can barely run. That's why LSU looked so good at the start of both halves and then got worse.
A common complaint I have in football (among many other things, sadly) is that opponents always wait to play everyone else to turn the ball over. But when they play Michigan, they always hold on to the damn ball.
Does LSU normally have very few turnovers or does facing opponents with the Block M give them magical powers to rarely turn it over?
March 23rd, 2021 at 11:53 AM ^
I think LSU did what they could do to have a chance. Michigan is obviously the deeper team but LSU's length was a tough matchup. Its a tougher matchup when you consider our best defensive matchup for what they do well is probably Livers.
March 23rd, 2021 at 12:26 PM ^
Good point. At least in this game, it was Livers's defense especially that would have really helped out.
March 23rd, 2021 at 11:54 AM ^
This felt nearly identical to the first OSU game. Neither LSU nor OSU seemed to run any sets to open up their players or create easy looks. Both relied on heroic efforts from their best players in isolation, which predictably fell short over the course of a 40 minute game.
March 23rd, 2021 at 11:56 AM ^
Exactly right comparison to first OSU game for most of this game. I was thinking the same thing.
March 23rd, 2021 at 12:15 PM ^
LSU was a selfish team, both offensively and defensively. Michigan is the exact opposite. And I much prefer the unselfish version.
March 23rd, 2021 at 12:23 PM ^
I bet LSUs coach Waynes World learned a valuable lesson...He needs to shell out more than a G Leaguer makes
March 23rd, 2021 at 12:29 PM ^
Franz’ shot selection is an asset to the team not a detriment. I’m continually amazed at how a 19 year old plays the game like a much older veteran. It’s ridiculously hard to find him out of position on the defensive end. And he seems to take more joy from a hard fought rebound or assist than anything else. I hope he stays but I’m a fan for life either way.