HollywoodHokeHogan

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Date	Title	Body
6 weeks 3 days ago	The end of game management	has been poor from an otherwise excellent coaching staff.  They have to foul faster, it can't take 8 seconds to burn a foul and get into the bonus.  And you can't put 2 guys with 4 fouls out there to give the second foul.  I love the coaching staff an all, but this is a recurring problem that I find baffling.
8 weeks 3 days ago	I'd call the	first scenario the time I beat the shit out of some guys at a football.  I call what Brian did being a whiney kid.  Niether merits applause.
10 weeks 20 hours ago	I'm pretty sure even a 5'5" WNBA PG	could get 10 rebounds a game againstagainst GRIII.  It's almost like he makes an effort not to box out anyone.
10 weeks 20 hours ago	I was mad at Morgan	But now I"m just embarassed for him.   He can't finish at all.  He could at least try to draw contact and a foul because he cannot make anything.
11 weeks 1 day ago	I ripped the kid in past posts,	so it's only fair to admit that Nik's clutch FTs showed a mental toughness that I didn't think he had.  The 3 was a big momentum shot, but repeated FTs are a real test of a player's head.  There's not bodies flying all around to distract you.  Well done, Nik.
11 weeks 1 day ago	Let's see	He's shot 5-13 with 3 terrible fouls and one turnover.  Pretty sure that's not very good.
11 weeks 1 day ago	What excuse do we have	for why Tim Hardaway has disappeared into the aether yet again?  Is he secretly a freshmen trying to get used to playing on the road?  He has the skill to brillant offensively, but he never seems to play poorly.  He either plays awesome or just craters into the ground and he's cratered this game and the last one too.  He's also terrible on defense, but that's just the norm for this team.
11 weeks 1 day ago	When was the last time	that Michigan had a big who could score?  It feels like it's been forever.  Morgan has always had the weakest hands of any center in the country, so he does goofy shit to avoid any contact when finishing-- like that ridiculous fade-way jumper he took from two fucking feet away from the basket.  Mcgary has no touch and should probably try to force a foul call more often.  I had hopes that Horford would develop a low-post game, but now I just hope he doesn't totally shit the bed when he comes out on the floor. Oh, and Levert had one okay game (the whole 4-8 from 2 stat is misleading since he also whiffed 3 3pointers.  His eFG was not good).  But he's back in full deer in the headlights mode now.  Why the hell is he taking guys one-on-one?  It's usually bad whenever any player, even a good one, does this.  But LeVert's offensive game is limited under the best of circumstances.  Argh.
12 weeks 1 day ago	Couple thoughts:	1.  The last 40 seconds was the worse coach-team dynamic I have seen at Michigan since RR's final game.  You HAVE TO DECIDE WHETHER TO FOUL OR STEAL IMMEDIATELY.  It shouldn't even be a decision you make then and there on the court, it should be part of what you practice, .e.g if there is 1 minute left, we play D/ if there is less than 35 seconds we foul immediately/ if there is 59-36 seconds left we try for a steal in the first 8 seconds and then foul.  Instead the team just stood there.  They didn't try to steal or foul.  I honestly thought they were going to let PSU dribble out the clock because that's what they seemed to be doing.  That's inexcusable in a HS team.  2.  I think we can put the whole, "once big bad ass Jo-Mo is back in the hizzy we're going to be awesomzz at d-fence dudz!!"  theory to rest.  He's a good defender, but the way the perimeter players are playing it would take fucking Bill Russell to fix it.  He's also a very limited offense player, just like every post player at Michigan in what seems like forever (Sims was ok offensely, I guess).  Also, he's terrible at free throws. 3.  I think this blog needs a new Game-Stauskas .gif.  It should have an opposing player making a wide open three as Stauskas stands, arms down at his sides, looking at the teammate right next to him who is screaming "FUCKING SWITCH!!"   This team switches almost every goddamn pick on the perimeter anyway, so it shouldn't be that hard.  That might be a bit harsh, but he's fast becoming my least favorite player on the team.  He is really just a jump shooter because he can't finish in any sort of traffic (he managed a charge one on one with a defender tonight).  He's prone to jacking up wild shots.  His defense is bad and his passing is inconsistent.  Oh, and his handle is mediocre to the point where I get nervous whenever he handles the ball.    He'll improve on all of this as he gets older, of course, but he may well end up a mere chucker. 4.  Bad defense is contagious.  When somebody is crap, everyone does subtle things to try and compensate, like watching his man while your guy cuts to the basket. 5.  I've still never seen Caris LeVert do anything to impress on defense other than managing to touch an opposing player with the absolute minium amount of force needed to draw a foul.
