Observations from Carver Hawkeye Arena

Submitted by iawolve on

First off, that was just a disaster to watch. The first half was enough to make your eyes bleed. The offense was so disjointed.

*Smot is the embodiment of a guy with no confidence. You knew the ball was not going in we he released it. He looked tenative and terrible handling the ball. I hope this gets fixed.

*Iowa fans do not like Novak, I could hear them complaining every time Novak got the ball. He was good in his role today and I was happy with him.

*The arena was pretty quiet and this was far from a hostile environment. This was not the away game to drop. Just a mess.

*Trey was dwarfed by Marble and I was really missing Morris. I don't know the answer against big guards because he just got bodied.

*The officiating was so inconsistent Iowa fans were bitching as well. It made no sense. I simply gave up.

Tyang

January 14th, 2012 at 3:19 PM ^

play some defense, get on the boards. and they were careless with the ball. couldnt get the ball inside at all. cant wait til mitch mcgary gets here.

Wolvie3758

January 14th, 2012 at 3:21 PM ^

the team is stagnant, poor shooting continues..Smotcz has disappeared in B10 play..Hardaway? who knows when hes going to show up... VERY inconsistent and its time to bench Morgan in favor of Mclimas..Morgan is human turnover machine and McLimas is more productive and doesnt turn the ball over..the whole team is struggling and the lack of effort and emotion today was UNACCEPTABLE...time for some changes in the lineup..NOT Michigan basketball today.  against a average B10 team

sboening

January 14th, 2012 at 5:01 PM ^

You have to be joking.  That is not the answer at all.  Mclimans has made improvements and has given some good spot minutes this year.  However, he can't take Morgan's minutes.  I find myself on pins and needles every time Mclimas is in.

BlueintheLou

January 14th, 2012 at 9:19 PM ^

I just had to log in to comment on this.

LOL.

McLimans for Morgan. That is laughable and just shows that you don't know anything about this team.

Yes, the effort and execution, and pretty much everything, was poor today. However, I'm just going to chalk it up to laying an egg before a monster rivalry game. Let's just hope they come out firing and look like a different team Tuesday night.

artds

January 14th, 2012 at 3:34 PM ^

Why are we so bad at getting penetration in the paint? Is it just Beilein's system? Do we not have the athletes? What?



I really don't understand how our record is as good as it is when this basic fundamental is lacking. Have we just been lucky?

switch26

January 14th, 2012 at 3:35 PM ^

yes, we have been lucky based on our record.. if we can't make 3's we can't beat anyone.. 

 

Our inside game consisting of morgan is pathetic.. if he doesn't get an easy layup he get's  the ball stolen, or his shots get blocked.  It can be brain numbing watching smotz and morgan handle the ball sometimes.

 

This team needs McGary right now.  Not looking forward to the MSU game tues.  

Don

January 14th, 2012 at 5:46 PM ^

You must have a very liberal definition of "highest."

Before today's game, according to the national stats on ESPN.com:

FG%:  Michigan is tied for 63rd in the country @ .465

3pt%: Michigan is tied for 125th in the country @ .355

If today's game is included, they'll rank even lower.

Gulo Gulo Luscus

January 14th, 2012 at 5:10 PM ^

winning on the road in the B10 is apparently not easy.  sound familiar?  we heard about this a lot in football this year.  many attributed it to a down year for football in our fair conference, but consensus seems to be that B10 basketball is way up.  regardless of sport, seems like the road is an unfriendly place up here.

UMfan21

January 14th, 2012 at 3:59 PM ^

We don't post up or screen for big men like many traditional offenses. Our penetration comes more from back cuts and guard penetration.
<br>
<br>The problem with today is that THJ, Smotz and Burke (thanks to foul trouble) were mostly ineffective. This team can function if one has a bad night, but not all three
<br>
<br>Even with McGary and GRIII next year I dont know if well see a lot of posting up. Probably more pick and roll/ pick and pop kind of stuff.
<br>
<br>It's not bad, it's just different. Much like the spread offense in football, it will work if executed properly. Today was poor execution, and when plays were executed well, the basket just had a lid on it.

jmblue

January 14th, 2012 at 7:07 PM ^

Iowa was playing a zone defense and packing it in.  When we face a man-to-man defense, we generally don't have problems getting to the rim.  Our problem was that we didn't shoot well enough from the perimeter to get them out of the paint.

enlightenedbum

January 14th, 2012 at 3:27 PM ^

Bench everyone!  Clearly the starting lineup should be Akunne, Douglass, McLimans, Novak, and Vogrich.

