Whiplash Comment Count

Brian

1/27/2013 – Michigan 74, Illinois 60 – 19-1, 6-1 Big Ten

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On January 27th of 2010, Michigan was 10-10, 3-5 in the league, miles away from a tourney bid that might validate their breakthrough the previous year. They'd only lost two walk-ons from that team, and were ranked in the top 15 to start the year.

On January 27th of 2011, Michigan was 1-6 in the Big Ten, barely above .500 overall, and following up Manny Harris's disappointing junior season with what looked like another nothing year. It would be the latest in a long line.

On January 27th of 2012, Michigan was 6-2 in the Big Ten, albeit barely. Their last three conference wins had come by a total of five points, and they'd just dropped a game to SEC mediocrity Arkansas. At 16-5 it was clear they were destined for the tourney, but no one expected to storm through upcoming away games at Ohio State and Michigan State. Michigan didn't, but then again it was their best season since… well, that's complicated.

On January 27th of 2013, Michigan eased past a team that had beaten OSU, Gonzaga, and Butler by double digits to stake its claim as the #1 team in the polls. Their average margin of victory in Big Ten wins: 18.

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In this game, Jordan Morgan sprained an ankle two minutes in. Jon Horford rotated in, and played well. Max Bielfeldt rotated in, and airballed a free throw, and bricked a free throw. He earned a couple more on the next possession and sunk both. Later, though… later he would go up for a rebound surrounded by four Illini. The ball went into a dense nest of hands. Suddenly Illini players were on the ground, dazed. Bielfeldt was going up for a layup.

Michigan-74-Illinois-60-23-597x398[1]

Dustin Johnston/UMHoops

This didn't mean much in the grand scheme of things. Max Bielfeldt is still a couple years away from being in the rotation, it was two points, Michigan doesn't need its bench to do much of anything.

Symbolically, it was a microcosm of the season. Put anyone you want out there and they will show you something pleasing and surprising. Stauskas coming in as both a deadeye shooter and a six-six layup machine was the biggest win. Then you've got Robinson being a 40% three point shooter, McGary generating obligatory Wes Unseld references, rail-thin Caris LeVert forcing his coaches to burn his redshirt, and Spike Albrecht providing cool on-court leadership in the maelstrom of the Ohio State game. Oh, and Bielfeldt tossing guys to the floor. Everyone is bringing something unexpected to the table. At some point Michigan should throw Blake McLimans in there in case he's turned into Hakeem Olajuwon. This has been a charmed year.

Michigan's fourth-string center contributed to a double-digit road win over a tourney(?) team. At some point in there the color guy mentioned that last year Michigan went to overtime with Northwestern twice last year, and that just sounded strange.

Expectations are changing so quickly that they're almost keeping up with the radical shift in the program itself, so it's good to remind ourselves what we were watching every year before this one. This is advice not from me, but from a man currently on the other side of the fence.

I’m still inside the Hall as I type this. Didn’t go down to the press conference. Don’t really care about the quotes right now, to be honest. I’m just sitting here looking at all these empty gray seats and replaying the tumble that brought us here. My emotions are tracking exactly with my half-Michigan fan roommate in the first year of the Beilein regime.

That night, I remember discussing the 1989 Final Four. With Illinois ranked #1 and undefeated, and Michigan on their seventh consecutive NCAA-less season, all he could hold over me was the 1989 semi-final. He was still a full fledged Michigan fan in 1989, and he would have never believed that the program that won it all back then would then eventually go TEN consecutive seasons without an NCAA tournament appearance (from 1999 to 2009).

I should call him tonight. Tomorrow is Michigan’s official “all the way back” moment – much like our 2004 victory over Wake Forest here – and I’m curious how he’ll feel about it. Actually, I know the answer to that. He’ll say that his heart switched to the Razorbacks in 1994, and he can’t believe that THAT program has fallen as far as it has.

I guess I’m left thinking that I didn’t enjoy the 2000-2006 run enough. I should have learned my lesson when the Flyin’ Illini were grounded by Bruce Pearl, but I didn’t. It can all go away in an instant, and the fight to get back up there can take a long, long time.

Just ask Michigan. And Arkansas. And Illinois.

I don't think many Michigan fans are having trouble enjoying this. When I watch the games with people, there are bursts of laughter and the occasional Gus-like noise. When Robinson blocks a shot or Stauskas shoots a one-touch pass or Hardaway sets up for a three you can feel is going down before it even leaves his hand or Burke… Burke.

