Some thoughts for those who didn’t see the bball game
Eli Brooks is our best player right now. He just seems to know when he is needed and he delivers. On both ends. Dickinson has been solid but not special.
Diabate and Bufkin need to play more. Probably at the expense of Houstan who has been the least impactful of the three freshman headliners. Diabate did a little of everything and Bufkin was surprisingly sticky on defense. Diabate is closer to 6’9” than 6’11”
Houstan’s best skill thus far has been his passing which is both a disappointment (as we need shooting) and a pleasant surprise. It seems his lack of elite athleticism has made the adjustment to college ball tougher than expected.
Davante Jones has been our least effective player of all those who see regular minutes. I can see him improving as he gets more comfortable but he has been a problem. If this was football I could see some cyan talk at this point.
Curious what the other six people who stayed up to watch the game think.
November 20th, 2021 at 2:48 AM ^
They’ll get better, but right now, this team reminds me of exactly the kind of team John Beilein would destroy.
November 20th, 2021 at 3:09 AM ^
Can’t help but feel this way too. Limited perimeter shooting. Limited perimeter defensive quickness. Modern basketball is won with 3 & D.
will be interesting what Juwan does with Hunter and Jones’ minutes when lowering their minutes for Moussa / Kobe might hurt their NBA stock
November 20th, 2021 at 3:52 AM ^
Howard isn’t going to be lowering Hunter’s minutes. Diabate will play the 4 with Dickinson at the 5 and then he will slide over to the 5 when Dickinson rests. Diabate will be taking Johns’ minutes if he keeps playing like he did tonight. Diabate is athletic enough to switch off on guards, so we will absolutely be seeing more of our big lineups. We will probably see more of the Dickinson/Diabate/TWill lineup that we saw tonight because Diabate and TWill are both really versatile
November 20th, 2021 at 11:07 AM ^
This is spot on. With Hunter's offensive increased range and Diabate's defensive abilities (pretty nice offense + rebounding against UNLV) they compliment each other quite nicely.
While Johns did improve from his rough SH game, Diabate just brings a lot more to the party. That said, Diabate needs to improve his free throw shooting if he wants to be on the floor for anything more than a defensive sub at the end of tight games though.
November 20th, 2021 at 1:57 PM ^
Unfortunately I saw TWill standing around on D a couple times and not challenging shots.
November 20th, 2021 at 3:21 AM ^
Still obvious which players had time under Beilein - they are the most disciplined. Mostly they are older, which helps, but then compare to an experienced player like Jones.
November 20th, 2021 at 6:45 AM ^
This feels a little like RCMB "Martelli does the coaching" takes. There are only two contributors left from Beilien era, Brooks and John's. You specifically brought up Jones but Brooks has played for this team more years than Jones has games.
November 20th, 2021 at 8:35 AM ^
I mean, Brandon Johns is from that Beilein era and looks lost out there, while Brooks has only gotten better under Howard. So what you're basically saying is "Brooks looks disciplined out there" which is true but he also looked like that last year under Howard.
What it looks like is that Dickinson and Brooks played significant minutes against good competition last year and most of the other guys seeing consistent minutes didn't/were in HS.
It's the #265 ranked team in terms of experience; last year they were 60th. This feels like a team that is still figuring itself out after losing 3 guys to the NBA last year plus their starting PG.
November 20th, 2021 at 11:15 AM ^
Agree. I will be shocked if the team isn't improved by tournament time, disproportionately so because of their youth. We are lucky to have Howard coaching the team.
November 20th, 2021 at 3:39 AM ^
Early John or Late John? Those weren’t exactly the same pedigrees
November 20th, 2021 at 7:38 AM ^
Early Johns or late Johns? Honestly, that was one of the worst takes I've seen in some time.
November 20th, 2021 at 3:43 AM ^
But the talent on the team reminds me of talent that would end up ending Beilein's runs every year.
November 20th, 2021 at 9:56 AM ^
Beilein would destroy this team today. But this is also the kind of team that would bully and beat a Beilein team in March.
As I keep saying, this team isn't going to be anything special before the midway point of the B1G season.
The mark of this team is if, and I absolutely think it will...gain the experience, solidify a rotation and each person's role, and improve in the last third of the regular season.
