MBB Wish List for Next Year
Thought I would start a chain about what our wish list would be for the basketball team next year. This year was a bigger roller coaster than I can remember for a long time. I know everyone is concerned about recruiting and overall upside, but here is a start:
- Wagner needs to put on 20 pounds of muscle and start to cut out some of those bonehead freshman mistakes that limited his minutes.
- Start to build the offense more around Rahk. If anyone is going to play hero ball, it needs to be him, not Irvin. I want Irvin to be the role player and spark he's best suited for, not the over-dribbling shot-chucker he is sometimes tempted to be.
- I'd like Xavier Simpson to come in right away and be good enough to deserve 20 minutes per game. Walton can't play 36mpg next year and he needs to be able to play off the ball and return to that corner shooter role that he was so good at earlier in his career.
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I want to see the front-court start to sort itself out. We will have a whopping SEVEN players that are exclusively front court players. That's too many for a team that plays about 1.5 of them at any time. Chances are that Teske and/or Davis will redshirt. It is getting hard to justify two roster spots for PF like Wilson/Chatman that can't get off the bench. I guess what I'm saying is that if any of these 7 players express an interest in transferring.....maybe you don't discourage them unless it is Wagner.
- Then you figure out if Wilson or Chatman can improve enough to justify playing 10-15mpg against big teams.
- I think you also spend some time trying to figure out if Donnal/Wagner have any chance of playing the PF spot against big teams. I doubt it, but worth considering.
- Robinson has a chance to be a real star if he broadens his game more. He shot 45% despite slumping late in the year. How does he generate more offense? How do they get him open?
Walton & Irvin are great role players, but not alpha dogs. They hit their ceiling and actually regressed badly in the case of Irvin's shooting. Someone needs to step up as the leader and personality of this team. I see three candidates - Rahk, Robinson, or Wagner.
Donnal's now had three full years in the program. He is what he is at this point. Probably a decent enough big to bring off the bench for 8-10 minutes, but not nearly good enough on either end to justify a starter's role.
Kaminsky was pretty damn good his junior year. And even freshman Hammons was more productive than Donnal.
Kaminsky didn't do too much his first two years, but he was excellent as a junior (13.9 ppg), showing a lot of flashes of what he'd become the next year.
Morgan was a four-year starter. I don't think he actually got that much better so much as we just finally appreciated him when he was a senior.
/rantwalltext
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The dude missed a layup in crunch time. He's not good.
If you look back, Morgan is the only Beilein recruit to do so in a Michigan uniform. Lots of things can come up along the way to prevent it from happening, as we've seen with Cronin, Horford, Bielfeldt and possibly now Albrecht. Donnal was reclassified after redshirting (although he could be reclassified again). I'm not sure I'd bet on Wilson playing out a 5th year, either.
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for a total of 14 for 13 scholarship spots. (Correct me if I'm wrong.)
http://www.scholarshipstats.com/ncaalimits.html
By Potential Eligibility
Rising Seniors
Walton
Irvin
Rising Juniors
Donnal
MAAR
Robinson
Doyle
Chatman
Dawkins
Rising Sophomores
Wilson (injury redshirt)
Wagner
Incoming Freshmen
Simpson
Teske
Davis
Watson
If Beilein knows someone is leaving, I have a hunch that it is Dawkins. How did he not get that rebound last night? That would be the play of someone who isn't into it because he knows he's outta here. He certainly seems to have the athleticism.
I'm blown away sometimes by the lack of basketball instincts from a kid whose dad is Johnny Dawkins.
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And this doesn't include Spike if he decides to come back (I don't think you can turn away a fifth year for Spike -- Beilein should have learned his lesson with Bielfeldt).
I think there are very frank discussions to be had with Doyle, Chatman, and Wilson about the reality that there won't be much playing time for them. If they want to look elsewhere they should.
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No, his leadership doesn't override anything.
It's already been decided he's not coming back.
