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I may be in the minority,…

I may be in the minority, but I would love to see Dug get it together and come back along with Burnett, Williams II (COVID year), Tschetter, Reed, Khayat and GWIII. 

Dug/Burnett/TWII/Tschetter/Reed

Would at least be a very experienced team, and with Khayat and GWIII getting minutes the rest of this season maybe they can turn into legit contributors. Anderson, Brooks and Rooths should be good reinforcements as well. Bring in an experienced back up PG, a wing and a backup center and at the very least we wouldn't be this bad.

Have four tickets to the B1G…

Have four tickets to the B1G Championship game. Please email me if interested: [email protected] or text: 734-646-1990.

I'm not sure why I've been…

I'm not sure why I've been thinking that Myles Hinton is done after this year! That seems like a pretty good option at LT next year.

It's an opportunity cost…

It's an opportunity cost situation. If a player is not going to make an above replacement level impact in his first year then in my mind he should redshirt. Of course there are other reasons to play them, perhaps if they are a player that has said they are only staying 4 years no matter what or want to get to the NFL ASAP. 

The potential of a 5th year player >>> a freshman season where all they do is play garbage time or special teams.

The above is true EVEN IF they don't stay for a fifth year. 

Experience then talent is…

Experience then talent is now the key. Anybody who has the slightest bit of potential is going to be grabbed by the NBA because of the development systems they now have in place. The dominant programs will be the ones that can recruit players with potential and keep them in the program long enough to develop.

People want a guy like Terrance Williams to transfer, I just want to see him in a role more suited for him. People want Llewelyn gone, I just want to see him after time in the system and playing appropriate minutes.

I think with time we could get there, Dug and Tarris could be anchors of a team as they have no NBA potential. Get Kobe back, fill some gaps with transfers, and win some games next year.

Then we can start judging what Juwan can do with upper classmen who have been in the program.

Don’t be surprised if a:

Sr. McDaniel

Jr. Washington III

Transfer

Sr. Tschetter

Sr. Reed

Make some real noise.

How about a Still Our…

How about a Still Our Brother chant?

Shades of Dillon Brooks???…

Shades of Dillon Brooks??? Am I going insane? Dillon Brooks is an inefficient chucker who plays great defense. How is that Jett Howard in any way?

It will be very interesting…

It will be very interesting to see how Dug improves this year. Last year Devante Jones really started playing well towards the end of big ten play and that helped us get over the hump. Dug will almost certainly improve over his career, but in order for Michigan to make the jump into a sweet 16 contender they are going to need consistent improvement from Dug. 

I agree that an undefeated…

I agree that an undefeated team would be in line for a bye in a 12 team playoff, but wonder if that should be the basis for plans when creating a schedule. 

It is insanely difficult to go undefeated in College Football. If I were creating a schedule for a team like Michigan, I'd want to be trying to create the best 11-1 resume possible. 

Let's use next year as an example. If Michigan goes 11-1 with a loss to Ohio State at home, the playoff would not be a guarantee. But add a game, Oregon like Alex mentioned, and Michigan has a great win on top of beating teams like Penn State and Michigan State on the road. 

Going undefeated gets you a bye no matter what, the added difficulty of the schedule is to allow for a loss, even if that loss is against a team you didn't have to schedule. 

Had to cancel plans to go to…

Sold

Should say that Jacobs…

Should say that Jacobs played 500 snaps last year not this year.

If a team really did give…

If a team really did give him a draft promise that would be a sign that they have a lot of faith in his ability to improve. 

I would think if he did come back we'd see quite a jump in his performance.

That team had NBA caliber…

That team had NBA caliber defensive wings. Franz, Livers and Brown were all capable wing defenders. In addition, Eli could focus more on defense instead of being a top offensive option. Change those guys out with Houstan and Williams, put more on Brooks plate offensively and have few bench wings and you get Dickinson performing worse on defense. 

Projecting is fun so I am…

Projecting is fun so I am going to build off of your post here:

PG: Collins 32 / McDaniel 6 / Bufkin 2

I see Bufkin technically being the one in lineups where Dickinson has to be on the floor. It would be to steal a few minutes where all you need to do is space the floor and dump it to Hunter. Otherwise I think we are going to see Collins or McDaniel on the floor at all times.

SG: Shannon 24 / Bufkin 16

Shannon is a big experienced guard, if he comes here he will easily play 25 minutes a game. I also really believe that if Bufkin stays he is going to be hard to keep off the floor next year. He was very young and skinny last year and I think we are going to see rapid development from him.

