February 12th, 2019 at 11:26 PM ^
They are a division 1 college basketball team in a power conference. They are going to be better than a lot of the scrubs we play in the beginning of the year. But this is not a good team
February 12th, 2019 at 11:47 PM ^
They are now #58 in KenPom. They are a good team. They are not a great team, but they are a good team. Michigan was a 75% favorite to win. Against a bad team, they'd have been a 95% favorite to win.
Also, don't look now, but Duke came back from 23 down to win at Louisville. (??!)
February 12th, 2019 at 11:32 PM ^
agree, they're actually not the worst team in the big ten per net rankings, they're 75, with Illinois at 94, Rutgers 126.
February 12th, 2019 at 10:58 PM ^
This was a debacle. PSU got away with handsy D, chipping and pushing off ball guys like Sparty used to in their hey day. The crackdown on that shit cost Izzo his perennial advantage but once in a while a crew forgets the new standards(4 yrs new) and somebody gets screwed. We were that somebody tonight
February 12th, 2019 at 11:01 PM ^
Refs weren’t good but Michigan didn’t play for 40 minutes and didn’t deserve to win.
February 12th, 2019 at 11:03 PM ^
Yup screwed by the refs. Amazing.
February 13th, 2019 at 10:47 AM ^
we played as poorly as the ref's officiated.
February 12th, 2019 at 10:59 PM ^
The offense is a shit-show...dribble, dribble, pass, pass, dribble, dribble, pass (all beyond the arc) and then have to force something with the shot-clock running out.
It's fucking maddening
February 12th, 2019 at 11:05 PM ^
Remember when state “sucked” and it was all posbang sparty nooo! because they lost to Indiana ? Lol. Penn state is far and away the worst team in the league and there were 38 people there. Calm down next time a rival loses...
Youll be fine. Off night. They happen sometimes 2-3 in a row.
February 12th, 2019 at 11:09 PM ^
Yeah, and now MSU just destroyed Minny and beat Wisconsin on the road, looking good again.
We just have to keep winning. The final stretch will be really hard, but we are capable of winning this thing
February 12th, 2019 at 10:59 PM ^
Offense was disjointed all night. A lot of players looking for help from the bench. This deep into the season I don't know if it gets figured out before post season.
February 12th, 2019 at 10:59 PM ^
I’ve never been so annoyed watching a game. Couldn’t anyone tell that ass to stop yelling oohhh near the microphone?
February 12th, 2019 at 11:02 PM ^
February 12th, 2019 at 11:03 PM ^
Couple things that have not been covered:
1) After Poole made his follow-up offensive rebound on the missed free throw, the clock did not stop. We probably lost 7-10 seconds.
2) I thought it was beyond garbage that their stadium plays the growl sound when a Michigan player misses a FT. What a fucking classless thing to do, but guess I should not be surprised.
February 12th, 2019 at 11:05 PM ^
The clock wasn't supposed to stop. It only stops for a made basket when there is less than one minute left. There was about a minute and ten seconds.
That said, the officials have it in their power to stop the clock -- and even to call a technical foul -- if they feel that a team is deliberately delaying the game, which PSU clearly was... but if you think that crew was making that call...
February 12th, 2019 at 11:08 PM ^
Ah my mistake. Thought it was under 2.
February 12th, 2019 at 11:05 PM ^
It's hard to point to just one thing when looking at the box score. Bottom line - Michigan just got outplayed. The offense is not producing enough easy looks and UM isn't hitting outside shots with the same kind of regularity as past Beilein teams. The defense has to be lights out to win games and that obviously didn't happen tonight, especially in the first half.
PSU also had a good defensive game plan of pressuring 3/4 court and forcing UM to start their half court offense with 20 seconds or less. Hats off to them.
Offensively for UM, I just don't see a big improvement in store for this team. Maybe they can make a deep tourney run with defense, but I doubt it.
February 12th, 2019 at 11:07 PM ^
Teske isn’t Moe Wagner.
Matthews can only do so much when Iggy and Poole decide to collectively shit the bed.
And Z can’t shoot.
There literally is no offense on this team.
February 12th, 2019 at 11:17 PM ^
I don't disagree. When a team switches every ball screen, Matthews is about the only guy who can create his own shot. Poole was awful tonight and I think Ignas Brazdeikis has lost his right to a nickname. No more Iggy.