I'm sticking with my prediction that we'll be somewhere around 5th in the league, get hot late and end up a 2 or 3-seed. Then win the B1G tournament and enter the NCAA tournament as one of the hottest teams in the country.
I still think this team makes the 2nd weekend of the NCAA tournament with a legit shot to make the 3rd weekend.
November 20th, 2021 at 2:53 PM ^
I was thinking this same thing. Well put, Cam.
November 20th, 2021 at 2:52 AM ^
I agree with OP, unfortunately. I really want Jones to shine, but he’s just not fundamentally sound or sure of himself yet.
Eli was my favorite to start the year, and he’s been absolutely phenomenal. Team should be 4-0 if they would just piggyback off hi
Hunter is consistent, and has some unstoppable skill sets (that we’ve all seen, obviously). Yet, I’ve been noticing shooters shooting right over his outstretched arm with success consistently. He can fill the bucket though, and hot damn we need that.
As of now:
Houstan, overused compared to value on court and Kobe underused.
November 20th, 2021 at 7:58 AM ^
I noticed the same with Hunter but I think a lot of it is matchup. He’ll look more comfortable defending big ten bigs.
November 20th, 2021 at 10:52 AM ^
Despite Jones' turnover problems, he still went for 9 pts, 7 boards, and 8 assists. I'll take that statline every game.
November 20th, 2021 at 2:54 AM ^
Not an amazing team but should get a hell of a lot better as Moussa, Caleb, and Kobe grow this season. Not liking the Devante Jones experience.
November 20th, 2021 at 8:38 AM ^
I will give Jones a bit of a pass - check of Smith's first handful of games last year and you see a guy who struggled quite a bit. It's still a transition.
November 20th, 2021 at 8:53 AM ^
It is so early you have to give a pass to these kids. Let's see how they look closer to BigTen play. Afraid we got a little spoiled last year with an experienced line up. Really a drastic line up adjustment and it will take time for these kids to gel.
November 20th, 2021 at 9:06 AM ^
Absolutely ^^ - I think a lot of us were talking about the possibility of Eli as primary PG based on early Mike Smith results.
Does anyone have info on the health of Jackson and Collins? All I have heard was "probably out for a while" on Jackson. I assume Frankie would have at least gotten a cameo playing in his hometown if he were healthy. Feels like we could use a few more bodies available in the guard rotation -- right now we are only a few early fouls away from significant Nunez minutes each game -- plus Jackson could help take minutes at the 3 like they did a bit with Buffkin when they went small + 2 bigs for a bit last night.
November 20th, 2021 at 1:21 PM ^
I don't know the answer to your question; I agree with your take though. The team's depth at this point in the season is a concern for me. I'm a big proponent of working 9 guys into the rotation early on. That way, if you get into conference play and a key player gets injured or just doesn't deliver, you have someone with recent-ish experience who can take some of the minutes. And you're not just 6-7 deep (in terms of serviceable players).
November 20th, 2021 at 2:55 AM ^
My thoughts are that it’s 3am and I’m wide awake and let’s see what Collins can do at point before we get to big ten season. Need to do something about the perimeter defense. It’s a mess. Diabate should obviously start and get major minutes. Might have lost without him tonight.
November 20th, 2021 at 2:57 AM ^
Playing the veterans over Diabate is probably the reason we lost to Seton Hall.
November 20th, 2021 at 3:03 AM ^
Jones is not a Big10 starting point guard. He's been such a liability the first 3 games. In each game our opponents got back into the game due to Jones. He's just so stiff and opponents can sense fear.
Why is coach JH so stubborn in giving Jones and Houston so much run? Might be time to hurt some feelings and cut some minutes.
November 20th, 2021 at 3:10 AM ^
Watching Jones get shaken at home vs SH and in Vegas against UNLV makes me shudder thinking about what would happen with him bringing the ball up in East Lansing or West Lafayette...
November 20th, 2021 at 3:35 AM ^
I think Juwan has probably been trying to show a bode of confidence in him the past few games, although I would not be the least bit surprised if we start seeing more Brooks/Bufkin line ups in the next few cupcakes to see if that reduces some of the erratic offensive possessions. Jones seems to get rattled pretty easily from ball pressure and he makes a lot of mental errors. Point guard is a position where you simply can't have that because it throws all the other elements of the offense off schedule. Jones either needs to step it up and play to what he's capable of, or if this is it, I think it's time to start looking for and developing other answers.
