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Maybe he picks up a 3rd

Maybe he picks up a 3rd, maybe he doesn't. His fouls didn't really come in situations where they targeted him, they came on weird loose ball box out rebounds.  But they were lost on offense and sputtering and that stretch was the biggest moment of the game.

 

And on the officiating, it honestly felt to me, like the calls were going to whoever was currently losing.  Brunson flopped a series of times when Michigan was up and the 2nd half felt like the officials were a bit generous with all the AND 1s for Michigan that turned into just 2 FTs when the ball continually slowly rolled off the wrong side of the rim.

 

Great Season, and Beilein will never change AutoBench, I just wish he would. Now that he's coached a lights out defense there's literally only two things to nitpick about, Autobench and not landing the 5 stars, which is also tough to complain about since he turns 3 stars into the POY and 2 stars into 23 point title game scorers.

I dont think you paid close enough attention

Even when Dunc wasn't making his shots (he only took 3), Donte was glued on him on the perimeter and didn't leave to help at all.  He was glued in the corner and helped open up lanes and spacing all around. Livers, as Beilein said himself, wasn't ready to play those minutes and Nova helped off him far too often, easily and with confidence that it wouldn't hurt them.

Again, they would have lost anyway, it's just a minute played is a minute played, a point scored is a point scored, regardless of whether it comes in the 1st half or 2nd.  

 

Death to Auto Bench

“Not having Duncan Robinson and Muhammad-Ali in there for much of that half was a killer for us,” Beilein said. “Isaiah Livers is going to be a really good player. But having him (on the court for) 17 (minutes) and Duncan for three was not good for us. Muhammad-Ali sitting out was not good for us.”

John, this was literally your decision. They subsequently combined for a single foul the remainder of the game. The team was floundering on offense without the spacing Duncan provides, even if he isn't knocking down shots, and the final 11 minutes of the 1st half were huge with swinging the game.  

In the end Nova was an excellent team, and Michigan had to bring their A+ game to beat them, they did not and likely nothing would have changed the end result. Just John, please read your own statements next time you go to auto bench someone and subsequently watch the team flounder without said auto benched player.

Also

A baby sitter for 5 hours probably costs more than the price of a ticket

This is the accurate response

I took my 1+ year old last year because I wanted to spend a weekend in Ann Arbor with my wife and kid and wanted to go to the game. Our collective parents live in Massachusetts and South Xarolina so leaving them with the grandparents was not an option and getting a baby sitter that we had no clue about also was not really an option.

My wife spent at least 1/2 the time on the concourse with my daughter running around. My daughter was plenty happy doing it and the times she was sitting in the seats she was fine. But you can only corral toddlers for so long.

I would say if you have the option to get a babysitter you should probably do it because it's not worth spending the money on the kids ticket. If your husband is diehard set on this, then one of you is gonna spend time on the concourse for awhile and that's your choice.

Stressful?

I don't think tomorrow should be stressful at all. If they get in cool, they'll get some tourney experience for a team bringing everyone back, but let's be honest there's no chance this team gets out of the first week, and even winning the game in Dayton would be a coin flip.

If they don't get in, then well the NIT might be better for this team. It's a tournament where they might actually stand a chance. My old baseball metaphors would say this Wolverine team can hit an 80 mph fastball, but once someone throws 90, if they make contact it was pretty lucky. They are on the bubble for this reason, they aren't all that good.

Open Threes

There was a perfect example late in the game of one of the things that ails this team.  With Nigel Hayes having the ball in the post, Derrick Walton started to sag below to the foul line to play "help" defense, giving his man Bronson Koenig some space.  As he sagged to the free throw line to "help" he was very uncommittal, almost like he was looking for a moment to go for a steal. That moment didn't come, Hayes past out to Koenig, who had ample room for his look which he buried to up the margin.

The moral of this story is they seem to have no organization around help defense.  Walton needs to commit one way or the other, either he needs to double and force the kick out, thus hopefully signalling to the rest of the defense to start rotating, or he needs stay on their best three point shooter and hope that Hayes misses his open look.  He did neither.  This happens ALL the time.

 

GRIII

I agree on McGary that there was a decent chance he was going pro regardless. I think GRIII leaving was more disappointing given the fact he's already been waved this season and has barely eclipsed 100 minutes playing time this year.  It's those guys (see Darius Morris) that leave and have almost no impact on the NBA that are the truely disappointing ones to me.  

 

I guess you can take these with a grain of salt and say if Morris stayed then Trey Burke doesn't become the player of the year.  If GRIII stayed maybe Dawkins or MAAR isn't on the roster.  But when I'm sitting at the B1G tournament getting asked by an Iowa fan who Michigan's seniors are and I respond with "Just the supremely undersized center" it's frustrating knowing that there could have been seniors who are fringe NBA talents leading the way.

Rebounding Still a Huge Concern

I'm of the notion that expectations should be higher next year simply because of the improvement that was seen in MAAR, Irvin & Dawkins at the end of the season BUT this team still has a major weakness on the glass especially against the upper echelon.  The fact that Biefeldt was consistently getting minutes over Donnal and to a lesser extent Doyle is not a good sign for next season and there is no recruit walking through the door that's going to solve those issues.  The Wisconsin game in the B1G tourney was lost mostly because the team seemed to fail to gather a single defensive rebound in the last 5 minutes.