SF: Houstan 22 / Jett 14 / Shannon 4

When Houstan goes to the NBA he will be a three, I would think that is what he is going to want to play in college in preparation. I think him and Williams are in a similar position when it comes to lateral quickness, but I would prefer Williams down low when it comes to rebounding and guarding non shooters. I predict Jett is going to end up deserving more than 14 minutes by the end of the year, but to start off he will be a nice shooter and a good athlete off the bench. To get Bufkin more minutes we can slide Shannon up to the three for a few minutes a game.

PF: Williams 30 / Houstan 10

Will Tschetter is the only other four on the roster if Diabate leaves. I think Houstan playing 10 minutes at the four is completely doable. Having Williams on the floor with Dickinson at all times should be a priority. 

C: Dickinson 33 / Reed 7

Easy enough rotation here. I would really like to see Howard keep Dickinson's minutes as low as possible early in the season, maybe around 28 a night against the lesser teams. This would allow Reed to get some early meaningful run and help keep Dickinson as fresh as possible for the early big ten schedule where we may need to rely on Dickinson a lot. Then hopefully by the end of the year Reed is ready to come in for 7 minutes a game and give full effort and maybe be a positive.

I really think this would be a nicely built team. Tschetter is another season of development away in my eyes, and Barnes while intriguing is also probably another year away from contributing.

Collins after another year of development > Jones

Freshman McDaniel < Freshman Collins

Shannon/Bufkin combo = Brooks

Love Eli but his game had some limitations. Shannon would be an upgrade defensively for sure, and the potential offensive punch of Bufkin off the bench is intriguing.

Soph. Houstan + Jett >> Fresh. Houstan with basically no backup

Jr. Williams + So. Houstan > Fr. Diabate, Johns and So. Williams

This may be a hot take but in terms of lineup flexibility and overall play I think Williams and Houstan providing shooting at the four will be more valuable than Diabate. I love Moussa, I hope he comes back because I think he has game breaking defensive ability and will improve a lot. But there were times last year where he provided little.

Jr. Dickinson + Reed = So. Dickinson + Diabate

Diabate allowed us to play him at the five and be at least live with Hunter on the bench (we weren't living well, Hunter needed to be on the floor). I think Hunter will improve but I can't see him doing much better than last year's 19/9/2 on 56/33/80 splits. Maybe we see 22/10/3 on 60/35/85 splits? That would be pretty insane.

I would say he's a very poor…

I would say he's a very poor mans Ayton. Ayton is a much better athlete, has a little bit of the jump shot, and is a solid passer for his size.

Cockburn, is just big. He is extremely strong and a good rebounder, but will have to play drop coverage and can not pass. I have a hard time seeing him stick around on more than end of the bench contracts.

They are going to be a…

They are going to be a COMPLETELY different team next year. They lose Cockburn, Frazier, Curbelo, Williams and Plummer.

I would assume they are going hard after guards in the portal because this is their projected lineup next year:

PG: Skyy Clark Fr. (5 star PG, more of a scoring guard, note - he is a top 30 player, not a top 10 player, meaning he most likely isn't one of those guaranteed one and dones)
 

SG: RJ Melendez So. (Was a 4 star, good shooter, averaged 8.5 minutes a game last year)

SF: Luke Goode So. (Averaged 9 minutes a game last year)

PF: Jacob Grandison 5th year Sr. (Solid player, good shooter, didn't play many minutes in the tournament... injured?)

C: Coleman Hawkins Jr. (If Illinois is somehow good next year it will be because of this guy. He pops)

A bunch of their players have hit the portal so their bench is impossible to predict at this point.

Agreed with nothing wrong…

Agreed with nothing wrong with playing in Europe. But now, with NIL being what it is, I would think there is a very good chance that Hunter comes back for at least one more year, moves himself into the top 3? of Michigan big man in the record books and then goes to Europe.

Why does Dug keep shrinking…

Why does Dug keep shrinking every time I look online? He's listed on the recruiting sites as 5'9", 5'10" and 5'11" even if those are fudging the numbers he is most likely a solid 5'9" and he is listed as over 150 on every site. He may not be able to go day one but I don't think it's completely unreasonable for him to get to campus at 5'10" 165. 

After a certain point a small guy is small, unless he is 5'5" what matters more is how athletic he is and arm length.

Izzo is an excellent…

Izzo is an excellent basketball coach, one of the greatest coaches of all time in terms of floor with a relatively high ceiling. However, he gets hyped up as being an automatic advancer in March. He is simply not that coach anymore. 

He does an excellent job in getting his team to the dance, once they are there however they don't have as much success as you'd think they should.

This year losing in the round of 32 is fine, they lost to a 2 seed. Last year they didn't make the tournament. They were probably on track for a good season in 2020 admittedly. 2019 is the only thing keeping him relevant in the last 10 years, and even then they were a two seed, they basically did what they were supposed too. 

2018 they were upset in the second round. 2017 second round upset. 2016, lol, MTSU. 2015 was an excellent run. 2014 they made the elite 8. 2013 sweet sixteen and out.

