Give the ball to a kid and have him dribble with his back to a couple defenders and try to create a shot opportunity isn't going to work well against very many defenses...unless maybe the kid is LeBron and the defenses clear out of the way and watch it all happen.
Embarrassing game. Embarrassing program. There is no excuse for this.
The offense is completely stupid. Goes to the basket, he's covered by two defenders, he has to figure out how to get a shot off through both of them since, somehow, no one else has made themselves open with a line to the basket. Ever. No one has been schemed into any kind of position to do anything to make themselves available for the ball unless it's a reset 30 feet from the basket...It's like 1 on 2 or 1 on 3 or 1 on 4 for every shot...
Meanwhile, on defense, Nebraska is picking them to pieces - when their guy meets resistance (they're almost never stopped), he flips the ball to his guy who simply slips himself into position right under the basket for an easy lay-in...
It's horrible to sit here watching this shit Juwan is presenting to us thinking "Gee, I wish we had offensive schemes like fucking Nebraska has. And defense. Look how they move laterally to stop UM's drives and keep their guy in front of them. And help! And hustle. And box out. Yep, I wish Michigan could play basketball like Nebraska!"
C'mon; these aren't just inferior talent guys getting beaten. No way. This incompetent level of scheming and prep is completely unacceptable and has no place anywhere near a Michigan program.
Guys like JJ who have the tools but don't have the numbers...he won't be the first off the board. He's not going to get talked up by anybody outside of Harbaugh. The dimwit draft prognosticators always just look at college results and talk up the high numbers guys. If there are teams out there who want JJ it isn't in their best interests at all to talk him up. I'll be surprised if he doesn't get quietly taken behind the other guys...and then wind up being the best value of them all.
Perhaps, but he's getting regularly beaten by teams that have at least those same issues and more. We're not talking about being in 4th place in the B1G and losing out to NBA roster bluebloods in the NCAA Tournament, here. We're in last place and won't see the NIT.
It was not just the roster. Those guys came with fundamentals and 'how to play basketball' already built in. So he was installing an approach to offense and defense that was different, but the critical foundational things were already in place. The guys already knew how to make crisp passes, take care of the ball, position themselves, select good shots, find a guy who has a better shot, when to take the shot, how to stop ball, help on defense, box out on free-throws, work together, dig in and play tough when it's needed...it's a crapload of maximum effort in practice to identify, teach, and motivate guys to learn them. Coaches work their tails off showing guys how this is done. It's all the things that go into a game that ends with fewer than 10 turnovers and a score that favors the good guys. Beilein ran himself ragged doing this and found a guy to help him (defense) when he couldn't do it himself.
That is what was already in place when he got here.
So what to do? Sort of like building up a football team from the lines out, if I were in Juwan's shoes, I'd try to find some basic things the team can hang it's hat on. Maybe start drilling the daylights out of them on ball security, moving on defense, and positioning for rebounds. Get some basics down with objective goals you can quantify that you can tell the team you're proud of them for and that they can be proud of. "We out rebounded them," "We only had 8 turnovers," "We only let that guard blow-by once"- "We closed out really great on threes" stuff like that.
It's worse than that. The B1G didn't just not do anything when OSU got in hot water over tat-gate - they went to bat for them to get the original post-season suspensions removed to be served out the next season (when everyone knew said players were going pro anyways). The same conference who is trying to get Michigan defacto removed from post-season play, came to cheating OSU's defense when they were doing all kinds of stuff and everyone knew it.
Yep. It's not enough to just sit on the sidelines and let the NCAA maybe punish UM in the future (which can still happen as a pile-on), they're actively trying to make sure of it.
I don't know what Michigan needs to do to change this, but the financial muscles related to what they do for the conference need to be flexed - hard - and put these bastards in their places.
You're right. But if the conference behaved like it, this might be worth something: "The ACC needs Michigan more than Michigan needs the ACC." Over time, it might make the ACC a more attractive place to spend broadcasting $$$.
I don't think UM's going anywhere, but it sure would be nice if this damned conference started treating Michigan like the centerpiece they are.
I get what you're saying, but it's kind of like the screwing over the Rose Bowl vote in 1973 that helped fuel the war between Bo and Woody. It's the sort of thing that makes you want Michigan to kick their ass even worse every year.
What's ludicrous is that UM gets this shit treatment all the time in the first place. The conference's premier school in just about everything. They should be the showcase. Instead, they're the damn footstool. Next set of negotiations, UM needs to demand a share of revenues more commensurate with their contribution.
Especially given how much the U of M delivers to those pockets. Really. The way UM has been treated by this conference in my lifetime you'd think we delivered negatives.
The TCU article about messing with us made me laugh pretty good. It makes it sound like they just toyed with us over the signs and that's why they put up 50+. That has to be a load of crap. What was Michigan doing?
