HUG PROTOCOL
3/15/2018 – Michigan 61, Montana 47 – 29-7, Round of 32
3/17/2018 – Michigan 64, Houston 63 – 30-7, Sweet 16
Mar. 18, 2018: Jordan Poole hits buzzer-beating three pointer to send Michigan to the Sweet Sixteen. pic.twitter.com/7kbbVrCzXs
— Brandon Koretz (@BrandonKoretz) March 18, 2018
It's a list I don't even have to keep, because it is so narrow. A list gets written down. When you can count the number of persons given TOP SECRET access to the HUG PROTOCOL on your hands—and you could probably have had a finger lopped off in a bag accident and still gotten by—it's not really a list. It's an iron-clad fact of life. The hug protocol is buried deep behind passcodes and false leads and a butler who keeps the secret in a tattoo behind his ear.
So here are the persons that I have engaged in uncompuncted, mutually enthusiastic, joyous hug activities with before this weekend:
- my parents
- my brother
- my wife
- my son
- a guy who I can confidently state was from the Indian subcontinent and think was probably Pakistani in the King's Head, a bar in Galway, Ireland, when Robbie Keane scores against Germany during the 2002 World Cup; our hug occurs largely because everyone else in the bar was Irish and we were the dudes left over
- Everyone within 10 feet of me when Landon Donovan scored against Algeria
I spent the 1998 Rose Bowl amongst very wrong people. When Trey Burke hit The Shot 1.0 there was still a lot of work to do; fist-pumping and guttural Viking cries were the order of the day. Jumping up and down in a pile, not so much. That shot just swung Michigan from certain defeat to potential defeat. Burke, of course, made damn sure his moment wasn't wasted. That still took some time.
It's a different thing, being rescued half-way.
Jordan Poole (and Isaiah Livers and Muhammad Ali Abdur-Rahkman) rescued Michigan all the way, draining the very last tenth of a second off the clock in doing so. And, man, 100% is an entirely different feeling than 95%. Ask a Houston fan today, or yourself a few months ago during the Maryland game when Isaiah Livers dropped a dime on MAAR in an eerily similar situation. MAAR got to the line, swinging Michigan's win probability from LOL NOPE to PRETTY DANG LIKELY. And the main thing to feel was a restricted, conditional hope; after the android version of MAAR nailed both free throws the new feeling was relief.
I've seen things you people wouldn't believe. Things that would make a win probability chart fold in on itself. My first reaction when I saw the thing the NIT's quarters did…
…to the Louisville-Northern Kentucky game on Kenpom was "this is the most accurate chart." If your sports life doesn't feel like that I don't know you. 95, 96, 97… these are not 100. 100 is 100, and only 100 is 100.
4 to 100 in 3.6 seconds is when the hug protocol is broken out and the room becomes a single hopping organism for a solid 20 seconds. At the same time, Poole is displaying his lateral agility by temporarily escaping the on-court pile. The walk-ons track him down, because walk-ons are crafty by necessity, and then you get the sports picture.
Afterwards, twitter is checked and re-checked. Poole talks to the media, and then John Beilein says Poole has an "overdose of swag."
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[JD Scott]
Folks congratulate a man who just won an Oscar for finally doing something with his life. John Beilein ups his water-fight ante with poncho and goggles.
John Beilein knows how to party. pic.twitter.com/LD3NXthMKs
— CBS Sports (@CBSSports) March 18, 2018
(It is only a matter of time before he invades the locker room in a firefighting mech.) Over the next 36 hours, Michigan's entire half of the bracket commits seppuku. It's all in front of them, and they didn't even play particularly well.
Take a breath. Enjoy it for what it is, right now. Down big to UCLA this looked like an NIT outfit, and now they're here. Sun yourself. Bask, until you have reached your swag limit, and then bask just a little more. Weekends like this stand on their own.
[JD Scott]
BULLETS
The other side. Devin Davis feels horrible today despite exceeding his season average on free throws, because the makes and misses came in the worst possible order. Wagner gave him a thought…
I really enjoyed watching Houston’s Corey Davis compete. And then he suffered this.
— Jeffrey Parson (@JeffreyParson) March 18, 2018
Man.
