SHOOT BETTER SHOTS DAMN IT
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Michigan vs. Northwestern Basketball Open Thread
STOP TAKING LONG 3, GUYS. STOP ACTING LIKE THIS IS YOUR FRESHMAN YEAR, DOUGLASS!!!
It's almost hard to believe that Michigan is haning around in this game. They are jacking up threes from way behind the line, McLimans played a lot, Hardaway is playing poorly (not a big surprise), Novak is playing poorly (surprisingly), and they got crushed on the boards in the first half.
Please, just stop.
Man UM has gotta to reclamp on the Wildcats. Work the ball inside to Morgan or THJ needs to drive to the hole.
Can we attempt a 2 point shot? Please?
Morgan get's a bunny!!!
Thanks Morgan. We needed that one.
Yes. And Shurna is a seagull.
Argh!!!!!!
Terrible fast break there... that's what happens when Morgan is the one dribbling and dishing I guess
Could have shut the crowd up with that fast break
It was impressive that we didn't get that rebound
This is painful to watch.
Work for a shot! Come on guys. Stop chucking the threes.
Can I just say that the atmosphere there feels incredibly tense
just pissing this one away with all the bad decisions
Morgan got hit in the back of the head there... where is that call?
And Morgan can't get a call.
Morgan has poor body control down low. So painful.
We totally blew this game
We have the ball, there's 2:36 to go, and we're only down 4. Fuck tard.
FUCK
Game over
My conclusions from this game: Blake McLimans is not so good at basketball. 12 minutes of him just killed us. That, and fouls and opponent FTs and lack of made FTs.
Why are we always the ones that get crushed?
This is stupid
I just don't see us winning. Hope I'm wrong.
It's unbelievable the difference between Michigan at home and on the road.
It's not over, but we're far from deserving to be in this game.
Game over.
God, he sucked as GM.
TREY FOR TREY!!!!
So clutch
please get a damn stop
Of all crowds to chant "Hey! You suck!", Northwestern should probably not...
Fuck me, shurna
Damnit.
Feeling the momentum swing to NW. Gotta get it back quick.
Nice to see Hardaway's jumper finally found its way to the arena.
SPLASH!!!! Hardaway.
Big hit for Timmy
Holy shit Timmy!!!!
god theses announcers are idiots
Tie game. All you idiots that said the game was over with 2:36 with us down 4 need to seriously learn what basketball is.
Why were people giving up with 2 minutes left again?
Hey....TIM.....Good to see ya!
Time for the D to step up again. C'mon Blue!
This game is going to give me a heart attack
1::25 left.
32 attempted threes is a lot me thinks.
Really gotta pee, but I am NOT shifting positions
32 three point attempts!? Holy crap.
Huge game. Great prep for March Madness. Love it!
I can't even see what's going on right now, but I think I like it.
I really want to win this game
I think we need a new commit to get us energized, to finish out the game strong. Lookin' at you, Treadwell.
First to 50 FTW?
I hit it to win it. Hehe.
Keep the ball out of Douglass' hands.
So I don't have to see that ugly shirtless Northwestern girl again!
What a play by Burke.
What an amazing rebound and timeout from Burke!
I am shaking right now... last shot please
Burke get's a Timeout!!!!!
Wow Burke on the tightrope!!
Burke drive and dish. Put Vogrich in the corner
NO MORE THREES
Trey Burke, you are the man.
nice trey
Burke was fouled on that rebound, but who cares we can win it, let's get it!!!
???
JUST WIN BABY!
Can he play slot WR? He only needs one foot in there.
Go with Burke all the way, no questions
We're going to do it.
Burke shooting.
Just kill the clock out. I do NOT want to lose on a Death to Backboards shot again
I just want to see it go to Morgan and watch him THROW IT THE FUCK DOWN for the win.
Haradaway moving towards the basket please.
Their offenive boards are just killing us, Defense looks solid otherwise, great rotation. To many second chance points.
FACK
Well at least NW won't get a shot
Draw it up for Trey, he's clutch!
I lose power!!!!! FML!!!!!!
please please please please please please please please please please please please please please please please please
When you need one?
These fans look like doofuses (doofi?)
That means we bank in a 3 at the buzzer now.
I was thinking the same exact thing
But Trey knows what to do...
Nice Charles Barkley poster NW fan. Well played.
Or OT
why we takin so long here?
wheres the foul?
Overtime.
Shit, OT here we come
Well darn...
Pass to Novak???
