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Yes, every rotation player…

Yes, every rotation player was fine to be on the roster, and would be helpful next year.    I’m sure Washington would be a fine 8-9 rotation guy.   Everyone else would be, as well.   This group lacked a couple of guys who could go get a basket and depth in the front court.   

They were NOT denied by…

They were NOT denied by admissions.   One was supposed to a grad transfer that didn’t finish his last class in time

One realized how few credits were going to transfer.    
 

not admissions fault.   Not really a  coach issue either

 

 

grad transfer, grad transfer…

grad transfer, grad transfer, freshman, grad transfer, grad transfer, grad transfer, grad transfer, and grad transfer.

Shannon was supposed to be a grad transfer and his previous school screwed him over.  Jackson and Olivier were grad transfers.  Not sure on the status of Burnett.  The 3 PGs he has brought in were all grad transfers, as was the Brown 6th man shooting guard he brought in for the Elite 8 run.

So it isn't like Howard doesn't know how to get transfers in.   The foreign kid this year was a special circumstance.

So the only 'failure' was Love this year, who was coming from a similar level public school as UM, which, ok.

Getting juniors and seniors to transfer when 50+% of their credits won't come is a problem.   That can severely limit your options in the world that the portal has become.

 

There is something wrong…

There is something wrong with the player culture in the program.   HD was the de-facto leader of the team and I wonder if he was ultimately toxic (maybe not toxic as an individual, but a leader not leading in the best direction).    Then there was a void this year that I never saw anyone fill.   To me, this is a big reason the team went from being a potential 6-10th place BT team to the worst team in the BT in a while.   

Think about sophmore X/Z on this team.   He was ok as a player, but he was a leader on the court.  This team has missed having someone like him over the past couple of years.

Is that a cause of the problem?   a result of the problem?   I'm not sure if we will ever know.

Does it make difference,…

Does it make difference, that’s up to you.  But we are not being honest if we don’t list as a mitigating factor the fact that this team rarely had the same group of available players in back to back games.   
 

only Reed and Burnett played every game.  (WillT and TWill only missed 1).  And they were all staggered.   That makes consistency almost impossible.   

If by saying ‘the year after…

If by saying ‘the year after’ you think those guys will stay two years, that is…not certain

Maybe they are in the portal…

Maybe they are in the portal by morning, but Dug and Reed are both young talent and here right now.   
 

I agree that there isn’t a ‘solid core’ coming back next year, but that isn’t ZERO  and NOT ONE

Same freshman year as Bufkin…

Same freshman year as Bufkin and Dug (before JLew’s injury).   He’s the 4th guard with 2 guys that need to play 35 minutes in front of him. 

Because he turned it over 5…

Because he turned it over 5 times doing it in the first half.   And Dug has the much better defender on him.   
 

that is, in fact, good coaching.  

One excuse they don’t have…

One excuse they don’t have tonight, for the first time in 6 weeks, they have the same group of players available as last game.   

Guy grabs Reed’s arm.  Reed…

Guy grabs Reed’s arm.  Reed brings his arm back and gets called for the foul.  
 

this team has enough struggles, they can’t work through a tough whistle game 

Reed?

Reed?

Dug?

Dug?

Which is what one means when…

Which is what one means when they say ‘an average BT starter’

 

But it is.   pSU’s first…

But it is.   pSU’s first half run was when UM’s entire front court had to sit.   Now, here we go again

On that play where Reed…

On that play where Reed dominated the red head (and traveled), he took FAR more contact than this last foul on him.   Boo 

What options do you have…

What options do you have when your 3 (4 with injury) biggest players are on the bench with foul trouble?

Just not true.   Defensive…

Just not true.   Defensive rotations have improved dramatically.   

Wretched shooting, unforced…

Wretched shooting, unforced TOs and fouls trouble.   Woof.   
 

will make that comeback more sweet?

Burnett was not OOB 

Burnett was not OOB 

Announcers acting like they…

Announcers acting like they have never seen the auto-bench.   

All of the user names check…

All of the user names check out!

Picked up Slaughterhouse…

Picked up Slaughterhouse-Five the other day.   Quick, easy read, and enjoyed it very much.   Sometimes the classics (is that old enough to be a classic?) are classics for a reason.  So it goes.

