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He also just sold his house…

He also just sold his house in A2 and retired from the Pistons last year. Coaching years are pretty clearly behind him. 

Also why would you want a 71 yr old as the person to dig out of this mess? There are plenty of people under 55 that can coach college hoops, Juwan just isn't one of them. 

And the game Livers got hurt…

And the game Livers got hurt in is also wrong. Maryland was just the first game he missed extended time because of it. 

I think it's time. A few…

I think it's time. A few good years sprinkled in but the program is getting steadily worse during his tenure. They had Jack Reagan on the team in 20 and 21 and didn't make the tournament. Fast forward a few months and he is starting for the CCL semifinal with Seattle in a win. It takes 11 obviously but my lord, there is no reason that should happen. 

Saying Barnes is going to…

Saying Barnes is going to have a quiet freshman year like Livers is a little ridiculous considering Livers started in the national title game as a freshman. 

Neb vs Wisco is also on…

Neb vs Wisco is also on Tuesday the 22nd. Not exactly the most anticipated match up but figured I should point it out anyway

Gotta be Jeremy Lin. No…

Gotta be Jeremy Lin. No disrespect to the rest of his career but he will always be defined by Linsanity.

Other fan bases probably see Spike this way. He is much more of a one hit wonder than DiVincenzo who was a first round pick and looks like he will stick in the NBA. It was definitely overstated how "out of nowhere" that performance was. Yes he didn't start, but he was on NBA draft radars.

 His strength taking people…

 His strength taking people on and is a very good finisher. Puts in consistently excellent service from the wing. Watching Michigan all year he was clearly the focus of the other teams scouts and I believe he was the B10 offensive player of the year as a junior. Would have repeated this year probably but missed a decent number of games for injury. Scored a banger of a free kick against PSU in the B10 tourney.

Weaknesses are around athleticism and is very left footed. His right foot improved dramatically over his time at UM but teams still very strongly overplayed his left foot at the end. His senior year that spoke more of his quality on the left than weakness on the right in my opinion. Also he almost literally never combines with others. Puts his head down and tries to dribble by people and have a hit or serve the ball.

End of the day I think his athleticism holds him back from making it at the MLS level but he was a hell of a player at Michigan.

Yes.

Yes.

I am on the opposite side of…

I am on the opposite side of the Nagbe debate. It's not that he is a bad player, he just doesn't fit with how the US needs a midfielder to play.

My main complaint is that he is neither great in the final third nor does he tackle and recover balls. With the relative lack of midfield possession the US will enjoy, his biggest strengths are minimized and his weaknesses are magnified. Thus you get situations like in Trinidad where Nagbe spends the entire game lost in the wilderness while Bradley is sprinting his ass off.

I believe the phrase is

I believe the phrase is "retire bitch"

Nick Ward

Nick Ward

No grey shirts in bball. The

No grey shirts in bball. The second semester is more than half the season. It would have to be a full prep year.

Any concern about how he fits

Any concern about how he fits on the roster? Between Livers, Iggy, Johns already being on the roster, I would have some concerns adding another jumbo wing. A lot of things went wrong for MSU this yeat, but not the least of which was way too many frontcourt players on the roster.

Lowry and Pena as

Lowry and Pena as well: https://www.vuhoops.com/villanova-basketball/2018/2/23/17043934/villano…

They are both converging

They are both converging toward running a lot of spread pick and rolls which has been referenced aboved. Wright's version is much more free flowing in general. They get into a ball screen and just that to gain an advange. From there it's drive and kick, letting players make plays.

Beilein works much more out of scripted actions. Most of his sets involve swinging the ball a few times, letting players make reads on how they are being guarded, and eventually work into a ball screen.

An under rated difference between the do is how they use their 5's. Both love it when they can shoot, but the position is actually very different. For Wright, bigs screen and roll or pop. Not a lot of responsibility other than screen and finish.

For Beilein, even his non-shooting bigs are handling the ball at the top of the key and making decisions about what is the next action within the set. Wagner and Teske are used as an outlet in the middle of the floor to swing the ball and make key passes rather than just catching and finishing. People don't realized how unique that is.

FBI docs showed 3 Nova

FBI docs showed 3 Nova players getting paid.

Yes, 3 former players were

Yes, 3 former players were listed as recieving payment and Dawkins listed a meeting with the Nova coaches a la the one he had with Izzo.

