Positive Tournament Signs from the Past Weekend.
It's that time again fellas! As much as it stung to watch Sparty suddenly morph into what they were SUPPOSED to be all year at our expense....there were a few promising signs that were on display last Sunday and also throughout the last several games.
1. Morgan/Horford battled physically. This will be huge in a potential matchup with Texas and if we advance...Louisville. We lost a title game because we were outfought in the second half. (Amongst awful calls) I think this year our bigs will be up to the challenge physically. Hell even Beifeldt battled physically in the first half...simply limited athletically. This physicality will be huge if we are to make a run.
2. Derrick Walton seemed very engaged and confident in the early going against Staee. He also sliced them in East Lansing. Derrick has showed some serious tenacity in some of our biggest games this season. @Staee @Nebraska and @Ohio. I doubt that this kid will be shook when the bright lights come on this weekend! I can't overstate the value of PG play in the NCAA Tourney and between his growth and Spike's consistent play we are in good shape in this regard. Spike is also criminally underrated and could start for quite a few D1 programs.
3. Stauskas Consistency. Yes he shot poorly from the field....but lets be honest here...he was absolutley mauled from the opening tip. That type of play will not be allowed in the NCAA tourney and opposing guards will simply foul out if they play him like that. Nik has really hit a nice level of consistency and we have him CONFIDENT and playing at a very high level going into the Tourney. THis is HUGE. I truly believe that if we had a CONFIDENT and effective Nik Stauskas last April....we would have won a ring. He was in over his head in the FInal Four and he played in a shell. This season he is a different man and we will need him to be. I think Nik is in for a Statement Tournament.
4. The ability to win close games. As frustrating as it is to watch our leads evaporate....it might be equally impressive to watch this team close out wins. Against Purdue.....Minnesota.....Illinois and Ohio we closed out hotly contested ball games and made MONSTER plays to get the W. One could argue that it shouldn't have been that close but winning close games is an artform and one that we will assuredly have to employ if this tourney run is to be successful. Michigan will be very dangerous in any close ball game regardless of who it is. Seasoned and battled tested.
5. Fight. This team simply has it. We were getting eviscerated in West Lafayette and clawed and scratched our way to a W. We were also getting smacked by Indiana at home and clawed back into. This past Sunday we were being dominated by Staee and showed tremendous heart getting the lead down to 8 points in a game that we were second class citizens to the refs and simply not on par with our competition. In short....this Michigan Basketball Team is never out of a game. SParty would have beaten most anybody they played last Sunday and that's a credit to them. I did find some positive in how we battled them to the finish. That was not for nothing. If you look closely at that first half we controlled the first 5 minutes until unjust foul trouble was descended upon us. If Morgan and Horford don't pick up those cheap fouls.....we are even at the half and it's a whole different ball game. I simply love how Horford and Morgan physically battled Payne in the first half and it's a shame what the refs did to them for competing.
*I think that the body of work and ups and downs of a rigorous season will pay dividends. This team has played @Ohio...@Staee...@Wisky....@Duke....@ISU and battled No. 1 seed Arizona. There isn't a team in the Midwest region that we cannot beat and I think our program would be all smiles to see DOOK or those damn Red Birds during this upcoming run. I think the country is viewing us as a Pretender in this Tourney and I think a lot of people will be surprised how this team performs in the next couple of weeks. Go Blue!!!
I agree with every point.
I think the tricky one is Stauskas' consistency - but I think it is essential. Yes, he shot quite poorly during the BTT (and yes, he will likely be much freer during the NCAAT because of how the game is called), but HE KEPT SHOOTING. He looked confident and didn't let the game take him out of the game, so to speak. I think that is critical for us to succeed.
At one point I think they were only 2-12 from the field against State early in the 2nd half which really to me was the true difference. They need to be on to remove pressure on offense and open up the man up & help game on Stauskus. Robinson especially needs to be active on both ends and not just disappear.
They have as good a shot as anyone, but the near unanimous pick to win it all is ridiculous. Just a reminder of the media's affliction with short memories, shiny objects, and hive mentality.
No offense to Gavin Wilt Chamberlain Schilling but if Payne was on the bench 1 minute into the game, Costello was on the bench 2 minutes in the game and Alex Guana played 10+ minutes in the first half and 5 in the second, I doubt we'd be lauding some of the things we are now. Guana - who is horrid - is not even the right comparison. Bielfeldt is actually our 4th center not 3rd, but I have no idea who their 4th center would be.