Their WR core will be better…

Their WR core will be better because their #2 and #4 receivers will be incrementally better....and they lost their #1 and #3?   Even if Smith is the best FR receiver ever and Tate makes a big jump, which seems likely, their overall receiver core is not better.   

And, no, their TE position didn't improve.   It may be close to even (I doubt it), but I don't see that improving either.   That's kind of my point.

I keep asking at which…

I keep asking at which position will they be better next year?   Incremental at the positions where people stayed, ok.   QB?  I don't see it.   WR, big step down.   TE?   OL, the incremental improvements can be a bigger deal there, so maybe.    Defensively, unless the young guys moving from safety to LB are an improvement, the rest is the same.

Certainly, they have young talent where someone will pop.   Their best hope is that staying the same will be good enough, which may be true.

Is that you, Leonard…

Is that you, Leonard Hamilton?

I am sure this thread is…

I am sure this thread is going to spiral down.   But taking your question on:

Starting 3, and depth at the 2/3 and 4/5, which is pretty close to what you are saying.

And somewhere, somehow, they need some leadership.

The assumes:

nobody additional leaves. (big assumption, I am sure)

Recruited freshmen can contribute.

 

Legs looked really heavy in…

Legs looked really heavy in this game.   
 

on an odd statistical note.   Fernandes for Rutgers played 26 of the 35 non-junk minutes (all jokes about 38 junk minutes ignored) and still managed a -2 in the +/-        No wonder those runs in the other 9 minutes felt like an avalanche.   

They went full walk-on mode…

They went full walk-on mode with 5 minutes left when the game was ‘only’ at 22 points.   That is early.   Rutgers left one guy in for another 90 seconds.   That was the least ‘rub it in’ move a coach could do.  

Comparing Michigan bench…

Comparing Michigan bench minutes to Purdue's is a terrible comparison for this discussion.   Michigan has averaged 2.5 rotation players unavailable per game.   The fact that the bench minutes difference is only 3/game is impressive. Do you think JLew plays 84 minutes in the 15 games that he missed?  WillT played 24 minutes yesterday that were starter minutes.   If Olivier had been available that would have been 15 bench minutes and on and on and on. 

 

And yes, it is an indictment of Purdue that outside of Edey they aren't better than Michigan...which was my point.  

Purdue is leading the…

Purdue is leading the country in 3 point percentage for a reason; they generate open looks.   
There spent a lot of the game fronting Edey, which means he is already inside when a shot goes up.   
there were X and Os reasons for much of what you are mentioning.   That doesn’t make it bad coaching.   
 

(did UM run the ball vs Washington because UW had a bad coach?)

Michigan is deeper than…

Michigan is deeper than Purdue.   Note that Michigan played this game missing 2 rotation players and still had almost identical bench production

Felt good to spend a game…

Felt good to spend a game irate at the officials instead of just depressed about the team.  
 

why do refs with the worst view of calls insist on jumping in and getting calls wrong?

of the 14 fouls on UM’s 3 bigs, how many were vs Edey?   It was only 7 or so, I think.   (Which is also the number of them that were weak to bad calls)

There are a lot of…

There are a lot of legitimate points being discussed here as to why this team hasn't been good. 

But the one that fully tanked the season is the game to game player availability.   Last night had 3 players that played vs. MSU that did not play, and 2 players that did not play vs. MSU that were available.   No team could hope to become more consistent through a season of player shifting like this team has had.

Help defense is a generic…

Help defense is a generic term.   Who?  On which play?

Home cooking going to the…

Home cooking going to the visiting team. 

This is where we need…

This is where we need someone to step up.   Who wants to be the leader to plead us to a rivalry win?

One factor in our poor…

One factor in our poor defending is that this team has zero depth.  Coaches likely are (definitely should be) emphasizing not fouling at all. 

Hall jumped forward by a…

Hall jumped forward by a full foot.  Not vertical. 

Haha, back to back posts. …

Haha, back to back posts.  One says no effort at all, the other saying pretty good effort.  

