Pretty Good Season, Really
I know we all had much higher expectations for this team at the beginning of the season based mostly on the hype surrounding the talent of our freshman. But honestly, the expectations put on this years recruiting class were clearly a bit ridiculous. We all expect a number one basketball recruiting class to be the Fab 5. But there will only ever be one of those. Our freshman grew and improved A LOT over the course of the season. Moussa and Caleb are now dependable contributors who can take over a game when they are in a groove. They looked like lost and hapless freshman in November. Bufkin and Collins are starting to come on, too.
Really, there are only two games we should have won that we did not. Seton Hall at home and against Minnesota. The UCF loss on the road was forgivable and all the other losses, especially the early ones to Arizona and NC, look totally understandable, too. When we lost to Rutgers I was initially horrified, but they proved they are legit and did the same thing they did to us to just about all the top teams in the B1G.
The biggest criticism you can level is that they were inconsistent. But they are extremely young and matured very nicely by the time the buzzer sounded in Columbus today.
So, maybe we should be 19-9 and a six or seven seed in the tournament, but honestly if we end up a ten or eleven seed, it actually works out to be the exact same after that first round. And I don't think there is a single team that ends up a six or seven seed in the tourney that wants to face Michigan as a ten or eleven seed.
I'm really proud of how this team rounded into form, and think we just could make a little run and make it to the second weekend of the Big Dance. I will absolutely take that. Even if we get knocked out in the first round, I think next season looks pretty bright.
Minnesota loss at home is inexplicable
It makes such a huge difference in the seasonal standings. Either way, the kids played very well today and the post season is always a new ballgame. Go Blue, get on a run and win the damn thing!!
*19-11, not 19-9
Beating msu and osu in the final week to clinch a winning record in the B1G and a ticket to the dance is what salvaged this otherwise disappointing season. We have the horses to make a shocking run now. What an awesome win today!
This season makes me appreciate the Fab 5 that much more. It's unbelievable that they carried the team all the way to the finals. Then did it again the following year.
I agree with everything you stated except the part about "Caleb is now a dependable contributor".
He's been a pretty consistent under-performer outside of a few lights out performances, hopefully this means he'll come back for one more year.
I thought about making a separate thread, but I'll post it here.
I was so, so down on Devante Jones in the first half of the season, as it just seemed like he was stuck in mud all year.
He did a total 180. I'm confident in him with the ball, making the right decision, and slashing to the rim when he needs to. I'm excited to see him in the tourney.
I think Caleb’s defense has become very solid. He had two huge steals today, even though he wasn’t shooting great. And he isn’t just settling for open 3s anymore. He’s going to rim and working the baseline to help create opportunities for himself and others more. So I stand by the claim he is a solid contributor now, even when his shot isn’t falling.
@PreacherMike
I totally agree. Houstan has significantly improved his defense over the last half of the season. Now, if he could only be the consistent shooter that we all expected.
Houstan’s defense cushioned the blow of him going 0-for-Sunday, but remember he was being mentioned as a one-and-done recruit. He’s still too upright on defense and offense when he goes to the basket. Would like to see him just take a freshman Zack Irvin mentality. Diabate brings the ball down too far on offense and is prone to getting stripped and taking too long to get into the air. That said, steady senior guards and a dominant post player can make for a fun tournament run.
Still hard to believe that Najee, Smith, and Davis, all still had eligibility and left... Anyone know who left and who was forced out due to incoming scholarships ?
Houstan is a clutch free throw shooter, too. Even when his outside shot isn't dropping. That is invaluable.
I don't see how this can be judged a 'pretty good season'.
Sure, if they run to the sweet 16 and are a tough out for a one seed then maybe I'll change my mind
Forget about the freshman. This was a team returning HD, Brooks, TWill and Johns, and bringing in Jones. We also thought we had a superstar head coach. That lineup alone should have competed for a tourney bid. Considering the freshman, the preseason expectations were entirely justified.
To have them only reach the level of 'compete for tourney bid' is underwhelming, at best.
I do agree that the way the team played down the stretch, the growth and integration of Jones, and the grittiness that has been a hallmark of their better teams on display against their rivals, is extremely encouraging. But I am not yet at 'Pretty Good Season, Really'
Compare Michigan to other teams on the bubble and it’s obvious why they should be a lock. Win loss record is the only thing they don’t lead in.
B1G was crazy all year. Everyone won and lost unexpected games. Today's game was obviously huge for our tournament chances. GO BLUE!!