Illinois fans are still pissed off about that loss in 1989. At this point it may even be the bedrock of their unrequited rivalry with Michigan. I've long thought that silly, but I know now that if something untoward happens to this team in the tournament I'll hate whatever program does it, without reason, forever. And that'll probably happen. Michigan is #1 by a nose, and winning six straight against good teams is hard. I have to brace for this, and try to accept whatever fate awaits with the good cheer it seems Illinois fans have about their 2005 outfit.

Whatever happens, it'll be the culmination of a story no Michigan fan is likely to see again. To go from dead in the water to #1 in two years to go from scrapping out two-point wins against Northwestern to this… put it all in your head, and turn it around until it's something you can expansively relate to anyone dumb enough to be born after March. Poor bastards.

Highlights

Also our greatest cheesemonger:

Bullets

The Burkite Hersey. Okay, so, don't pile upon me and squeeze until my eyes pop like Tom Izzo's, but wasn't Burke kind of crap in the halfcourt this game?

Let's try to separate out transition. I went through the PBP for this one and found the following transition items:

  • Assist to Stauskas after a Burke steal.
  • Burke layup after Burke steal.
  • Burke layup after GRIII steal.
  • Burke dunk after Burke steal.

While we should mentally adjust for the fact that everyone's numbers look worse when fast breaks are taken out of the equation and that generating eight points off of transition is good, here's Burke's line without those events:

3/11 from 2, 1/5 from 3, 4/7 FT, 4 A, 3 TO.

That is not up to his usual standard.

Subjectively, I was frustrated by Burke's tendency to dribble the air out of the ball when Illinois switched Egwu onto him and then jack up a difficult shot*—especially in the first few minutes when Egwu was carrying a foul and would have been vulnerable to a problematic second if he was trying to check Burke on a drive. Even if Burke didn't feel confident in his ability to get a shot off with Egwu's long arms looming behind him, there's no way that guy could actually stay in front of Burke, and once he's driving and the defense is reacting, things should open up.

Burke did seem to adapt a bit later. He lost a few assists when bigs with a mismatch couldn't finish. I don't think many teams are going to be willing to continue that sort of strategy since it seems like one of the major reasons it was effective was the bizarreness of it.

*[The one at the end of the half was okay since it seems like running the clock down without any chance at a turnover offsets the reduced chance at points. I did wish he'd taken the half-step back to make it a three.]

OTOH, THJ. Hardaway had 12 points on nine shots. His rebounding was not up to his usual par, but he added three steals. He's still above 50% on threes in conference play.

Hello Horford (and Bielfeldt). I bet Michigan fans were far less shocked than the BTN announcers when Michigan found little dropoff after Morgan rolled his ankle. Jon Horford's always given Michigan good minutes when healthy, and he did again in this one. Seven points and four rebounds in 17 minutes is pretty good for a third string center. Some turnovers held his ORTG down. Okay.

As a bonus, Bielfeldt ripped down the hands-down most mansome rebound of the year and rebounded from a humiliating trip to the line his first time out to sink two in a row. There's no comparison between post depth last year and this. Obviously.

Sam McLaurin Michigan v Illinois ZsadabMsVKFl[1]

Ranked. At long last, ranked. Mitch McGary has cracked 40% of Michigan's minutes and now takes his place on Kenpom leaderboards. He's on quite a few:

  • 8th in OREB
  • 55th in DREB
  • 193rd in blocks
  • 336th in steals
  • 217th in ORating

All of those numbers save ORating (obviously) and block rate (Horford pips him in 13% of M minutes) are tops on the team. Ace mentioned that I might be selling McGary short as a shot blocker last week, and he was right.

Caveat: after the game Beilein and Burke both talked about how Morgan was the centerpiece of the defense, so block numbers aren't everything. McGary is still impressive statistically, and in all the ways a team with four legit scorers wants him to be.

Nik Stauskas is the Tim Hardaway being the Nik Stauskas in the Big Ten of twos. That makes perfect sense, shut up.

The point is: after a shaky start from inside the arc, Nik Stauskas has taken off in Big Ten play. He's hit 15 of 23, 65%. Michigan's started using him on backdoor cuts and shooting him off those curl screens that "Goin' To Work"-era Pistons force-fed Richard Hamilton to great effect. He was 5/6 on twos against the Illini, and IIRC the miss turned into a Kobe assist.