Team Culture and…

Team Culture and fundamentals are two different topics

Well, if you read my posts,…

Well, if you read my posts, you would see I agree with you.   No player leadership is the team’s biggest issue

This team is playing like…

This team is playing like they are missing their senior leader on the floor

The future is bright because…

The future is bright because a guy can dunk an uncontested breakaway?

It's not just the "lazy stat…

It's not just the "lazy stat-readers."   Plenty of UM fans finally got to watch a true top tier QB in Ann Arbor and failed to appreciate it.

  

As I start typing this, I…

As I start typing this, I have no idea where I am going to go with this.   Overall, I think this article is a miss on the whys, but I don't have a great answer either.   Maybe it is the section saying that talent evaluation has been poor.   It hasn't.  The examples that players 'only' made it to the G league is amusing.   Do you think that Rutgers team that pulled a 20 point turnaround has more than 1 or 2 players that will even sniff the G-league?   How many players on MSU's pre-season top 5 team will make the G-league or better?   A roster of 10 G-league, non-NBA players would complete for B1G titles every year.   Recruiting players that are at that level is not a miss! (even if fans think that they should be lottery picks.  We were warned that Diabate and Houstan were not those guys before they ever arrived)

Roster chaos has definitely been a huge problem.  The one and done factories have largely been able to withstand this, although Kentucky has had a few poor seasons, but Michigan isn't them.  This is a fair criticism of this staff.   That said, some of this year's chaos has been just bad luck.  I am sure the staff knew what Jett's plans were.   Kobe developed too much :) .   After being almost unplayable as a FR, him blowing up and leaving was a little surprising.   Hunter leaving was not in the plans (although possible.  Players were committed/signed that would have been solid replacements that never made it to campus.  I can't lay all of that at the staff's feet.

The JB players timing out is kind of a whatever.   It correlates, but I don't diminish what was accomplished in Howard's tenure as being fully attributable to JB by any means. 

To me, the question is what is really going on with this year's team.   They do not have bottom half of the B1G talent in that core 8 players. They may not have the most versatile team, and there have been injury issues on top of that, plus the suspension, but this should be a middle of the pack team even with that.    Is it the staff (and I mean the entire staff)?  On paper these guys are a solid bunch.   Is there a player attitude problem?   I question if there is a bad egg or two in the group.  ( I am by no means calling at any individual.   I leave that as an open question.)   

There are '10' other programs in the Big 10 that are competing at, at least, as low a level as UM in NIL.   That can't be the excuse.  Teams like Minnesota and Penn State have turned over their entire roster and are competing at a higher level.   I am honestly just confused about it all.

I have repeatedly pondered who is the player-leader of this team.   Certainly X/Z was great in that role.  I think Livers was, as well.   Mike Smith and Jones both seemed to have it, as much as a transfer PG can.   I don't see anyone these last 2 years.  To me this is part of the extended runs/close loss traits of this team.

I know the 'everything rolls to the head coach' theory.   But this whole thing has been strange to me.   

(ha, when I started I didn't know what I was going to say, and now that I am finished, I don't know what I said)

Excellent!   Great win

Excellent!   Great win

this is why I point to…

this is why I point to player leadership.   yes, all of the above is an issue, but what is #1?  Having that guy to pull the team together and execute when things start to get away from them.   That is lacking.

"He received financial…

"He received financial offers “for way more” at other schools"

Unless we are talking about being on a partial scholarship, what does this sentence mean?   Isn't this what the NIL violations are?   I know it happens, of course,  I am not naive (well, I am, but not that naive) but what is this?   

 That sounds like explicit financial inducements to sign at schools.  What is ok and what gets you investigated? I mean, here is a case where he has to sit out 20%of games for $1000, and this sentence shows up in the middle of the article.

Assuming the tampering is…

Assuming the tampering is real, which, of course.   
 

I can’t believe none of these players, anywhere wouldn’t keep those receipts (texts, record phone calls etc), and go public with it.   I kind of understand why recruits don’t, but a player loyal to their school that isn’t going anywhere and is receiving their bank already, why not?  It doesn’t need to be 100 of them, just 5-10 could get a lot of attention.  
 

hey, everyone, look what Texas just offered me to leave….and I’m not even in the portal.   
 

I can’t imagine there aren’t 5 Alabama players that would love to out Auburn or Texas