November 20th, 2021 at 10:21 AM ^
Jesus people it’s four games for 2 guys taking a major jump in competition, it’s normal to have growing pains. Howard is sticking with them because he knows he needs them to have this team hit it’s ceiling. If houstan isn’t gaining confidence and can’t be a reliable defender or shoot threes at the end of the year this team has a much lower ceiling. Absolutely worth working through struggles against seton hall and unlv to have him be a better player vs Purdue and in the ncaa tournament
November 20th, 2021 at 12:05 PM ^
I understand being stubborn about Houstan. He has all the tools in the toolbox and just needs to be coached up and learn from experience. There will be some growing pains but come March they could really pay off.
Jones. . .well, things must look pretty grim at the PG position if he’s the best we’ve got. He has so many bad habits and he’s already near his ceiling. It might be worth it to move Eli over to PG. Jones just consistently fails to make the smart play.
November 20th, 2021 at 3:13 AM ^
Diabate is the closest player talent wise to Weber we’ve had right?
November 20th, 2021 at 3:40 AM ^
Not even close. Webber was on a totally different planet.
November 20th, 2021 at 3:48 AM ^
He didn't say he was Webber. He said closest to Webber. If it's not Diabate, then who is between Diabate and Webber?
November 20th, 2021 at 5:28 AM ^
Talent wise, McGary.
November 20th, 2021 at 8:07 AM ^
McGary had more height like Weber but was no where near Weber’s athletic ability and skill. His best attribute was an endless motor. Diabate has an NBA skill set that we haven’t seen much here for a big since Weber/Howard. He’s obviously below Weber in almost every category but he’s the same type of player.
November 20th, 2021 at 9:29 AM ^
Bowler’s are not typically athletic.
November 20th, 2021 at 9:57 AM ^
We talking pure athletic ability & not basketball skill?
Because Brent Petway was an ATHLETE. Dude could dunk from Toledo.
November 20th, 2021 at 3:54 AM ^
I don't know man, if we're looking based soley on Moussa's game tonight he looked a lot like freshman Chris Webber out there tonight. He was far and away the best athlete on the court tonight and he showed some flashes that he is highly skilled as well. Consistency is now the next question. Webber had it in spades. We'll see if Moussa has that element to his game as well. If he does, he'll be in the NBA next year.
November 20th, 2021 at 3:00 AM ^
i'm thinking zeb is our best hope at PG. hoping he makes the soph leap. i read earlier that he will be dressed this weekend but likely not play. should be ready to go next week.
November 20th, 2021 at 3:00 AM ^
Brooks and Dickinson have managed to improved from being All-Big 10 talents from last year. Brooks has added some playmaking ability and Dickinson has improved with the right, showing off with it a few times tonight. Definitely our core guys and are the clear stars.
Diabate is just uber fun to watch. Diabate/Dickinson was the pairing down the stretch and thrived. Diabate was a menace in post on both ends of the floor. Matt D hit it on the head with him: he's an NBA guy period and Michigan shouldn't be wasting him on the bench at all. He even flashed on the perimeter with a long 2 (foot on the line 3), which alleviates some of the spacing issues that were initially feared.
Jones had a sloppy game as the lead ball hander, but I once again want to emphasis that Mike Smith took some time to get rolling as well. Obvious we love Mike now, but it wasn't always like that, so I'd say give Juwan some time to work with Jones. He's surprisingly active on the boards, which is an underappreciated part of his game. Still, with some messy turnovers, and Eli gaining some genuine ball handling chops, I'm starting to wonder if Michigan's closing line ups will have Brooks as the lead guard and Jones as the off guard, which is what he did in his successful Sun Belt campaign last season.
Johns is at the point where as a senior, he is who he is: a high energy two way sparkplug on his highs, but a non-factor at his lows. Houstan/Williams is still a work in progress, the shot just hasn't been there for either quite yet. Diabate taking up these 3 guys minutes seems like the smart thing moving forward, at least until one of them heats up.
