Observations from Carver Hawkeye Arena

play some defense, get on the boards. and they were careless with the ball. couldnt get the ball inside at all. cant wait til mitch mcgary gets here.

the team is stagnant, poor shooting continues..Smotcz has disappeared in B10 play..Hardaway? who knows when hes going to show up... VERY inconsistent and its time to bench Morgan in favor of Mclimas..Morgan is human turnover machine and McLimas is more productive and doesnt turn the ball over..the whole team is struggling and the lack of effort and emotion today was UNACCEPTABLE...time for some changes in the lineup..NOT Michigan basketball today.  against a average B10 team

Homefield advantage strikes again?

Bench everyone!  Clearly the starting lineup should be Akunne, Douglass, McLimans, Novak, and Vogrich.

/sarcasm

Today was a trap game in a ridiculous league.  Disappointed with the amount of effort, but there's no need to overreact.

We don't have it.

What in the hell did I just watch?  Were they overconfident, bored, tired or what?  With the exception of a three minute stretch in the second half where the cut the lead from 12 to 6 they played disjointed on offense and lethargec on defense. 

Winning these games are the difference between being a 3-5 seed and actually getting deep into the tournament or being slotted as a 7-10 and being a "one and done".  They simply can't afford to drop winnable road games to average (at best) teams in conference.

This one hurt.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=MCFvZLjRPNg#t=38s

Anybody know what's up with Smot's hands?  Obviously he has been terrible shooting the ball but I noticed in person against NW that his hands were very red and today they looked purple on tv.  Anybody know whats up with this?

It was everyone else pretty much.  Horrible shooting and not enough defense.

I will agree about the poor quality refereeing.  I've been watching Big Ten basketball for over 30 years and I'm always amazed how the conference tolerates the constant mediocrity from it's officials.  There's almost no consistency in calls.  Charges are frequently not called right.  And cheap hand-check foul calls are all over the board.  That one guard for Iowa had his hands all over Michigan players for most of the game and got very few calls.  

OMG we suck!!!! BLAH BLAH BLAH.   

Everyone relax, we played terrible without much effort on the defensive end and no ball movement on offense.  It happens, this was a classic trap game.  It may be frustrating as heck, but it happens in basketball, sometimes one team can play terrible while the other team plays great.  Do you guys all think UNC sucks too for being down to FSU by 20+ points right now?  I do think we need Horford to get healthy very quick, because like others have said our post game isn't  very good.

including 0-12 from long distance.  That is just unbelieveably bad.  Inexcusable.

Jordan Morgan getting 1 shot in 27 minutes when he's shooting almost 65% from the field this year is something that shouldn't happen, especially on the road when shooters tend to force things. 

Plain Embarassing. that's all I got to be honest.

every top team has a bad game at some point. this team will only get better with time. besides, i'd rather they get it out of their system now before next tuesday.

I feel better after the red wings win then seeing the tar heels lay an egg as well.

Oh and watching the fab five again puts me in a better mood

I'm a big fan of Belien, but this was not a well-coached game.  Sitting Burke for most of the first half made very little sense, and how Morgan gets that few touches is puzzling.

I'm a big fan of Belien, but this was not a well-coached game.  Sitting Burke for most of the first half made very little sense, and how Morgan gets that few touches is puzzling.

A Big Ten champ and just a good team that hangs around the top. Did anyone really think that this team was going to be Big Ten champs? It's still a work in progress. It's disappointing, and it hurts, but it's not going to change much overall.

If State loses today and we beat them on Tuesday then we're right back in it. 

Minnesota: 1/4 FG  0-2 3pt   2pts total

IU: 3-6/2-3   8

Wisc: 1-6/1-5    3

NW: 1-7/0-3    5

Iowa: 0-6/0-4   0

Except for IU, he's been almost invisible, and 8 pts against the Hoosiers is hardly an explosion. Combine his ineptitude with THJ's scoring funk, and you've got big problems.

It's ironic as hell that throughout Beilien's tenure at UM he's been saddled with players who are woefully poor at the one thing his offense requires the most: reliable, consistent outside shooting. For each of his seasons UM has been near the basement in shooting % in the conference; going into this game, we were 9th in overall FG% and 8th in 3pt %. This game will make that even worse.

I don't think anyone expected Big Ten champs, but it's still very frustrating to see the team continue to shoot so poorly from long range and refuse to adapt.  They should not be shooting significantly more threes than twos, and the defense outside of the Wisconsin game has been mediocre.  They need to respond Tuesday.

