Post Rutgers Basketball Snowflakes
This feels like the 2013 Hoke season where the carpet is about to be ripped out under us. Next year is make or break for Juwan.
Howard on the hot seat for sure next season. The in game coaching and adjustments
has been awful this season.
I really want to know why he kept starting Cheddar at the beginning of each half. It’s far from their biggest issue, but it made absolutely no sense to keep doing it even though Cheddar did nothing for them. It’s like he’s absolutely clueless.
Yeah, and I mean, I kind of buy the suggestion that he played because he plays hard (both in practice and games) but how is that message going to land when your son is out there loafing his ass off and doesn't even get pulled after making a 4th grade mistake and not boxing out the FT shooter?
Just no accountability.
100%. Jett was an absolute coach-killer this year.
He showed enough flashes on offense to warrant playing (at least on this team), but his utter lack of interest in playing defense and his tendency to take (and miss) horrible shots amounted to a lot of losing basketball. Notice how the team looked much better when he was injured. He was basically this year's Caleb Houstan.
That's what happens when you are forced to rely on freshman to lead the team.
Problem is, they didn't need him to lead the team. Hunter is still hunter most of the time, and Bufkin is a star. His defense showed amazing effort and ability. Dug McDaniel improved drastically. You can easily win with three guys like that.
I think he was significantly worse than Houstan. Houstan at least improved.
Jett got worse and certainly didn't seem to learn anything during the year.
And you're absolutely correct that the team was better without him. On the day of the Illinois game when someone posted that Jett was being reported to play, I said this is the worst thing that could be happening to Michigan's momentum and tournament chances...and lo.
And to the other guys point, Jett didn't need to lead. It was detrimental when he tried to. This needed to be Hunter and Kobe's team with Jett accepting a role as an off ball off ball shooter that needed to play defense. And his issues were not freshman issues, it was an effort and attitude thing.
And I completely disagree that he was too good to bench. He wasn't that good. His conference Ortg was only 106 and the team was clearly better without him and they had a player on the bench that worked better for the team so it's not like there was a lack of options.
The problem was that his father was the coach and benching him would have hurt his draft stock. Major conflict of interest there. Any other coach would have sat him down and said, you need to focus and put in effort or you're not playing because the team is better without you the way you're playing.
Because despite everyone clamoring for it the offense doesn't work with Reed at the 4. It forces Dickinson out to the perimeter for spacing reasons, taking away Michigan's biggest threat that makes the offense run. You put Tschetter out there because it gives the best chance for the offense to work. This team just didn't work this year and there weren't any good solutions once Terrance Williams regressed to the point he did
It's never good to be trending down and that's where this program is heading.
Sure, after a Big Ten Championship and several Sixteens, we should just run around screaming that everything is awful after one bad season with debilitating injuries, transfers and NBA attrition. I hate you so, so much for your shit takes.
several players developed well this year to breakout status. But sure, program is “trending down”
It's really two bad years. The two tournament wins last year covered up a lot of things. I think we can be a better program than on the bubble each year and could imagine next season being bad enough that we have to move on from Howard. But I also think a lot of the takes right now are way way over the top
Yeah. Over the last 2 years, the won/lost record is 36-30.
The biggest issue Juwan needs to figure out is roster stability. If we lose Hunter, Kobe, and Jett, we're right back where we started next year as we have been this year and last year. This cycle of "players good enough to be drafted but not good enough to lead Michigan to much success" has to stop. It's a college basketball-wide problem, but Juwan and his staff are the ones in charge of navigating it and building a successful program in spite of it.
I don't think he's on the hot seat, that seems silly compared to his list of accomplishments so far. But he will definitely be facing a lot more scrutiny next year.
RE: "players good enough to be drafted but not good enough to lead Michigan to much success"
to your point, is the big problem with college basketball. It's fun to root for a Chris Weber level player for two years. Iggy Brazdeikis was great in his one year, but it was too quick to have much of a fan attatchment to him. Caleb Houstan and Moussa Diabate didn't do a whole lot in their single year here. The only reason I really remember their names is from looking them up to make the point that I don't remember them.
The NBA should figure out some NIL-type deal to keep the top players in school until they are sure bets to be instant impact players. It may be an age thing, but back in the day I'd watch part of an NBA game if Weber, Jalen, Juwan, Glenn Rice, Terry Mills or another Michigan player was playing. Hell, I watched a few Dallas Maverick games because Jim Jackson was playing and he went to OSU. Same with Glenn Robinson. You'd want to see how those guys were doing at the next level.
I can't believe we lost to Rutgers. We were supposed to win the next 3 games....
"I watched a few Dallas Mavericks games because Jim Jackson was playing..." Said, no one ever. You needed a hobby. ;) Is there an inside joke to Webber being Weber that I missed?
All you fucking whiners fucking whined about Beiline having great development and stability but could close on 5 stars, now you bitchmade mf’ers whine about how the coach can’t keep 5 stars around. You are really making the case for us being the dumbest of fanbases.
Well I'd rather make the sweet 16 to cover up a bad season than win the big ten and get upset in the first game like Beilein did.
I’d rather win the conference than make the Sweet 16. Do they hang some kind of participation banner for the Sweet 16? Winning the conference is a far better measure of a team than whether they won two games in a row against random teams.
So as a basketball fan, you'd rather be miserable for 4.5 months to be happy for 1 week? Personally, I'd rather have something to enjoy during the longer winter months, especially when I'm paying for season tickets
20-21 sucked too
You may not believe that JH deserves to be fired, but the program is objectively trending down. Over the past 2 years, our record is just over .500 (36-30). We've lost almost every close game we have been in this year. The roster construction is absolutely terrible and in year 4, that's on JH. Moreover, the recruiting isn't exactly lighting things on fire. Then you add in the in-game stuff, such as:
- Mind-boggling substitution patterns;
- Complete lack of in-game adjustments;
- What appears to be a complete lack of interest in playing defense / rebounding by some of our players;
- An almost-100% failure of the team to score on key plays coming out of timeouts.