UNLV kept it close by hitting a lot of junk shots, but they ran out of gas, seemingly at the same time as the Diabate/Dickinson pairing got rolling. Sometimes you just gotta tip your hat when they go in, but for the most part, Michigan was able to keep a lid on it. Not a perfect performance tonight, but a nice rebound from a disappointing Seton Hall game.
November 20th, 2021 at 3:06 AM ^
imo, if jones can't handle the PG, there is not much reason to play him. he was a scorer at coastal carolina, but not that great of a shooter. and he is not a good defender despite what we were led to believe. i would rather have bufkin play more at the 2 than jones. at least i'm pretty sure he has better upside.
November 20th, 2021 at 3:12 AM ^
I would not shed a tear if Terrance Williams never took a jumpshot again. Dude shoots like the guys at the IM Building
Houstan has a nice looking shot but his shot selection sucks right now
November 20th, 2021 at 3:17 AM ^
Yeah Terrance needs to be out there for hustle and rebounds. He gets some easy buckets on cuts to the basket and has proven in the past to help a good passer. He needs to chill on the threes. Maybe take some 10-12 footers and see how that goes?
November 20th, 2021 at 5:56 AM ^
Why are you insulting the guys at the IM building?
November 20th, 2021 at 3:00 AM ^
Houstan reminds me of Evan Smotzryk. Just the look in his eyes and tentative play. I never write off a freshman player, so I hope he can find his shot. But it’s not just that he’s missing, most of them aren’t even close. Airballs and bricks off the side iron. Moussa showed out tonight. Someone’s got to give some perimeter offense to loosen up the interior. Teams will just collapse on Hunter and Moussa. Johns was better tonight. Need Bufkin to keep improving. Overall solid game. Lots to work on.
November 20th, 2021 at 3:11 AM ^
You're already comparing Houstan with Smotzryk? Just chill.
November 20th, 2021 at 4:24 AM ^
Can we get the lobsters back in the Maize Rage?
November 20th, 2021 at 10:54 AM ^
Both of you need to Shoot More On The Run You Crazy Zombie. So many years later and I still use that to spell Smotrycz.
November 20th, 2021 at 3:00 AM ^
- Coming out party for Diabate. Rim protection is even better than advertised. Showed aggressiveness, a little shooting (but still FTs....) and some post moves. More well rounded game than he had shown to date.
- Jones = too many turnovers and just not enough creation. It does look like he might not be up to billing. He is a really good rebounder for his size but his handle is just not that tight and he isn't that much of a playmaker. His floater is nice but he'll have a hard time getting space to get it off.
- Brooks is Brooks, for those frustrated with the freshman remember how lost Brooks was like 3 or 4 years ago. He basically stopped shooting in B1G play that year.
- Houstan had another rough night and his play feels rushed. Showed confidence in his shot but he seems out of his depth to date. Will get better.
- Johns was passive in the first half but much more assertive in the 2nd. Baffling why he can't always play that way but it was good to see.
- TWill with some questionable shot selection.
- Need more post touches for Dickinson, 9 shots is not enough.
- Overall, I thought it was a decent game, more assertiveness, and Diabate showed a lot. UNLV knocked down a good number of bad shots. Defensive rotations/switching still bad. Jones doesn't need to score IMO but he needs better ball handling and looks uncomfortable in the backcourt which you wouldn't expect from an experienced PG. I mean, at some level they just need more out of Houston especially, you can't have a wing going 1-9 and a better ballhandling out of Jones too. I don't want to get too down on them but some trends are a bit concerning.
- I'm glad it's midnight and not 3AM for me.
November 20th, 2021 at 3:01 AM ^
Jones with 5 turnovers and 8 assists doesn’t impress me much
Houstan needs to find himself, obviously a lot of pressure on him but his shooting has been horrific to this point.
I only watched the second half but Diabati is fun to watch, need to slow it down on FTs and do better than 2-6 but wow, a lot of fun to see him play.
Dickinson pull off a RIGHT HANDED HOOK! He gets that going and he will be impossible to stop.
Brooks is so solid and calm, love seeing what he has worked his way to. Solid leader and great Wolverine.
November 20th, 2021 at 3:32 AM ^
Glad you mentioned young Brooks. I remember feeling very uncomfortable when he was playing as a youngster. Obviously he’s grown into a great gel guy the past year now.