"Good work, Connor, we're totally ready for this play! Dang it, Connor, we just got totally burned! What are they doing now? OK, great! Crap, burned again! Connor? OK, cool! Dang it! Now what, Connor? Oh, great, we're totally stopping them this time! Arrrrgh! I just don't understand it! Every time I think we've got the sign, and they just pull it away! And I still keep falling for it anyways!"
But if your cover is removed and you get pants again, then you're really in it, aren't you? Man, do I ever want Michigan to go all Dan Campbell kneecap chewing at the end of November.
LOL. WD is EXACTLY who I conflated this to, also! I think you're correct that we should have concerns for Stalions; WD was a kid, kids do stuff and then grow up. Stalions is a former Marine officer who went to Annapolis. Honor, integrity, excellence, etc. Living his dream working on the sidelines and in Schembechler Hall with Harbaugh. He has to be feeling like his whole world has gone to complete shit.
"Weird. Very weird." Yes. It's a strange feeling. Not hoping for the Lions to win, or thinking they can, or even knowing they can; but expecting it. Especially in mid-October. It is weird.
My wife had tetralogy of fallot surgery in 1971 at UM (she was 2). It' still fine. She has to get checked regularly and it never fails with each new cardiologist - they always comment how amazed they are at how well it's holding up and how she must have had a fantastic surgeon to be able to do that so well in 1971. Go Blue Medicine.
Was he making racist tweets, or was he liking racist tweets? It seems like it'd be a pretty big PIA for Harbaugh himself or Warde himself to be reviewing all the tweets a candidate liked.
Skimming through what they posted maybe, sure. But even then, I can't see either of those guys reading everything. And most definitely not to the degree of scrutiny someone out there who hates everything Schembechler would do.
But that is not to say it shouldn't be done. Certainly it should. This seems like a job someone in HR should be doing along with background checks, reference checks, resume verification, education claims verification, etc. The last time I was in the hiring process was 2017, so admit this could be a dated way to do things, but I left all that up to HR.
A press break that puts Hunter just over the mid-court line would've been a good thing on the Dug overthrow. But I'm guessing Hunter was in the backcourt so they could get the ball in bounds cleanly - likely due to lack of other good options.
Reed tries to bring the ball down and in too much, then gets it slapped away by smaller players. It's an instinct that has to be practiced away. He will. It's coachable.
Other guys dribble high and slow in traffic and get it taken away: Baker, Williams, Jett, Reed, even Hunter a little. This is coachable, too.
Several guys hang the ball out there on drives like a scoop of ice cream on a cone, and it looks almost like they're in slow motion; of course it gets slapped away. This is also coachable.
It's looked a little better as of late but, in general, passing isn't as crisp as it ought to be, either. This is a team thing, except for Hunter. Spacing around the perimeter works much better when the ball zips around; it gets the defense moving and can get defenders out of position, opening lanes. Yep, coachable.
Positioning on rebounds is terrible a lot, too. Guys like Tschetter commit foul after foul trying to lean in and swipe away at balls they or someone else should have been in position to grab cleanly.
These are the kinds of things I've been watching for all season because they're evidence of solid coaching. I expect to see them improved next season. Some of them have, to a degree, this season. But not enough.
You know the trope that goes something like "such and such team has played in tight games all season" and it's presented as an advantage? Yeah, I call bullshit on that.
True. This team doesn't consistently put a body on guys when shots go up. They also seem to end up chasing after everything a step slow. But it is better than it was a couple months ago. There were times then when they looked completely overwhelmed.
Just channeling his coach. I'm sick of the coach who constantly screams at the officials. Of course, it could be that they're so bad you have to yell all the time to try to get the make-up calls. I guess. I still hate it and am glad we've been mostly free of it.
Their age and experience is what let them climb to mediocrity. I'd rather be Michigan. But I'd still rather Michigan was better at basketball right now.
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Give the ball to a kid and have him dribble with his back to a couple defenders and try to create a shot opportunity isn't going to work well against very many defenses...unless maybe the kid is LeBron and the defenses clear out of the way and watch it all happen.
Embarrassing game. Embarrassing program. There is no excuse for this.
The offense is completely stupid. Goes to the basket, he's covered by two defenders, he has to figure out how to get a shot off through both of them since, somehow, no one else has made themselves open with a line to the basket. Ever. No one has been schemed into any kind of position to do anything to make themselves available for the ball unless it's a reset 30 feet from the basket...It's like 1 on 2 or 1 on 3 or 1 on 4 for every shot...
Meanwhile, on defense, Nebraska is picking them to pieces - when their guy meets resistance (they're almost never stopped), he flips the ball to his guy who simply slips himself into position right under the basket for an easy lay-in...