Jay Wright has been getting a lot of props as a "clean" coach that is "doing it the right way". It seems to stem from not getting one and dones and coming off as such a nice guy. FBI seems to disagree though.

I can tell you haven't

I can tell you haven't watched much basketball this year because you think Wisconsin and IU are better than MD and OSU. 

I mean just look over the

I mean just look over the last 2 years, Alderson came from Davidson, Currie from Ohio, now Kithier tries to move. And those are just the ones I know of as someone that very casually follows HS ball. Clarkston is recruiting fast and furious and obivously it's paying off.

No one at Umich uses Outlook.

No one at Umich uses Outlook. Google school so it's GCal only.

Mitch McGary, so glad that's

Mitch McGary, so glad that's over

Less athletic DJ that can

Less athletic DJ that can pass is a great Kam Chatman description 

I hope that didn't come off

I hope that didn't come off as a call out, I was more just shocked by the news. But I guess Donlon+Johns should've had our collective radar up more.

UMbig11's first miss! I

UMbig11's first miss! I honestly never thought I'd see the day...

Yeah that PPG number isn't

Yeah that PPG number isn't pace adjusted. On Kempom they ended up 9th in the league, 70th in the country.

What are your thoughts on

What are your thoughts on Dave? I have seen him in person a few times and his lack of explosion has me worried. I'm no great scout, but I'm not sure if he will be able to guard or break people down at the next level.

Brent Hibbitts' older brother

Brent Hibbitts' older brother Blake just graduated from CMU. We narrowly avoided a Hibbitts showdown.

You are missing at least one

You are missing at least one that I know of, Alum and Michigan native Larry Warbasse.

To your point, Draymond Green

To your point, Draymond Green never averaged more than 1.1 blks per game in college and is now an effective rim protector for one of the best NBA teams of all time. DJ averaged 1.5 this year.

What makes you think he will

What makes you think he will develop better college than he will at the pro level?

No matter how good JB is at player development (and he is great) it stands to reason that removing the distraction of school and focusing full time on ball would help you develop more quickly. NBA has even made huge invetments in the D (soon to be G) League to improve player development.

And that is aside from the fact that you actually get paid.

Wagner couldn't even get on

Wagner couldn't even get on the floor in Michigan's biggest game of the season. Isn't that end of discussion?

The classic thread-jinx. 

The classic thread-jinx. 

Having the privedelge of

Having the privedelge of running at Sergi Roberto certainly contributed to Marcelo's big day.

Casemiro, despite scoring, is

Casemiro, despite scoring, is a scrub. Only job is to hack down Leo and did it 4 or 5 times somehow without getting sent off. His yellow was a more dangerous tackle than Ramos' red but for some reason show studs is an automatic sending off when the far more dangerous scizzor motion is not.

I hear you and that seems to

I hear you and that seems to be the consensus view so I am probably wrong. But EEVP as a whole played zero defense in the two games I saw, which included Greg walking back a few times. 

Also picked up a T when he was already in foul trouble in a playoff game. That was after he almost put down one of the most incredible dunks I have ever seen and later hit some big 3's, so I don't mean to come across as a hater.

But in that loss to CT, his biggest issue was focus and effort. Limited sample of course, so I defer.

Curious, why do you say he

Curious, why do you say he was never going to MSU?

And I saw G play twice this year, both L's to Cass Tech. That kid has a lot of tools in his toolbox but a long way to go to put it all together. His effort and focus....wavered. That said I love his game and hope he lights it up at MU.

Hopefully the fact that Bamba

Hopefully the fact that Bamba became a fan of Michigan after Beilein roasted Smart for a trip to the Sweet 16 gives M and edge over UT.

But this is recruiting, which is specifically engineered to make no sense. Time will tell.

If all the games were at home

If all the games were at home Beilein wouldn't have beaten the 16th ranked team on Kenpom by 25. Or the 30th ranked team by 20.

The switching is so bad.

The switching is so bad. Voluntarily putting our shortest guy on their tallest guy makes less than no sense.

With no switching, worst case scenario is McIntosh gets a little separation on a dead sprint away from the rim. Instead, Pardon catches it over the top with a head of steam toward the cup.

Same boat, I've been a bit

Same boat, I've been a bit disappointed with DJ's activity level on offense in general over the last couple weeks.

