Michigan xavier open thread

This team is so soft. My word, we got killed in the glass, men against boys and not just our front court. Physical teams are going to embarrass us. Maryland, Iowa, MSU, Purdue, maybe even Illinois are going to abuse us in the paint. That was ugly. Their size, strength, and athleticism were so far beyond ours I can't even believe it. That was more than just a bad game, we got exposed inside. This is our system though, we aren't going to be strong inside with this system, seems we've done OK. And Xavier looked extremely extremely physical and athletic. How are they not ranked?

The lack of big man recruiting and Beilein's offense go hand-in-hand in my opinion

Definitely not a very strong performance but it is November. If this team works every day it will get better. As we've seen with football it's not how you start but how you finish. Our past few basketball teams have shown that same lesson. We got beaten down by MSU by 30 points at the Breslin Center. That team showed far better as the season ended. We've got a long way to go but I believe this team will get better and will show better than what we saw tonight. Got to get to work. Go Blue.

JB really has his work cut out for him. That was just terrible effort all around on D and rebounding. None of our 5s are any good at all on D and are complete liabilities on O. May as well just have Robinson play the 5 and trade easy buckets down low for the other team for the mismatch shooting the 3 on O. Also JB needs to do a better job managing minutes. You just cannot let Walton play such a terrible game and not take him out for Spike. The offense actually had some rhythm with Spike but had none with Walton. This team needs a TON of work.

All we seen was pics on how ripped and stronger they all were !

He runs a good program and is a top notch guy, but his system will never win a nc without recruiting superstars. Our players don't have that confidence or "swag" as they say. They are soft and get bullied around all the time in the paint. Needs to reevaluate his system and the players he recruits.

Would love to know what some people define as "supporting the team." It is one game. Learn from it and move on. Or continue to scream, kick the dog, and yell at your kids when they perform to your expectations.

Just one game, but we all read way too much into that blowout of Illinois and close loss to Wisconsin at the end of last season. Mich still has no answer when teams drive or go to the glass. Saying that these bigs will get better because that's what bigs do is wishcasting. Mich is going to have to outscore people, and if Walton doesn't break out like everyone assumes he will, that's going to be tough.

The only thing that could cheer me up right now would be a footjob from the Red Panda :(

This team is soft. Soft on the boards, going for loose balls, finishing inside, playing interior and transition defense, etc. Ever since morgan and mcgary left michigan basketball has been soft and they dont have any gritty, tough guys like xavier that can do these things

Well, there's always next year. This team does not defend and does not rebound. It's one thing to get out rebounded. It's another thing to stand around while the guy who was standing behind you out hustles you to a ball that you had your hands on. Yeesh. Good teams will eat us alive.

Where's the God damned leader of this team!?! No where!!!! Irvin and LeVert are not leaders. I thought for sure Walton was going to be it. The next Burke. But I guess I'm wrong. This team will continue losing until he does.

Well, if you're going to lose, might as well get embarrassed so there is no calling it a fluke. We didn't compete on the glass and got what we deserved. We are better than we showed tonight, but I think a lot of guys needs understand just how hard you have to work to be a competent defensive/ rebounding team. I would imagine practice will be pretty intense the next week.

Everybody has bad evenings. Look at what happened in Columbus. It's not even Thanksgiving. 3 games in, one lousy performance and people are jumping ship.

This place is unbearable. Time to go check out xhamster.com

Glad to watch it and get hyped. Btw...does anyone have the link to the msu hype video? Fucking love that video. Props to whomever put it together

I really hate the "we used to really suck, be thankful for what we have now" narrative. Beilein can't recruit at the top level- I mean other than finishing 2nd. Our defense consistently blows, but hey we spread the floor on offense and shoot well!! Yay! I don't want to sit around and have a deep run once every 5-10 years. But it seems UMich and the fans are content with being very average. We wouldn't take this from the football program so why should we take it from basketball.

Hopefully coach B has an 8am conditioning only practice tomorrow

This team needs a dawg. A straight thug that comes in after number one flexes in the stands and puts up 3 threes in a row while staring him down. We have a bunch of nice guys, which is great, but James Blackmon would be a killer on this team.

can only imagine how pissed off I'd be if I sat through that. Just going to delete this from the DVR. 

Sounds like some guys need to figure out if they have any juevos or not. 

I assume not worth watching? Sounds like they got punked all night long on the boards, and there's not much more to say about it than that? 

Grateful I had to walk the dog a few miles to get home and didn't get home in time. 

 

But looks like the same problem as last year. Our big men are soft as butter. Beilein is going to to need to prioritize big men in recruiting. Doyle is our only big with an ounce of muscle and even he gets abused.

Zack Novak...at 6'5 or whatever he was.... would be the best big man on this team.  And the one? gritty player we have like a reynolds.  That sums up the state of the team the past 2 years.  Bielfeldt was our grittiest guy last year.  All 6'7 of him.