I'm fine with OT. Remember, we were down 4 just two minutes ago.
wow absolute shit playcalling
Had THJ on the curl and Morgan flashing open at the post. Stu just didn't make either pass. Did avoid the worst case scenario.
5 minutes of hell, let's go boys!
Stu missed THJ on the curl
Following this game online is complete torture.
wow.. Trey being greedy there.. pass the ball to open player.. overtime might not be good for us
But his last second and inbounds plays after timeouts suck.
Still 49-49, going to OT.
Pretty good strategy to double Burke off the screen. Would have been nice if he found Novak. Let's get it done in OT.
Thought we should've used Trey as a decoy there, you know he's going to get double teamed.
Another OT with these guys. Get it done Maize...
Wow. End of the first half and the end of regulation were awful shots.
trey's gotta pass that up. Novak standing there wide open
Thats the best play we could draw up? SMH
I do not like starting off OT with a 3 point attempt.
Did anyone else see Morgan get pulled down there?
hate ot.
Forever?
FTW.
Either calling plays in the final minute is Beilein's one glaring weakness or executing plays in the final minute is one of a few glaring weaknesses for the team. There is no reason to be shooting a three with 4 seconds left. Same thing happened earlier this year.
Shit, I hate overtime.
GRIT! And Burke for three!!!
WOOOO!!!! WHAT A PLAY BY NOVAK!!!
My mind just exploded.
Trey for Trey! Great play by Novak
This blows! No power in whitmore lake at the end of the game. Help me ride this one out on my phone. Thx in advance
Apparently nothing short of forced butt sex is going to get called on NW in overtime.
thata boy novak. foul to NW
Too many 3s. We have to figure out how to get inside of the 1-3-1 and not take these 3s.
Where officials aren't sure if a headlock is legal.
Curlettie nailed Morgan, that should be a foul.
second straight time our guy got taken down hard, please refs call a foul
Double foul???? What?!?
FUUUUUUUUUUUUU
what the hell did Morgan do.. these refs suck ass
WTF, double foul?!?!?
Double foul? Do you get fouls for your head getting elbowed now?
Double foul? WTF!
Morgan got elbowed in teh back of the head
Apparently getting stuck in a headlock on the road in the B1G is a fou.
Bullshit! He elbowed Morgan in the back of the neck.
They call a double foul on a headlock?
How the hell do you go back that far to review? I've never seen that.
OOOOOOOOHHHHHHH STUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUU!!!!!!
novak throws balls in your face!
Have we made a shot inside the arc this OT? We don't need inside the arc!
For getting horse collared. Righttttttt.
THREE!!!!!
Holy crap. What is this, Crisler west? Love the maize presence here.
Zack NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOVAK!
THREE!!!!!.......STU!!!!!!!!!!!!!
NOOOVAKKK!
EXPLOSION!!!!!!!!
STUUU!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
OT takeover!
WOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!
GRIT!!!!
THANK YOU GOODNIGHT
WOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!
EXPLOSION!!!!!!!!
AMERICA!!!!!!!!!
Holy shit yes! We still haven't made a shot inside the arc for OT but I just want a win!
Holy crap, the BTN announcers are actually at the game!
SENIORS FOR THE WIN!
Novak shows up when it counts. Finally hits a 3! That was huge.
AMERICA!!!!!!!!!
I have seen in a long long time!
AMERICA!!!!!!!!!
Still very much in the hunt. We should have won this game comfortably but a W is a W.
I love THJ, but if he hits his FTs we win in regulation.
I almost want Burke to have a couple clunkers going into the tournament so the NBA scouts can stop drooling. As long as we stil get the wins, of course...
That was satisfying. Three straight threes broke the internet
Go blue! On to Purdue!
mgoblog crashing when we actually win apparently. But we pulled through when it counted. Also, Northwestern fouling for 2 minutes when we were up 12. I hate basketball sometimes.
I doubt you'll see this, but if you look at the times, it crashed right as Novak started us off in OT. I'm guessing 3 straight 3's in OT is what crashed the servers
Finally the site doesn't Time-Out on me. Wonder what would have happened if they didn't push Morgan out so early, probably a handy win
We win yet another close game. Could our success in tight games be related to Beilein's policy of sitting players with two personals in the first half? Fans hate it, but it's been very successful at helping our players avoid fouling out. It's easier to win close games when you have your best players on the floor at the end of the game.
This. As long as you maintain contact, it's not a problem. And how many rebounds did Morgan help keep alive in the second half.
This. As long as you maintain contact, it's not a problem. And how many rebounds did Morgan help keep alive in the second half.
