stephenrjking

March 1st, 2018 at 5:29 PM ^

Agree. On a number of occasions he would acquire the ball, dribble, drive... and pass because there wasn't a clear path to the basket. Even late-ish in the shot clock he was running in the flow of the offense. I think I saw only one or two times he really tried to hero-ball it. 

Picking his spots like this keeps the offense flowing and still gets him a chance to score. 

J.

March 1st, 2018 at 5:31 PM ^

My favorite play of the first half was one where Matthews went out on the break, saw that Iowa had gotten back on transition defense, and dribbled back out to the wing to run the half-court offense.  I don't even remember if they scored on the possession -- I just remember being super-happy that he made the right decision not to force things when they didn't have numbers.

Venom7541

March 2nd, 2018 at 1:34 AM ^

Living here in Lexington, I've seen all the local stuff on Matthews. His problem isn't talent, he has loads, but confidence. Bielein is the perfect coach to develop real long term confidence, not Calipari. Under Calipari, you're either ready to be a lottery pick already or you stay the same and in some cases get worse.

TrueBlue2003

March 1st, 2018 at 6:02 PM ^

and it was sad for two reasons:

1) if you're going to purposefully tilt a game in favor of a team, why would you do it for Iowa over Michigan when Michigan is a clean program that should be celebrated at a time like this and also has more fans and is much better TV for the conference going forward

2) in light of 1), it seems like it was just imcompetence and if you're going to be incompetent, why call way too many fouls and then slow the game down and make it unattractive?  I don't think half the fouls they called on Michigan were actual fouls.  If you're going to get it wrong in a direction, let the kids play.

Absolutely terrible officiating.

Stringer Bell

March 1st, 2018 at 8:20 PM ^

It was more than sheer incompetence.  They effectively removed our 2 best players from the game.  At least 3 of MAAR's fouls were complete and utter garbage, and we're talking about a guy who average like 2 fouls per 40 minutes.  He's as foul averse as he is turnover averse, but he suddenly fouls out in this game?  Bullshit.  I'm legitimately angry about this game despite the victory.  These officials were crooked, plain and simple.  And my guess is it will only get worse tomorrow, facing the Big Ten's best hope at getting a 5th team in the tournament.

buddha

March 1st, 2018 at 6:10 PM ^

I admittedly didn't have a chance to see the game and could only watch on GameCast (not so silently) during a meeting.

I did notice there seemed to be lots of calls, but - at least from the team fouls - it looked like UM benefited more than Iowa(?). Of course these figures get skewed by the end of a game, but UM shot 32 free throws to Iowa's 18 and had 22 fouls to Iowa's 24.

I do NOT believe these stats tell the whole picture. Not all fouls are created equally (Trey got all ball)...So - for those that saw the game - was the frustration regarding the refs going both ways? Or did their calls come at pivitol points of the game, thus shutting down momentum? Etc...

Michifornia

March 1st, 2018 at 5:12 PM ^

But man, am I GLAD HE'S BACK!!  Could be huge not only in the B1G but also at the Dance.  Beilein is still a genius.  This team knows how to win.  Tough games like this can only help them in the next couple of weeks.

GO BLUE!!

The Man Down T…

March 1st, 2018 at 5:14 PM ^

if you would have bet me that we'd lose Wagner and MAAR for huge chunks of the game, go 3-19 from 3, 18-32 from the FT line, and still win because Robinson and Matthews carried us, you would have taken my house...  Simpson and Livers were dependable too but dang...  That was as un-Michigan a Michigan win could be..

ThatTCGuy

March 1st, 2018 at 5:16 PM ^

Duncan was fucking clutch today. Whenever we needed a big shot to change the momentum, he hit it. Not to mention snagging that rebound at the end to seal the game.

Also, credit to the defense stepping up in the second half and keeping us in the game until Duncan got hot. Having Z, C-Matt, Livers, and Teske locking down offenses for the next couple of years will be fun.