But then a classy move from Mo Wagner.
What a way to finish in Wichita. pic.twitter.com/CHZqeq7lWp
…and it didn't help much.
45 minutes after the game, Houston's Devin Davis (who missed two FT's with 4 seconds left) is on the court, alone at the FT line. Michigan wins on a buzzer-beating three-pointer. #MarchMadness pic.twitter.com/I8DYNVMjM7
— Matt Gasper (@MattGKSNT) March 18, 2018
Maybe we can get together later and talk about the funniest Tom Crean transfers who made the tournament while Indiana did not. If that doesn't cheer you up, nothing will.
This is the wackiest Sweet 16 in 18 years.
— John Gasaway (@JohnGasaway) March 19, 2018
2018 average seed: 5.31
2000 average seed: 5.31
Normal (1985-2018): 4.45
Wackiest, 1986: 5.56
Chalkiest, 2009: 3.06
THE DOOR OPENS. You may be aware of this already, but: Michigan is the highest seed remaining on their half of the bracket after the ignominious demises of Xavier, North Carolina, Virginia, Cincinnati, and Tennessee.
This doesn't mean you should be disappointed if Michigan isn't in the national title game. Everyone is good at this point, and there are no home games unless you're Kansas. A&M over UNC was most welcome but Kenpom gives M a 62% chance against the Aggies—it is anything but a slam dunk to get to the Final Four.
Still… coulda, coulda been worse. #7 Gonzaga and #16 Kentucky are the top teams Michigan can face on the way to the title game. All those teams above are gonzo, and there's a decent chance Michigan beats A&M and gets a team (Florida State) that's currently one slot behind Penn State in Kenpom.
Going to have to do better, though. Michigan is going to run into a team that can score adequately on them despite their excellent defense, and at that point they're going to have to get back to Big Ten Tournament-level offense or they're going to crash out. Michigan's weekend was ugly, ugly stuff. More analysis later. I tried to start writing analysis and, nope, let's hold off on that for a second here.
An excellently timed and cromulent article. The New York Times on Michigan's short shorts:
“The long shorts are out of date,” the sophomore Ibi Watson said. “If they can touch your knees, they’re way too long.”
It is said that fashion is cyclical. The irony is that the same program that bucked the trend by concealing its legs in the 1990s is helping bring skin back in now.
In fact, players on Michigan, seeded third in the West region and set to play Montana in the first round of the N.C.A.A. tournament on Thursday night, lamented that they can’t get find shorts that are quite revealing enough.
So they roll their shorts at the waistband. Once. Twice.
“Three rolls is the max,” Watson said. “If you go four, it’s too much.”
He added, “I think they should just start making shorter shorts.”
Jalen Rose's furious letter to the editor has not yet been published.
I watched them all, and this is the best one. All songs have been put over the buzzer-beater, and I like this one best.
— Abraham A Smothitorn (@Smoothitron) March 19, 2018
YMMV.
Another angle. Via Alejandro Zuniga and reddit:
Absolutely LOVE this fan-shot video of Jordan Poole's game-winning shot, via @redditCBB: pic.twitter.com/aEByXrFokK
— Alejandro Zúñiga (@ByAZuniga) March 18, 2018
It's called Youtube, turned up loud in a dark room.
You'll go right back in time.
Works on me with "The Trey" all the time.
Poole (and Livers and MAAR) saved us from what was a very frustrating last 60 seconds. We are up 1 with 50 some seconds. We then get to being down 2 without Houston running any offense.
Livers gets a (mostly phantom) push/over the back call. HOU gets free throws. We miss again and I think Matthews fouls on the rebound. Bam, down 3.
To have lost without making Houston run any plays or take any actual field goal attempts really had me frustrated. Then Poole made it all better.... Go Blue!!!!!
was really bad. A terrible call. So it's not like we didn't try to "make" them run plays. Refs made a terrible call that put us down one and at that point, we had to foul rather than let them run time off the clock.
So yeah, it was frustrating that we couldn't make shots to force them to run offense but we got MAAR going to the hoop, shooting make-able layups and had Matthews with tip in opportunities (that somehow did not go down). It was like a lid on the hoop at the end there.
