BBallers lookin' good...

Submitted by Lordfoul on
I didn't see the game but the box score is sure impressive. Another solid game from Sims, double digit assists for Manny, everyone getting in on the scoring, around a point per min for llp, and best of all, only 5 tos. Say goodbye to Amaker ball, this is definately a team in the right direction. I really think they will make some noise in the Big10, which looks strong right now. Nice wins for the gophers and spartoons today. Peace out.
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Sommy

December 20th, 2008 at 7:35 PM ^

They were real hot early on -- Douglass was 3-for-3 on 3-pointers within a minute and a half, and at one point, they had an 18-0 run. Oakland cut the lead to 4, though, and M didn't pull away until the last two minutes of the game. We had a lot of problems hitting easy layups and short shots for some reason. The new guy (is it Lucas-Perry? I can't remember) looked good, hit a few threes. Rebounding was for the most part pretty bad, and the defense paid for being overaggressive today, for sure (which struck me as odd -- we seem very unaggressive on the boards on both ends of the floor, but the defense is as aggressive as it is?). Good game overall, though.

Joined: 07/29/2008

MGoPoints: 1806

roded

December 20th, 2008 at 7:46 PM ^

Aggressiveness on the boards is no the issue, it is simply an issue of size. It will remain an issue all season, and Coach B knows it. I think that was one reason for bringing Sims off the bench at start of season. He has to manage the minutes and foul situation carefully for a roster with only 2 bigs in the rotation. However, they are so well coached it will cover up thus deficiency in B10 play and get us into the tourney.

Joined: 07/01/2008

MGoPoints: 25

Sommy

December 21st, 2008 at 11:44 AM ^

You're probably right. It just struck me today how small we are. I mean, Oakland's roster looks like they're bigger than us for the most part, and that's just strange to me.

Joined: 07/29/2008

MGoPoints: 1806

bentley2121

December 20th, 2008 at 7:47 PM ^

I watched the game start to finish as well. I wasn't as concerned with the rebounding. I actually thought are rebounding was better than average. We outrebounded them 36-34 and lost the offensive rebounds 15-12. My bigger concern actually was the defense. We played very little zone. I assume that is because of a couple of factors, LLP's first game, Oakland started hot as well, Kangas can be a lights out shooter, etc. For Michigan to win they need to be able to force turnovers, they only forced five against a team averaging nearly 15 per game. The other disturbing trend was how easily we gave up post buckets to their center he had a career night, and that may have been a fluke, or a minor flaw in our armour. I dont know, kind of curious as to what everyone thinks. I think the teams we will struggle with the most this year are teams that can score consistently on the block.

Joined: 09/03/2008

MGoPoints: 1

turbo cool

December 20th, 2008 at 7:45 PM ^

we need a better inside game so we don't have to rely on the 3 ball so much. but on a positive note, it's nice that we've gotten back to the point where we can nitpick our basketball program.

Joined: 07/10/2008

MGoPoints: 977

Chrisgocomment

December 20th, 2008 at 9:46 PM ^

An inside game would be the balls, but I wonder how important it is as this point?  Check out the list of players that can knock down the dirty triple:

 

  • Manny
  • Sims
  • Novak
  • Douglass
  • LLP
  • Wright
  • Shepherd
  • Grady
  • Lee
  • Merritt

Having that many players with the ability to stroke it from downtown neutralizes the deficiency from the big men.

Joined: 06/30/2008

MGoPoints: 1287

wooderson

December 21st, 2008 at 2:24 AM ^

Bentley I did notice that we played man-to-man the whole game once again as we did against Eastern last weekend. I wonder if Beilein thinks that when push comes to shove in March we need to be able to play man-to-man, so we're essentially practicing it against weaker non-conference opponents? If that was the case though I'm surprised when Oakland cut the lead to four we didn't switch back to the 1-3-1. I can't imagine any situation right now where man-to-man is actually a better strategic move considering the 1-3-1 has been absolutely lights out even against the Duke's and UCLA's of the world. Anybody have any ideas?

Joined: 07/28/2008

MGoPoints: 343

Sommy

December 21st, 2008 at 1:34 PM ^

Well, I really don't know exactly how the 1-3-1 works, but my guess is that Beilein wants to practice man-to-man against weaker opponents so the option is there. It doesn't hurt to be diverse -- you never know when it might come in handy to switch up the defense, I think.

Joined: 07/29/2008

MGoPoints: 1806