Michigan vs. Wisconsin B-Ball Snowflakes and Post Game Open Thread
Wisconsin I and Indiana II were disappointing ENDINGS. This was flat out a disappointing EFFORT.
(Slight Mod Edit - condensing snowflakes to one thread. This thread had more replies and discussion, but M-Wolverine won the "thread title" contest. LSA)
It’s hard to get excited about this team’s tournament chances. Over the last 10 games, we’ve shot 53-171 from 3-point range. That’s below 30.4%. If I counted correctly, we allowed Wisconsin to score on 15 straight possessions in the 2nd half. We just gave up 50 POINTS to a Bo Ryan team in ONE HALF (thanks in part to Beilein making zero defensive adjustments). That's pathetic. We aren’t defending, and we aren’t shooting well. Worst of all, it looks like Burke may finally be showing some signs of fatigue. He was mediocre at best today. I’d love to be wrong, but this team has early exit written all over it.
This should be a five. Speaking the truth. The second anyone gets critical of Belien or Burke people go full retard with the negging. If you downvoted this you need this: 
Maybe you should find another team to root for. That gif (or whatever the fuck it is) would go well over on RCMB, yes?
I already said I would see every one Bolvia in the last thread. Calm down at let me have my 15 minutes.
what-a-dick
Since their 16-0 start, they've gone 10-7. I'm guessing it's been since sometime in January when they beat a team away from Ann Arbor that will be in the ncaa tourney.
Burn the camo.
Why did we go to a 4 guard offense? That is what puzzles me the most.
Because our "bigs" fucking suck
Didn't both McGary and Horford both score in double-figures yesterday?
Burn the camo.
need a few junkyard dogs.burke,hardaway,horford,mcgary,bielfeldt,should be the core in game like this. skauskus,stonehands,and gr3 need to sit when it turns into a bar-league game.
any chance we drop to a #4 in the NCAA? this team is just....I don't even know
Really, would a 4 seed be a surprise?
Also, Burke took 22 shots today. The rest of our starters took 25. Pass the damn ball.
This. A million times this. The heroball almost comeback at the end doesn't make up for a mediocre 35 minutes. Although it doesn't help when Jordan Morgan has cement hands.
I honestly think this is why Burke is going all hero-ball on us. Who is finishing shots these days, especially near the rim? We had a good game at Staee finishing near the rim. Other recent games, not so much. Burke should be averaging 8 assists/game if people were finishing better.
Who else has shot well in the last 11 games?
But it's circular.
The first half of the year we were running the offense more, and Stauskas (and others) were moving and coming off screens to get shots. Their duty on most possessions now is to spot up in the corner and see if they happen to get a stationary shot after Burke and McGary/Morgan/whoever runs a high ball screen.
It's a different shot when they get it, and they're much less involved in the offense. I'm not surprised their shooting percentages are going down.
Poor shooting -> Burke's incredibly heavy usage -> Poor shooting. I don't know where in the circle it started but it sure is hard to stop it.
This argument doens't make any sense. Burke isn't shooting the ball well either. He shot 36% today, and 35% against Indiana at home. He shot 38% last time at Wisconsin, 37% @ Indiana, and 30% @ OSU. Against good defensive teams, he needs to share the ball more. As a teammate, it's hard to be prepared to finish when you never expect to get the ball.
this is either spot-on or missing the point.
It's not that the shots aren't getting spread around. Burke had every single one of our assists today; he's sharing the shots. The problem, to me, is that the ball isn't getting shared within the possession, just for the shot at the end.
I think Beilein's tried to address this by calling more sets. But what that's turned out to mean is that instead of going straight to the high ball screen when we first hit the frontcourt, we walk through a set for a couple of passes until the ball gets back to Burke and then we step out for the ball screen.
The cuts on the set aren't sharp enough to get anyone open, and we don't run it long enough to break the defense down. And how can you blame the cutter--what's the point of working hard off the ball when the set's going to be broken off before anything could possibly come of it? On the other hand, why shouldn't Burke break off the offense if nobody's going to work hard for the ball?
We've got some talented players--Robinson, Hardaway, Stauskas--whose entire role in the half-court offense is to stand in the corner or the extended elbow and wait for the ball after Burke and McGary/whoever run their pick and roll. No cuts, no screens, no nothing...they just try to stay out of the way of the real action in the lane.