Pergaps Beilein will consider different offensive sets with fewer on ball screens and even incorporate some post-ups for Teske. Who knows? It's worth a consideration at this point. The offense has been average since mid-December.
February 12th, 2019 at 11:25 PM ^
Per barttorvik.com:
Since December 15, Michigan is 47th in offense and 8th in defense. There are 353 teams.
February 12th, 2019 at 11:48 PM ^
Thanks for the stats. To clarify, I meant average by its own standards and expectations.
47th and 8th combined is not good enough to be considered a title contender, which is what UM is striving to be on a year in, year out basis. It's good, but undeniably this team has taken steps backward on offense since the beginning of the season.
February 12th, 2019 at 11:16 PM ^
I do agree that PSU's defense deserves some of the credit. Michigan's guards seemed content to stop and pass the ball backwards whenever they approached the defender. You lose one entire action when you start the play with 15 seconds on the clock instead of 20.
I was surprised that Michigan didn't try to pass over the trap instead of behind it, but the BTN camera angles were so narrow that I couldn't really tell if they had anyone open. When X tried to dribble through, it was either very good (easy layup) or very bad (turnover), so I'm sure the two steps forward, one step back approach was intentional.
The rest of the credit -- besides the officiating, I mean -- has to go to PSU making shots that they had no business making. Yes, they had a couple of open 3s, and the offensive rebounds were a real problem (note: it's easier to get offensive rebounds when you can climb over opposing players to get them, but I digress). But mostly, they had shots that hit the front iron and rolled over, or running, off-balance hook shots from the lane... or, my personal favorite, Myles Dread hit a three where I swear his feet were pointed at the sideline. I've never seen such an awkward shot go in.
Meanwhile, X is having shots go halfway down and come back out; Poole is missing wide-open threes, etc.
Without the combination of all of these factors, Michigan wins and we grumble because it wasn't very pretty. (They almost won anyway). It was the perfect storm, but all of the team's goals are still ahead of them, and they just need to pick it up for Saturday. They have no margin for error.
February 12th, 2019 at 11:26 PM ^
For kicks, I looked at how we did in early Feb the three years we made deep tourney runs ('13, '14, '17).
In '13, we lost 3 of four, including thrashing at MSU. Only win was in OT at home over OSU.
'14, we split 4 games. Lost at Indiana and Iowa, beat OSU on the road and Neb at home.
Last year we won 2 of 3 - won at Wisky, but lost at NW and beat MN at home in OT.
I'm sure people were saying the same sort of things in all these years.
We always seem to struggle this time of year, and put it together by tourney time. We'll learn from this one and be better down the road.
February 12th, 2019 at 11:50 PM ^
Teske needed to defend the rim better. Bad game for him on D.
February 12th, 2019 at 11:06 PM ^
Tough to beat the refs on the road.
February 12th, 2019 at 11:08 PM ^
I’m a just a tad upset with the overall performance. *uck the refs as well!
February 12th, 2019 at 11:08 PM ^
I’m a just a tad upset with the overall performance. *uck the refs as well!
February 13th, 2019 at 10:42 AM ^
if we didn't play like shit, the refs wouldn't have been an issue. psu was 1-11 in conf., ferGodsakes.
February 12th, 2019 at 11:09 PM ^
Surprising that the score was this close when 4/5 of your starting lineup has horrible games. Iggy was invisible for most of game. Jordan Poole was 1/8 from three-point range. Teske... did he play? 4 points, 5 rebounds. And, the usually reliable ball handler, Simpson, had 6 (yes SIX) turnovers. Charles Matthews had a good game (24 points), but he only took 11 shots. Maybe he should have taken 20+ shots like the PSU guy, Stephens.
On top of the bad play, the officiating was atrocious. However, that always seems to be the case when we lose.
February 12th, 2019 at 11:47 PM ^
Matthews had a great game, except for the dumb foul on the 3. Hopefully, it continues. If he is on, i like our chances.
February 12th, 2019 at 11:12 PM ^
Who’s to blame?! Who are you upset with the most?!
February 12th, 2019 at 11:22 PM ^
The Big10 is and always will be an abject embarrassment. Tossing B was the greatest example of short-man complex officiating ever
Meanwhile PSU can crawl back in their hole now.
February 12th, 2019 at 11:20 PM ^
Press conference was a textbook example of why Jon B is the classiest coach in the land by a long mile. That man is as cool as the other side of the pillow and as smart as they come. Thank you thank you and thanks again coach. You set a bar that will be impossible to reach.
