M Hoops - First Take

Try not to get ahead of yourself here, but I agree they can grow into an elite team if they keep up the intensity they showed last night. When the best players on the team are diving for loose balls (TWSS) and taking charges when the team is up 30 in the second half that is quite a thing.

The guys also seem to play together very smoothly. I assume that is from playing together on the AAU squad  for some of them. This team is young though and with youth comes incredible potential and incredible risk for... well... you already know.  

I don't post often but follow this blog daily!  What I saw last night looked like a team that has been playing together for years.  It's going to be a fun ride for sure!

Go Blue!

Michigan moved up from #13 to #4 in KenPom rating. 

http://kenpom.com/

Prediction: UMHoops.com is going to have to invest in MOAR SERVERS

I didn't think Michigan played well. At all. Played pretty good defense for the most part, but we had a TON of mistakes. And yes, Cleveland State, but we absolutely dominated. Despite wasting a ton of possessions. As this team improves and starts clicking, we're going to be awful scary. Hopefully we put it all together in March.

I read on espn that the last time we won three games in a row by 30 points or more was 1988. Impressive to say the least.....oh yea I believe we won something that year as well.

I know it's early in the year and they are able to emply the bench but it looks like at least a 9 player rotation when the games get tighter.

Love this team already.

On the theme of "it's only Cleveland State"* from the OP: In football, killing a creampuff often tells you little about the team, especially if you have a dynamic offense and a passable defense.  Some good teams have trouble with creampuffs, but you get plenty of BCS teams that kill creampuffs but then struggle with middle-of-the-road conference teams.  I attribute at least some of that for scheme and matchups being more important than talent alone, and that good teams often do not scheme heavily for filler teams.

Maybe there is not a simple answer, but can you learn more from beating creampuffs in basketball?  I get the sense that upsets happen more often in basketball, but does that lead to learning more about the good teams?  Is it that you can learn a bunch by watching a good team against a bad team, looking at things that may not show up in a box score?

Thanks in advance.

* Note: I have no idea whether Cleveland State is actually creampuff or not this year.

My only complaint right now is that we have a poor conversion rate on alley-oops. Yup, this team looks good.

I thought this thread was going to preview M hoops being discussed on ESPN First Take... Damn..

CSU had to run a box and one to slow down Nik Stauskas! How many of us even know how to spell that?

Biefeldt looks as big, strong and athletic as McGary does! ..In the little bit of time he saw. I dont think Beilein can afford to redshirt him despite the ridiculous frontcourt depth. I mean it is in fact ridiculous esp considering recent years. Stauskas can actually dribble a little bit too. I do not see a weakness on this team. Beilein said he couldn't see his team being up on Navy by 30 in the second half before SVSU game and has won all 3 subsequent games by 30. He has to be amazed himself at what he has brought to Michigan. This is exciting.

Does anybody know where i can buy tickets for the NIT games in MSG? thanks.

This team is gonna be a lot of fun to watch. I haven't been this excited about U of M hoops since the start of the Fab Five's sophomore year. 

I liked this line:

"suffering along with Courtney Sims and Lester Abram in an empathatic fashion as opposed to at their expense in those years"

Ace's "haha, didn't Gavin Groninger and Avery Queen and all those guys suck" post yesterday kind of rubbed me the wrong way.  It's not like we sucked because of them. 

Could potentially be against three consecutive KenPom top 20 teams.

Pitt - #12
K-State - #16
NC State - #21

A 6-0 Michigan team having won Pre-season NIT and their ACC-B1G challenge matchup would mean it's time to start making your reservations for Atlanta. Long way to go to get there but hopefully Horford and McGary can make big strides the next couple weeks in their rehab/conditioning and Burke/Hardaway stay focused and locked in.

My main concern with the team is overall athleticism. McGary and Stauskas are pretty athletic, as is Biefeldt, along with most of the guys in our starting five. But, elite programs will have great athletes who play good defense, rebound well, and transition well so I'm curious to see how we match up there.

We've been able to give Burke some time on the bench, but another one of my concerns is our depth at the point guard position. Looks like Hardaway Jr. may be bringing the ball up a considerable amount, but I want to see how our backups dictate the pace of the game and set up the offense. 

These upcoming games will be good tests for this team.  I may be impatient and may want to watch this team play again sooner as opposed to later, but having a week to practice and get in conditioning will be a great benefit for the players.

I was struck by how athletic the elite teams were and how far behind we were. I think that we have closed the gap in a hurry.

My concern is defense, as most championship teams are very good defensively. We are okay, but need to improve.