Michigan vs. Louisville: Your Initial Thoughts (9:23p tip)
I know some of us are still coming down from that fact that we're even IN the Championship Game. But hey, we're not done yet. Survive and advance, we've got business to take care of on Monday.
That said, what are your early thoughts about the matchup?
Fuck Louisville.
Luck Fouisville.
Chant with me MGoBlog brothers:
"Let's win shit!"
"Let's win shit!"
"Let's win shit!"
"Let's win shit!"
"Let's win shit!"
"Let's win shit!"
I personally like the matchup. I said that way back when the tournament started. Seems to me that Louisville is kind of a mix of VCU (pressure) and Kansas (shot blocker).
I like that we've already passed both of those tests, and think it will help when we face Louisville.
And, it's probably a matchup of the two best guard tandems in the country. Should be fun to watch.
Hopefully a Mitch McGary full-court heave at the buzzer in quadruple overtime...make it interesting for the other fanbases watching.
Bit your tongue. This season has already taken too many years off my life. I'm hoping for a 30-point blowout. I don't care how boring it would be for the rest of the country.
Ahh yes, the old UNC v MSU special.
Please no. I nearly keeled over tonight.
I think this tournament has proven a lot about both teams that have me less stressed than I should be (but still very stressed).
We've proven we can effectively beat a pressing team. While Louisville is leagues above VCU in that regard, the fact remains that great guard play > good FCP. We have Trey freakin Burke and THJ. And Spike. Can't forget Spike.
We've also kept transition teams stuck in the half-court, doing that to Lousiville would be huge.
Michigan has also proven that no defense can stop them, only hope to contain them. 2-3 Zone? HAHA. Florida #1 Kenpom defense? HAHAHA. Kansas with Withey? LOLOLOL
Louisville's center would scare me if Mcgary hand't already made Kansas' Withey his bitch in this tournament. Mitch's emergence has completely overhauled how teams have to approach us.
Also, we've been winning some of these games with pretty bad individual play at times. Others just keep stepping up. Burke struggles tonight and the bench stepped up. Stauskus has struggled for several games this tourny. If he's hot, we're looking good. THJ and GR3 have both been quiet at times. If we get our lineup operating on all cylinders, we cannot be beaten.
Also, I know Pitino is a HOF coach and all, but I'm supremely confident in Beilein's coaching ability. IMHO he's outcoached every tournament team we've played thus far.
Louisville favored by 4
Louisville is favored by 4.5
I like it. I think we beat their press and win a close one.
Start the damn game earlier. For the first time in a long time I actually want to watch the NC but I don't wanna stay up until midnight to do it...
...it's M in the damn title game. just suck it up.
For me, it boils down to what team shows up on Monday night. If Trey Burke plays like Trey Burke, McGary continues his reign of terror on this tournament, Hardaway doesn't disappear, Stauskas' shot reappears, we can put up enough firepower to win. If the aforementioned don't all coalesce, and our bench does what it did tonight, we've got a good chance.
All we need to do is maintain composure and focus, don't get caught up in the moment, and take care of business. Shut out the noise. No distractions. Just win.
Don't let the closing minutes cloud your opinion. Michigan didn't have any timeouts, were subbing every possession and fighting both half court pressure and an extended zone trying to get steals. All in all, except for the FTs, they got through it just fine. Certainly better than Kansas did.
Which brings me to my biggest lingering frustration from this season: We need to do a MUCH better job at managing our timeouts.
That TO at the end of the first half was essentially a waste, even before it ended with the exact same kind of possession that would have happened if we had just kept playing.
Clearly, you are not aware of this, but:
The fifth timeout is a "use it or lose it" timeout. If you do not call your first timeout in the first half, you forfeit it. Therefore, you get 4, at most, timeouts in the second half. If you do not use that fifth timeout in the first half, you never get to use it.
EDIT: Also, since Syracuse obviously wasn't going to change anything (2-3 zone until we die y'all), why not call a time out.
I had no problems with any of the TOs themselves. As Tom says, the end of half TO was use it or lose it, the four in the second half were two run stoppers that we got good shots from and two 5-second preventers. If you want to critique anything, it should be the inability to get the ball in late in the game.
game as the poster above did--namely, I wished we had looked better against the press than we had. But a review of the game and the last few minutes showed me that Trey was a lot better than I thought. Syracuse was playing desperation ball and Michigan kept it together, making some heady plays down the stretch.
I fon't think we'll come out on top- LVille is the real deal and has been a much better team all year than almost any other team. 34-5, BEast champs.
I don't care tho, this has been the greatest hoops seasons anyone could have possible hoped for and certainly the best since 91-92
Louisville's pressure. Not only handle it, but make them pay.
Being the better team "all year" doesn't matter. How you are playing right now does. And IME the path of SDSU, VCU, Kansas, Florida, Syracuse was significantly more difficult than the path of NCA&T, ColoSt, Oregon, Duke, Witchita St.
We shoot like we did against Florida and we win by 11. We shoot like we did tonight,we lose by 12.
Just out of curiosity, where did you get those numbers?
His ass, but it's been remarkably accurate so far.
to need more muppets!!!
I have Michigan winning this game. They are rolling and the way they're playing, they can beat anyone. I'm might take off Tuesday.
pitino looks like a character straight out of Goodfellas
I put my thoughts in the other thread, but:
Burke and Spike will need to break the press. It's going to be a more open game which will make it more fun to watch IMO. I look for Burke to go off, and do all the Burke-ian things we have come to love.
Keys to the game:
-Limit Turnovers
-Get Back on D, Louisville loves to get on fast breaks and will score in bunches
-Rebound, especially on the defensive side. No 2nd chance points for them.
-MAKE FREE THROWS.
One, I think this is going to be a GREAT basketball game. Kansas was a great ending, but for much of the game it was pretty "meh."
I think this could literally be the best game of the tournament.
Another game where we're going to hear about the other teams defense until we're ready to scream. That said, we match up a lot better vs. their smaller guards.
I look for Burke to play like an MVP and have one of the best Championship Game performances we've seen in a long time.
We're going to have to continue to be patient and pick our spots, I loved how we let Hardaway bring the ball up the floor early vs. VCU.
Obviously Albrecht is going to have to come up huge to be another ball handler.
Lastly, I look for Stauskas and THJ to shoot better, it always takes a game to get into your flow. I think we'll be better in that regard.
I love the fact that the tournament has prepared us for this game. S. Dakota St. had a pure scorer that we had to stop. VCU ran a high pressure defense. Kansas had a shot blocker in the middle. It's like we've had boot camp to prepare us for this game, for this WIN!
Congrats on 5K points!
This has made me realize I'm pretty close to 5k. Unfortunately (fortunately?) I'm pretty drunk and don't think I can get there with anything insightfulll.
But I can postt 'Fuck Louisville." so maybe I do get there by the end of the night/morning.
I'm rooting for you man.
Sadly, I'm running out of booze and may not make it much longer into the night.
However, I live to fight another day.
But we need our best posts from our top guy to do it!