If they don't seem to be developing over the course of the season, it's no wonder.
The cuts on the set aren't sharp enough to get anyone open, and we don't run it long enough to break the defennse downI do agree that our cuts aren't sharp at times. Just take a glance at Princeton's vintage offense and you'll see exactly how to cut and set up your cuts. The other thing that gets lost in the shuffle is that every now and then we do have someone off the ball slashing to the basket that is wide open, but we never seem to see it - or just don't attempt to get the ball in to the slasher. Those are easy offensive opportunities that we need to capitalize on, and capitalizing on those opportunities also sets up the outside game.
He's our best player and is playing like a senior. Let him shoot!
UM will be the upset pick of opening weekend...
5-5 in the last 10 games with no O rhythm and consistently bad D.
fire beilein
This was a difficult, difficult game, and our players spent months, perhaps even years, preparing for it. However, I managed to sit through the entire game. Despite everything else going on in life, all the distractions, I watched the whole game.
51 POINTS IN THE SECOND HALF.. what is gonna be the excuse for that
N-B4-lock
Also, pick a lineup and stick to it. Play McGary and Horford more. At least they have upside. Jordan Morgan offers nothing at this point. 0 pts and 4 boards? Any intramural baller could achieve that.
Time to preach defense and rebounding. When the chips are on the table Michigan usually becomes all style and no substance.
Dakich preaches driving under control to the hoop and and jump-stopping on two feet when a defender is on top of you. Good things happen when you do this, and most of our slashers just don't have it in them to do this basic, fundamental move. YOu make shot blockers get off their feet with a nice pump fake. You can see other players slashing the basket. You have both pivot feet available for making further post moves. We just don't finish around the basket, and it makes it difficult to consistently win tight games when you rely on mid-range to 3-point shots. We make easy shots difficult, and I have no idea why.
That being said, we had no excuse not being up by 15 at half when the opposition shoots 17% from the field. Let me repeat...17%.
At least we keep our energy for next weeks tourny. I don't think we would have won the BTT this weekend even if we had won tonight. I'm OK with this. We will enter the tourney anywhere from a 2 - 4 seed, likely a 3/4.
We'll have to earn whatever we get in the next few weeks.
I'm not too happy with the execution, but I do like our team's effort. We tried and haven't given up.
Rise to the occasion? Maybe.
Im upvoting all trolling and downvoting all reasonble comments because I can. We lost because we play like idiots and fucking suck. And we'll lose next game too. Talent isnt everything, what we really miss is a Zack Novak.
do we compete when it comes down to "win time" in tough conference games, B1G tournament or ncaa tournament?
the answer seems to be no.
So having players that actually play with heart wouldnt help us win? Here you go: 
Are you going to go through the entire thread and suggest that everyone who disagrees with your viewpoint is stupid?
Yep, pretty much. The fact that you went to go seek out my other posts just to argue with me demonstrates my previous point well. You can back down from a potential pirck-like comment can you?
Umm...it's not so much "seeking out" but "scrolling down the thread."
I know "scrolling down" is a rare and difficult skill to acquire, but what can I say? I'm a genius.
I mean yeah if you're taking you time to hit reply and type something out, it really is seeking it out. I dont reply to everything that irks me.
Are you or are you not replying to my comments?
EDIT: And wasn't it you who replied to my comment initially, which had nothing to do with you?
http://mgoblog.com/mgoboard/michigan-v-wisconsin-snowflakes-thread#comm…
Run rob6reid! A battle with Magnus, you will surely lose.
Beilein is a very cerebral coach and is a good teacher, but he needs to work on his hype skills. Defense is about 80 percent energy, and he is just plain bad at getting the team energized. I have thought the same thing every time they show one of his pregame speeches. I get that it's not football, but it's like a library in there. When the team is coasting towards the end of the game someone needs to light the engines, and that someone has been absent for the entire Big Ten season.
You seem to know a lot based solely on 30 seconds of a 45-minute pre-game meeting that Michigan selected to let CBS/ESPN/B10 show.
Have you been to a M practice? I can tell you haven't. I have, and Beilein is a plenty good motivator.
albeit one I wish we could do without