 2012 they were a one seed and lost in the sweet sixteen.

To me the trend is that they generally take care of business. They do well in the regular season, get into the tournament and USUALLY don't get upset. They also very rarely do more than you'd think. They have a couple of nice runs but generally get bounced sooner than they should.

 

Izzo has always been able to con his players into staying longer than they really should which leads to his team having talent and being experienced which is a nice combo. I don't think his teams are necessarily well-coached, at least not substantially better coached than their opponents, and he is not a mind blowing Xs and Os coach. Coach K has been the ultimate talent gatherer over his career, Tom Izzo has just had a level of consistency that has led to a lot of hype.

I am torn.

On one hand…

I am torn.

On one hand playing OSU gives us the best chance of winning. Even reffing puts them in a tough place when it comes to guarding Dickinson and they are heavily relying on Liddell and Branham right now. However, losing to them and watching them go to the Elite 8 would be tough.

Losing to Villanova and watching them go would be like "well, they did what they were supposed to". I also think we match up decently well with Nova.

I'm gonna say Nova. It's a better emotional hedge and would be a really satisfying win.

Either way it's really nice that our team is most likely already home and can start breaking down tape of Nova (we should have all of our OSU tape already prepared) and start game prep as soon as this evening or at least have Mon-Wed whereas whoever we play gets that one less day.

Hunter Dickinson is an…

Hunter Dickinson is an outstanding College Basketball player. However, there are very few things that he does that you look at and say "that is an elite NBA skill". There are buckets of NBA bigs who can make threes when left alone. There are a lot of NBA bigs that can put a guy under the basket and dunk. But in order to really be in the NBA you have to be able to play defense. He is exclusively a drop coverage big and is not disruptive in passing lanes and not a great rim protector. He would get destroyed by even the Trey Burke's of the NBA in screen defense.

I do see a path to the NBA for him though. If he continues to work on his shooting, and increases his agility, gets stronger and faster, he could easily be an end of the bench big that eats minutes in the regular season getting buckets. He can accomplish this in two ways, leave after this season, latch on to an organization and let basketball be your life. Or, the Luka Garza path. Stay two more years, continue to improve, prove that you are one of the best college bigs of all time, get a degree and then do the G-League thing. It really comes down to whether he values Collge Life>the NBA dream.

Man I feel terrible for him…

Man I feel terrible for him. He worked so hard to get to this point and now something out of his control takes it away. Let's hope for his sake the team plays hard for him so he can experience it Saturday.

I do wonder if he'll be able to ride down tomorrow morning and at least sit with the team.

So with each team playing…

So with each team playing three more games, the max amount of points Minnesota can finish with is 55. Two regulation and one overtime win gets us to 56. Of course this is also assuming a Minnesota sweep, them dropping a game (they are down 3-0 to Penn State right now) would help tremendously. 

We go to every game we can…

We go to every game we can. COVID has made it difficult to justify going to every game although it is nice that they require vaccination or negative test now. 

We were there for the Purdue game, between empty seats and boring fans our atmosphere is terrible. If you don't care to stand or make a single bit of noise besides clapping after some made baskets why go? The amount of people in our section that complain about people standing is outrageous to me. Why go? Now I understand, standing the entire game against Southern Utah would be silly, but after Moussa posterizes somebody to put us up double digits against the best team in the B1G? If you want to see the game there is this wonderful provision called television. It's cheaper, more convenient, gets you in bed earlier for those pesky 9:00 pm starts and is safer!

For the most part, the people that can afford and have the circumstances to go are the crochety old fans who go because it's an event, just like they are at the theater.

Does this take into account…

Does this take into account winning a game or two in the B1G Tournament? There is also a greater than zero chance that we steal one on the road against Iowa, Wisconsin or OSU. I say realistic best case is win one of Illinois or Purdue, win one of the road games, win the rest of the home games and win one BTT game to put us at 19 wins on the year and solidly in the tournament. Winning two in the BTT gives us some wiggle room. 

NIT at best? You honestly…

NIT at best? You honestly think that the best case scenario for this team is the NIT? The team is not playing well right now but to doom the team like this after ten games is insanity. There are some weaknesses, and the squad was certainly hurt by being drastically overrated coming into the season but this teams best case scenario is still ahead of them. I do not have a hard time envisioning them rattling off a few impressive wins and making the tourney as a 7 seed that nobody wants to play.

 

Do I think that will happen? Maybe not, but honestly Michigan fans are the absolute worst and either need to root for their team or get out.

Two tickets in section 312…

Sold.

Four Tickets available for…

Accidental duplicate comment.

Four Tickets available for…

Sold.