Until that incredible thing happened. What a wild game.
"Walk-ons are crafty by necessity". That's just good writing.
Michigan has the feel of a solid 5 year ahead.12-15 year old kids are making their first impressions of schools to be a part of and Michigan is looking pretty gooooooood!
Go Blue
Plus. there we only be 8 CBB programs left by the time they are college age.
I think I accounted for at least 400,000+
400,001
LOL. Props to Zavier hiding out in the locker during the water celebration.
love that it ended the way it did, but i still don`t get houstons stratagy on the last play. manbun let maar come all the way across and just ignored him. then maar gets a free catch almost at half court. nobody is on poole, even though he is the only michigan player that doesn`t have his back to the basket. thank you houston.
UM's inbounder couldn't run the baseline so not sure why Houston didn't put a tall player on the inbounder. It would have made a throw to half court a lot more difficult.
Beilein's game is creating space with 3-ball snipers; I'm pretty sure Beilein went over that scenario during the timeout.
Houston's goal was to get a hand in the face of the last shooter and they succeeded. There was no better outcome from a tactical standpoint; the shot just happened to go in.
I'm more curious about Poole's shooting form. When I fire a pull-up 3, is it proper form to do aerial splits now? :D
a play that is successful probably one in ten times. I think this is all a little bit of hindsight is 20/20.
3.6 seconds is a decent amount of time and we were only down two (which meant they absolutely did not want to foul and that we had options). So they decided to double team MAAR instead of putting someone on the inbounder. If you put someone on the inbounder, you have to guard 1v1 and there's a decent chance MAAR can get to the hoop, a la the Maryland game. Yes, the pass is more difficult but then him having to get by one man is easier.
So they played it such that they kept MAAR in front of them and forced him to either make a long tough shot or to make a pass for a long, tough shot with even less time.
I personally would have put someone on the inbounder, given he couldn't move but I'm not sure it shifts the odds that much, if at all. Either way, we needed a near miracle and we got it.
think it is pretty clear that you do guard the inbounder in that situation. You bring in your tallest player and have him jump around like crazy. 3.6 is a decent amount of time, but it is really hard to catch, gather, and get a good shot at the basket in that amount of time and it takes a perfect pass to do it. The only reason why Livers was able to deliver the ball to MAAR at halfcourt was because he was unobstructed. If you guard the inbounder, MAAR has to come way back to get the ball (leading to something more like Winston's half court heave) or Livers is throwing up a prayer pass that is almost certainly stolen.
The eventual shot that we got was a really difficult shot also but it was a passable shot by a good shooter well within halfcourt. I don't think anybody can call that "the best outcome from a tactical standpoint."
the inbounder is able to take a couple steps back to get a better angle which he would have done had they had someone guarding him. You can also pump fake to get a guy going one way to open up your lane (i.e. fake to wagner, then go to MAAR). There are ways to mitigate the defense of the inbounder.
And I agree that it is obviously easier to inbound it without someone there, but not having some there allowed them to double MAAR which is an advantage. Their bigger problem, given they way the played it, was that once Michigan got the ball in to MAAR where they did, Houston players in the paint (who were there to defend the long ball) should have come out quicker to defend Poole once it was clear that M wouldn't have time to get the the ball inside the arc but they stayed in their zones instead of matching up. They got caught watching the ball until it was too late.
One thing that is underrated that I just noticed upon 57th viewing is that Livers sprinted down the court to get in a position such that one of the three guys defending around the three point line had stayed on that side of the court despite M loading up the other side with Wagner, Poole and Watson. That guy shouldn't have done that. Houston stayed in kind of a zone and they should have matched up. Incredible hustle by Livers, incredible play design by Beilein.
Also, we caught the ball 60 feet from the basket, took 2 dribbles, passed it, caught it and shot with still like 1 second on the clock. That's a lot in 3.6 seconds. Even if we had to catch it 75 feet from the hoop, we would have been able to get a pretty decent shot off with just one guy to beat instead of two. For Houston is was probably best case scenario to force a shot with about 1 in 10 chance of going in regardless of how they played it (since the one thing they weren't going to do is foul). Worst-case would have been allowing us to throw a deep ball to Wagner with guys streaking to the hoop for much easier shots to tie it, which would have been much easier for us 4v4. They kept five back to prevent that and keep everything in front of them, forced a very tough shot, and it went in.
