Illinois 85, Michigan 69
Kipper Nichols entered tonight's game with season totals of two field goals and two offensive rebounds in 18 minutes played.
Against Michigan, the Illinois freshman scored 13 points on 6-of-9 shooting and pulled down five offensive boards, one more than the Wolverines had as a team. Center Maverick Morgan, who averages 9.4 points per game, had 12 at halftime. At that point, the Illini were 20-for-32 from the field and had rebounded half of their missed shots; Michigan was shooting 64% and losing by 13. The second half played out in similar fashion, with Illinois stretching the lead out to 20 on four separate occasions before easing up late.
I've found the questioning of John Beilein's job security to be somewhere between reactionary and absurd for much of this season. With the defense looking unfixable even after the offseason hire of Billy Donlon, however, it's time to at least bring up the discussion, one that will only grow louder if the team continues to resemble the one that sleepwalked through tonight's game. It's a shocking development for a coach who resurrected the program, made a national title game, and won his second Big Ten title only three years ago. Beilein's offensive prowess is unquestionable; his recruiting and defensive coaching may lead to a change sooner than anyone could've reasonably expected not so long ago.
January 11th, 2017 at 11:30 PM ^
It's time. This team might only win 3 or 4 games in the conference. They are that bad. This may be Beilein's worst team since 2007-08.
January 11th, 2017 at 11:29 PM ^
double post
January 11th, 2017 at 11:29 PM ^
January 12th, 2017 at 1:50 AM ^
Chill the fuck you!
Brian has been quite vocal about the team on Facebook, twitter and WTKA (granted not as much here). He said on the wtka show that he thought JB tenure at Michigan would end with a "giant fart noise".
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January 12th, 2017 at 4:44 AM ^
January 12th, 2017 at 6:39 AM ^
January 12th, 2017 at 7:08 AM ^
January 11th, 2017 at 11:30 PM ^
Hey Archie Miller! Wanna triple your paycheck?
January 11th, 2017 at 11:38 PM ^
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January 11th, 2017 at 11:33 PM ^
January 11th, 2017 at 11:44 PM ^
What a horrible comparison.
Not only does Michigan have the money to go after a big name, they have the facilities to back it up, two things Minnesota never had.
JB is a medicore coach. Surely we can find a coach a notch above medicore.
January 12th, 2017 at 8:35 AM ^
Huge investments have been made in the staff's salaries and facilities in order to compete at a higher level.
January 11th, 2017 at 11:35 PM ^
Will KenPom drop us out of his top 40 now? He's been way off on his recent predictions
January 11th, 2017 at 11:36 PM ^
January 11th, 2017 at 11:38 PM ^
I dunno, the fact that he still had us at #39 prior to tonight baffles me
January 12th, 2017 at 1:11 AM ^
had us favored in this game whereas kenpom's ratings didn't. Soooo, his ratings were more accurate than the human experts.
I've never seen a team seemingly get dramatically worse each game without major injuries or anything. We played like a legitimate top 10 team at MSG. The humans apparently still think that team might be there somewhere, and the stats certainly account for it.
January 11th, 2017 at 11:43 PM ^
January 12th, 2017 at 1:13 AM ^
game of the year, the defense was ranked in the 30s. To fall that far in eight games is nothing short of stunning. That means we've been nearing 300th in that stretch. Just incredible.
January 11th, 2017 at 11:35 PM ^
Hoping that changing assistants can help rejuviate parts of the game that have been poor, much less discipline than before, but without the program recruiting itself to have a 2006-style season (where we lost to the only 2 good teams we played)
January 11th, 2017 at 11:38 PM ^
Tue., Jan. 17
at Wisconsin * |
Madison, Wis. | 9:00 p.m. | ESPN | |
| Sat., Jan. 21 |
vs. Illinois * |
Crisler Center | 2:15 p.m. | BTN |
| Thu., Jan. 26 |
vs. Indiana * |
Crisler Center | 9:00 p.m. | ESPN |
| Sun., Jan. 29 |
at Michigan State * |
East Lansing, Mich. | 1:00 p.m. | CBS |
| Sat., Feb. 4 |
vs. Ohio State * |
Crisler Center | 6:00 p.m. | ESPN2 |
| Tue., Feb. 7 |
vs. Michigan State * |
Crisler Center | 9:00 p.m. | ESPN/2 |
| Sun., Feb. 12 |
at Indiana * |
Bloomington, Ind. | 1:00 p.m. | CBS |
| Thu., Feb. 16 |
vs. Wisconsin * |
Crisler Center | 7:00 p.m. | ESPN/2 |
January 12th, 2017 at 1:16 AM ^
one of those?