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which was something like 28% of the minimum games Michigan was scheduled to play. Had he played a 10th, he would have been at 30.(something) % of the minimum.
So he is eligible for the injury redshirt. And it was due to his hips.
Doyle needs to sleep more now that he knows he has sleep apnea
Health - no guys lost for months and no starters hobbling; consistent, reliable rotation.
Competitiveness - guys grinding on defense, fighting for rebounds and playing with intensity all 40 minutes.
Defensive Big - Teske or Davis bringing some size and stoutness to the middle (not 3rd worst in the D1 paint defense like this year) even for 10-15 min per game.
Sizable 4/5 - Mo adding some bulk and cutting down the fouls.
Penetration by X - need Simpson to create off the dribble and bring the O to life so short droughts don't turn into 6-9 min droughts.
Inbounds Plays - actually prove competence with these sets and execution.
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This 100 times over. Good coach, good recruits, good team. The final four appearance and B1G title won't happen again until some elite recruits roll in.
One other thing to add to the wish list: some changes to the coaching staff. Beilein needs to look in the mirror and realize his shortcomings coaching the defensive end. I'd like him to go out and find a defensive guru to replace Bacari. There's got to be an assistant on one of the perennial defensive powerhouses like Virginia or Villanova or Uconn who we can offer a substantial raise.
I wouldn't mind letting Sanderson go either. At a certain point you need to be judged by results. And although there have been some physical improvements through the years from guys like Jordan Morgan and Stauskas, we've also seen debilitating injuries each of the last three seasons. McGary, Horford, Levert (2X), Spike, Walton. Not to mention the back injury Irvin suffered that Beilein continues to blame for his poor performance. It's a trend.
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1. Zak Irvin to stop turning the ball over stop chucking up 3s and stop trying to play Hero-Ball and be more CONSISTENT
2. Derick Walton stop turning the ball over and driving into guys twice your size only to get blocked or turn the ball over and be more CONSISTENT
3.More MO WAGNER
4. Mark Donal to MAKE EASY LAYUPS AND DUNKS
5. Aubrey Dawkins to STOP TRYING TO DUNK and lay the ball in, Play Defense
5. Play DEFENSE DEFENSE DEFENSE DEFENSE DEFENSE DEFENSE
6. Duncan Robinson work harder to get open
7.Play with the Intensity you had during the first half of the ND game for BOTH HALFS of every siingle game from day one on
Thats enough for now...thankyou
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but i think there is hope for robinson to improve his handle and ability to take it to the rim. he definitely attacked more as the season progressed albeit with mixed results.
i also think one of the bigs has to go. i would pick the guy who has played the fewest minutes.
hopefully teske can be a role player shot blocker on D next year and simpson provides some added point guard depth. no more dakich. his couple minutes last nite were even painful. redshirt davis.
if healthy, this team will go 12-6 in the BIG at a minimum.
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March 19th, 2016 at 10:34 PM ^
He did show some willingness to drive to the basket - hope he can develop that part of his game. I don't recall Stauskas being great at driving to the hoop his freshman year and he went out, got stronger and became much better his sophomore year. To a certain extent, Irvin made progress in that area as well. So there is some precedent for seeing this type of progress.
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that goes a long way in explaining some of Irvin's shortcomings.
1. Wagner and Robinson to gain strength and sharpen their defensive skills now that they have 1 year of Big Ten play under their belts.
2. Doyle and WIlson to transfer (maybe Dawkins too), pick up a tough and rugged grad transfer. Let's get some toughness back on the squad!
3. Health for our best players.
4. Increased leadership by MAAR and Irvin.
5. Beilein to leave Dakich on the bench and let Donnal shoot the outside shot and not auto-bench always.
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for what he is.
His hands seemed to have improved a lot--he was able to catch and score some--and he's a big body.
I think he can contribute valuable minutes. Not a star, but a valuable space-eater.