White Collar Team vs Nebraska Open Thread

Submitted by LS And Play on

Michigan -- and its 348th ranked 3-point defense (I wish I was kidding) -- will tip off against Nebraska in about 45 minutes. The bad news: This is likely another curb stomping by an average opponent. The good news, if you're the betting type: Nebraska is amazingly +9, so if you like free money today is a win. Go Patriots! 

Wolvie3758

January 14th, 2017 at 1:25 PM ^

has Michigan right where they want them..They lost their best player so thats when Michigan will just lay down...per usual..

MaizeMN

January 14th, 2017 at 1:31 PM ^

Maybe there needs to be an infusion of enthusiasm. Maybe we need more Zack Novak-like hustle and grit. Maybe it's time to look beyond JB for coaching. But it is not the time to start threads that belittle the student athletes that work, study, practice and play for my alma mater. You are a jerk.

LS And Play

January 14th, 2017 at 1:37 PM ^

I do support the team, and I'll root for them to win as always. I can also be realistic about the state of the program and the team this year. Can you tell me where I belittled the players at all? I just expect them to lose today, that's all. I'm sure they work very hard, given their athletic and physical limitations. The problem is the coach. 

The Fugitive

January 14th, 2017 at 1:43 PM ^

what's interesting is that the offense is still really pretty good.

the problem is obviously defense.  either Donlon isn't what we thought he was as a coach, the players don't have the mentality to play defense, or they just aren't physically/athletically capable of what it takes.  

I think it's a little bit of all 3 factors for this group. it's RichRod-ian.

getsome

January 14th, 2017 at 3:23 PM ^

its on coaching and players.  beilein obviously targets O first when recruiting and it shows.

certain programs build their culture around toughness, D and just getting after it for 40 mins - wisc and msu are big ten examples, big east squads like nova, uconn, butler, etc, acc team like uva - those squads may not have the best athletes but they always seem to find guys capable of defending in their system, grinding out wins and usually capable of getting more buckets than opponent.  and when they find themselves with experienced rosters or nba talent, they usually make a run.  they recruit to fairly specific culture and know how they want to play.

beilein can design all the O sets he wants and field crazy efficient Os but itll always be tough when your guys either dont have the ability or desire to consistently get stops and compete

Honk if Ufer M…

January 14th, 2017 at 2:04 PM ^

Talent is not at all everything, especially in college.

If they were simply lacking talent but visibly showed that they had passion, that they were giving their absolute all out as often as humanly possible, hustling all the time, playing as hard as possible on defense all the time, if they were boxing out & fighting for rebounds, if they played smart enough to compensate for lack of talent as much as possible and got better and better and out witted people, out worked people, and left their blood and guts and hearts on the court, then that would be a team to love and get excited about and cheer your ass off for!

This is a team & coach to love, still cheer for, but be frustrated as fuck with, and getting tired of since it's become S.O.M., M's version of a phrase I hate, and only just discovered because I've never been a Lions fan and haven't paid any attention to the NFL at all most of the time in the last forever, & even less than that to the Lions. 

MaizeMN

January 14th, 2017 at 1:47 PM ^

...to the team as "white collar" is what I find objectionable. The term was first used by an opponent to imply a softness and lack of toughness. You could just as easily started an open game thread without using that term. What purpose does it serve in this context, other than to reinforce the original intent. I certainly didn't get a sense of it being sarcasm.

WolverineHistorian

January 14th, 2017 at 2:03 PM ^

This....is what it felt like to prepare yourself for a football game when RichRod was here. You know our defense is going to get shredded, torched, humiliated, whatever you want to call it. You just hope there's someway you can outscore them in a game with virtually no defense.

Michigan is the only B1G team that Nebraska has never beaten since joining the conference. If they can't get over that hump today, they should be embarrassed.




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jmblue

January 14th, 2017 at 2:11 PM ^

Michigan -- and its 348th ranked 3-point defense

This actually might be cause for hope, paradoxical as it sounds, as there is a lot of debate over whether 3-point defense is a real thing.

LS And Play

January 14th, 2017 at 2:18 PM ^

I actually agree with you here. KenPom and other basketball analytics people think 3-point defense is mostly random, and that makes sense to me. But we do give up wide open looks basically all the time. I think we have been unlucky -- B1G teams are shooting 57% against us from 3 in B1G play, which can't continue -- but bad defense plays a role as well. Virginia will never be 348th in 3-point defense, for example.