Stauskas has been greatly aided by a shift in his two-point shots. Early, they were actually shots—I remember a couple of badly whiffed floaters early on. Now any shot Stauskas takes inside the line is at the rim. Almost literally. Stauskas has just 12% of his shots come on two-point jumpers, and recently that number is probably zero.

Thus…

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blouses. (Dustin Johnston/UMHoops)

NOT JUST A SHOOTER. Drink. Color commentators who are just sayin' and assure us that they have white friends are contractually obligated to say that Nik Stauskas is "not just a shooter" whenever he does anything like throw down a GAME… BLOUSES dunk or drop a touch-pass dime. I think the guy doing the Illinois game said it five times. Stauskas will be 58, in his 27th year in the NBA, and the color commentator will say he is more than just a shooter.

That touch pass was totally badass though. Stauskas has been charged with some turnovers this year when he's done things like that only for bigs who do not believe he is more than a shooter to fumble the ball out of bounds. They get it.

Boards check. It seemed like Michigan was getting killed. They didn't. They did end up losing the OREB war, but it was close. Michigan grabbed 38%; Illinois 41%. That is not so good given Illinois's performances to date.

Possible downside to losing Morgan? Hard to believe given McGary's numbers.

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Caris: the future. Boxscores and whatnot and peripheral business and whatever. I understand that this exuberance may be irrational. Don't care.

There's a reason they pulled that redshirt from LeVert, and at some point he's going to be a big part of the team. He can get places with the dribble, he's a quality long-range shooter, and at some point in the distant future he may be three-dimensional.

Morgan status. He turned his ankle nastily and the report afterwards was not surprising:

Michigan junior forward Jordan Morgan suffered a right ankle sprain two minutes into the second-ranked Wolverines' 74-60 win at Illinois on Sunday, and never returned to action.

Moving forward, his status remains unclear.

"I don't know," Michigan coach John Beilein said after the game. "I know that he has a sprained ankle, that's all I know so far.

"I know it was (bad enough that) he could not put weight on it."

I've had one of those sprained ankles and if I had to guess I'd say Morgan will be out a couple weeks at least. It seems reasonable to leave him on the bench if Horford and company can fill in adequately.

Brah-est student section: Illinois? MSU is strong competition, sure. Obligatory:

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how's that working out for you, brahs?

But Illinois's student section seems to be comprised exclusively of dudes whose life goal is to be the brah in those Five Hour Energy commercials.

Elsewhere

Eamonn Brennan considers Kansas vs Michigan.

Gasaway tweets!

The statistical similarities between this Michigan offense and Illinois in 2005 are striking.

Champaign Room recaps!

Two minutes to go in the first half and you've cut the lead to 28-25? Hey, that's not bad considering how poorly you're shooting and how well Michigan is playing and OH DAMN IT Michigan just went on a 7-2 run to close the half and head to the locker room up eight.

Cut Michigan's lead down to four points before the first timeout of the second half? All right, the crowd's back in it and we've got some momen...son of a bitch Michigan just went on an 11-2 run to put you down 52-39 before the next television timeout.

Over and over again the Illini would give a hint of climbing back into this game and over and over again Michigan would kick them right back down.

Photos from UMHoops. Recap. Checking in with MGoEeyore.

Comments

JeepinBen

January 28th, 2013 at 12:06 PM ^

Anyone else notice that he has a wedding ring on? that seems counter to the rest of the ad... People marry Brahs like that?

Re: basketball  - we're good at it. When the announcer last night just kept using names for shots (he wouldn't say Stauskas for 3, yes!, he'd just go "stauskas!") It occured to me just how well the Stauskas/Blouses works.

mGrowOld

January 28th, 2013 at 12:19 PM ^

1989 Michigan v Illinois in the National Semi's....

So we can thank Terry Mills for the Ilini hate all these years?  One little weak side putback?

Gotta love it.

mGrowOld

January 28th, 2013 at 1:18 PM ^

Au contraine my animated friend....

"So we can thank Terry Mills for the Ilini hate all these years?  One little weak side putback?"

I don't say Mills made the putback I said we could thank him for the Illini hate.  Without his well placed miss Higgins doesnt have a rebound to put back in.  OF COURSE I remembered that was Higgins, not Mills, who made the last second shot to drive Illinois fans insane all these years.  I was just giving props to the guy who made it all possible.

Looking at shoes...pulling on collar.......