I don't think it was a pretty good season. I think we salvaged the season by making the tourney but we shouldn't have lost to Minny, Seton Hall, Rutgers, UCF etc.
You don't return an all-American caliber center, have one of the most experienced backcourts in the country, stay pretty healthy and call this season pretty good. They certainly avoided a disaster though.
Freshman typically need to learn the speed of Big Ten play.
Mousa, Caleb, Bufkin, and Frankie should all make big strides next year.
Here is to hoping Dickinson comes back to lead this team.
Totally agree. Nice to see the kiddies start rounding into shape, and I think we’re a nightmare for someone on the 11 line.
@Preacher Mike I think Caleb’s defense has become very solid. He had two huge steals today, even though he wasn’t shooting great. And he isn’t just settling for open 3s anymore. He’s going to rim and working the baseline to help create opportunities for himself and others more. So I stand by the claim he is a solid contributor now, even when his shot isn’t falling.
I read your post to my son and he said that's exactly what we said about Franz Wagner his freshman year. He never had an 0-10, but he did have massive inconsistency. But because of his defense he had to be on the floor.
Was this class ranked #1 ?
Yeah, I think the Franz freshman year comp is a good one for Houstan. Franz’s shot seemed broken at times that year and ge was very inconsistent. I think Franz had a better freshman year than Houstan, but part of that was because he had been playing grown ass men in the German pro league for a couple of years already.
Good season so far.
Add a few B1G and NCAA tournament victories, and I'd say pretty good, yeah.
“Moussa and Caleb are now dependable contributors who can take over a game when they are in a groove.”
If you have to wait for somebody to get “in a groove” then they’re not really that dependable yet.
Both players have demonstrated wild swings in their effectiveness, which is entirely normal for pure freshmen, no matter how talented they are. The longer they stick around, the more dependable they’ll get.
Man I can't give Martelli enough credit. He said all the right words to get this team motivated after the loss to Iowa at home. He talked about lack of leadership. It obviously resonated. Today was the first time all season I saw every player locked in. From the starters to the last man Faulds all played a role. I'm still enjoying this win. Tough season but this is a tough team!
I appreciate the sentiment of the post but can't agree with the details.
Caleb was 0-10 and totally lost. Moussa was fine today but had the worst game of the season on Thursday. Devante has absolutely grown and should be praised. Hunter has gotten better but still has issues with getting motivated for every game. TWill seems to be coming on. But this team has not played with a shred of consistency this whole year. They can beat anyone they play (ok maybe not Arizona or Gonzaga) but they can lose to anyone too. There's nothing you can point to on the team and say "we're getting THAT for 40 minutes every game." That's not totally unexpected for a young team, but it is disappointing.
Still, legends are made in March. They technically still have everything in front of them, so let's see what they do with it
Having lived in the cesspool that is Columbus, Ohio for 25 years (1990-2015) this has been a very good year for Michigan athletics against the buck nuts
Keep the mojo going from the MSU game as well as today in the B10 tourney and then into March Madness!
I find this season really satisfying - can only guess those folks complaining are maybe too young to have lived through 20 years of awful basketball in Ann Arbor.
Michigan lost Livers, Wagner, Smith and Brown from last year's team - my gosh, that's a LOT to replace.
Michigan was hugely overrated to begin the season, and frankly, until mid-January they were plain bad.
This was a team that seemingly had no workable pg, couldn't shoot at all, didn't play much defense, and displayed little leadership.
Somehow they dug deep, kept grinding and improved. 10-6 to close out the B1G season.
Devante Jones figured out how to ward off nasty B1G defenders and cut back on the dumb fouls and turnovers. At the same time he gained confidence in his ability to beat guys off the dribble. Meanwhile, Collins emerged as a whirling dervish who can attack the rim and disrupt on defense for key minutes most games. PG problem solved - check.
Houstan, while wildly inconsistent, at least found his stroke and confidence intermittently. We don't win a bunch of our B1G games without his shot (and the threat it presents). Meanwhile, JWill finally found his stroke, and Hunter, Jones and Brooks all stepped up. Shooting problem addressed - check.
Defensively, the young guys steadily improved. Far fewer blown assignments, fewer dumb reach fouls, more aggressive traps and close-outs. Still inconsistent, but guys like Houstan, Collins and Jones have grown from defensive liabilities to sometimes disruptive forces. Defense problem addressed - partial credit, still needs some work.
