You could say I was lucky to have seats behind the team this afternoon, but then your definition of lucky means that you enjoy pulling out your own hair and gnashing your teeth.
I think Novak played with a concussion
The guy got the hell beat out of him early on. Obviously he had no shot which is not my only concern, but Morris was continually moving him into position in the second half. The pained look on Morris’ face every time they went into their offensive set showed me that something was up when he had to constantly keeping moving Novak to the correct spot on the floor. He was simply not "present". A Hawkeye fan behind me exclaimed that “they finally got that guy to foul out” when Novak went to the bench in the overtime, I said they probably did him a favor.
Hardaway shoots threes from the same 10 feet on the floor
Again, not sure if this was evident, but the guy launched all his threes from the left side within about the same 10 feet on the arc (not that I am complaining he was awesome to watch up close). Not sure if that is by design or the guy just loves that spot on the floor. On the flip side, Devyn Marble always shoots his pull up jumper just shaded and forward from the right side of the free throw line. Maybe it is a way to keep young shooters in a groove.
Beilein the Mad Substitutor
I was surprised how quickly guys were getting gassed after little playing time in the first half. Maybe it is a conditioning issue or maybe it was the fact that it was a street fight near the basket. I was surprised at what was being allowed away from the ball and near the ball. I think Beilein was pulling out guys too early and we did not seem to have any flow in the first half. It seemed less due to our talent and more to do with chemistry. The 5 on the floor before halftime had no idea how to play together (no fault of theirs).
Smotrycz needs help to release his talent
During the second half warm ups, I watched that guy drain 9 of 10 three pointers. However, he looked lost away from the ball, did not work aggressively to set up his shot and the ball was not going off his hand correctly during the game. The guy will kill you at HORSE, but man, he needs to translate it on the court when it matters.
Officiating? Was there any? Maybe just the bizarro kind
When I watched the game last year at CHA, I had a similar question. I guess I really don’t know what traveling or behind the back actually is since it seemed like calling both were random walk occurrences. When Iowa fans talk about how bad of a call it was that went against a Michigan player, then what you saw on TV was worse in person. Beilein deserved that first technical and probably a second as well. He was beside himself early on and was correct in his actions.
We were higher up in the corner behind the Iowa bench.
IAWolve, your initials aren't MW, are they? I'm RK -- lost your phone number.
U-M was quite lucky that Iowa fell apart there in the second half. Iowa kicked our butts in the first half, but then Hardaway took over. He looked great driving at the basket, and God bless our FT shooting for once.