/sarcasm

Today was a trap game in a ridiculous league.  Disappointed with the amount of effort, but there's no need to overreact.

mGrowOld

January 14th, 2012 at 3:31 PM ^

What in the hell did I just watch?  Were they overconfident, bored, tired or what?  With the exception of a three minute stretch in the second half where the cut the lead from 12 to 6 they played disjointed on offense and lethargec on defense. 

Winning these games are the difference between being a 3-5 seed and actually getting deep into the tournament or being slotted as a 7-10 and being a "one and done".  They simply can't afford to drop winnable road games to average (at best) teams in conference.

This one hurt.

Needs

January 15th, 2012 at 10:53 AM ^

Looked like tired legs. Everyone apart from Novack just a step slow. I worry about all the minutes Burke especially is playing, he ended up with a good scoring line but his outside shot has been off the rim short for the past few games. 

Of course, the same thing happened to MSU at Northwestern. 

REDvsBLUE

January 14th, 2012 at 3:38 PM ^

Anybody know what's up with Smot's hands?  Obviously he has been terrible shooting the ball but I noticed in person against NW that his hands were very red and today they looked purple on tv.  Anybody know whats up with this?

True Blue Grit

January 14th, 2012 at 3:40 PM ^

It was everyone else pretty much.  Horrible shooting and not enough defense.

I will agree about the poor quality refereeing.  I've been watching Big Ten basketball for over 30 years and I'm always amazed how the conference tolerates the constant mediocrity from it's officials.  There's almost no consistency in calls.  Charges are frequently not called right.  And cheap hand-check foul calls are all over the board.  That one guard for Iowa had his hands all over Michigan players for most of the game and got very few calls.  

AmaizeingBlue

January 14th, 2012 at 3:40 PM ^

OMG we suck!!!! BLAH BLAH BLAH.   

Everyone relax, we played terrible without much effort on the defensive end and no ball movement on offense.  It happens, this was a classic trap game.  It may be frustrating as heck, but it happens in basketball, sometimes one team can play terrible while the other team plays great.  Do you guys all think UNC sucks too for being down to FSU by 20+ points right now?  I do think we need Horford to get healthy very quick, because like others have said our post game isn't  very good.

Steve Lorenz

January 14th, 2012 at 3:45 PM ^

Jordan Morgan getting 1 shot in 27 minutes when he's shooting almost 65% from the field this year is something that shouldn't happen, especially on the road when shooters tend to force things. 

TheGhostofYost

January 14th, 2012 at 3:50 PM ^

I'm a big fan of Belien, but this was not a well-coached game.  Sitting Burke for most of the first half made very little sense, and how Morgan gets that few touches is puzzling.

TheGhostofYost

January 14th, 2012 at 3:50 PM ^

I'm a big fan of Belien, but this was not a well-coached game.  Sitting Burke for most of the first half made very little sense, and how Morgan gets that few touches is puzzling.

M-Wolverine

January 14th, 2012 at 3:53 PM ^

A Big Ten champ and just a good team that hangs around the top. Did anyone really think that this team was going to be Big Ten champs? It's still a work in progress. It's disappointing, and it hurts, but it's not going to change much overall.

Don

January 14th, 2012 at 3:59 PM ^

Minnesota: 1/4 FG  0-2 3pt   2pts total

IU: 3-6/2-3   8

Wisc: 1-6/1-5    3

NW: 1-7/0-3    5

Iowa: 0-6/0-4   0

Except for IU, he's been almost invisible, and 8 pts against the Hoosiers is hardly an explosion. Combine his ineptitude with THJ's scoring funk, and you've got big problems.

It's ironic as hell that throughout Beilien's tenure at UM he's been saddled with players who are woefully poor at the one thing his offense requires the most: reliable, consistent outside shooting. For each of his seasons UM has been near the basement in shooting % in the conference; going into this game, we were 9th in overall FG% and 8th in 3pt %. This game will make that even worse.