Darth Wolverine

January 28th, 2013 at 12:28 PM ^

That picture of those Sparty fools in the student section never gets old. DAMN that was great to beat them on that day.

MI Expat NY

January 28th, 2013 at 12:33 PM ^

My only concern really with the Morgan injury is that I'm not sure Horford and McGary can combine to give us 40 minutes given their history of foul trouble.   There will be nights where they need to as Bielfeldt won't always be able to make solid contributions.

BraveWolverine730

January 28th, 2013 at 12:43 PM ^

I guess I don't see why Bielfeldt can't give a solid 5-7 min contribution every game. He's not gonna be spectacular, but with the weapons around him , he often won't need to be. My concern (not a major one, but that is life as a 19-1 team) is GRIII's minutes. He played 38 last night and without Morgan, we can't go to a two post offense often. I'm worried he's going to wear down over the course of Big Ten play.

Wolverine In Iowa

January 28th, 2013 at 12:33 PM ^

Thanks, Brian.  This team continues to amaze me each week, and it's getting kind of scary.  They didn't miss a beat when Morgan went down, and in fact, I think we have WAY more depth we thought possible inside.  McGary, Horford, Bielfeldt - yes please.

BraveWolverine730

January 28th, 2013 at 12:34 PM ^

IIRC two years ago on Jan 27 was right before that State game in Breslin. Can anyone think of a singular win that seemed to rejuvenate a program more than that one? I mean the only win i can think of that tops it as far as "program establishing" would be Bo beating Woody in 1969.

Syyk

January 28th, 2013 at 12:43 PM ^

I think I know what Brian is getting at with the recaps of our previous January 27ths, but it was a bit unclear. Yes, things looked dire for us in 2011 compared to now, but we that was the beginning of an 8-3 run that would have us in the tourney with a blowout win against Tennessee and a heartbreaking loss to Duke. It was a pretty damn good year.

But, we're light years away from that 8-seed underdog now.

Dylan

January 28th, 2013 at 12:47 PM ^

Change the site banner to BBall? I mean, we all love Denard.  But, when you are the best in the country at a mainstream sport, maybe it's time Ann Arbor gets a little more hyped-up.  It's not all about the gridiron, after all.

Hannibal.

January 28th, 2013 at 12:58 PM ^

While we shouldn't forget where we were a few years ago, we also shouldn't use that as the only reference point.  Where we were a few years ago was unacceptable.  The lack of a Sweet Sixteen since 1994 is unacceptable.  I think that we should judge this team relative to what we think a typical Michigan team should be able to do.  With that comparison, the team is still outstanding, but the feel of "playing with house money" goes away.  After two decades of absolute shit, there is no goodwill in the back account.  We desperately need this team to have a deep post-season run.  This is the only year that we will have with this particular collection of guys.  The team is a delight to watch, but I can't stop thinking about what a crushing disappointment it will be if this team doesn't either make the finals of the Big Ten tournament or make the Elite Eight. 

M-Wolverine

January 28th, 2013 at 1:50 PM ^

But I basically agree. Coming into the season, we hoped they'd be really good. But there was no guarantee it would all mesh. Now we know they're really good. Barring injuries, this team might not win the Big Ten no more it all, but it's not suddenly going to forget how to play basketball. The Big Ten Tournament only matters to me in the hope for better seeding (though it'd be great to win it), but winning just one more game with this team than last year's would be a certain kind of failure. Not a total, practicularly if we're hanging another banner up there, but it's Great 8 or bust. And losing there would even feel kind of bad (depending on the brackets we end up with). 

We may get "luckier" next year, but we won't be better. So this is the year to squeeze all we can out of it, till everything can come together at the same time later. But this is where it should be, at least semi-regularly. And legacies are written in March. But I know I wouldn't want to play us.

samdrussBLUE

January 28th, 2013 at 1:05 PM ^

That BA feature is magnificent.  He has an uncanny ability to relate to people and relay a message.  I can only hope we can keep him around for many more years to come.

3rdGenerationBlue

January 28th, 2013 at 1:14 PM ^

Although Burke had an off night relative to his normal stat line he did hit some pro quality shots - running one hander in the lane, straight away three from a full step outside the arc and the two footed crow hop jumper late in the second half. These are the plays that will push his NBA draft stock but if he is going to lead this team to an NCAA championship he needs to be more selective at key moments.....he seems to want to be the guy that buries the other team with a three too often when he could/should be more patient. Look back at the three he took from the left side of the arc in the second half - he missed but was fortunate to have McGrary erase it with a tip in. I'm sure the coaches are highlighting these plays in film sessions and Burke is learning from them.....he is only a sophmore after all.