February 12th, 2019 at 11:29 PM ^
Mind boggling all around. Mind boggling how bad UM played, mind boggling some of the shots PSU was making and mind boggling how the officials can be that horrible. I think that is the best way to sum it up.
February 12th, 2019 at 11:34 PM ^
Obviously, the guys didn't come to play. Expected to sleepwalk through a last place team. Not the end of the world. I'm pretty sure Beilein won't let it happen again. Move on. Beat sparty (twice).
GO BLUE!!
February 12th, 2019 at 11:56 PM ^
I mean just more evidence that the big ten is really strong this year. Learned that the hard way like MSU did against Illinois that PSU was not as bad their record and there are very few easy games in the conference this year, unfortunately probably just lost the Big Ten title given how the schedules shake out for MSU and Purdue. Then again you never know with this conference this year.
February 12th, 2019 at 11:58 PM ^
Any comparison to the 2013 title team is totally ridiculous. That team had the best player on the floor against any team in the country in Trey Burke. Can we confidently say that this team will have anybody on the first team all conference team? Zero playmakers is what has killed this team. We caught teams off guard at the start of the year, now scouting reports and lots of film are out there for coaches to prepare against us and we no one can deviate from the offense and go get us points when we need them. And our 3 point shooting...yuck. Nik, Tim and Trey were all dead eye shooters and could go off at any moment. This team is losing momentum and starting to look visibly tired. I hope this wakes them up.
February 13th, 2019 at 12:12 AM ^
Trey Burke shot 38.4% from 3 in 2013. Tim Hardaway shot 37.4%. Nik Stauskas shot 44.0%
Ignas Brazdeikis is shooting 37.9% this year. Jordan Poole, 38.8%. Isiah Livers, 43.8%.
(Oh, and it's admittedly a small sample size, but Jon Teske (!) is 18th in the Big Ten, with a 38.7% three-point percentage in conference play).
Michigan's offensive efficiency improved after this game. If I had offered you 69 points in 66 possessions, you'd have taken it, no questions asked.
February 13th, 2019 at 12:31 AM ^
Didn’t realize Poole was shooting that high percentage, Livers doesn’t shoot as near as much as the 3 from 2013, but he should shoot more. Poole is shooting under 30% from 3 since the @Indiana game. What he shot in November and December don’t matter when that was so long ago. We may have averaged 1 PPP but you can’t tell me we didn’t waste valuable possessions with Poole heaving up a contested 3. I can think of 3 specifcally. We had to settle for that shot because we didn’t have a playmaker like Trey or Nik to can a corner three (I love Livers but he doesn’t give me the confidence Nik did). Michigan does have a great defense, but they have to settle for too many bad shots in critical times to be consistent.
February 13th, 2019 at 12:48 AM ^
I'd definitely like to see Livers take more shots. The difference in 2013 was volume -- Stauskas, Trey, and THJ each averaged close to five attempts per game. This year, only Poole is at that pace; Livers and Iggy are both attempting about three per game.
You're absolutely right about Poole wasting some possessions in tonight's game, and I'm sure he'll be coached about it. He seems to get rushed and feel he needs to take on a big burden. In fact, Michigan is 1-3 in games where his usage is above 25% and 21-0 otherwise. (The one win is North Carolina, and he was at exactly 25% in the South Carolina game). Basically, I think Poole tries too hard when things aren't going well; the team is best when it's balanced.
The challenge for Beilein is to get him to play smarter while staying aggressive. Here's hoping the lesson's a success.
February 13th, 2019 at 1:08 AM ^
100% Livers needs to shoot more. He looked really good tonight and I expect to see him on the floor more. Maybe starting in place of Iggy for now.
Yaklich was losing his mind with someone most of the 1st half. I couldn't tell if it was Poole or Iggy. Since it calmed down after he sat, I am guessing it was Iggy.
February 13th, 2019 at 2:25 AM ^
honestly, i would give livers more minutes than iggy at this point. but, that said, you hate to make changes like that this late in the game to disrupt chemistry.
February 13th, 2019 at 2:19 PM ^
On a sort of a side note, did yuh all notice the full court pressure défense that Duke played in the 2nd half? Coming back from 23 down with 10 minutes left.
Louisville coughed up the ball on possession after possession. 17 TOs in all, leading to easy baskets on the other end.
2 defenders on the ball carrier all the time. Really impressive for a freshman dominant team.
Yaklich could pick up some pointers from film study.