Not sure how thats trolling but ok...

but it sure did raise my blood pressure and stress levels

Seriously, people need to calm down.  This happens - the Big 10 is probably the best conference in basketball, and so that means sometimes you lose a game against a team you shouldn't, but it also means you blow out a ranked team at home when the score should be closer.  This team does not have much of an inside presence, but it didn't last year and really hasn't since the Traylor/Taylor years.  It will get better.

I also wonder if the team was looking ahead to MSU a bit.  No excuse, but I expect a better effort next game.

I'm thinking 5 games in 13 days might have something to do with it.  If it was a team full of upperclassmen it might not have been an issue.  I've been wondering if Burke would hit the schedule-induced wall at some point, especially with all the minutes he's been playing.  After the OT win Wednesday night, my first thought was "they're going to have a tough time at Iowa" with about 2 days, one of those traveling.  To me everyone just looked fatigued, slow, lost, out of sync, etc.  This is why the B1G is tough.  Not the end of the world though, as tough as that was to watch.  Looks like growing pains.  They'll get used to it and get better.

I know people won't want to believe this, but they were worn out today.  They're on a span of 5 games in 13 days.  It was a poor performance, but we're going to have to let a few slide, this being one of them.  Beilein will rally the team, they'll come out gunning again soon and then everyone can jump back on the bandwagon.  Go Blue.

The team overall was very careless with the ball, and looked pretty slow and not very intense on defense, particularly in the first half.

Last year Morris and Morgan would kill teams with Morgan setting high screens and then rolling, slipping the screen, or Morris driving into the paint.  I did not see very much if any of that this year.  Does that have something to do with it taking time for Burke and Morgan to develop chemistry, or something to do with Burke's size?  Why not have Hardaway or Novak run the same thing with Morgan?

First of all, the early fouls on Burke, especially the second one, which wouldn't have been called on a lot of players, had a much bigger effect on this game than anything else.  The team needs Burke to play at least 35 minutes to have much of a chance against a team playing good defense.  In addition, sometimes the shots just just don't fall.  It happens to everyone, and it especially happens on the road.  

Also, they didn't seem to have as much energy as they could have, especially on offense.  They played a lot of one on one and two on two today.  It happens to the best of teams, and it gives the coaching staff an opportunity to earn their money.  I have a feeling that John Beilein is going to do a lot of coaching between now and the game against Sparty.

I also have a feeling that this team will be fine by the time the NCAA Tournament comes around.

If I were Beilein, I'd instate a new rule: THJ isn't allowed to shoot a three-pointer until he scores at least 10 points by taking the ball to the rim. Dude is not a great a three-point shooter and he's getting into that horrible horrible habit that a lot of great dribble-drivers do when they have scoring success--just jacking it up because they feel invincible (e.g., LeBron James). THJ should be attacking, attacking, and attacking, and then once he's established himself he can start launching from three. Even last year, he shot only 36% from deep. That's not his forte. 

anyone else feel like THJ is playing eerily similar to Manny Harris? He can get to the basket at will (which he did for a stretch of 3-4  2nd half possessions to get us back in the game) but likes to settle for the 24 footer early in the shot clock. There is nothing more frustrating..except for Smotz failing to get back on defense or knock down WIDE-open looks.

I feel a little better after watching UNC and MSU lose badly on the road as well. 
Things like this happen in a 30-40 game season. We'll be fine. 

Yep -- disappointing, for sure.  Like ia wolve stated, it was a quiet crowd (I'd say Carver-Hawkeye was about 80% full) except for some of the energetic sequences put on by the Hawkeyes.  U-M had no energy, and the sloppiness in the middle of the first half was a very foreboding sign.  I still do not understand how Burke could be benched for the rest of the first half, but what do I know.

Yep -- I heard Novak getting called out too (was I sitting near you, ia wolve?  I was in Section D, row 30, low number seats).

Finally, I got big props for my "Fergodsakes" t-shirt that conveniently arrived yesterday!  An older Michigan gentleman walked by, and said, "press conference?" to which I nodded, "you know it, Hoke is the man!"

Anytime you don't shoot well you look bad. Give Iowa credit today they went out and outplayed Michigan. Happens. Happens all week every week in sports.

Just this week in the BIG. Michigan, MSU, Ohio State, Purdue, and Indiana have all suffered "upsets". Life in a tough conference.

Buckle up for MSU it's gonna be a war.

I feel right now it's

Ohio

Little Bro

Michigan

Indiana

Wisc