In terms of leadership, Hunter really stepped up to demand the ball and be the dominant force and focus of the offense, the guy who prevents and ends scoring droughts. Meanwhile, Devante and Brooks played smarter, more focused basketball, demonstrating senior poise and control. Leadership issue addressed - check.
This team was no fun to watch earlier in the year. They're now a blast. Is this a great team? Nope - but their growth and improvement have been pretty remarkable. Great job by the players and coaches to turn a potential disaster of a season into yet another fun one.
Well done - Go Blue!
Sorry, this was not a pretty good year 🤷
Michigan wasn't the team that some people were expecting... those expectations were based on reputation though and not substance. Michigan's great recruiting class came with some assembly required, which is not what pollsters putting them in the top 5 had considered.
There were a few losses that were inexplicable...though I remember a few people losing their minds when 'unranked' Arizona took them to the woodshed...That team was legit great and are currently ranked that way...
Honestly, making the NCAAs was all I was hoping for, as it doesn't matter what your seed is, you still have to win the games in front of you.
Barring a disaster in the B1G tournament, Michigan will get a chance...if they can get hot from 3, I think they can beat anyone.
Weird that people disagreeing with you are getting downvotes… this isn’t a pretty good season for this program. This program has played for a NCAA championship twice in the past 10 years. They’ve won the Big Ten regular season, the big ten tournament… this has so far been a below-average season at best. But the team seems to be improving, despite being inconsistent. Hopefully they can string together a couple of solid performances and make a run in the tournament.
It’s not Houstan’s fault that he ended up being over-rated by the recruiting services. He’ll eventually be a good player, but there’s no way he should be playing 33 minutes when he’s 0-10. Treat him as a heat check guy and adjust his minutes accordingly.
Any evaluation of the season has to take into account the schedule we faced. KenPom now ranks our schedule the third-toughest in the country (out of 358 teams), and that doesn't even factor in the fact that we played a very congested schedule in the second half of the season due to Covid postponements. We've played 11 games in the last 30 days, and just faced nine consecutive teams that should be in the tournament. This all came after playing an unusually tough non-conference slate.
We've made considerable strides since January IMO, but the record doesn't fully show that. In a more normal year, this would probably be more like a 20-10 team - not incredible, but solid for a team with this much roster turnover.
We didn’t meet the standard this year. Average big ten team. Defense, three pt shooting and backcourt play ( see turnover to assist stats) was not a top 16 formula, and that’s the standard for a successful season now - sweet 16. The one place I saw improvement was in rebounding and free throw shooting, which gave us a few extra fg attempts and the ability to stay in a lot of games.
My gosh, a bunch of people here sure seem entitled - season is unacceptable unless we're at the top of the conference and make a deep tournament run.
I guess we have a basic disagreement. Any season Michigan makes the NCAA tournament is a fun year as far as I'm concerned. A tourney run turns a good season into a great one.
This team was going nowhere, and somehow found a way to grow into becoming tournament-worthy. Celebrate!
Were you not around during the dark years post Fab 5? THOSE were disappointing seasons.
Michigan lost 56% scoring from last year's team, 58% minutes played - 3 guys who played 30+ and another 20+. That's a ton of turnover.
Coach Beilein is my favorite Michigan coach of any sport. He brought Michigan's hoops program back to prominence. Even he failed to make the NCAA's 3 of his 12 years, and squeaked into the play-in round another.
Michigan had a huge season last year. In modern college hoops that usually means losing a bunch of good players and rebuilding.
Making the tournament is an achievement - and hopefully we can make a memorable run!
Avoided a disaster seems closer to me. But they still don't look great.. I love today's win but they aren't competitive in a lot of games.
No idea how you can be confident about next year until we know who's coming back, if anyone. There are no incoming shooters. We need a pg, big, shooter in the portal if possible.
I would think all of the players that are eligible to return next year need to do so. I also understand that Hunter will most likely declare for the NBA draft. I just do not see his game translating well to the NBA, hope I am wrong
In any event, disappointing year so far with upside to improve if this team can go on a run similar to UCLA last year
To simply this post, anytime we beat Ohio State and Michigan State to end the season, IT'S A GOOD YEAR!
As soon as Houstan went to the 4 and Williams the 3 , we got It going . Houstan has 2 steals and few tipped balls that lead steals too . That John’s block was huge on that lay up attempt
I mean, if we were ranked I would say sure, but we're not even sniffing the top 25 although we've had some excellent wins like today and purdue. Big difference between underperforming our top 5 preseason ranking and needing the last game of the regular season to sneak into the dance through the backdoor.