It's horrible to sit here watching this shit Juwan is presenting to us thinking "Gee, I wish we had offensive schemes like fucking Nebraska has. And defense. Look how they move laterally to stop UM's drives and keep their guy in front of them. And help! And hustle. And box out. Yep, I wish Michigan could play basketball like Nebraska!"
C'mon; these aren't just inferior talent guys getting beaten. No way. This incompetent level of scheming and prep is completely unacceptable and has no place anywhere near a Michigan program.
Guys like JJ who have the tools but don't have the numbers...he won't be the first off the board. He's not going to get talked up by anybody outside of Harbaugh. The dimwit draft prognosticators always just look at college results and talk up the high numbers guys. If there are teams out there who want JJ it isn't in their best interests at all to talk him up. I'll be surprised if he doesn't get quietly taken behind the other guys...and then wind up being the best value of them all.
Perhaps, but he's getting regularly beaten by teams that have at least those same issues and more. We're not talking about being in 4th place in the B1G and losing out to NBA roster bluebloods in the NCAA Tournament, here. We're in last place and won't see the NIT.
It was not just the roster. Those guys came with fundamentals and 'how to play basketball' already built in. So he was installing an approach to offense and defense that was different, but the critical foundational things were already in place. The guys already knew how to make crisp passes, take care of the ball, position themselves, select good shots, find a guy who has a better shot, when to take the shot, how to stop ball, help on defense, box out on free-throws, work together, dig in and play tough when it's needed...it's a crapload of maximum effort in practice to identify, teach, and motivate guys to learn them. Coaches work their tails off showing guys how this is done. It's all the things that go into a game that ends with fewer than 10 turnovers and a score that favors the good guys. Beilein ran himself ragged doing this and found a guy to help him (defense) when he couldn't do it himself.
That is what was already in place when he got here.
So what to do? Sort of like building up a football team from the lines out, if I were in Juwan's shoes, I'd try to find some basic things the team can hang it's hat on. Maybe start drilling the daylights out of them on ball security, moving on defense, and positioning for rebounds. Get some basics down with objective goals you can quantify that you can tell the team you're proud of them for and that they can be proud of. "We out rebounded them," "We only had 8 turnovers," "We only let that guard blow-by once"- "We closed out really great on threes" stuff like that.
I like it.
The MSU one was fun to listen to. Strayhorn: "Oh no." "Oh man" "Oh wow"
It's worse than that. The B1G didn't just not do anything when OSU got in hot water over tat-gate - they went to bat for them to get the original post-season suspensions removed to be served out the next season (when everyone knew said players were going pro anyways). The same conference who is trying to get Michigan defacto removed from post-season play, came to cheating OSU's defense when they were doing all kinds of stuff and everyone knew it.
Yep. It's not enough to just sit on the sidelines and let the NCAA maybe punish UM in the future (which can still happen as a pile-on), they're actively trying to make sure of it.
I don't know what Michigan needs to do to change this, but the financial muscles related to what they do for the conference need to be flexed - hard - and put these bastards in their places.
You're right. But if the conference behaved like it, this might be worth something: "The ACC needs Michigan more than Michigan needs the ACC." Over time, it might make the ACC a more attractive place to spend broadcasting $$$.
I don't think UM's going anywhere, but it sure would be nice if this damned conference started treating Michigan like the centerpiece they are.
I get what you're saying, but it's kind of like the screwing over the Rose Bowl vote in 1973 that helped fuel the war between Bo and Woody. It's the sort of thing that makes you want Michigan to kick their ass even worse every year.
What's ludicrous is that UM gets this shit treatment all the time in the first place. The conference's premier school in just about everything. They should be the showcase. Instead, they're the damn footstool. Next set of negotiations, UM needs to demand a share of revenues more commensurate with their contribution.
Especially given how much the U of M delivers to those pockets. Really. The way UM has been treated by this conference in my lifetime you'd think we delivered negatives.
Well, shit.
Dammit. That graphic was on purpose. We can't give up a touchdown here.
There you go, Donovan. You got your short yardage touchdown.
I don't really like JJ being in the game right now.
Do not get McCarthy hurt.
It took me almost 8 games and for however long we've been hearing about Semaj Morgan to figure out that Semaj is James spelled backwards.
Edit: almost 9 games
The TCU article about messing with us made me laugh pretty good. It makes it sound like they just toyed with us over the signs and that's why they put up 50+. That has to be a load of crap. What was Michigan doing?
"Good work, Connor, we're totally ready for this play! Dang it, Connor, we just got totally burned! What are they doing now? OK, great! Crap, burned again! Connor? OK, cool! Dang it! Now what, Connor? Oh, great, we're totally stopping them this time! Arrrrgh! I just don't understand it! Every time I think we've got the sign, and they just pull it away! And I still keep falling for it anyways!"
But if your cover is removed and you get pants again, then you're really in it, aren't you? Man, do I ever want Michigan to go all Dan Campbell kneecap chewing at the end of November.