The Michigan teams in the past few years were never really extraordinary rebounding teams but were able to pass by it due to their offensive efficiency. This team finished a dreadful 308 of 345 in rebounding margin and will be relying on huge improvements from Doyle & Donnal to get that to even respectability.  If they are going to seriously compete for the conference title next season, with or without Levert, this is an aspect of the teams game that is in desperate need for improvement.  

Points in the 1st Half = Those in the 2nd Half

The problem with the 2 foul pulling is that there is zero viable bench options and this team has the slimmest of margins to pull victories out, especially on the road against solid opponents.  Dakich and Lonergan provide you zero, at no fault of their own, they are walk ons for a reason. When either is on the court, the Wolverines are playing with an effective zero usage player at offense (5 points in 100+ Big Ten minutes combined) and someone to attack on defense.  This has repeatedly burnt the team over and over again.

It would be a little be more acceptable to me if Beilein was able to figure out a way to get Chatman, Donnel, Doyle and Biefieldt more PT but it seems like we are incapable of playing with two bigs.

On the 1-3-1, the open threes were in large part due to Trimbles ability to dribble out of every trap.  It seemed like a dozen times that he got around a trap or a strong hedge and resulted in short bursts of 5 on 3 basketball.  

With all that being said, the team puts up a fight most outings and games are entertaining despite losing 3 guys to the NBA, a Senior Transfer and the 2 best players on the current roster. It could be a lot worse.

Home didn't care all day about Shane Morris

The whole helmet to helmet hit was just the icing on the shit storm cake. For most of the game Shane Morris was completely outmatched, taking huge hits and limping around the field. At no point in time did he look remotely capable of playing QB against Division 1 competition, but Hoke was apparently so set on benching Gardner that he didn't give a shit. He just left the kid in to get hit on play after play even though he couldn't run. At the end of the 3rd quarter I wondered if they should just fire Hoke on Monday because he nor the team seemed to care. Even the defense seemingly threw up their hands and said well wtf is the point in trying.

Michigan's two victories are over teams with 1 combined win over some college called Campbell. It's hard to fathom anything happening on the football field worse than Saturdays lack of desire and complete negligence over player safety. And I know the statement issued today was pure PR bullshit, but seriously WTF were the athletic trainers and medical staff doing? It is their job and they should just be included in the cleansing.

1-0

Michigan 1 Minn 0

27-26 Michigan

27-26 Michigan

31-10 Michigan

31-10 Michigan

81-64

Michigan

Guh

Michigan 76 Purdon't 65

Oladipos 74 Burkes 70  

 

Oladipo POY 1 - Burke POY 0

76-70 Michigan

76-70

Anthony Wright was a 2 star recruit...

... on Scout and a 3 star on rivals, who averaged 9 points in High School.  In order to be overrated don't you inherently at one point in time need to be rated?  

2.5 star recruits that are overrated are the ones that don't make the roster or transfer.  In his class that included Ekpe Udoh (bad example), K'Lon Morris and Reed Baker.  

Punch People...

I'm surprised Stauskas was able to mantain some composure on the court rush given his animated style, his rough shooting performance and two out of bounds calls that were completely absurd.  First on the missed three, self rebound where a Badgers player dives and takes out both the ball and his feet and secondly the afformentioned botched call at 62 a piece which led to the curshing 3.

 

Also, if at any point in time you on your television set can hear a slap, I find it difficult to believe the ref 3 feet away can not.

63-60 Good Guys

Michigan 63 

State 60

85-70

Michigan 85 Purdon't 70

77-49

Michigan 77- Eastern Michigan 49

Michigan 81 - WVU 65

Michigan 81 - WVU 65

It's Nice...

Playing a QB that can't throw the ball more than 3 yards... Thanks Purdue. 7 wins and anything coming in the next two weeks would be a huge bonus

Agree with previous posters

GT over Florida makes little sense.

Also I think you should reconsider Cincy vs. TCU. If you're going win by win I think Cincy's schedule is much much deeper.

Agreed

I think the biggest reason for the dismay of the fans is the 4-0 start. If they sat here at 5-6 with a couple of wins in the Big 10 instead of getting our hopes up that perhaps they were actually good, than perhaps the reactions would be a bit more tempered.

Sunk Cost Might Be An Overstatement

I am completely aware of the difference between a Sunk Cost and Variable Costs, but at some point as a coaching staff you need to be accountable for what amasses as the programs worst year ever.

I'm not saying that the odds weren't completely stacked against him this year and I'm certainly not saying that a 2010 BCS bid is a must, but the idea of a sunk cost is that it should completely be ignored when making a decision on the future. And I can't sign up for that. If in three years or whenever it remains questionable whether he can turn the program back around using his system than the fact that he captained the ship during its attack on icebergs should matter.

Ugh Depression

He showed flashes as at the very least a solid third down catch the ball out of the backfield back. Plus, it's always exciting to have 1 of the 3 white running backs in BCS football. This just adds to the overall sadness of the 2008 campaign.

Vatech

The Hokies picked up an L at home and you moved them up a spot. Meanwhile their defeater and division leader, Miami, is nowhere to be found.