12 weeks 1 day ago	Why would you think that he's joking?	Apologizes for double post.
12 weeks 1 day ago	Why would you think that he's joking?	Because this blog has a meme-for the whole 4 times Stauskas has dunked on a wide open basket?  Vogich isn't a good defender, but Stauskas is might as well be an orange traffice cone (not a barrell, just the cone).  If nothing else Vogich might know who the hell he is supposed to take on a switch.
12 weeks 1 day ago	The end last 30 seconds	was some of the worst coaching I have ever seen.  You need to either FUCKING FOUL or play FUCKING DEFENSE but you can't just stand there and do nothing for 15 seconds.  And that's entirely coaching.  I haven't seen Michigan coached this poorly since Amecker left.  Everyone can fucking talk about youth all you want but PSU is a bad Division 2 basketball team and there is no reason to give up 84 points to them in a loss. This team is not well coached and they will get bounced in the second round.
12 weeks 1 day ago	Nik Sauskas	is severely overrated by this blog.  His defense is terrible and he gets lost on switches constantly.  Offensively he's a good shooter, but at this point he really is just a shooter because he can't finish in traffic.  His passing is a high variance experience.
12 weeks 5 days ago	Pretty obvious it will be	Ray Lewis.  Don't party with him.
13 weeks 3 days ago	I should add that	I should add that at UTL, the Michigan fan two rows (thank God) behind me in the stands at the Big House pissed in the bleachers (and on himself, of course). Literally tried to covertly pee straight down.   I have never witnessed that any other event, including wrestling shows, monster truck rallies, heavy metal concerts.  I'm not sure about the height of the enlightened ground on which the Michigan gameday crowd stands.
13 weeks 3 days ago	I never claimed that all three were synonyms	So long as three aren't mutually exclusive nothing I said is in error.     White trash is clearly compatible with both, quoth the Wiki,   "In common usage "white trash" overlaps in meaning with cracker (regarding Georgia and Florida), hillbilly (regarding Appalachia), Okie (regarding Oklahoma origins), and redneck.[6] The main difference is that "redneck," "cracker", "Okie", and "hillbilly" emphasize that a person is poor and uneducated and comes from the backwoods with little awareness of the modern world, while "white trash" emphasizes the person's moral failings."   Maybe you can finesse out an incapability between "redneck" and "hillbilly" based on the etymology-- the redneck can only be a Southern flat-land farmer while the hillbilly must be an Applachian hill dweller.   But that' s just being nit-picky and pretendious, which is exactly what your post is.
13 weeks 3 days ago	I don't want the Stadium used for anything but Michigan football	and graduation.  No hockey, weddings, and hence no WrestleMania.  That said, I was at 'Mania in Detroit and it kicked ass.  Everyone complaining about the "type" of wrestling fan is an idiot.  There are idiot fans of everything, including Michigan football.  I know we wish every Michigan fan was a Michigan man and blah blah . . .  but that's simply not the case.  No different for pro-wrestling.  Or maybe I'm just biased because I'm one of those redneck, hillbilly wrestling fans.  Even three Michigan diplomas can't wash the white trash outta me.  Oh well.  I'll take the crowd at Wrestlemania over the crowd at the Blind Pig any day of the week.
13 weeks 4 days ago	The defense has been brutal	The bigs seem way too eager to switch (rather than quickly flash out) on perimeter picks.  Give how prevalent it is, I figure they must be coached to do that.  The coaches must think we are so bad at fighting through screens that this is a better option.  Which points to terrible, terrible, terrible perimeter defense.  Part of the reason we never foul is because we play very passive on the outside.  Nobody crowds ballhandlers or shooters.
14 weeks 2 days ago	They just are not that good at finishing at the rim.	THJ is worse than Burke at it, but both struggle to deal with bigs contesting their shots.  THJ should be better, given his height.  Burke's stuggles are actually less than I would expect given his stature. There are small players who are great at finishing at the rim, guys like Tony Parker or Chris Paul.  But those players make use of a (1) lot of head fakes (2)  lateral motion to use the rim to block the blocker and (3) shots with a lot of "English", which are just hard to get good at.    One thing to watch with Burke is whether he is using his short/mid-range game of floaters and pull-up jumpers.  Both Paul and Parker are excellent at both of those, but effective use of a short range floater really helps open up the small distances that let smaller guys finish, IMHO.  Using a short-range shot like lets your defender know that he can't just run down toward the hoop as fast as he can once you've initiated your drive, because if you do pull up he'll foul or leave you wide open.  That slows-up the on ball defender and helps open up the lane.     To take another NBA example, this is how Rondo is able to attack the basket.  He's fast, but not blazing like Parker was early in his career.  He has a terrible (but improving) jumper.  He can't jump out of the building.  So how does he effective get to the basket?  He uses short range, though not right at the rim, shots. Once you check up to try and guard those the shots right at the rim open up.