Look Dawson erased GR3. That's on GR3. It's a bad matchup for him but I literally did not hear GR3's name for about a 20 minute period of game time. Both offensively and defensively; Dawson shot 7-8. That's unacceptable for a borderline 1st rounder. Nik did not have a good game and was stripped a few times by Gary Harris who played excellent in all 3 games against UM. That said Nik is a mid 1st round NBA pick and was erased between the 8 minute mark of the 1st and however late in the2nd he scored. He needs to be far more efficient, period. Caris shot 20% - missed some drives he normally makes. Irvin was quiet, Spike was scoreless. Walton ...and Morgan in limited time were the only 2 guys on offense who played efficiently.
Both teams shot horrid outside on tired legs. One had an option to go inside nearly at will once our version of Alex Guana was playing a huge amount of minutes while their 4th year senior 5 star whose peers have been in the NBA for 2 years was out there having his way. The other team, aside from Caris drives and a few (I emphasize few) passes inside to Morgan, did nothing inside. In last year's tourney when the outside shooting went cold Burke and McGary did their 2 man game. Not having that option is an issue this year and frankly it is remarkable we did what we did in the Big 10 without that option.
Frank Kaminsky destroyed the lauded big front of MSU inside just 24 hours earlier - he just had no help. We didn't have our version of Kaminsky - Mitch would have went to town on MSU and the complexion of the game would have been totally different. It is what it is.
...Gary Harris who played excellent in all 3 games against UMHarris, according to Doug Gottlieb, struggles against Michigan. Seriously. Doug Gottlieb uttered these words on the air. This is why I like recording games on the DVR and fast forwarding through all extraneous stuff (like commercials and Doug Gottlieb).
Last year he was a huge part of beating SDSU, VCU, Syracuse, and Kansas. I'm not sure we get out of the Sweet 16 last year without him and if we run into a team playing good defense and we just start chucking 3's all game long (like this past game) we'll be in trouble without a good inside presence
Pulling down all those rebounds over...Bielfeldt. I wouldn't read too much into that.
but I feel Beilein builds his teams more for a tourney run than a B1G schedule. . . MSU plays what Izzo refers to as "smashmouth" basketball. . .B1G refs, officiate the game based on "smashmouth basketball". The tourney is more finesse. Do B1G officials officiate all the games? If the officiating favors finesse teams, the games of players like Robinson will open up. And that can only mean that Stauskas and Levert will benefit even more.
It's why Wisconsin can build a program around hacking you to death but Jordan Morgan gets called for touching someone. Different baseline expectations for refs and you'll actually see the disparity in game between teams as I think it's natural for refs to want to 'keep it even'. Even if one team is obviously fouling way more than the other. Drives me crazy
The rule changes (away from grabsketball) are more recent than any of Izzo's tourney success.
Unlike football, college basketball referees officiate games across many conferences. You see the bigger names on a more consistent basis (TV Ted Valentine, Bo Boroski, Gene Steratore, Mike Kitts, etc.), but they're also reffing games in the ACC, Big 12, SEC, etc.
However, I want to say I remember reading somewhere that they have mandates from their superiors instructing them to call conferences certain ways based on the style of play in said conference. In the NCAA Tournament I have to imagine that all games, regardless of the teams' conference affiliation, will be called in the same fashion (as much as that is possible).
Like duke isu and Arizona doesn't really give me any confidence. Especially when i remember that we had Mitch for the duke game, where he had 15 pts and 14 rebounds. I would feel so
Much better about our chances if we were in the east... Oh well.
Regarding close games, it is interesting to note that, in the entirety of the Big Ten season including the conference tourmanent, we won 14 games by less than 10 points (arbitrary definition of "close", I know) and only 5 games by more than ten. We won two games by exactly ten points. A lot of this really can be attributed to a very efficient offense that typically can take control and shoot a good 5%-7% better on average than the other team.
Stauskas' desire to be a big factor in the tournament will be a big thing for us. He was pretty disappointed (well, as disappointed as you can be for making the championship game) after last year's tournament, vowed to spend the summer in the gym, etc.
It's his time to shine.
March 19th, 2014 at 12:19 PM ^
Michigan tends to do best when Stauskas/LeVert/ Robinson get the same amount of shots. It makes tons of sense to get Nik the ball in crucial periods of play, but to suggest he needs to jack up a ton of shots is absurd. His utility is in his absurd efficiency on average volume.