We win yet another close game. Could our success in tight games be related to Beilein's policy of sitting players with two personals in the first half? Fans hate it, but it's been very successful at helping our players avoid fouling out. It's easier to win close games when you have your best players on the floor at the end of the game.
I don't mind sitting Smot, and Morgan with 2 fouls, but my god McLimans was not giving a damn thing offensively and he was being victimized on defense, Colton should have entered the game earlier than he did. He can at least hold his own on the glass and in the paint. McLimans was a giant black hole on both ends of the court tonight.
All those threes finally paid off in OT.
WOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!!!
that was a big win.
that was a big win.
Kansas State beat Mizzou and Miss St is beating Kentucky right now on ESPN.
Gotta love jacking the threes to our own demise until that started falling in OT. What a fun team to watch. Beat Perdue.
Talk about the 3's, talk about the fact that it's Northwestern. That was a hostile environment against a team that was fighting for its NCAA Tourney life. That was Michigan in past years.
The resolve and composure shown late was BEYOND impressive.
We're peaking at the right time. Michigan is going to be a PROBLEM, we just have to maintain and even raise this effort, composure, and level of play. Now that Hardaway, Vogrich and Smotz seem to be coming around...and Coach B has finally seen the light that we NEED Jordan Morgan ON the floor (and if Smotz needs to play, then we need to take out someone else other than Burke to get him in)...I truly like our chances.
I refreshed my beverage, turned around and M is up 9, then MGo is down.
Ohio looked good today, I think losing to us the way they did is what THEY needed. I've spoken to a lot of people and everyone seems to be handing MSU the 'w' on the last game of the year. I think Ohio is the better team personally. Just hit a slump and seemed disinterested a little. I think that game in Ann Arbor was their wake up call and I truly could see them running the table until they (hopefully) play us again in the B1G Tournament. I don't think they lose again in the regular season.
At this point, I'm hoping State trips up before they play Ohio as unlikely as that seems.
Tough to win at Assembly Hall.
We win yet another close game. Could our success in tight games be related to Beilein's policy of sitting players with two personals in the first half? Fans hate it, but it's been very successful at helping our players avoid fouling out. It's easier to win close games when you have your best players on the floor at the end of the game.
No. Fans hate it for good reason. It makes no sense. Those guys would almost certianly be on the floor even if he had not sat them.
They can't be on the floor if they foul out. That's the thing. In all of our close wins, Morgan's been available at the end of the game. Imagine having to play McLimans at the end of the second half instead of the first.
Yeah Morgan has been available, with about 3 fouls. He rarely comes close to fouling out.
I'm not sure saying "they would most certainly be in the game at the end" is fact. Coaches have been doing this a long time, for a reason. If the refs have it out (I'm not saying this in the literal sense they have it out for players) for Morgan or Smotz in the beginning why wouldn't they through the middle and end of the game? So benching them for periods of the game to ENSURE they're in the game at the end is playing the odds and not taking the CHANCE they're not.
I do agree with the premise, for fans, that it is annoying. There are times I disagree about taking a player out for "foul" security, but at the end of the day coaches are making these calls to give the best chance for them to play when needed. It's also not a guarantee a team runs away from the other team if they were to have been in during those stretches of the game they were on the bench; it may seem like it could be but it also is not a fact that they would.
In the end, agree to disagree!
No I agree generally, but I do think at times Belein has pushed it too far. How many games has Morgan been out for 5-8 minutes in the first half only to see him finish with 2 or 3 fouls?
i have no problem sitting a guy for a great spell in the first half when he commits 2 fouls; ie. smot and morgan tonite. however, when you sit there and let mclimans get abused on both ends of the court for 10 minutes, then put christian in for a couple minutes to end the half, that is just plain dumb.
we basically had a 19-13 lead when morgan and smot committed their 2nd fouls and sat for the half. in comes mclimans. it then was 27-23, iirc, when beilein finally got mclimans the hell outta there for christian - not much of an upgrade. then 31-24 at half.
then, low and behold, morgan and smot do not come into any kind of foul trouble in the 2H. this policy of sitting guys with 2 fouls for the entire first half could easily cost us a tourny game. if i ever see mclimans in for 10 min in one half again, may god have mercy on my soul.
i honestly don't understand the deal with mclimans. he actually had some good spurts earlier in the year. now he can't grab a rebound to save his life. tonite, he literally let a nw guy behind him grab a rebound of his head. he also let a free throw miss hit the ground in front of him and proceded to watch a nw guy grab it. unbelievable. GRAB THE DAMN BALL!!!