LOL. WD is EXACTLY who I conflated this to, also! I think you're correct that we should have concerns for Stalions; WD was a kid, kids do stuff and then grow up. Stalions is a former Marine officer who went to Annapolis. Honor, integrity, excellence, etc. Living his dream working on the sidelines and in Schembechler Hall with Harbaugh. He has to be feeling like his whole world has gone to complete shit.
It for certain doesn't say anything good about Annapolis and Marine officers.
"in a peculiar way, I am disappointed in UM for the execution as much as any ethical issue."
Right; as in maybe Michigan should get punished for this just for it being so stupid.
Hmm. Born on 3rd base and his team strikes out three times = game over. I like this
"Bowls, Polls and Tattered Souls" is a really good book. 2007; 16 years ago. Good point.
Someone has done something right to get guys like Barry to come back around. Think that's says positive things about the culture.
I was thinking this very thing. I don't know how well he does all the blocky-catchy stuff, but damn, if they added a piece like that...
"Weird. Very weird." Yes. It's a strange feeling. Not hoping for the Lions to win, or thinking they can, or even knowing they can; but expecting it. Especially in mid-October. It is weird.
"...after the tunnel incident..." I hear you, but I was there when they tried to break Denard's neck.
"Neon Deion"
My wife had tetralogy of fallot surgery in 1971 at UM (she was 2). It' still fine. She has to get checked regularly and it never fails with each new cardiologist - they always comment how amazed they are at how well it's holding up and how she must have had a fantastic surgeon to be able to do that so well in 1971. Go Blue Medicine.
Was he making racist tweets, or was he liking racist tweets? It seems like it'd be a pretty big PIA for Harbaugh himself or Warde himself to be reviewing all the tweets a candidate liked.
Skimming through what they posted maybe, sure. But even then, I can't see either of those guys reading everything. And most definitely not to the degree of scrutiny someone out there who hates everything Schembechler would do.
But that is not to say it shouldn't be done. Certainly it should. This seems like a job someone in HR should be doing along with background checks, reference checks, resume verification, education claims verification, etc. The last time I was in the hiring process was 2017, so admit this could be a dated way to do things, but I left all that up to HR.
Remove the goalies completely. No players - offense or defense - allowed within a 15' arc of the goal. Shrink the goal to a 24" x 18" rectangle.
LOL. You pretty much just said 'Michigan lacks players who can play basketball.'
Beilein emphasized being careful with the ball and it showed.
A press break that puts Hunter just over the mid-court line would've been a good thing on the Dug overthrow. But I'm guessing Hunter was in the backcourt so they could get the ball in bounds cleanly - likely due to lack of other good options.
Reed tries to bring the ball down and in too much, then gets it slapped away by smaller players. It's an instinct that has to be practiced away. He will. It's coachable.
Other guys dribble high and slow in traffic and get it taken away: Baker, Williams, Jett, Reed, even Hunter a little. This is coachable, too.
Several guys hang the ball out there on drives like a scoop of ice cream on a cone, and it looks almost like they're in slow motion; of course it gets slapped away. This is also coachable.
It's looked a little better as of late but, in general, passing isn't as crisp as it ought to be, either. This is a team thing, except for Hunter. Spacing around the perimeter works much better when the ball zips around; it gets the defense moving and can get defenders out of position, opening lanes. Yep, coachable.
Positioning on rebounds is terrible a lot, too. Guys like Tschetter commit foul after foul trying to lean in and swipe away at balls they or someone else should have been in position to grab cleanly.
These are the kinds of things I've been watching for all season because they're evidence of solid coaching. I expect to see them improved next season. Some of them have, to a degree, this season. But not enough.
Yeah....
Apparently...sigh.
Well that was craptastic. You have to go at :10, otherwise all you get is, well, crap.
Let's go guys. Make my gut instinct wrong on what it thinks is going to happen here at the end...
You know the trope that goes something like "such and such team has played in tight games all season" and it's presented as an advantage? Yeah, I call bullshit on that.
True. This team doesn't consistently put a body on guys when shots go up. They also seem to end up chasing after everything a step slow. But it is better than it was a couple months ago. There were times then when they looked completely overwhelmed.
Just channeling his coach. I'm sick of the coach who constantly screams at the officials. Of course, it could be that they're so bad you have to yell all the time to try to get the make-up calls. I guess. I still hate it and am glad we've been mostly free of it.
That 0-7 run was brutal. Michigan has these spans where their minds wander off to someplace that isn't in the gym where the game is being played.
Their age and experience is what let them climb to mediocrity. I'd rather be Michigan. But I'd still rather Michigan was better at basketball right now.
I hope this MSU team shows again when they play at Crisler.
Now they're just teasing us.
Ugh
That missed 3 by TWill is probably the final back breaker.
Cheddar taketh away, Cheddar giveth backeth