Still, our team oozes talented players at every position, hopeful we can put it all together for a run in the NCAA tournament.
"Pretty good" must be a really high standard for some people if this year's basketball team doesn't get to that level.
Yeah, not sure what some of you think “pretty good” means. Pretty good means a little above average to me. How one defines average can vary, of course. By the standard of the last 15 years for this program, this might just be average to a little below average. By the standard of all D1 basketball we are well above average, actually 90th percentile. I don’t think this is a great team, although there is talent on it to be great, given time and if players come back. But it showed it can play with almost any team in college basketball down the stretch, except maybe the top 5 teams in the country. That is pretty good by any reasonable standard. I’m not papering over the warts or the inconsistency or the poor play the first half of the season, just saying that given how things started, and with all the turnover, this team ended up showing me something, and flashing the potential to be something very good. If you can’t appreciate that, you just enjoy being miserable, I guess.
It depends on one's perspective. For a top 5 preseason team, not too good. However, considering the adversity (COVID pause, inconsistent play, how much production had to be replaced) and how the team responded after starting 7-7, with a potential run in front of them, yea, pretty good. S16 (longshot, I realize,but attainable) and it's a different story.
I would say the team under performed given the talent level. Youth was the big stumbling block and for most of the year our shooting was off, the defense was soft and our point guard play was not that good. But given all the weaknesses, this team put it together to make the tournament! I just remember all the years with Tommy as coach, the team could never make the dance. So, I’m happy this team will make the tournament and hopefully the young players will get hot!
Someone here said it was basically inexcusable to have lost to Rutgers AKA the four seed in the Big Ten Tournament. Lost a close game to them on the road down a few key players because of covid, but alright. Have to keep those type of unreasonable expectations in mind when trying to convince the internet that it was actually a pretty good season.
The team falling short of our unreasonable expectations (a dominant big man, a great complementary player, and no other proven commodities was a Final Four lock) is irrelevant to how good the team should have performed. Those expectations speak to our emotional disappointment but not to whether or not the actual team over- or underachieved. The relevant issue is how bad they looked in December/January and the crazy improvements since then. Most of us were worried we wouldn't even make the NIT then, so to make the tournament means everything turned out fine.
I’m just happy to have ended with a trouncing of MSU and a road victory against OSU.
Pre season I was thinking final 4. It ended well but I wrote it off weeks ago. Shocking and positive finish that builds confidence going into the tourney and who knows. We have the talent and youth has matured. At least I’ll have reason to buy a new tv now.
Preseason I was very hopeful that this team would be near elite. But that hope was not based as much upon fact as it was upon potential. I did think that Jones and Brooks would carry this team from the backcourt and that HD would expand his very narrow skillset and learn how to play some defense over the summer. As it played out, Jones took a long time to adapt and blend in, Brooks showed to be a nice complimentary player but not a bold enough leader and Dickinson made offensive advances but still can't play a lick of defense. And, Johns is Johns-decent physical talent who doesn't know how to play the game...he would have fit in nicely at an SEC school. It soon became clear how much the "solid" returnees benefited from the leadership and talent of the departees. In the end this team turns out to be, as the saying goes, what their record is...they are who they are.
Next year...hmm: First off, first and foremost, I want Hunter to move on to some happy basketball hunting grounds. I wish him success but I do not believe that Michigan is the place for him...way, way too many holes in his game-both physically and mentally/emotionally/psychologically.
Wow is this going to be a young team-which is also why Hunter needs to move on...psychologically he would be too much for the youngsters to overcome. But by the end of the year a starting five of Diabate, Houstan, Williams, Bufkin and Collins is likely to have surpassed this year's team. I surely liked what I saw from Diabate yesterday. Houstan, contrary to all the (ignorant) BPONE reports on this board, indeed, has an elite ceiling and is coming along nicely. Terrance is a Liveresque leader and will be a floor presence that keeps everyone mentally into the game-and he can shoot the rock. Bufkin will be a year older, smarter and stronger-and a much more dynamic player than Brooks. Frankie is a leader and is going to be ready to run the show offensively and be a defensive disrupter. The bench will be a question mark but that is very likely okay. The major question will be the back up for the five-reports on Reed's progress are good...may have to look to the portal for assistance. The fact is that there will be significant contributors who will show up from those young but talented recruits. This will be a very different team relative to what we have seen in the last five years. Next year will be the opposite of this year-lower expectations with better results.
Juwan Howard remains a top five coach in the country.