AC1997

January 28th, 2013 at 1:47 PM ^

I'm glad that McGary gives us our first semblance of a shot-blocking presence since.....Courtney Sims?  Maceo Baston?  But at the same time I don't like how he "swats" at every shot.  I feel like he could be nearly as effective just trying to "block" the ball rather than swinging his arm so much.  I think we've already seen it result in a few foul calls and I think it gets him even more out of position to rebound. 

I'll let those of you who know more about basketball comment - is his technique flawed or is that what all good shot-blockers do and I just haven't seen one wearing maize-and-blue for so long that I forgot? 

AC1997

January 28th, 2013 at 2:03 PM ^

Brian, I agree with you about Burke's performance last night.  I actually thought this was his second worst game behind OSU.  In fact, I thought he played a lot like he did against OSU where he went more 1-on-1 and took a lot of long jump shots (refer to UMHoops for the shot chart).  Since he was still the leading scorer and they won comfortably no one really noticed, but I thought it was a mediocre game for him. 

Perhaps that just underscores how impressive this team is though.  Your POY candidate plays a shaky game on the road AND your starting center misses the game with an injury....but no one really notices because the team still put together such a good performance. 

I'm glad Horford and Beilfeldt were able to contribute - they're going to be needed in coming games against IU, MSU, and Wisconsin.  I can't even fathom the front-court depth next year when you replace McLimans with Donnal and have five legit post players who can contribute....oh, and Zach Irvin also stands 6'7" and could probably play the PF position in this offense.  Wow..... 

 

OysterMonkey

January 28th, 2013 at 2:43 PM ^

Burke made entirely too many "hero ball" kinds of plays last night, and totally unnecessarily. He shot 37% on a night the rest of the team combined for 60% shooting, yet he still took nearly 1/3 of Michigan's shots.

I do think he's one of the best players in the country, but sometimes he seems like he's trying to do too much when he has a lot of help.

SeattleWolverine

January 28th, 2013 at 2:25 PM ^

I remember sitting in the upper deck in Crisler for the last home game in 1989. That was Frieder's last game and of course in those days there was no Big 10 tourney so that was the last game before the NCAAs. We were on a little winning streak and thought that maybe this team had finally put it together. We were very talented, obviously, and ranked like #2 or #3 at the beginning of the season but we'd been a little bit of a disappointment during Big 10 play. But we were playing well, ranked around #10 and I don't think that we'd lost a home game that year (could be wrong as that was a long time ago...). Anyway, Illinois came in and they just outplayed us the whole game. They didn't just win; they were the better than us. It turned into an easy road win for them as they lead by 20 in the second half.

So when we got to the Final Four, even though we'd slaughtered Virgina, it still felt like we were probably gonna lose. Yeah, it was now Fisher instead of Frieder and Rice was on fire. But, we'd been beaten by them comfortably on our homecourt just 3 weeks earlier so a win didn't seem likely. In the end, that underdog feeling just made the victory even sweeter. 

I guess the point being that if you followed basketball closely in those days, you could understand how Illinois fans could be hung up on that game. It was actually quite similar to 2005 where they were probably the best team at the Final Four but they did not win it and those chances to win it all are rare for most programs so you don't forget them.  

dahblue

January 28th, 2013 at 2:29 PM ^

Might have been the OSU game, but I recall the TV crew saying something about our "lack of depth".  I wondered at that time what they might be smoking.  Clearly, we haven't seen a team this deep in ages.

By the way, I wonder if Stauskas will ever get a T for BLOUSES dunks.  I hope not, cause they're good for a chuckle every time.

Blue boy johnson

January 28th, 2013 at 2:34 PM ^

Bielfeldt strong like ox. Spike and Caris were laughing together on the bench when Max ripped the ball away from the Illini and laid it in. I think the laughs were of the type: "There's Max being Max, we see this everyday in practice"

 

Traitor Max:

The Illini fans were chanting "traitor traitor traitor" at Max Bielfeldt  when he entered the game but later switched the chant to "air ball"  for some reason

 

El Jeffe

January 28th, 2013 at 4:27 PM ^

I'm just glad that we have Stauskas until he's 31. Talk about your Brooks Bollinger Memorial 13th-year Senior Award!

Stauskas will be 58, in his 27th year in the NBA...