This has got to be what the…

This has got to be what the Committee is rooting for. They get to leave Cincinnati out and keep Bama in with nobody able to complain. Michigan vs. Notre Dame is a dream and it guarantees a huge market in the Championship. 

If it's Georgia vs. Oklahoma State and Michigan vs. Cincinnati I think the ratings would be a little underwhelming. 

I've been updating my bag…

I've been updating my bag this year as I have been playing with the same irons I started with when I was around 14. I also finally got a three wood.

Driver: Titleist 915 9.5 loft

3 Wood: Ping G425

3 Hybrid: Some old Ping I15 or something like that

4-PW Irons: Callaway Apex 21

54', 58' wedges: The 58 is a SM8 Vokey, the 54 is a SM5 I believe. Still trying to figure out my gap with the new irons and if I should get a 50 or 48 Vokey.

Putter: Scotty Cameron Newport 2

Ball: Pro V1 hand me downs. I've been really liking the AVX.

Bag: Just splurged on the Titleist 5 Hybrid bag at Radrick Farms. Maize and Blue with an awesome logo.

Eli averaged 30 minutes a…

Eli averaged 30 minutes a game this year and played over 30 in every important game. 

There is no way he only plays 28 minutes with the possible weaknesses as a result of youth.

I see it breaking down more into:

Collins 24 / Brooks 8 / Zeb 8

Brooks 24 / Bufkin 12 / Zeb 4

Houstan 22 / Barnes 12 / Bufkin 6

Johns 26 / Diabate 8 / Williams 6

Dickinson 28 / Diabate 12

That comes out to:

Brooks 32

Dickinson 28

Johns 26

Collins 24

Houstan 22

Diabate 20

Bufkin 18

Barnes 12

Zeb 12

Williams 6

 

Of course there is a lot up in the air with this team. Collins could absolutely deserve every minute available at the PG position. Or he could be a Freshman PG and Eli is needed more at the point requiring more minutes from Bufkin at the SG. Diabate could demand 25 minutes a game squeezing Johns' role. But we know what Brandon Johns is and you have to think he gets starter level minutes until proven otherwise. Let's just hope that the minute crunch is a result of players outperforming their predicted roles and not because of glaring weaknesses.

May as well

May as well drop Rutgers and Illinois while they’re at it. Would strengthen the football and basketball schedules.

Easier

It’s a lot easier to respect guys like this when you go 3-1 against him.

Castleton

A prep year for Castleton would make sense in this scenario.



That would also spread the centers out a little more because the next year we would have:



Teske Sr.

Davis RS Jr.

Castleton Fr.



Then when you lose Teske you’d still have an experienced Davis and Castleton.

Freshman PGs

Freshman PGs in Beileins system just don’t do all that well.

40

I count about 42 of the brackets that haven’t been updated with today’s results. Including our win and Kentucky’s loss and we should be around the top 5 seed.

Let’s the other team set up their defense

Nm

OSU win

A win against OSU gives us one more good win that could keep us above the dreaded 8-9 seed line.

It also makes it more likely that we are the 4 seed and get a double bye.

Hockey can split with Notre Dame, split with Wisconsin and sweep Arizona State and still have an ok chance at making the tournament.

Defense

Our defense alone will win us 6 games. Any QB that doesn’t turn it over and can make one or two plays a game can keep us in every game with this defense.

More possessions

They got more possessions because they started slowing down the game at the 3 minute mark.

Easy to see

It's easy to see this team being really good next year and that excites me.

Z works on his decision making and free throw shooting.

Poole steps in for Rahk and works on his defense and handle.

Matthews tightens up his handle and improves his shooting.

Livers improves in his off ball defense.

Wagner improves his defense getting stronger and improves his consistency. 

Brooks makes a jump, Teske makes a jump and then add Johns and Iggy to compete immediately.

No

No you suck. Find another team to root for.

Sign me up

Sign me up I've been looking for some new victims... I mean friends.

I'm sorry

I'm sorry but Duncan needs to take a seat. If he isn't hitting threes he is a liability.

A guy like him needs to hit threes at about 40% with high volume to make up for his defense.

Agreed

Agreed, it helps that I like Taggart, I won't mind seeing them win.

Seems simple

It seems simple enough to just have Simpson inbound instead of Rahk. Then the options are Rahk, Matthews, Robinson and Wagner which gives you 2 automatic shooters and 2 questionable vs. 1 automatic and 3 questionable.

7 seed?

We keep playing like this and we could be a 4 seed.

Next year

Next year looks very promising:



Simpson/Brooks/Dejulius



Poole/Watson/Nunez



Matthews/Brazidikes(sp?)



Livers/Johns



Wagner/Teske/Davis/Castleton



I think one guy has to transfer or leave early to make room, but that could be a very athletic, dangerous team.

If the

If the punt is called correctly then it's dead with a false start on Alabama.