I'm not arguing they did right thing, but it's not a huge swing in probability if they did something else. We had to make an incredible play and we did.
Keep in mind, Houston didn't have any truly tall players on their roster. Well, tall by basketball standards, anyway. Not tall by Izzo standards.
my gawd that Tiny Tim over the chaos is fabulous.
This completely ordinary person...
A favorite of Johnny Carson. Tim was on alot. Tip Toe Through the Tulips on the ukelele. If you wanna see something funny youtube Tiny Tims wedding that Carson hosted on The Tonight Show.
And from that Beilein waterfight clip I happily introduce my new avatar that will never change, ever.
Jordan's shot gave me a high that can't be reached with drugs and alcohol. That natural high. The good stuff.
So, "spring forward" kicked my ass worse than it usually does, so I was already dragging to start the week. Then on Tuesday night I was up way late because we had our D&D session and one of our players works at a local brew pub and they let us use their barrel room, so we didn't wrap up until around 1 a.m. and then we had to drive home from there. Then Thursday M had its game starting around 10 p.m. and I stayed up late to watch that, so by the end of the week I had a pretty significant sleep deficit going--made worse by the fact that instead of being able to sleep in on Saturday, I had to get up early and drive an hour to Charlottesville (no burning couches sighted on my way into town, unfortunately) for a panel I was speaking on.
By early evening Saturday I was about dead. I was falling asleep waiting for the other games to end, and about 20 minutes before M was to tip off I realized there was no way that I was going to be able to make it through our game. I set the DVR and went to bed.
Then I got up around 7 a.m. on Sunday and watched the game, having being sure not to check social media or email or anything. So I saw Poole hit The Shot 2 probably around 8:30 a.m. on Sunday. All I can say is, if you're not starting your day by watching Jordan Poole hit a buzzer shot in the NCAAs Tournament, I highly recommend it.
This weekend is a great reminder that it really is just 'survive and advance'. Better seeds falling. small teams raining hell from the sky. We had two ugly games vs Montana and Houston but it doesn't matter because they both are W's. Just gotta keep slogging one game at a time
Only 4 more left, just like the team.
Right?
Charles Matthews leaping over that players prone body is just brutal.
good catch!
I watched the game alone because the Mrs was out of town and because I usually prefer it that way.
I cannot believe that I didn't wake my daughter up with either the intial YEEEEESSSSSS or then the follow-up call from my Dad that went something like this:
/rings
Me: AHHHHHH
Dad: AHHHHHHHHH
Me: WHAT I CAN EVEN
Dad: MARCH IT'S MARAHHHHHHHH
Thanks for all the congrats, but I play football for Florida Atlantic University. East-West All-Star.
Brian exposes his northern European-ness? I'm only 25% Sicilian, but that's enough to hug anyone who is even a tiny bit related to me or that I have called a friend for more than a short time. That being said, in this day and age I am cautious with strangers.
They got a lot of breaks.
-They played only one top-3 seed in the whole tournament
-They played the regional at the Palace (when they faced their two toughest opponents).
-The #1 overall team, Cincinnati, lost its best player (Kenyon Martin) just before the tournament.
My hug protocol isn't nearly as stringent I guess... I hugged every student around me in the student section after the Jourdan Lewis interception against Wisconsin
How did time go backwards in that win % chart?
Others have pointed this out, but the Davis that Moe Wagner is comforting is not Devin Davis, it's Corey Davis, Jr. Devin Davis is number 15 and is the kid who collapsed face down under the basket in the aftermath of Poole's heroics.
Even in the heat of the few moments after Poole's shot, my heart went out to that kid because I can only imagine how he felt. Poor kid played his heart out in what turned out to be his last game. He had 17 points and was Houston's second-leading scorer next to Man Bun, but those missed free throws will probably be what he remembers most about his performance in that game.
1) for the in-the-crowd reacton, and
2) for fully capturing Poole's sprinting around the court trying to avoid getting tackled (Moe just gave up...!), including hurdling the prone Corey Davis...
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