I'm sitting here in the Barclays Center after a pretty solid game and another Michigan victory. I thought I'd share my thoughts since this is the first game I've seen live this year.
- Early in the first half it was clear we came to play - the level of focus and execution made the second half a little sickening at times because you saw what "they COULD do."
- Burke and Hardaway play big in big games...both guys truly came to play and it was clear from the jump. I've NEVER seen Burke as animated as he was after WVU called the first timeout to stop the bleeding. A little Novak came out!
- Stauskas is waaay to emotional - hopefully as he matures he can control this. It was clear he wanted to show out on the big stage (hence all the dunk attempts). However, after he got that tech, he was a completely different person...he was trying to force everything and it looked like he was playing with a Me vs. The World mentality. Completely took him out of his game.
- I also thought Stauskas should've been pulled midway through the 2nd half - he wasn't making shots, he was turning the ball over and his attitude was SHIT. I don't know if it showed on TV, but you could tell he was just whining and crying about everything. Granted he has a VERY good case at least two times, but after awhile it was past letting the freshman play through "freshman moments" and it was clear he needed to just sit and regroup. If WVU would've climbed all the way back --- I would've put it on Coach B not pulling Stauskas.
- With that said, I thought we needed to go with Burke AND Albrecht with Hardaway and a couple bigs. We needed a 2nd ball handler vs. the press --- it was clear they were taking away Burke and trapping everyone else.
- With THAT said --- I've been saying this for 2 years now..."why do team wait so long to press us?" It's clear we don't handle pressure very well. I know everyone doesn't have the personnel to do this, but top level teams should press us all game. And zone press, if you man press we'll give it to Burke and he'll work the ball up, but if you zone press we turn the ball over more.
- I thought Burke played his best game since that OSU game at home last year.
- Hardaway played within himself - even with all the 3's, they were mainly good shots.
- I touched on Stauskas, but also, his defense - it's atrocious. He's AMAZING on the offensive end, but he's almost just as bad at defense. I've been saying this all year, but his man just hasn't been making shots. Tonight he was. They were running his man through screens and he doesn't know how to read a screen on defense yet. He also helps too much and leaves his man too often. Moving forward, he's clearly one of the best 5, but late in halfs and in games we should sub him out on defense.
- Morgan is Morgan, glad he got his Morgan charge call late in the game.
- Speaking of which, the officials were pretty bad tonight. WVU was allowed to get up in our grill and play old fashioned Big East basketball, yet we got called for every ticky tack foul. I didn't mind most of the no calls on WVU, but don't call them on us! At least 5 fouls were called on Michigan that were complete crap and at least 5 times we got fouled and a whistle never blew.
- My heart sank for Horford, I couldn't tell if he was just pissed that he hurt himself again or if it was a Fitz pissed cause he knew it was season ending.
- Levert looked nervous out there (I would be too).
- Again, thought Spike should've played WITH Burke. Also should've given him a blow before the 4 minute media late in the game. Burke was GASSED. He wanted nothing to do with the ball before that timeout.
- McGary has to sloooooow down on offense. Defensively, I'm okay with 100mph because he gets so many rebounds because of it.
- Huggins whines more than my 6 month old nephew. It's beyond annoying that he literally cries about EVERYTHING. Shut up. YES - it was a foul. ON YOU. ARGH!!
- Moment of the night: Drunk WVU fan sitting courtside kicks over his beer (or the guy next to him) and the whole arena boos him INCLUDING WVU fans.
Awesome experience! Great night! AMAZING ARENA! GO BLUE!!!!
This can go in the "Rejoice" thread...my "WAAY TOO LONG" post took too long and there's already somewhat of a postgame thread.
I've been typing on this damn iPad since before the game ended. Oh well.
“True loyalty is that quality of service that grows under adversity and expands in defeat. Any street urchin can shout applause in victory, but it takes character to stand fast in defeat. One is noise — the other, loyalty.”