14 weeks 2 days ago	Beilein	was outcoached in the last two games.  The offense has been terrible, it's the same pick and roll play 90% of the time and if that doesn't work the ball just gets flung around the arc until someone jacks up a shot.  Movement toward the basket, both with and without the ball is nearly non-existent.  Thus we draw no fouls and we can't score for shit unless we're scorching from the 3pt line.   I can't understand how Beilein is unable to get this group to score.   On defense, well, I think the problem is more systemic. Beilein's 3-heavy system depends on a four who can shoot threes.  Unfortunately, three-point shooting and rebounding are not commonly found in the same player (praise be Novak).   To over come that you need either (1) a dominate 5 to control the boards; or (2) a lot of hustle and gang rebounding by perimeter players.  Lately, we've got neither.    The lack of shot blocking makes  on-ball defense of the upmost importance, although I don't see anything in Beilein's system that would tend to a lack of shot-blocking, except maybe hesitancy to foul.  The on-ball defense has been horrible, but that's completely on the players, not the system.  I'm not sure it's fair to blame the problem on the team being a "finesse" team on offense, since you can have a "finesse", which I suppose means non-post based, offense without having horrible on ball defenders.  Both the Heat and Spurs run what would be considered a finesse offense, but their defenses are very good.   But notice that the forwards on those teams, namely Kawahi Leonard and LeBron, are good rebounders.  Our forwards, GRIII and Stauskas, are pretty shit rebounders (but good 3pt shooters) and I think that's part of the problem.  The other part is just lazy on ball defense.
14 weeks 5 days ago	LeVert has long arms.	Having long arms does not make you a good defender.  I don't know what evidence the coaches have for thinking that LeVert is a good defender, but it must all happen in practice because it's never been showcased during a game.  It's LeVert's fault for not fouling when his coach is screaming for one, but it's the coaches fault for burning the RS and throwing the kid out there when he's clearly not ready.  He's looked completely overwhelmed in every big game this year, but he's subbed in for the final play of a conference road game?  What the fuck kind of decision is that?
14 weeks 5 days ago	End of the game	Beilien was yelling for a foul but LeVert disagreed.  I honestly don't blame the kid, it's the coaches fault for continually insisting that he play in a max pressure situation when he is clearly struggling.  I know he has long arms, but that doesn't make him a good defender.  He's also a freshman who has never even started a game being asked to finish one.
14 weeks 5 days ago	I'm so glad we	burned LeVert's redshirt.   I love watching him watch Whitey McWhite hit another three over him.  And then watching him fucking run and slide out of bounds on the inbound play , letting Wisconsin avoid an 8 second call that was 2 seconds away.  He's clearly too talented to wait for him to develop or to bench in crunch time.
14 weeks 5 days ago	There is LeVert	looking completely lost yet again.  I don't understand the hype at all.  He looks completely overwhelmed.
15 weeks 2 days ago	Sigh	But Burke is over-dribbling like crazy because no-one else on the court can handle the ball.  And then we get a disaster like that last TO.
15 weeks 2 days ago	REBOUND REBOUND	REBOUND REBOUNDREBOUND REBOUNDREBOUND REBOUNDREBOUND REBOUNDREBOUND REBOUNDREBOUND REBOUNDREBOUND REBOUNDREBOUND REBOUNDREBOUND REBOUND
15 weeks 2 days ago	Horford with a	fucking WNBA foul.  If you're going to foul, FOUL!
15 weeks 2 days ago	I don't quite get the LeVert love.	I can understand burning a redshirt on the guy, but he looks pretty frickin' lost on both ends of the floor.
20 weeks 2 days ago	For everyone asking for more Funchess	The kid cannot (yet) block for spit.  SC's D-line would have destroyed him, and this knowledge was common knowledge.  Hence putting him in game gives none of the deceptive benefits of a pass catching TE-- he's just a giant slow WR with good hands at this point in his career.  He will eventually be very good though, IMHO.
20 weeks 2 days ago	Wasn't it	Denard that threw a 5 yard pass into the dirt today??  Can't imagine why we didn't run that play more often.

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