It doesn't exactly add up to a program on the rise. Take a look at next year's roster. Assuming that Hunter and Jett are gone, are you confident that we will be a better team?
If Kobe comes back, yes, we have a good chance to be better, especially if Jett leaves.
But if Kobe leaves, the only path to improvement would be an excellent haul in the portal.
You have to be an absolute idiot to not want a sophomore Jett. I would take three of him on every team.
Yeah if Jett comes back it's going to be to work on improving his defense. I wouldn't immediately write it in stone that Sophomore Jett = Freshman Jett
A team with three Jett's would give up 100 points a game
He's terrible for team chemistry, net negative player and it's an attitude problem
Addition by subtraction
My take is this team lacks the dog mentality. It seems no one rises to the moment and takes the game over. Not sure if that is leans more on the coaches or players but this program needs a dude!
Reed has it for sure
Reed is not particularly coordinated and has bad hands. Dude goes hard, but in every direction.
I am not happy about this year either.
But you could also say that, for example, over the last 3 years in B1G conference games, Juwan is 36-21 while, let's say a "great" coach like Tom Izzo is 31-28. And during that period, Juwan has certainly had more NCAA success.
The big difference here is SOS though. MSU played a really brutal OOC schedule. MSU isn’t very good, and JH has out recruited Izzo….but I’m not sure if that makes our situation better or worse.
That's in part why I picked conference games only so that schedules were basically the same. Also, we had a decent OOC schedule if we win some games. UVA, UNC, Kentucky and others would be fine if we would win some and also if the B1G was a bit stronger this year.
Eh, this is all just one year with players that he mostly didn't develop. We've gotten significantly worse each year since that year.
2021 kenpom: 3rd
2022 kepom: 27th
2023 kenpom: 47th
Now, 47th isn't absolutely horrible and he's had some bad luck this year (Llewellyn injury was probably the difference between making tourney and not).
Today was a very frustrating game that appeared like Michigan didn't care and wasn't focused or well coached. But they got beter this year.
He definitely deserves another year but if this trend continues, agree with many that it'd probably be time to move on.
March 10th, 2023 at 12:28 AM ^
2013: 4th
2014: 12th
2015: 74th
2016: 50th
Should Beilein have been fired after 2016? I cannot believe how stupid some people are when it comes to assessing/valuing coaches.
Btw, 02-08... 128th/61st/44th/128th/28th/59th/137th. Juwan still has a lot of growth to do as a coach. But when Shannon's transfer wasn't accepted and Llewellyn was lost for the season, this team lost the upperclass leaders good teams need. Hunter is a great player and probably a great guy, but leaders don't wear ski masks or other props to critical road games.
I appreciate your optimism Commie, but alas, this is in fact a total poop take. Watching Michigan back in the height of the Beilein era compared to watching whatever transpired on the court this year (and even last year), is night and day. Some players have gotten better....the program? Much worse.
Beilein left for exactly the reasons UM is struggling this year. Every player with the slightest sniff of NBA viability is leaving prematurely. Even projects that play a few decent games get a look from someone. It was not just the premature leaving of Poole and Iggy that frustrated Beilein, but even diamonds in the rough like DJ Wilson left.
On one hand, I love that our program expectations are high enough that people lose their minds after not making the tournament in one season, though its not like we were 9-22, we were on the bubble until 3 days before selection Sunday.
I don't think Juwan is anywhere close to the hot seat. If he doesn't make it next year, you can start to talk about seats getting warm. But he needs to figure out where he is lacking as a coach and commit to evolving and growing. Is it roster construction? Is it player development? Is it in game coaching? Are his offensive and defensive sets bad? A combo of all of them? Figure it out and adapt. Change the dynamic of the team. Find guys who can play defense and are playable on offense. Find reliable shooters. Get some much needed experience from the portal.
We're not set up great for next year, but there's a lot Juwan can do to change that. I expect he will because he has to.
See Georgetown with your blind allegiance. Three years from now that’s as likely as a league title.
Chris Beard is available, just sayin'
This is a bad take and you should feel bad.
How about Jim Boeheim?
I'm not serious-I don't think.
What about Nate Oats?
Michigan will never ever hire Oats and they shouldn’t hire him! He showed why a couple weeks ago. Scoundrel that guy is
What personal attributes about Chris Beard do you find so endearing? His physicality with his fiancé’ before his arrest for a felony assault and battery? Or his persuasive ability to get his fiancé’ to recant and drop her charges? He has a great pedigree, after all, as a UT student manager when Coach Howard was merely just a fifth of the Fab Five.
At least he keeps his hands off the opposing coaching staff
Nah, we already choke too much.
Fuck it, hire Rick Pitino
This is the way!
Manuel could barely bring himself to fire the hockey coach when an in-depth investigative report told him to...Howard has zero concerns about job security with Manuel at the helm.
Next year doesn't look too good either roster wise.
I think we've completely lost all of the momentum JB built.
Time for regime change.
I agree, his good season was due to mostly JB's roster (and probably all of JB's development of the players). This team gets worse each year and the team just doesn't look well coached. Get rid of all of them and let's have some excitement over a new coach. The rebounding has been awful and it starts with positioning
"... his good season was due to mostly JB's roster ..."
No. Let's review some (not all) of the key players on that roster:
- Dickinson: not a Beilein guy
- Wagner: not a Beilein guy
- Brown: not a Beilein guy
- Smith: not a Beilein guy
Livers? Sure. Brooks? Sure. You'd need to find three more for your statement to be true.