He's not only been available, he's been free to play aggressively. The benefit comes with having Morgan in the game without him being concerned with picking up #3 or #4 too early.
Wheweeee!! Man, we needed this one big time. I would also like to add that Beilein completely outcoached Grimace in OT. Good Ro-Ad win!
And you win my new favorite poster because of your avatar alone. Nicely done.
Let's go Minnesota
Bad stats of the night: Burke 4-12 from 3; Hardaway 2-9. They should not be taking that many 3s. I don't remember Burke slashing more than once, and that's with Northwestern not having a huge inside presence. Hardaway did a better job slashing in the first half but he needs to get to the basket more. He can finish there.
This is true Deadman.
Hard for your PG to "slash" against a 1-3-1, to be honest, and maybe im crazy, but I don't think shooting 38 3's was a bad thing, almost all of them were WIDE open. Our offense was under control most of the night, missed plenty of open shots.
That is true, but Burke wasn't even trying to attack the 1-3-1. We were too content to take 3s, and we also took a ton of 3s that were 2+ feet behind the arc. I had too many NOOOOOOOOOOKAY YES moments tonight.
I would also prefer other players than Burke and Hardaway taking that amount of 3s. 4-12 and 2-9 speaks for itself. I would rather Novak and Vogrich have that many attempts right now. Burke is only an okay 3 point shooter, and Hardaway is a bad 3 point shooter right now.
It's really hard for your point to attack the 1-3-1, because it sets up a natural trap point on either side of the key. If the point tries to penetrate, he runs himself right into a trap, and even if he splits the trap, the guy at the center of the 3 man line is there to pick him up. The classic way to beat it is to send a guy to the high post who can then turn and attack the central spine, with one players cutting in from the weak side wing and another spotting up in the corner. The other way is what you saw today, swinging the ball side to side, forcing the guy at the bottom of the zone to cover lots of ground, and eventually opening up the corner 3s,
I though the only really bad 3s we took tonight were some of Douglas's long-range bombs from the wing. They were open, but they were very deep and that shot is available any time against that D.
That the site can't handle a basketball game vs. NORTHWESTERN without 503ing. But it's really a credit to our basketball team.
What would the "offshores" have made the lines at that Michigan would have been out-rebounded by Northwestern. They even had 2 more Off. rebounds that Michigans 9. Not what I expected. Some of this due to Morgan's benching but I still say that shouldn't have happened. (Hern with 11 boards)
Good tough win. I loved the effort.
I expected a ltiile post-Ohio State win letdown from Michigan, but I never saw it. There was no evidence they were coming off of such a big win. They fought every minute, especially on D.
I was at the game tonight
1. Burke is the real deal
2. Hardaway jr needs to get his confidence back in regards to jumpers and the free throw line.
3. Morgan and Smots pick up early fouls, were in trouble.
4. if Novak is guarding in the low block, its trouble.
5. Have to prepare for teams to trap us more as NW did tonight.
6. Matt Vogrich deserves more time
7. 1st 10 minutes of tonights game , i saw some horrible refereeing.
8. Welsh-Ryan Arena is basically a big high school gym !
9.. Dixie Kitchen in Evanston has daaaaaaaam good food
`10. the win was nice, an early b day gift
kudos to those two. they did an absolute awesome job at passing the ball at the top of NW's 1-3-1 zone. i don't think they had one bad pass or turnover up top. douglass had one overthrowing morgan in the post, but that was about it. a thing of beauty for basketball purists.
They had to stay the course. Both of Morgan's first half fouls were manufactured by officiating (the camera angle obscured view of the first foul, but Morgan's chest absolutely brutalized the forearm that was pushing off of him (away from the ball) on the second one). Then Smotrycz picked up his second. In the absence of Horford, Michigan is absolutely toast when Morgan and Smotz are on the bench. I almost wish they'd converted Hardaway to a post player in the offseason. His body type isn't that different from Deshawn Sims. But as it is, Michigan just had to get through the first half within striking range.
When the second half started, you could tell from the whistle they were not going to lose this game. From Burke to Morgan to Hardaway, you could see that look of quiet determination. I dont see this team losing in the regular season. We just need MSU to slip up once, and I think we're going to hang a banner in Crisler Arena.
NW needs to find a better camera well placement for their televised games. That giant support beam that cuts through the top portion of the screen and often obscures the ball for a brief second on topside wing and corner threes is really annoying. Maybe I'm nitpicking but I think that is a hit to the overall presentation of a broadcast when the basketball disappears during a shot and the viewer has to pick it up again before it reaches the rim.