January 12th, 2017 at 6:18 AM ^
January 12th, 2017 at 8:36 AM ^
January 12th, 2017 at 4:18 PM ^
January 12th, 2017 at 7:10 PM ^
January 12th, 2017 at 8:52 AM ^
OSU is also a mess - they're 0-3 in the league. We can probably beat them at Crisler.
It's remarkable how the two programs have followed parallel courses over the past few years.
January 12th, 2017 at 10:30 AM ^
then return to their shitty play
January 12th, 2017 at 8:25 PM ^
take that bet.
January 11th, 2017 at 11:44 PM ^
January 12th, 2017 at 9:30 AM ^
January 11th, 2017 at 11:44 PM ^
January 12th, 2017 at 1:18 AM ^
mean? He was awful today. 3 FG attempts. 3 TOs. If you mean that he's a raw, sometimes brilliant, but mostly frustrating player, then yes. Wagner is that.
January 12th, 2017 at 8:49 AM ^
"Mostly frustrating" isn't a very fair assessment of a guy averaging almost 12 ppg in 21 minutes per game, while shooting 61% from the floor and 45% from 3.
January 12th, 2017 at 9:15 AM ^
does not get touches where he can operate. There is no such thing as a "post feed" in this offense. I think that Wagner could be quite effective with headfakes, scoops and turnarounds on either post but, shrug, such novel concepts do not exist in this offense.
January 12th, 2017 at 9:46 AM ^
I don't mind how he's used. He's got a solid perimeter game and can put the ball on the floor.
Our problems aren't really on the offensive end, even if we don't have a real point guard. We're losing these games because we simply can't get defensive stops.
January 12th, 2017 at 10:56 AM ^
with you to a point, but we cannot get stops primarily because we don't have any rim protectors. And we don't have any rim protectors because we don't have any real bigs, and we don't have any real bigs because real bigs don't want to play in Beilein's offensive system because the offense does not play to their strengths. What we have going right now is a systemic problem. When you get a couple of generational college talents like Burke and Sauce, it did not become apparent right away. However, at this point, I think the issues are as much a systemic problems on both sides of the ball as opposed to the failure ot specific players to develop.
January 12th, 2017 at 11:35 AM ^
It's not just an issue of rim protectors (although I think Wilson could be better used in that regard). Our perimeter defense is atrocious.
January 12th, 2017 at 7:14 PM ^
January 12th, 2017 at 8:35 PM ^
in the country at defensive efficiency and last in the big ten. Which is down significantly since he's been getting more time: he's a major culprit on that end of the floor. And that's what's so frustrating. He is a good to great offensive player but a miserable defender and rebounder (he's a worse defensive rebounder than Irvin and Walton!!! c'mon man) despite having all the physical tools to be very good.
Everyone around here only talks about scoring and shooting because those are easy stats to cite. Defense and rebounding are things too.
January 12th, 2017 at 11:42 AM ^
Is he a team leader? I don't know, but he's one of the few guys on the team who is demonstrative.
January 12th, 2017 at 11:55 AM ^
January 12th, 2017 at 8:37 PM ^
ding ding ding ding, nailed it on the head!
January 12th, 2017 at 8:48 AM ^
Spike Albrecht's grad transfer hurts a lot. We really could have used his floor leadership.
January 12th, 2017 at 10:13 AM ^
Too bad we didn't go after the freshman point guard at MSU who has consistently improved his game and would be one of the three best players on the team right now..... /s
Recruiting misses....all over the place.....
January 11th, 2017 at 11:46 PM ^
January 11th, 2017 at 11:53 PM ^
January 11th, 2017 at 11:57 PM ^
January 11th, 2017 at 11:55 PM ^
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