He feels a bit flat footed along the baseline as opposed to how he played earlier in the year. It feels like he is happy to settle for the same turn-around fadeaways that made him an average player earlier in the season rather than the back cuts and 3's that made him such a beast to start the year.

It was a comment on getting

It was a comment on getting back on defense vs going for offensive rebounds in response to a question on "rebounding being the difference in the game", which was a silly question to anyone that looked at the 4 factors graph.

He was explaining that he valued preventing transition offense of Minn over really fighting on the offensive glass, considering that wouldn't be super successful anyway.

(I listened to the press confrence hoping for some red meat on the officiating. No dice.)

This team has a premier

This team has a premier non-con win in SMU that is looking better by the week. Beating a top-15 team by 25 at a neutral site will carry a lot of water for us I expect.

Add in a big win vs Wisco that looks poised to grab at least a share of the Big Ten and a 9 or 10 looks very fair.

Michigan is top 30 in Kenpom for a reason, everyone take a deep breath. It took an all-timer of a screw job to steal a top-25 RPI road win. Shit happens, we are gonna be fine. 

He also had the biggest

Duncan also had the biggest defensive rebound of the game. Kicked Nigel Hayes ass on the weak side one-on-one to seal a huge stop. 

The biggest run of the game took place with Donnal at the 5 and Irvin at the 4. Wilson barely got any run in the last 10 minutes.

And the "they should just play like this every game" after the best performances of the season is an asinine take. It's sports. You play well, you play poorly. Beilein stays positive and gets his guys through it, and the results over the course of his career show that his approach works.

This is the first time I

This is the first time I could be accused of being level headed (I'm here for my upvotes)

Wager's possession at :47 is

Wager's possession at :47 is so inexcusable it blows my mind. Beilein mentioned it specifically in the post game, it just makes no sense. He is in good position on the line up the line to start but shows zero urgency to get back as the ball swings. He is totally out to lunch.

The possession at 1:09 is much the same thing. He switches from a hedge to an ICE ball screen coverage halfway through and allows penetration as a result. As the big, it is his responsibility to call out the screen and determine coverage.

That is the stuff that I'm sure drives Beilein crazy and makes it feel like he can't play him. If you kill all the X's and O's and preparation the coach puts together, JB can't just watch that happen. It's like a direct slap in the face to him personally regardless of PPP differences.

The guy who did Levert's foot

The guy who did Levert's foot surgery is the Net's team surgeon so that's the real in. No one knows better than that guy.

I'm going to bet my dollar

I'm going to bet my dollar against Brian's that the metric is True Shooting %, which does go over 100% by weighing 3's more than 2's and adding in FT's. It's one KenPom cites quite a bit, and one that Steph does quite well in from the corners as anyone who watches basketball can imagine.

This is the best breakdown on

This is the best breakdown on here. The scheme is designed "no middle", so the baseline drives aren't a killer. It's the reaction to that penetration where people are getting beat.

All of these buckets boil down to rotations, and the fact is that Michigan is just rotating too much. Hedging screens creates rotations that the "ICE"ing or "down"ing of PnR's don't. That's why ICEing is favored by programs like OSU and basically all pro teams. And on simple baseline drives from a non-scorer like Gessel, MAAR jumps to the ball instead to leaving him to a contested shot at the rim. We also have a tendency to switch every time two people are in the same area. Just switching and rotating on everything.

Communication is a big issue, but rotating right is hard, and when you ask the kids to do it 2-3 times a possession, breakdowns are inevitable.

This is the best breakdown on

This is the best breakdown on here. The scheme is designed "no middle", so the baseline drives aren't a killer. It's the reaction to that penetration where people are getting beat.

All of these buckets boil down to rotations, and the fact is that Michigan is just rotating too much. Hedging screens creates rotations that the "ICE"ing or "down"ing of PnR's don't. That's why ICEing is favored by programs like OSU and basically all pro teams. And on simple baseline drives from a non-scorer like Gessel, MAAR jumps to the ball instead to leaving him to a contested shot at the rim. We also have a tendency to switch every time two people are in the same area. Just switching and rotating on everything.

Communication is a big issue, but rotating right is hard, and when you ask the kids to do it 2-3 times a possession, breakdowns are inevitable.

Well that Ryan kid can ball

Well that Ryan kid can ball which I'm sure is part of it. And I assume it's just because they have roster spots open with Caris not dressing. And it could mean Ricky isn't dressing as well. John mentioned he has been sick all week.